Well, I have decided to once again bring back the ‘Song of the Month’ feature that used to be displayed in the sidebar. But now, I am also including two other things: Word and Application. Anyway, things are going to change on here again. Well, maybe not the theme, but in terms of content (the location of content (read: categories)), and various pages that haven’t been updated in a hell of a long time.
Archive for February, 2009
What Is Really Bothering Me
Feb 20
Below is a copy of a note I posted on Facebook last night regarding President Obama’s Mortgage Relief Plan.
Well, I am sorry if this may bore you or something like that. But hey, I find it to be a serious problem, and as someone who supported Obama for President, I think it is quite fair to point out the flaws in his latest plan: a 75 billion dollar mortgage relief plan.
You see, one of the critical factors that damaged our economy to the point where it is at now was the sub-prime mortgage crisis. Basically, people couldn’t afford the mortgage payments for their houses anymore, and as such (after months of late or missed payments), were forced out of their homes and the banks foreclosed them for a value that was much less than what the houses were actually worse. Once again, this basically means that the banks lost money on each house they foreclosed, but ended up making more money than they were when the homeowner wasn’t paying the bills.
So, with the economy really looking shitty the past several months (in comparison to a few years ago when the ‘subprime mortgage crisis’ supposedly started), President Obama unveiled his new relief plan on Wednesday. At a cost of 75 billion dollars (which is more money than the richest person in the world has) taken from the 700 billion financial bailout passed last fall in Congress, the main goal of the relief plan is to keep homeowners who are facing foreclosure (by missing payments) or who owe more than their house is worth in their homes. Take into account this: On Tuesday, Obama signed into law another stimulus bill which totaled 787 billion dollars to help the economy. The total cost of these two bills? Almost 1.5 trillion dollars. And you know who has to end up paying for that? Us. No, not just your parents and family, but us, the next generation of American taxpayers. Do you expect the current generations to pay for these stimulus packages before it’s are turn to pay? I mean, the government is trying to help Americans save money, not pay more!
I am quoting an MSNBC article (which I will link to at the bottom) for the next few paragraphs.
Point 1: “Of the nearly 52 million U.S. homeowners with a mortgage, about 13.8 million, or nearly 27 percent, owe more on their mortgage than their house is now worth.”
Well, doesn’t that suck? Unfortunately, that is one of the consequences of capitalism. You see, once banks started to foreclose on homes, the overall supply of homes to purchase (at lower prices) rapidly increased. Thus, as everyone who understands the idea of ‘Supply and Demand’, the overall value of houses across the country decreased. As such, people who spent $500,000 on a house in 2002 may owe $350,000 on the house in 2009, but it turns out the house is only worth $320,000! You see, while it may be seem fair and just to help Americans who are losing their homes, it isn’t our fault that others failed to make their payments. So, why should we, in essence, PAY FOR OTHERS MORTGAGES WHEN WE HAVE OUR OWN TO WORRY ABOUT? Honestly, this is one of the stupidest things I have ever heard. If you want Americans to stay in their homes, how about you cut taxes? That way, people will have more money to pay for their own homes, whether they are having problems making payments or not. That way, we not only have to worry about paying a large amount of money to taxes, but we are also paying for our own house, and not someone else’s.
Point 2: “’This is necessary policy. It’s smart economics. And it’s just and fair…” Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner told reporters.’”
Oh really, it’s just and fair huh?
““This plan will not save every home,” Obama said.”
So wait, let’s say I can’t pay my mortgage. If I don’t qualify for your program, you want me to get removed from my home and at the same time pay taxes to pay for someone else’s mortgage? Does anyone else besides me see this as flawed logic? Honestly, how stupid and crazy is that?
Point 3: “He issued a warning as well: “All of us must learn to live within our means again.” – President Obama
Well, if people had lived within their means to begin with, we wouldn’t be in this mess, now would we?
I’m sorry for ranting and raving. This just pissed me off.
MSNBC Article: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/29256639
Not gonna happen, at least for the next few weeks. I am sorry, I just find it tiresome to write about ideas that I want to integrate myself, essentially giving them away for free. Once again, I apologize.
Anyway, there is a new category on the blog for Town Hall. Work has been progressing steadily, and now (at over 1000 lines), I actually have a version that works: posting, installing, the whole bit. There is still some work that needs to be done in terms of the Community portion of the project, including BBCode, the Report system, and some small interface tweaks. Once I get those done (hopefully by the end of the week, if not the weekend), I will start work on the Users and Control Panel portions, which really won’t take me very long (seeing as though the data is already in the database), though the various MySQL commands may take me a few moments longer to figure out than usual. All in all Town Hall is moving forward at a pace I didn’t think was possible, all while maintaining a mostly consistent and stable feel.
Anyway, I will try to post something later on this week about some aspect of Town Hall that I like. My current admiration lies within the mockup of the Administration Center I showed a few days back. But I’m tired and hungry, so I’ll post when I get the chance in the coming days!
I must deeply apologize for the lack up updates so far this month. Unfortunately, I caught a cold and have been feeling the effects for over a week now, as well as dealing with a number of other issues that have come up in the past few weeks. That being said, I want to post a few updates as to what’s going on.
First off, I deeply regret that I never got around to publishing an edition of the ‘Greatest OS’ series last week, seeing as though I spent most of the day in bed being sick. I would have posted an article sometime during this past week, but I prefer to stick to a specific schedule (Friday’s), so I decided against it. Don’t worry, you will be getting your post tomorrow. I have been also researching and testing out a number of different blogging software and platforms of late, and I may even consider changing what platform I publish in (currently WordPress), but hey, who knows.
As for other things, progress on Town Hall (which had stagnated since late last month) has once again kicked back up. One of the newest features I have brought to the current build (Rev. 5) is the new user interface, called Slate. Slate isn’t really anything radical, but it is more or less a positive color change for Town Hall.
I have also been working on the Administration Center, which has also received a much needed face lift. Compared to the original mock up, the new Administration interface simplifies the idea of controlling various aspects of your Town Hall installation as well as integrates itself into the already consistent UI and layout which exists within the other Town Hall applications (Community, Users, etc.).
Well, that’s it for today. Be sure to check out my ‘Greatest OS’ post tomorrow!