San Diego Housing Bubble News and Analysis

Remember the cartoons showing stock brokers jumping out of office building windows during the 1929 stock market bust? I don't know to what extent - if any - that actually happened, but this example might be singled out as an example for the 2008 version.

JWM in SD

I wish I could say that I'm surprised but I'm not. When they showed this guy's house on the news the other night, there was a for sale sign clearly visible. As soon as I saw that the wheels started turning....

Ummmmmmm, I feel that the fact that he used to be a marine and whatever that exposed him to, probably had more to do with him going off than his house.

Why the hell is his real estate agent giving interviews about this poor guy? Yeah, yeah, I know he is the bad guy, he is the rapist, and that is awful. But come on, obviously he was out of his mind. Programing gone bad is my guess.

Nostradamus, he was JPN (just plain nuts). He was a bomb with a few minutes left on the timer. A fly at the bottom of his cereal bowl could have set him off.

P.S. well, actually, a fly at the bottom of a bowl of cereal could set ME off.

Got a lot of experience with Marines, Enorah? Reasoning from the specific to the general is a pretty shakey enterprise. You know nothing about those who sacrifice, and what kind of men they are. Everything possible in this great country was paid for by these men. All told, they represent the best of what can be found in this culture, and epitomize the masculine virtues. That's probably what puts the bug up your a$$.

Any sizeable collection of human beings will display the entire spectrum of the human condition. You take one damaged soul, and tar the rest. What a mean-spirited small biddy you are.

Semper Fi
Casca

Marines and Flys in the cereal Bowl...

My reading was more sympathetic than yours, dear Casca...
I felt the comment mean to draw attention to the fact that they are often exposed to the worst of human nature, see friends blown to smithereens, have to be on edge all the time when in certain dangerous duty assigments and that the human psyche is not well equipped to handle such things and can, simply, break.

Marion gets nod for funniest comment i have read here in the last week... came THAT close to blowing my morning coffee out my nostrils.

ciao for now...
Voz

It was tongue-in-cheek when I said the ARM reset set him off. Just my morning humor. The article did imply that being underwater in his mortgage could have been one factor.

I agree with Voz that Enorah meant being a marine may have exposed him to some f'd up stuff. Although the comments about the "poor guy" make me feel that perhaps Enorah is with the ACLU or worked on OJ's defense team.

Like marion said the dude was just plain nuts. There are plenty of military men (not just marines) who see f'd up stuff but don't go crazy and harm civilians back home. There are also plenty of people with ARMs getting reset and they don't go nuts.

Casca, yikes.

Thanks Voz and Nostradamus for explaining what I meant.

And, for what it is worth, I have been "exposed" to marines and other members of the military and have talked with and worked with them in a healing type scenario.

And I am aware of the intense amount of programming these people are subjected to.

I meant no disrespect, Casca, and I feel your specific comments to me were pretty awful.

As far as my "poor guy" comment goes. Yes, he was suffering and I feel compassion for him. As I feel compassion for anyone who experiences hurt. That does not mean I agree with the way they react to their hurt or the choices they make.

Pain begets more pain.

"Everything possible in this great country was paid for by these men. All told, they represent the best of what can be found in this culture, and epitomize the masculine virtues."

the friends i've made with ex military would disagree. the regulars, the grunts tended to be regular joes looking for scholarship money, work experience or just plain had no where else to go and nothing else to do. and then there are those that make it passed psych...

looking at recruitment numbers now and the lowering of standards, can you really say that, "the best of" blah blah with a straight face?

this country needs more "transparency", not just in the financials, but in introspection and self evaluation.

I'll give you another example of how that does not hold true.

Someone I used to work with joined up. I saw him a few years later, he had been home from Iraq just about 6 months. He was depressed, suicidal, told me awful stories about things he witnessed there and things he did there. One of which included torturing a 14 year old boy by exploding bullets between his fingers. When he refused, at first, to do it, his sergeant held a gun to his head.

When I asked him why he joined up, he said......."I wanted to be able to kill people legally, among other things."

I do not believe that everyone or even the majority of everyone who goes into the military feel this way. But this man did.

Of course he said that now he has no wish to kill anyone but himself.

looking at recruitment numbers now and the lowering of standards, can you really say that, "the best of" blah blah with a straight face?

I see them as people, just like everyone else, no better or worse than everyone trying to get by.  In the old day these guys would get a lot of respect, and I suppose that in order to do the things they are asked to do they need some sense of pride and righteousness otherwise they'll always be questioning their orders.  It's in the command chain's best interest if they perpetuate this feeling of being the "best of the best".  They may have freed our country long ago but we have not fought in a defensive war since the American revolution (which, according to some, was sparked by outrage against the central bank of England).

Wow, this is becoming a whole other topic.

What I can't get over is that he apparently penned the suicide notes before he raped the women. Why didn't he just shoot himself? Why did he have to hurt others, as well? Perhaps he needed an "excuse" to kill himself by performing these heinous crimes. Maybe he was hoping for "suicide by cop." Maybe the suicide notes have the answers. But in all likelihood, we will never know.

Yeah, I can't understand why he attacked those women either... Trying to understand an insane person will get us nowhere.

<<>>

There are mixed reasons why people join the military, and the branches and different fields tend to draw different types. Some have reasons beyond what you described. Believe it or not there are people who join, because they do feel like they should serve their country. Others who see it as the ultimate challenge for them. Particularly Marines. Most I know join for a combination of reasons.

You have to admit that there can be a great deal of sacrifice in serving, depending on the MOS. Most aren't willing to do what they do.

One of my favorite college professors was an ex nuclear submarine captain... A smart dude.

<<

I'll give you another example of how that does not hold true.

Someone I used to work with joined up. I saw him a few years later, he had been home from Iraq just about 6 months. He was depressed, suicidal, told me awful stories about things he witnessed there and things he did there. One of which included torturing a 14 year old boy by exploding bullets between his fingers. When he refused, at first, to do it, his sergeant held a gun to his head.

When I asked him why he joined up, he said......."I wanted to be able to kill people legally, among other things."

I do not believe that everyone or even the majority of everyone who goes into the military feel this way. But this man did.

Of course he said that now he has no wish to kill anyone but himself.

>>Enorah, it could be the guy was lying or maybe he is a nut or someone suffering from PTSD. I doubt any of us could experience what some have in the military without it detrimentally affecting us in some way. Your average civilian would have some negative affect from a traumatic experience, wouldn't they?

yes

of course

You said, words to the effect, that Marine programming gone bad was the root of his actions. After thirty years of an all volunteer military, we've come to this. The vast majority of those who have not served have an understanding of "the military" almost entirely comprised of what they've seen on TV, or cooked up in their fevered imaginations.

Marines are a very distinct culture within the miltary. Within the Marine Corps, those who actually fire a shot in anger are a subset with an even more distinct culture. The chances of your suicidal rapist being an honest to goodness trigger puller are about one in five. The rest lead a fairly sheltered life, albeit not without hardship unknown to most civilians, sailors, and airmen.

Programming? The NEA, and the bottom third of the graduating classes of America's universities who obtain teaching certificates do more to program our youth. The Marine Corps' success has always been based on our ability to attract young men who weren't afraid to get in a fight on the playground. Those who know that some things are worth fighting for.

I'm accustomed to ignorant cheapshots. I understand that they, as Henry V said, count their manhood cheap who lay abed in England, while others are abroad serving in the field. Having served as a Marine Infantry Officer for over two decades, and with a son serving as one today, I can attest that we've never produced a better Corps than the one we have today. That was accomplished by recruiting the very best people for the job, not by programming them.

Casca, very well said!

I don't know if I agree with you Casca about us never having a better Corps than the one we have today, but kudos to you for countering the common bs expressed about Marines. There are so many misconceptions about people in the military and Marines in particular.

To turn this back to housing - does anyone know if the VA loan limits will be raised along with the higher FNMA conforming limits?