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Peace through love? Peace through love works with your children but it not going to work with the guy about to rape you before the eyes of your children and with the blood of your husband on his hands.

I hardly know where to start. Powayseller, it seems that you have not read my previous posts. Negotiation is a first, second, third step but there comes a time when it no longer works. Once again, people who refuse to see the need for a strong military are history and human nature denialists.

You are a German citizen yet you seem to completely ignore the atrocities committed by the German people within living memory. In fact, you seem to have completely glossed over this highly regrettable fact while denigrating the country in which you live – a country that has guaranteed prosperity, education, freedom and safely for you and your children. You have mentioned before how wonderful Germany is that they currently spend so much more on education than on their military. Why, then, do you not proceed with all haste to take advantage of such forward thinking and install your family in Berlin?

Hmm….Sweetness as a negotiator’s tool. I’m sure if the Kurds had been a little sweeter to Saddam Hussein he would not have gassed them. The same with Jews. If only they had been sweeter to the SS who broke down their doors and dragged them off. Perhaps sweetness and love would have turned Pol Pot in great big Teddy Bear. Stalin felt so much love for his people that he thought nothing of letting millions starve.

Do you think that the radical Muslims would not invade and take over our country if they could? It was not long ago that the poor women in Afghanistan were denied medical care and beaten with chains. Perhaps they were not sweet enough or did not project enough love. Perhaps they needed more negotiation skills.

I realize that my tone is growing harsh but I am totally dumbfounded by the blindness of your post.

My husband is a proud member of the United States military. He has served in Iraq and nearly been killed in service to his country. My husband did not want to go to Iraq, but he realized that if he did not participate in an attempt to stamp out this threat, then our son and daughter would have to face a much greater threat later. There comes a time when it is either fight or be subjugated.

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lindismith, I have spent time in 10 countries, other than the US. I have traveled to some of them more than once. I make no claims to being a world traveler as I have not visited Asia or Africa. I do not live in an insulated bubble, happy to ignore world events, strife, famine and the threat of war.

My husband has traveled the world extensively and we have spent much time discussing what he has seen.

I am fairly well versed in history and have a good understanding of where the world is today and how we got there.

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PS, countries who do not have a strong military rely heavily on their allies for defense. There are a few countries able to walk a fine line without a military but the key word here is FEW and they have special circumstances.

The US has enormous natural resources and assets that we need to protect. The biggest asset we protect is our people. The world is full of power hungry vicious people who will do anything and hurt anybody for gain. Witness Saddam Hussein and what he did to his own people. Further, he invaded Kuwait because he could and did not think anyone would stop him. What was his next step? Saudi Arabia? What would have happened to the world economies when Saddam Hussein held so much oil? Hitler did the same thing. At first, no one stopped him. If the US had not entered WWII when we did, they would be speaking German in all of Europe.

Do you think we are so protected by our oceans that no one will come here? What would happen if we had an undefended boarder to the south and no military? Would we all “just get along?” Do you know that we have already had a war with Mexico? Do you think that Mexico would never invade? We have already been invaded, albeit by a peaceful, steady invasion of people. There would probably be temporary joy in the streets and hysterical waving of the Mexican flag in downtown SD when the Mexican army marched through. No doubt there would be thousands helping the Mexican army take over. But after a while, when our great cities are being run by the corrupt Mexican government, there would not be so much joy.

Much of the world’s stability is directly related to the deterance posed by our military as well as other strong militaries like China and Russia. It maintains a status quo. Are you going to invade country A when you know country B will come after you? If it were not for the US, China would have long since invaded Tiawan. Japan also relies heavily on the US for defence. Without us, do you think they would be safe from China or Russia?

China is a warlike giant. Chinese people believe themselves to be superior to all other races. Without a strong military in other countries to keep them in check, I guarantee there would be a yellow tide flowing from their borders.

As for maintaining bases around the world, it strengthens our defensive position and acts as a further deterrence. In most cases, our bases are in countries that we have previously defeated in war. In the past, the victor kept ALL the spoils. We have only kept tiny slices of it – our bases. Two thousand years from now, when historians talk about the United States, they will probably be saying how stupid we were for not keeping ALL that we had gained, solidifying our position.

People who believe that we do not need a strong military are history denialists. They are human nature denialists.

Powayseller, you use historical data as evidence to support your prediction of a future housing crash, yet you deny the overwhelming historical data that paints a picture of unending war, violence, subjugation, cruelty and empire expansion. War is never going to end until humans are extinguished and those who do not protect themselves are fools.

A few great quotes by Winston Churchill:

An appeaser is one who feeds the crocodile – hoping it will eat him last.

Men occasionally stumble over the truth, but most of them pick themselves up and hurry off as though nothing ever happened.

One ought never to turn one’s back on a threatened danger and try to run away from it. If you do that, you will double the danger. But if you meet it promptly and without flinching, then you will reduce the danger by half.

Those that fail to learn from history are doomed to repeat it.

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The way a person finds a home these days may be somewhat generational. My mother hates computers and distrusts them in a weird way. She puts herself completely in the hands of her realtor, who she finds through referrals. A great website won’t help her much.

A friend of mine just bought a home completely over the internet (I’ve mentioned this before). I checked out her realtor’s website. It was very complex and had a lot of information. His website was instrumental in my friend using him as a realtor.

I think it is possible that the younger the buyer, the higher the probability that they are going to rely heavily on the internet for their purchasing.

As for emotion ruling the recent craziness in RE purchasing, that is very true. However, no matter how much a person may want that hard-to-care-for travertine and those stain-prone granite countertops, if no one is eager to help you get into your crushing mortgage, no sale. Further, people are not going to be able to lug their granite countertops out to the driveway and sell them to cover their insane mortgage payments. It has to stop. It will stop and the emotion is going to go the other way.

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Cutting defense invites a raft of other problems. Education needs more money but you don’t rob Peter to pay Paul. Our armed forces are stretched extremely thin. They work unbelievable hours because they are short on both people and equipment. I could go on and on.

There are many problems with our education system. I recently attended a talk with the Principle. She said that one of their main budgeting problems is the requirement that all schools must provide full time assistance to kids with disabilities. What this means is that if a child has a mental or physical disability, the school has to pay for a full time employee to accompany that child through their day as they participate in regular classrooms. This costs the schools huge amounts of money but they DO NOT GET REIMBURSED for the extra expense. They have to take the money out of other programs like music, computers and supplies. It is good program but it should be separately funded as each child who qualifies takes a big chunk out of the school’s budget. My kids school is so desperate for money that they send notes home to parents telling them to send their kids to school if their temp us under 100 degrees because the school loses money with each absence.

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PS is right. We have an art teacher and music teacher for 1/3 of the school year but only because it is paid for through fundraising. Parents donate a lot of the school supplies.

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I clicked on sunsetbeachguy2’s link. It takes you to a list of the Policy Advisory Board- Member Companies. It is a who’s who of corporations who do not want to see an ugly bubble pop.

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PS, I liked your imagery! Very funny.
I am also shocked that they claim homeowners buying with their fingers crossed, dependent on appreciation are not speculating.

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john67elco, were you smirking when you changed your tag line? Just a guess…

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A friend of mine sold his house to guy who was selling his old house and buying a property of the same value so that he could keep his taxes at the rate of his old home. I’m not sure how this worked out but it may explain your neighbors taxes.

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The house across the street from me has been for sale for over 500 days yet you would never know it by the DOM.

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In general, I’m not a conspiracy theory type of person. But now I’m seeing NAR and RE developer puppet masters everywhere. Are my eyes playing tricks on me? Do they really believe this stuff?

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Is anybody else getting fed up with hearing, “Year over year prices are up!” I can’t wait for November when they won’t be able to say this garbage anymore.

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zk, nothing is a sure thing but there is such a thing as The Best Bet.

lendingbubbleco, your comments about bubbles are right on. I think that it is interesting how these bubbles, one right after another were dependant on a new phenomena – it suddenly became easier to get into the party.

The tech bubble rose right after it suddenly became easier to invest in the stock market. It used to be that you had to have a stock broker and were forced to pay big commissions (there were a couple of discounters but it was hard to get info, the internet made that easier). Suddenly there were all sorts of online firms that made it possible for garbageman Joe to get into the party with his 2k, swelling the numbers.

The housing bubble has been created by easy, cheap money. Fill out a form online, produce minimal paperwork, make a few calls and you’re a homeowner or a multiple homeowner.

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Zk, nothing is a sure thing. My husband and I sold our house because we felt that there was at least a 90% chance that housing prices were going to decline. 90% is a big number. It is very rare to see an investment opportunity with those kind of numbers. There is certainly a chance we could be wrong but we will still feel like winners.

I’ve been telling everyone I know that now is a bad time to be in RE. A few have gotten mad at me because they have significant exposure in RE. I’d rather have them mad at me now for making them fearful AND mad at me later for being right then mad at me later for not telling them the truth when they still had a chance to do something about it. If they make an informed decision to ride it out, then at least they know the risks.

There might still be some upward movement in RE — if interest rates went to 2.5%.

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