[spdrun]

I think construction quality differs quite a bit, actually — old stuff in the Northeast especially tends to be built to last, especially things like stone houses in PA. As are newer apartment buildings and row houses in older-design cities. Simply too expensive to tear down and rebuild after 30-40 years, plus codes are strict, so built to last quite a while.

The HVAC issue? It’s SAN DIEGO. Cheesy or not, how much heat/AC do you really need most of the time? And it’s a lot easier to replace a wall heater or package A/C than to mess with a central unit with refrigerant lines, ducts, etc.

If you were feeling particular, you could even control the wall heaters via 240V relays, run a programmable thermostat, and buy an A/C unit that has a programmable (or even Internet!) thermostat as well.

The $500 vs $1000-1100 per month difference probably just reflects prevailing rents in SD vs Dallas. You hit the nail on the head — you’re paying for what you can do outside the house and when you can do it. San Diego is nearly perfect year around.

[spdrun]

Just to be clear — the situation is very regional. Some parts of Ukraine likely have a majority that wants to be part of Russia, others very certainly want to stay independent.

BTW – the Russian-run referendum in the Crimea was f’ed in multiple ways — for one, it didn’t even give remaining part of Ukraine as a choice.

I doubt that even the current clown in the White House is stupid enough to go to war with (nuclear-armed) Russia. If he’s that crazy, then G-d help us all.

Unless paramount means war in the sense of “taper the taper” … unlikely in the near term. They have their “good” jobs report, can blame GDP on weather for at least another three months, by which point we’ll be down to $25 billion/mo.

I also think that Yellen and the new voting members are more conservative than people expected them to be.

[spdrun]

IF she released a tape of a angry conversation that was not meant for public consumption, she was pretty damn bad.

BTW, both have an interest in denying that she was his mistress. He doesn’t want to add a divorce case to his tsuris. She can take the moral high ground if she was just his assistant.

The argument does not sound like a discussion between people that only had a professional relationship.

[spdrun]

The old 1 bed in San Diego are old crap built cheaply.

Most property built in the past 40 years is junque, built cheaply. I know someone who bought a 90s tract house in Phoenix and had to jackhammer the slab because they had run water pipes through it without any conduit or easy means of replacing them, and a pipe started leaking after 10 years. Fun times.

If anything, the older properties in SD are less complex and are thus easier to maintain than a newer condo with multiple baths and appliance hookups. And a lot of the initial defects like brittle PEX plumbing were fixed 15 years ago, since they showed up and they practically had to fix them.

[spdrun]

Things said during lovers’ quarrels are often not acceptable, but at the same time forgivable. Let he who is without sin….

[spdrun]

This was a private conversation between an irate, slightly senile old man and an irritating little skank. Frankly, I’d heard worse yelled during lovers’ quarrels.

I think the line would have been crossed if he had deliberately set out to make his racist views public. As it stands, he didn’t cross any line. The person or people who leaked the conversation crossed a moral (as well as possible legal) line.

If she taped the discussion without consent and leaked it, hope she does some time in jail for it.

[spdrun]

Toyota is maintaining some design offices in CA even after the move to Texas. If the move was mostly appealing to the truck-drivin’ crowd, they could as well have opened an office in TX. Since they didn’t do that, I suspect that other reasons are behind the move.

[spdrun]

It was a PRIVATE CONVERSATION between him and his mistress (let’s not kid ourselves). I’m pretty sure that everyone has said things in the heat of anger that they don’t want to be public.

Sure, she won’t admit to releasing the recordings. That might open her to civil and criminal liability.

[spdrun]

Personally, I agree that the most disgusting part of this story is the mistress and her leaking a very private recorded conversation to the press (either directly, or indirectly).

Disgusting: yep, in more ways than one. If not for her spray tan, she’d look like your average anorexic methhead.

[spdrun]

That would be a silly reason to make a wholesale move to TX, when they could just set up a satellite design office there. Besides, not as if there isn’t a market for trucks in rural parts of the West Coast.

I wouldn’t mind some Toyota products. Namely Prius (with the exception that it has a long, low front overhang that I kept scraping even on San Diego roads when I had a rental) and the Toyota/Subaru BR-Z.

[spdrun]

Not quite $200k — there are acceptable units that have sold in the $140-160k range recently, in areas where you can drive to the beach in 10-15 min. And what’s wrong with a wall heater + through-wall A/C if you have to use each one a few days out of the year?

[spdrun]

All of the states are competing to see who will give the greatest incentives to companies that already exist. That’s bribery (and, possibly, a form of corruption, IMO). It’s not like Texas is *creating* any jobs, they’re just stealing them from other states, and have teams of lobbyists and politicians who are visiting other states with the sole intention of taking jobs from one state and moving them to the next. This is not productive, and it is not creating anything.

I can’t really fault Perry for this — as CEO of the Great Texas Republic, his responsibility is to his shareholders (i.e. constituents). If it brings them more jobs and more money, then he’s just fulfilling the job he was elected to do.

Just like a company that undercuts another company may not be creating anything new, but business is what it is.

[spdrun]

All of the states are competing to see who will give the greatest incentives to companies that already exist. That’s bribery (and, possibly, a form of corruption, IMO). It’s not like Texas is *creating* any jobs, they’re just stealing them from other states, and have teams of lobbyists and politicians who are visiting other states with the sole intention of taking jobs from one state and moving them to the next. This is not productive, and it is not creating anything.

I can’t really fault Perry for this — as CEO of the Great Texas Republic, his responsibility is to his shareholders (i.e. constituents). If it brings them more jobs and more money, then he’s just fulfilling the job he was elected to do.

Just like a company that undercuts another company may not be creating anything new, but business is what it is.

[spdrun]

Similarly, if you own a McDonald’s franchise, you have your own business. They can’t take away your business, but if they take away the franchise under which you operate, then you a deprived of revenue. So you are “forced” to sell if they want you to sell.

If you own the building and equipment, could you change it to a Flyer’s Hawaiian Burgers and Fries? What’s in a name?

[spdrun]

Does this have to do with the closure of the NUMMI plant in Fremont (recently used by Tesla)? Since Toyota no longer has a manufacturing presence in CA, their reason to be in the state goes away.

I wonder if Tesla would be happy to hire any Toyota workers that don’t want to make the move to Texas…

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