As IF Times

link With Gore facing sex accusation, long-lost memories emerge | Washington Examiner.

The story line about how Al allegedly stuck his tongue down the throat of an unwilling woman is easily the creepiest image I have come across in my news scans.  Let’s try to erase that from our minds. 

Having said that, what better way to describe the Global warming hokum that’s been foisted down the throats of unsuspecting people for the past few years?  Also unwanted, also aggressive and also repulsive.  The worst part of if it is that it feels like a gang of Al Gores have been imposing their will down our throats through the industry of Global warming as they foist their opinions upon the masses of naive people.  Millions of zealots were recruited to the Church of Al to spread the panic that was Global Warming.   To not believe was to be irresponsible, bordering on criminal.  Their way was to be imposed upon everyone, like it or not, real or not, for their own good.  Actually, it’s all quite reminiscent of the Crusades without the be-headings and the torture.

That the Global Warming  industry still thrives today and that vapid expressions such as ‘sustainability’ have embedded themselves into publc speech and policy are a testament to just how pervasive and effective the assault has been.  Now, years after the initial assault, some are beginning to see  the charade for what it is, the rantings of a ‘crazed earth poodle’ to borrow an expression.  There were many that told him to stop, but he persisted anyway. 

Unfortunately, even if Al’s credibility suffers on both his personal and professional fronts. the assault that he has wrought continues even without his stewardship. An entire generation of kids and politicians have been brainwashed by his alarmist and unfounded bleatings.  In our city, Vancouver, the largest collection  of granola eating, sandal wearing politically correct eco groupies outside of San Francisco, politicians have enacted policies that pander to the wishes of the more rabid segment of them.  Now, we have main traffic arteries serving the downtown business district constricted by the construction of bicycle lanes.  As if business people will jump on their bikes to go to meetings.  It’ll be amusing for car commuters to see the empty bike lanes when the rainy season starts.  The mayor will be lucky there’s not an election then.  It’ll be amusing as well to see how he explains that gasoline and insurance levies on cars intended for road maintenance will instead be funneled into making the streets better for 38 cyclists, none of whom pay any transportation tax. 

The Church of Al has also caused all kinds of ‘green’ taxes to rain down from all political levels, all meant to shape the behaviour of people not otherwise believing in the message.  It will probably take at least a generation for the trauma of that to wear off.  Meanwhile, another group of learned scientists have offered their opinion of what’s in store.  They think that it’s all going to end anyway, well, within a few million years.  According to this article; http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-1294372/Life-Earth-wiped-27-million-years.html the earth goes through a cataclysm every 27 million years or so. 

“…Scientists from the University of Kansas and the Smithsonian Institute in Washington DC are 99 per cent confident that there are extinctions every 27 million years…”

Get that? 99 per cent confident! So why worry about a few trees, spotted amoebas, or rising tides, it’s all going to end anyway.  People should stand up, speak out and refuse to be assaulted anymore.  Take back the world.

link In Vancouver, logic has left the housing market – Canada – Macleans.ca.

But it’s not just Vancouver, it’s a phenomenom that is being experienced the world over from Vancouver to Dubai, from Shanghai to London.  These are some of the hottest spots for real estate prices in the world today.  Investment and speculation in real estate has been the surest way to building wealth for as long as the baby boom generation has known. 

In the days pre 1970, real estate price increases were fairly moderate, for the most part, in line with the cost of living.  In fact, it was a detriment in many cases to own real estate because there were costs involved; maintenance, taxes etc.  At least in the North American experience, as the baby boom demographic pushed it’s way into real estate in earnest, supply and demand for the favored areas gradually drove prices up and houses became for most people, the single largest store of wealth for this generation.  There is no doubt that valuations in real estate are correlated with the wealth of the local inhabitants, but it can cut both ways as residents in Las Vegas, Arizona and Florida have recently found.  Wealth tends to beget wealth and so prices can really climb when a local economy is hot.  Of course access to favorable financing is another significant factor as the multiplying effect of this tool excerbates demand for product and therefore prices.

People of course need a place to live, but in the areas mentioned above, the notion of buying a house as shelter is but a quaint notion.  The entire objective and major consideration for buying real estate in Vancouver, is as a means for hitching a ride on a fast moving train.  No rational person who makes a nominal salary of $75,000 per year, perhaps netting $50,000 after tax, will try to carry a mortgage on a $900,000 house.   According to a recent listing on Vancouver’s west side from an article in Canada.com:

“…At an asking price of $889,000, the Second World War bungalow in the 3100-block West 10th Avenue in Vancouver seemed like a bargain to realtor Terry Flahiff yesterday.With the average price of a detached home in Greater Vancouver nearing $921,000 last month, Flahiff’s listing could be considered a bargain…”

It’s interesting that the news headlines have just recently finished with Bernie Madoff’s collapsed ponzi scheme and have now turned their focus to the questionable products manufactured by Goldman Sachs.  Naturally, the media are chomping at this and the clamor for more regulation is now building.  Surely people must be protected they will say.  In reality, the largest ponzi scheme running, for the longest time and with the most institutionalized support is the real estate market.  While Madoff’s and Goldman’s activities  affect a directed segment of people, the promotion of real estate is directed at the mass of the population.  Everyone is programmed to believe that real estate is the surest way to riches.  That’s a difficult premise to refute given the past 40 years of experience. 

But as the people in Nevada and Florida, once the poster states for real estate speculation found out, when the music stops via interest rate upticks, the damage is devastating.  Ponzi schemes work by constantly finding new buyers to support the earlier buyers.  Eventually, you run out of those.