Heaven and earth last forever.

Why do heaven and earth last forever?

They are unborn,

So ever living.

The sage stays behind, thus he is ahead.

He is detached, thus at one with all.

Through selfless action, he attains fulfillment.

Tao Te Ching (Ch-7)

• "My brother need not be idealized or enlarged in death beyond what he was in life, to be remembered as a good and decent man, who saw wrong and tried to right it, saw suffering and tried to heal it, saw war and tried to stop it" -Teddy's eulogy for brother Robert Kennedy, June 1968.  
  • http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news

MORTGAGE DISCREPANCIES  

...look at the fact that 18.6 million homes in this country are now sitting vacant, more than at any other time since the Census Bureau began tracking that figure in the 1960s. And that 2.8% of U.S.  mortgage loans are now at least three months in arrears, up from 1.4% a year ago. That rate is projected to peak in early 2009  

 http://money.cnn.com/2008/11/04/pf/forecast_home3.moneymag/index.htm

• 
  

This article is ten months old. This is the kind of economy our New Administration walked into.  The numbers are staggering. But sometimes in the midst of tragedy--we discover comedy, true comedy.

You see, sometimes, mistakes are made.

DENROY

Some limey by the name of Denroy Bell was relaxing in his English flat when he received a call from a friend. You see Denroy owned a piece of real estate in Florida and his friend lived next door to his American residence.  He was being notified that some strange people were changing the locks on his home and emptying his pool.

"It was like the army came up and took over the house," Esther Goshop, told Denroy.  Citi-Residential Mortgage Company had decided to foreclose its mortgage on this property.

Just one problem. As it turns out, Denroy Bell didn't even have a mortgage with the bank.

Denroy is seeking reimbursement for the cost of installing new locks and cleaning his pool. I am sure that his attorney will seek a little more by way of compensatory damages than the cost of a few locks and a pool cleaning.

http://www.wftv.com/news/15523844/detail.html

ANNA

Anna Ramirez came home one day after a hard day at work and found all of her possessions thrown helter skelter upon her front lawn.  An official standing in from of her home gave her an hour to get the rest of her stuff and leave. Washington Mutual Mortgage company, a subsidiary of Chase was not fooling around. It wanted satisfaction for its mortgage that was not being paid.

So the homestead was put up on the auction block and the $250,000 house was sold for just under 90 grand.

"This came out of nowhere," Ramirez said. "The bank took the house from right under my feet."

Ooooooooooooops.  Anna did not have a mortgage with Chase or Washington Mutual.

Anna is seeking some reimbursement for her problems. She had some real losses related to broken furniture and stuff. Anna will receive much more compensation than this with the help of the third year law student who lives with his parents down the street.  http://james4america.wordpress.com/2009/08/19/ooops-wrong-house-sold-in-foreclosure-sale/

TED

Well, mortgage companies can even screw up even when they are foreclosing on the right home.

Ted Poetsch was having lunch and packing up a few last-minute things at his Minneapolis home, thinking he had an hour before the inspector came to board up the house. But, while he was taking a final walk down memory lane and pondering, the inspector came early and boarded it up while old TED was still in it.

Ooooooooooooops. 

Poetsch called his lawyer, who called the city, who called 911. Finally, after three hours, a policeman came to pry the boards off his front door and let him out.

City officials said Poetsch's brief incarceration in his own home was an "unprecedented mistake."

I would bet that Ted's lawyer wrote that quote down, the one from the 'City Officials' and he will probably cut and paste that gem in a brief or something. 

http://www.startribune.com/local/47167767.html

AL

Atlanta resident Al Byrd was having a normal Monday when he got a strange call from the lawn guy, who asked Byrd if he still wanted him to finish the lawn.

Byrd replied -- Of course! Why wouldn't I?

"Because they're tearing down the house," the lawn guy replied.

Well, it seems that the mortgage company had all of its papers in order. I mean the mortgage was way behind in payments, the proper papers had been filed in court and the title was duly transferred to the bank.  Alls well, so to speak.

And the bank sent the proper people out to look at the home and sure enough, the property is worth more without the structure that looked like a disaster area.  So the 'new owner' hired the proper demolition experts and everything was going as planned.

But it appears the wrecking crew got the wrong address.

But do not worry about Al. I mean all he has to do is send somebody over to the bank who was thinking about becoming an attorney some day and Al should receive five times what the house was worth and the bank will probably be more than happy to pay off any balance owing on any mortgage that might have once been linked to his homestead.  

 http://wsbradio.com/localnews/2009/06/crew-demolishes-wrong-house.html

Eulogy

Ted Kennedy knew the rich and powerful. He came from the richest caste in this country. The people he grew up with were all from that caste.

He knew they did not 'earn' their way.  He knew they all fucked up from time to time like the rest of us. He also knew that when members of the highest caste screwed up it was usually the powerless who paid the price.

Teddy fought for mortgage reform. He also fought for food stamps, for welfare rights, for education reform that would open doors to people who would normally be shut out of the system. He fought for health care reforms for 45 years.

He had times of despondency over the years. Lost his brothers, all three of them. He almost lost his entire career at a very young age.  Hell he almost died in the plane crash.  Bet he had problems with his spine much like his brother John.

But he had an attitude toward life that echoed men like the two Roosevelts.  We can do this. We can change.

So many times in my life I would look at my government and think, there is no hope.

Senator Kennedy saw it all as a challenge.

He will be missed.