... a doggie door in their house. Doesn't it occur to them that if their pet can go in and out through the opening, other animals can do the same??

Pit Bulls Break Into Home, Maul Woman

GIG HARBOR, Wash. (AP) - Two pit bull terriers broke into a house through a pet door Tuesday and attacked a woman in her bed, mauling her badly, a Pierce County sheriff's spokesman said. The pit bulls also killed a neighbor's Jack Russell terrier, which entered the house during the attack, Troyer said.



iTunes is currently playing: Open Doors from the album No Words by Jim Brickman.

... which sells computer stuff at academic discounts. But don't worry! You don't have to be a student or teacher to buy one!







iTunes is currently playing: How Could You? from the album Billie Holiday: Portrait by Billie Holiday.

... want to drive 325 miles to a hospital in another country in order to give birth? Ladies, count your blessings that you don't live in Canada with their great health care system.

Rare identical quadruplets born in Montana

HELENA, Montana (AP) -- A 35-year-old Canadian woman has given birth to rare identical quadruplets, hospital officials said. Karen Jepp of Calgary, Canada, delivered Autumn, Brooke, Calissa and Dahlia by Caesarian section Sunday afternoon at Benefis Healthcare hospital in Great Falls, Montana.

The Jepps drove 325 miles to Great Falls for the births because hospitals in Calgary were at capacity, Key said.



iTunes is currently playing: Home Again from the album Tapestry by Carole King.

Diane Olick posted this on her Realty Check blog today. Thanks, Diane.

Your house as seen by ...

YOU:



YOUR BUYER:



YOUR LENDER:



YOUR APPRAISER:



YOUR TAX ASSESSOR:





iTunes is currently playing: Dreams Are Not My Home from the album Black Cadillac by Rosanne Cash.

eBay auto scammer told to repay victims

August 17, 2007
Post-Tribune staff report

A Chicago man who ran an auto online auction scam from a Highland apartment was sentenced Thursday to 18 months of probation and ordered to pay $12,000 restitution.

Lake Superior Court Judge Salvador Vasquez told Donald J. Hicks, 27, he is a scammer, manipulator and thief. "If you do this again in this county and you are convicted, you will go to prison," the judge said.

Hicks pleaded guilty June 12 to theft.

In 2004, Hicks operated D Executive Motors in Highland. Hicks advertised cars for sale on eBay, but kept money from unsuspecting bidders and either didn't ship the cars or sent much cheaper vehicles than had been advertised.

Hicks is ordered to pay restitution to victims in Champlin, Minn.; Mesa, Ariz.; Spring Mills, Pa.; and Cortlandt Manor, N.Y.



iTunes is currently playing: When The Party's Over from the album Hearsay
by Alexander O'Neal.

The following comment was posted today on a blog site called "The Housing Bubble", under the entry "This Is All A Snowball". Thanks to poster "aladinsane" (who may or may not be the original author).

Comment by aladinsane
2007-08-14 14:11:00

Ode to Glen Campbell…

By the time I get to Phoenix, foreclosures will be rising

They’ll find the N.O.D. note on her door

She’ll laugh when she reads the part about leaving

‘Cause I’ve heard this story so many times before

By the time the news reaches Albuquerque, the market stopped working

A Realtor will beg me @ lunch, to give me a call

But i’ll just hear that phone keep on ringin’

Off the wall that’s all

By the time the housing bubble falls in Oklahoma, rather steeply

It’ll turn swiftly and a Realtor will call my name out loud

Tho’ time and time I try to avoid him so

He just didn’t know, how low it could really go



iTunes is currently playing: Pop! Goes My Heart from the album Music and Lyrics by Hugh Grant.

You clearly need a writer who has read every issue of People Magazine ever published.



UPDATE 8/14/07:

And they didn't even write back to thank me!





iTunes is currently playing: Beloved Wife from the album Tigerlily by Natalie Merchant.

It is August at the Jersey Shore, a place that gives new meaning to the word HUMIDITY. The bozo driving the car is wearing a short sleeve t-shirt and a baseball cap. His significant other is dressed like a mummy.

I don't think God wants women to sweat to death.

... and not "to whom was it done?"

Breitbart.com has an AFP story today with the headline "Nearly half US murder victims are black: report". The article starts out by telling us:

"African-Americans are victims of nearly half the murders committed in the United States despite making up only 13 percent of the population ... Around 8,000 of nearly 16,500 murder victims in 2005, or 49 percent, were black Americans, according to the report released by the statistics bureau of the Department of Justice."

The article then gives a bunch of other statistics about murder victims, including this tidbit:

"Most murder victims -- 93 percent of blacks and 85 percent of whites -- were killed by someone of their own race."

If these statistics are accurate, blacks were responsible for 93% of murders committed in 2005 in which the victim was black (7,440) and 15% of murders in which the victim was white (1,275), or 8,715 out of 16,500 murders. That means that blacks, who make up 13% of the population, committed 53% of U.S. murders in 2005.

It is unfortunate that blacks make up 49% of murder victims in this country, but I am more interested in the fact that they commit 53% of the murders. After all, if I want to avoid being murdered, isn't it more important to know who is doing the killing (so I can avoid those people) then to know who the last victim was?

Of course the media would rather describe blacks as victims of violent crime than perpetrators of violent crime. It is so much more PC, don't you know.



iTunes is currently playing: Little Criminals from the album Little Criminals by Randy Newman.

From the Modesto Bee:

In a time when real estate stories are filled with foreclosures, loans gone sideways and homeowners on the brink of financial ruin, lending professionals say avoiding such traps requires a simple step. That step is to read through and understand every detail before committing to a home mortgage, though many consumers admit they don't.

In a recent poll of about 1,000 adults by Bankrate.com, about 34 percent of homeowners had no idea what kind of mortgage they had, said Greg McBride, a senior analyst for the financial information Web site.



iTunes is currently playing: Steal Me Blind from the album Alf by Alison Moyet.