Real Estate in the 21st Century

Condoleezza Rice is expected to meet with Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi today marking the end of a three decade old empty relationship

A brutal terrorist of the 80s, Gadhafi has supposedly abandoned his positions on weapons of mass destruction and has renounced terrorism.  He has even gone as far as setting up a fund to compensate victims of his countries terrorist acts.  At present, no money has been deposited in the account. 

Gadhafi, has been in power of Libya for decades and been elected to the UN Security Council.  He has sided with the US on issues such as Iran's nuclear program and other minor items but has not taken a stand on other major problems in the middle east.

The visit coincides with the renewed interest of US companies wanting to do business in Libya, especially in the energy sector. 

Here is the real story:   Gadhafi has virtually no military or a way to defend his country.  If Iran gets nuclear weapons, and it looks like it will in the next few years, there will be a shift in the balance of power in the middle east.  The US is the only country that has a military strong enough to combat Iran other than Israel and we would support Israel regardless.   With the US moving towards developing different fuels for energy, the money flow could stop going to Libya if we succeed in reducing our independence.  Iran is playing the same game that has gone on for 50 years.  It will not speak out against its "brothers" and truly reform its own government while using the US to protect it.  We get our oil and companies and Gadhafi profit. 

By going to Libya, our government is showing the leaders of the world that we will continue to get in bed with the bad guys just for reasons of commerce.   Democratic ideals take a back seat.  Another sad day in America.

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Roger Federer edged the 130th ranked qualifier at the US Open to reach his 18th consecutive Grand Slam tournament semifinals.

It is almost double the number of times his nearest competitor.  No one has won more than 10 in a row.

He should get to the finals since he is scheduled to play an opponent that he has a significant win/loss record against.  And he may meet the player that has pushed him off his record 237 weeks at No. 1.   This went back to early 2004. 

Tiger Woods is dominant in golf and gets the headlines, but Roger Federer is about to become the best tennis player of all time.  History in the making.  Watch it this weekend!

  I cannot believe that we are already in September.  Where has the year gone?  I recently took this picture while  traveling through Yadkin County.  I know that we are in a drought and there isn't much hay for the farm animals in our area.  As I stopped and took the picture, it brought home the fact that I haven't seen as much available for food as in the past. I looked around and also noticed that the corn didn't have that really great look to it when you see a large field.   Thanks to the rain that was received in the area from the last hurricane blowing itself out, we have went from a severe drought status to just plain bad.   I hope we have rain soon, we need it before the winter sets in, or we will have no basis to work off of for next spring.  Area wells have been steadily decreasing in their water depths and after talking with a well expert, he said he was boring a number of new wells, especially at homes that had shallow wells. 

Yes, fall is here, so is football, but lets not forget that we are facing some major challenges in the near future.  

The US Supreme Court ruled on Monday that the Environmental Protection Agency's refusal to regulate greenhouse gas emissions from cars is "not in accordance with law".  The case was narrowly decided by a majority of five to four and is the first high court decision involving global warming.

"The nation's highest court said the EPA "has offered no reasoned explanation" for its refusal to regulate CO₂ and other vehicle emissions that contribute to climate change.

This is one of the most prominent environmental cases to reach the Supreme Court in decades. It revolves around the US Clean Air Act's statement that the head of the EPA "shall" regulate emissions of new vehicles "which in his judgment cause, or contribute to, air pollution which may reasonably be anticipated to endanger the public health or welfare".

The EPA has declined to regulate greenhouse gases from cars under the statute, citing scientific uncertainty. It has also claimed that if Congress had intended for that part of the Clean Air Act to apply to greenhouse gases, it would have said so explicitly when it last amended the act in 1990."

The decision was a victory for the 12 states and 13 environmental groups that had sued the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) arguing that the Clean Air Act gives the agency the authority to regulate CO₂ and other greenhouse gases emitted from cars. The federal government had insisted that the EPA did not have that authority.

The Real Issue here is that the Supreme Court has overstepped its powers by ruling on something that it has no business ruling on.  Congress, the President, and the EPA does not want this into law.  The court is not an elected body and is superseding its authority.  In passing the ruling, it completely ignored the fact that the science of Global Warming is still confused as to the effects of CO2 emissions.  More to the point, the law forces the EPA to regulate something that occurs naturally in our world.  Also the court refused to put in its ruling the direction of which the EPA must follow the statute. 

The effects of this can be catastrophic. By law, the EPA would need to monitor all CO2 emissions in the nation.  That would not only include your car, but lawnmowers, factories, power plants, any combustible engine.  The EPA itself would need to increase its workforce by a thousands of workers to enforce the law.  

Another bureaucracy, an activist court, and in the end, the reduction(if any) may  have more  effects on our way of life than the court intended.

Not many people get to see these old steel bridges anymore.  This bridge is over the Yadkin River in Jonesville North Carolina.  Now closed, it sits as a sentinal to times gone by. 

If you travel Old 421 towards Yadkinville, you have probably seen the antique bull dozer that sits on the side of the road, highlighting the grading and hauling business of Ron Adams.  Ron, a native Yadkin county resident, put the dozer there after picking it up out of a ditch where it had been for years.  The previous owner undoubtedly had gotten all the use out of it he needed.  By using the dozer as an eye catching site, Ron has seen an increase in his business.  And he has had to weather a number of jokes.  Of course, Ron has better equipment and most days can be seen with his signature red dump truck hauling gravel or such to the area construction sites.  Other times he is taking his bobcat and front end loader.  I personally have used Ron for my construction projects and have found him to be a no nonsense kind of guy. 

Just once though, I like to see that red dozer move some dirt!

The Gulf region is  bracing for a hurricane this weekend and it is all over the news.  Communities on the coast are working to prepare for the worst.  But does this make common sense?  It would seem that it would be logical not to build in areas prone to flooding, but each and every one of these hurricanes and storms brings out the political heavyweights asking the federal government-that means you, to pay for the damage.   So next week we will probably see the LA governor in a helicopter flying over the flooded areas telling us what is going on.  This has been repeated how many times?  Do we want our citizens to be injured or killed in these situations?  Of course not, but I sure get tired of hearing about how so much effort is made to clean up and then think that it won't happen again.

And where is the Bush bashing?  Isn't it his fault?

First off I want to say there are plenty of agents that have a better grasp on SEO, Activerain and blogs than I do.  But so much has been written about Localism and the problems we are having with it I thought I would add my two cents. 

Activerain is free- I believe I speak for us all, it is a great place to find information and create substantial referrals and Google juice.

Localism is free- doesn't work, may not ever, but it is free.  As Realtors we do not know yet if the evolution of Localism is going to work for us.  If not, we won't support the site.  It is rather simple.  We want it to be a real estate site and give us a huge platform to work our magic.  Here's why that won't work.

Remember when our own organization sold us out and gave our information to everybody?  It took awhile, but we finally woke up and started complaining.  It didn't help and if fact now we support the very places that make money off our listings.  And folks, these are our listings.  Do you really think that the Justice dept. cares about the MLS?  More so, do you really think our NAR wants to cut out the possible income streams that have been created.  Don't be naive.  If we copyrighted our info, it would immediately stop.  Our photos and information would be ours, not making money for someone else.

This brings me to Localism.  With 50-75% of all agents quiting the business after the their first year in business, any business model that relies on agents must, I repeat, must spend huge resources advertising their services to the new agent base.  These businesses also rely on companies and the NAR to push the same products to their agents day in and day out.  If the folks at Activerain want another Activerain, they would just tell us and reproduce it under the name of Localism.  So by default, that is not the purpose of Localism, nor it is a real estate site.  Also, as with politicians, we are only told what we want to hear.  If the problems in Localism-as it pertains to agents were so hard to fix and answer, any logical person would agree that there would be an in depth explanation to us all.  Instead we get no answers, inconsistencies and a bill for our community sponsorships. 

So with that said, here is my idea of what Localism will be about.  First, all businesses will be courted as neighborhood partners.  That means to me, that beside the local agents picture, there could be a lawyer, insurance agent and even a Pizza ad. Our little 10 bucks a month will pale compared to the money that can be generated by the millions of other businesses.    Our posts to Localism are pushing the site up in the rankings and that is what will be used to help sell the service.  Since the site accepts others posts, we cannot in anyway control the content, and I don't believe that isn't the long term business model anyway.  Each neighborhood putting hundreds if not thousands of dollars in the bank for the owners is the true model.   Long term it will possibly could evolve to include the its MLS.  So, agents, expect to $10.00 for your neighborhoods, 40-50 for the Localism MLS, a buck or two for premium ads and all of it will go to the same source.  What agent wouldn't want to advertise there if it has Google juice?  We will create it, pay for it and make no profit from it.  Same as the MLS, NAR, and all the other sites that we pay for.  It is not about us, its about our money.

Everywhere you look, green, green ,green!  You would think that we all should go back to living in communes or something.  That has already been tried and rejected.  Going green isn't about making GE more money, it is understanding your place in the world. 

The real story about the green movement is that corporations are finally facing the prospect of less growth, not because of high oil prices, but because the population is aging, and it is not being replaced at the pace that corporations need to keep up profits.  Most of the Fortune 500 companies get 50% or more of their revenue overseas, that is why the government keeps the dollar low and punishes Amercians with its foriegn trade policies.  Since the baby boomer generation is about to retire and I promise you, they will not spend the same in retirement that they did while working, the government and big business has come up with a way to  scare you and I about the earth and our place in it.  If we listen to them,  we have to use less items, but pay more for them.  That is a perfect fit to making more profit for business.  And since most Americans understand that it isn't just us poluting the world, why should we lose our standard of living while the rest of the world works under less restrictions and business makes profits regardless.  We will be told to replace a 15 cent bulb with a 5 dollar one,  a perfectly good gas automobile for an expensive bio replacement.   And if we don't make the change, government will tax those that do not want to conform.  

You can bet your last green dollar that in the end, we are going to find that it isn't all  true about going Green!

The Democratic convention was held this past week with much fanfare and the Republican Convention will kick off next week. Tens of millions of dollars are will be spent to promote the two events and the taxpayers will foot some of the bill.   If you watched the Democratic convention, you were promised new jobs, more health care, a better school system, infrastructure development.etc.  And McCain will promise the same and more.  Who is going to pay for all these promises?   Wake up, America!  The politicans will promise but not deliver.   Stop believing them.