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Tag: Housing

Nicotine, Milk And Kibble

By JGillman, Section News
Posted on Fri Mar 15, 2013 at 03:22:55 PM EST
Tags: Traverse City, Michigan, Cigarettes, Money, Addiction, Obama, Rent, HUD, Housing, Section 8, Welfare, No Shame Anymore, Corporate Cronyism, Reality, No Money, Finite Resources, Obama Stash, Government Jobs, Housing Authorities, The Rent Pimps (all tags)

For about 5 years the Pavlovian expectation of a cigarette followed every meal.

In about 11 months, I celebrate my 20th anniversary of being tobacco free. In the first 5 years of that, it was a fight to stay off the nicotine, and the body and mind played tricks to try and get me puffing again. Stress, the after dinner reach for a pack, drive time, all of those things I thought of as pleasurable for so long, reached up from the depths often, in order to regain its hold over me. Its hold from a time when I was its slave, and it was my benevolent master.

As long as I fed it, the habit made me relax for a time, and I was allowed to live in my skin.

Some folks have compared tobacco addiction to that of heroin, or other narcotics. Others, to its oft used partner, alcohol. Though I have never experienced the withdrawal effects of those, I believe I understand them as a result of having had been a smoker for well over a decade. The 'habit' was more than that. It was an unchangeable lifestyle; a daily thing that demanded my attention, or the consequences would be hellish.

There is a drug that is worse however.

And it won't be your body or mind reminding you how bad its going to be without it. It will be active little monsters who also get a high from it, and want you hooked for as long as it takes for THEM to live THEIR lives.

Continued below.

(12 comments, 793 words in story) Full Story

First, Do No Harm

By The Wizard of Laws, Section News
Posted on Thu Mar 12, 2009 at 08:33:28 AM EST
Tags: housing, foreclosures, House, Senate, moratorium (all tags)

(Promoted by Nick...)

Liberals just don't get it.

When government does something, it has an impact. Tax something? You get less of it. Subsidize X? You get more of it. Similarly, when government imposes additional costs on an economic activity, the activity dries up or becomes more expensive.

Such is the case with the state legislature here in the Enchanted Mitten. Today's Macomb Daily reports that the Michigan House has passed a bill that would impose a 90-day moratorium on foreclosures. As reported previously:

"The state legislation would provide a 90-day redemption period for those facing imminent foreclosure. If the homeowner submits to financial counseling offered by state or federal housing experts, they would then enter into negotiations with their lender. The mortgage company would be required to attempt to seek some middle ground -- a loan modification that could prevent the impending mortgage default."

Ah, the genius of our elected officials. Take a contract between two willing parties in which one of them is not performing and force the other -- the one who put up the money in the first place! -- not to utilize its contractual remedies for at least 90 days, while the balance due continues to grow. As I said, genius.