News Items, Happy New Year's, Now I'm going to get drunk

Item: After the Miami 'Canes got their asses kicked byLSU in football they did so again in boxing. Following the game two players from the "U" (as in the cell block "U"nit that most "U"sed to inhabit) decided to avenge their loss by tossin' em. Didn't turn out so well, with two "U" team members being knocked out by the Bubba Gumps of LSU. Miamista made enough money to pay for a trip to Nawlin's by playing the spread.

Item: Jeb says: “I may be an asshole but I’m not an idiot!” When asked if he believed that Intelligent Design should be taught in schools he reasoned that there were other more pressing problems with Science education like a more rigorous curriculum in the subject area as a whole. He referenced the decision of his brother’s appointee U.S. District Judge John E. Jones who ruled “that (Intelligent Design) smacked of creationism and was a violation of church and state separation.” A follow up question to Jeb Bush asked if the University of Texas Phi Beta Kappa alumni believed in Darwinism. He answered “Yeah”, but went on to say that it did not have to be part of the curriculum but could be discussed in the classroom.

Item: Miami Herald says: Housing market slump? Real estate watchers were looking to see if October’s record fall in sales were a blip caused by Katrina. The Herald’s Matthew “Honk if you’re a Realtor” Haggman noted that average sales prices rose after taking a tumble last month but rose in November. “S. Florida home costs roar back, The cost of South Florida single-family homes soared in November after an October slide, bolstering claims that hurricanes caused the dip. By MATTHEW HAGGMAN South Florida home prices jumped sharply in November, appearing to quell speculation the red-hot housing market is cooling off. The median price of an existing single-family home climbed 6 percent from October to November to $391,100 in Broward and 4 percent to $381,600 in Miami-Dade, according to the Florida Association of Realtors.”
Buried somewhere on the fifth page jump, last paragraph, Realtor Shill Matty noted that in November, single family homes sales volume fell 25 percent in Miami-Dade and 21 percent in Broward, compared to the year-ago period. This and October sales were the largest fall in sales in twelve years for the counties. The kicker is that the Florida Association of Realtors numbers do not track condos (multi-family housing). Condo prices and sales were down in Miami-Dade, for the fourth month in a row, especially in zip codes in the City of Miami.
The Sun-Sentinel ran the story in exactly the opposite way as the Herald: “Big drop In November home sales: Sales of new homes plunged in November by the largest amount in nearly 12 years, providing the most dramatic evidence yet that the red hot housing market over the last five years is starting to cool down.” Seems the Sentinel believes that the obvious story was that there is a nose dive in sales and that outside the very top end of the market (where billionaires fear not) we are in a pure-dee meltdown in the coming year. A number of has a new plan. Just graduate everybody!

Item: Kudos to Rebecca Wakefield! She is the most intelligent and informative journalist this side of the blogosphere and she made the weekly radio program J-Walkin’ worth finding even if the commentators are nakedly ambitious, with a lead commentator Jason Walker working as an aide for Miami city Commisioner Winton. Where she really came through recently was in her year end piece in the her Sun Post Column. Those year-end pieces are full of pitfalls. Some recapitulate news we all remember but have little relevance to what is happening today. Others go into hokey personal detail. Rebecca did neither.

Item: Look who is increasingly falling prey to Castro baiting. Hint, someone that authored a book entitled “In Cuba I was a German Shepard”. An excerpt from a Castro speech that was about, (who am I kidding, a Castro speech never has a topic), in a Castro tangent about consumerist destruction of resources he said that future generations might be able to solve the problem by determining if it was possible to live on another planet. Castro also made a sneering aside to a Brazilian aide to Lula who took a shot at him and other Latin American leftists on the issue of IMF issued debt. The fact that Fidel said “What, you’re becoming a pubic hair” should leave no Cuban in wonderment considering that it is a oft used phrase in Cuban Spanish denoting an annoying little asshole and secondly, Cubans tend to be a little potty mouthed in our insults. My point here is that Castro may be all sorts of assholes but that is not a reason to mischaracterize statements. For a writer that I respect admire and like I think she went a little “Nuevo Herald” on us here. The flip to this is that she may have increased her wiggle room to attack local sleazeballs. (Note on this topic- I don’t write about Latin American issues on this blog as I don’t write about national politics, economics or even issues in other regions unless I think there is an interesting cause for comparison. I even refrain from linking to my blogs or others that deal with extra-regional issues. It would be too messy.)