No Armenian genocide, huh?

Tell that to my grandparents.  Tell that to my Dad's stepmother, who saved her seven children by WALKING from the mountains of Turkey all the way to Beirut, dressed as an Arab widow.  WALKING.  With seven children.  Hundreds of miles on dirt roads with no shoes, cutting across country to avoid the soldiers.  Stopping and doing sewing jobs for money whenever they could.

You pigs say that 4 million Turks died?  Could that be because you're counting the Armenians born in Turkey?

Whole villages, rousted from their beds in the middle of the night. All of the men and boys made to line up in the town square, and then SHOT one by one.  The women and girls raped by turkish soldiers.  The survivors starved to death slowly.

I'll have more on this on April 24, Armenian Martyr's day.  Until then I leave you with the words Adolf Hitler used to justify the holocaust:

"Who, after all, speaks today of the annihilation of the Armenians?"

Posted by: caltechgirl at 11:48 AM | Comments (4) | Add Comment
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The answer was no.

Their counteroffer was $10,000 over asking plus lots of cash up front, in other words, F**K OFF, we don't want to sell to you.  Or anyone else, evidently.

Posted by: caltechgirl at 12:45 PM | Comments (7) | Add Comment
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1 That really sucks. Seem to be a lot of folks lately who don't have a realistic idea what their property is actually worth. It's not the same market it was a couple of years ago almost anywhere... Idjits.

Posted by: Deb at April 14, 2007 02:49 PM (BX9hK)

2 The market is what people think it is.... Just wait 3 months, and if it's still on the market, make an offer for 10 grand less than what you offered the first time. If they wanted full highest price, they should of sold last year, not be trying to sell now.

Posted by: Bill at April 14, 2007 04:17 PM (oWOkB)

3 About 10 years ago, my boss had some next door neighbors who had their house on the market for 5 years!!! I could never figure out why they wanted it on the market or why the realtor didn't just drop them as a client. The neighborhood is very pricey - they wanted an offer with NO contingencies! I couldn't believe it. I know that's why it never sold. The chances of someone having the cash in hand, walking up and buying the place were about nil. Some people shouldn't have their house on the market. Period!

Posted by: Teresa at April 14, 2007 05:06 PM (gsbs5)

4 I suspect in time... they'll wish they'd taken your offer. But by then you'll have found something you like and have made your own and you will quietly laugh to yourself that you got the last laugh. Well... at least I would.

Posted by: Bou at April 16, 2007 05:02 AM (8LOvI)

5 10K over the asking price?!?! WTF? I take it the house hasn't been on the market for long... Perhaps this one wasn't meant to be. In that case, there's an even better one out there for you!

Posted by: Marie at April 16, 2007 07:32 AM (ocfI9)

6 A pox on them I say! A pox!! It just wasn't your house - something better will come along.

Posted by: Richmond at April 16, 2007 11:52 AM (e8QFP)

7 You need revenge...just go pour a cupful of pool chemicals on their lawn. It will create a brown spot...which they will water, thus spreading the 'brown' spot even further. When it's really spread out, and they're wanting to move for fighting it, THEN you go in and make the offer. For what you want. And tell them to resod or knock a few thousand more off for you to 'fix' it yourself.

Posted by: Mrs. Who at April 17, 2007 07:22 PM (9FXen)

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Let's put it this way, if I was the mama Billy Goat Gruff, I wouldn't go near this bridge myself, let alone the little BGG....

Paroled sex offenders living under Miami highway bridge

 

MIAMI -- Several paroled sex offenders are living under a noisy highway bridge and fending off rats each night, because they cannot find housing in compliance with strict county ordinances for violators, state officials and one of the men said Thursday.

At least three men are making their home under the Julia Tuttle Causeway, which connects Miami with neighboring Miami Beach, said Gretl Plessinger, a spokeswoman for the Florida Corrections Department. One of the men under the bridge said he was among five.

The state decided they could live under the bridge because the men were unable to find housing they could afford and that did not violate Miami-Dade county rules, which say sex offenders must live at least 2,500 feet from places children gather.

They must stay there between 10 p.m. and 6 a.m. because a parole officer checks on them nearly every night, Plessinger said.

"This is not an ideal situation for anybody, but at this point we don't have any other options," Plessinger said. "We're still looking, the offenders are still actively searching for residences."

[...]

"This is an injustice," said the man who wouldn't give his name. "I completed my sentence."

The man refused to discuss the crime that landed him under the bridge, but state records show a host of offenses for the men who live there: sexual battery, molestation, abuse, grand theft. Many of the crimes are against children.

"Public safety is our main focus and we feel like public safety is being achieved in these individuals," Plessinger said. "But this is a problem that is going to have to be addressed. If we drive these offenders so far underground or we can't supervise them because they become so transient it's not making us safer."

Most homeless shelters won't take the men, Plessinger said, because they're sex offenders. One that would is within the prohibited range of a school or daycare center. She said one of the men, for example, found dozens of residences he was happy to live in, but parole officers vetoed all of them because they violated county rules.

Plessinger said she believed the state first authorized sex offenders to live under a bridge last June. Before the causeway, some of the men lived under a bridge in downtown Miami. They were forced to leave, Plessinger said, when it was determined they were within range of a daycare center.

The man under the causeway on Thursday said he had been there for about six weeks. He said he fears for his life.

Here's the creepy part:

Ironically, putting the men here hasn't kept them out of reach of children. On Thursday afternoon, down the concrete slope from the men's makeshift home, a family with young children played in the bay next to their boat, oblivious to the sex offenders who call a place under a bridge their home. (emphasis mine, --Ed.)

Posted by: caltechgirl at 09:17 PM | Comments (3) | Add Comment
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...and you don't even know the reporter.

But this story, from Sunday's Raleigh News and Observer, well, it's not hard.

Hispanic DWIs rooted in immigrants' culture

When Eliseo Hernandez came to the United States 30 years ago, he thought he drove better after a few beers. Driving drunk had been normal back in Mexico, he said. But Hernandez, 54, learned of its perils firsthand. He quit the practice after falling asleep at the wheel and hitting a tree 18 years ago.

Then, last year, a young Hispanic man who authorities say was drunk nearly killed Hernandez's only son, Diego, in a crash on a rural Johnston County road. Eliseo Hernandez's daughter, who was nine months pregnant, lost her unborn child in the accident.

Hernandez has spent the past year following Diego through four hospitals and 14 brain surgeries. Diego only recently began to smile again and might never walk.

Hernandez said he hopes his painful journey will teach his friends and family a lesson. Car accidents are the top killer of Hispanics in North Carolina, and the disproportionate number of alcohol-related arrests and wrecks are an embarrassment to a minority already beleaguered by hard feelings over illegal immigration.

"It makes the Mexicans look bad, very bad," Hernandez said. "The American people say 'Oh, it's just another Hispanic, the same as the others.' "

DWIs are far higher among hispanics than any other culture in NC, and for a while this was seen as racial profiling by police and State Troopers.  In CA, many times the DWI hispanic driver is also an illegal alien. Interesting now to see this article owning that DWI/DUI is sometimes part of the culture.

The first step is admitting you have a problem.

Posted by: caltechgirl at 07:22 PM | Comments (2) | Add Comment
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Phoenix has a new fiction challenge up.  1,000 words inspired by 3 pictures.  Due Friday April 13.

I think I already have an opening sentence....

Posted by: caltechgirl at 12:52 PM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
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I would use some cliche title like "Fat and Happy" but that would insult ME, so I didn't.

This so perfectly expresses my attitude about my body. 

Fat happens.  Get over it.  Yes, I can diet and exercise. In fact, I do.  But my body happens to LIKE being this size, I guess.  So what?  Why should you care?  Projecting YOUR insecurities on me, huh?  I'm happy, my husband thinks I'm sexy, and the doctor says I'm 100% healthy except for a disease that has NOTHING to do with my weight.

So why should I waste my time being upset about it?  Seriously.

As my buddy Cartman once put it, "I'm not fat, I'm festively plump."
h/t RG

Posted by: caltechgirl at 12:11 PM | Comments (5) | Add Comment
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