Understated humor of James Taranto

bin Ladin's mansion/NY Post

There Goes the Neighborhood
Maybe his presence brought down property values, maybe he got hit by the real estate bubble, or maybe he just overpaid. Whatever the case, London’s Guardian reports Osama bin Laden’s house isn’t worth as much as had been advertised:

After Sunday night’s dramatic raid by US Navy Seals, a senior Obama administration official told reporters that the property, an “extraordinarily unique compound” in an “affluent suburb,” was valued at around $1m.

But two property professionals in Abbottabad–a quiet, military-dominated town–said that much of that was incorrect. Based on the size of the plot and the house, which was built in 2005, and using recent property sales as a guide, they estimated that it would fetch no more than $250,000 on the current market.

Assuming bin Laden made the customary 20% down payment and took out a mortgage for $800,000 in 2005, he’s going to be underwater for a long time.

From the James Taranto/Wall Street Journal

… UNDERWATER FOR A LONG TIME!!! AAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!

Useful Idiots and Bigotry of the Left

4 fired ACORN volunteers and perhaps, more to come

The marxist keeps a person around until he or she is no longer of use and then they “throw ’em under the bus.” Why? Because they are no longer Useful Idiots. It’s a pattern, keep watching them and you’ll see it. One could even claim that Van Jones was a UI for Obama. Has Obama said word one about Jones since he ‘resigned’?

Frank James of NPR said this:

It’s also important to keep in mind that ACORN’s workers are coming from the same low-income neighborhoods the organization serves, with all that entails–poor schools, high crime and the sorts of social problems that have been documented for decades.

So the flaws conservatives are pointing out about ACORN are not so much problems associated with that organization per se but more about the problems of being poor and minority in urban America.

And James Taranto of the WSJ countered with this:

It’s hard to see how James’s casual assumption that corruption is the predictable result of “being poor and minority” is anything other than invidious bigotry. Further, even if one assumes for the sake of argument that Acorn is a mere passive embodiment of “social problems,” how exactly does that get it off the hook? Acorn is supposed to ameliorate those problems, is it not?

Corruption is predictable because you are poor? Immorality is inbred because you live in a housing project? I think there are millions of “poor” in this country who would take issue with those questions. But the Marxists are going to purpetuate that fallacy as long as there are poor folks to believe it.

These people are being held down – dare I say, oppressed – by the very Marxists who claim to be their saviors. They are used on the frontline – the UIs – to make the Marxist’s plan look altruistic and humane but as soon as they are a liability, under the proverbal bus they go!

These 4 fired volunteers and maybe more to come, are taking a dive for ACORN. They are ACORN’s former Useful Idiots who are now laying under the big yellow bus. These people were trained by ACORN. They behaved in ways that they felt were acceptable to the leadership of their organization.

I”ll say it again: we are a reflection of the leaders we have and our leaders are a reflection of the people we are.

Quote of the day

“… Obama is constantly dodging responsibility for the problems he “inherited,” when in truth he did not inherit anything. By running for president, he sought the responsibility he now tries to evade.” James Taranto,  wsj.com