Morgan Stanley has decided to walk away from 5 office buildings in San Francisco they bought 2 years ago, in the first big case of corporate "Jingle Mail". Their spokesperson says this is not a default or foreclosure, they're just returning the buildings to get out of their [mortgage].

This has led to some discussion on the morality of a homeowner walking away from an underwater home. People are acting irrationally and not in their best interests by continuing to pay mortgage on property that is worth significantly less than they owe, partly because of unrealistic fears about what would happen if they just walked away.

Not being a homeowner I am certainly an uninformed commentator, but I'm enjoying the discussion here:
http://www.ritholtz.com/blog/2009/12/strategic-defaults-is-it-conditioning-morality-or-naivete/

While simple laziness is surely a big reason why most homeowners will continue to pay $3,500 a month (if they can) for a house that is worth $200,000 less than what they owe instead of sending the keys back to the bank and renting a house down the street for about half the monthly payment, there is clearly a very big moral issue here, one that continues to surprise me every time I run across it.

What do you think? If you bought something really expensive with mostly borrowed money, and the only real consequence to giving it back was not being able to live there anymore, could you just mail the keys to the bank and walk away?

Which will fall out of general usage first, paper books or paper money?

Which will happen first, a human walking on mars or fusion power plants?

"Between Levin and Countess Nordston a relationship had grown up that is seen frequently in society, when two people outwardly remaining on friendly terms despise one another to such a point that they cannot treat the other seriously and cannot even be offended by each other."

As I read this I felt a jolt of horrified recognition, knowing that I have seen these relationships of poisonous banter before, and finally knowing precisely why it upset me so.

Oh gosh, does this thing still exist?

In any case, I'm back home at last.

... but severely out of the habit of checking livejournal so please do ask for my IM if you don't already have it.

I hate posting links to PDFs. I really do.

Also, this draft is a bit rough, with a fair number of simple typos.

It's also extensively cited, well written, and on a topic we really, really need more examination of. If it helps, it starts with an article out of a 1967 issue of Cosmopolitan. Seriously.

If you care about computer programming, feminism and how women get pushed out of industries they're skilled at, read it now, please, as much as you can make time for.

Thanks.

For the record, I didn't write it. Some guy at UPenn did. I'm about halfway through reading it. It's long. Even if you only have time to read the first two or three pages, do.

i have very little to offer today; it's cold and overcast. the weather matches my mood. no inspiration to be found, inside or outside. i wish for a bunch of things, but know that wishing doesn't help much.

so, a poem. cleopatra mathis: ( getting out )

It's time for American Gift Giving Holiday cards! If you have moved in the last year I pretty certainly don't have your address. If I have sent you a card before there is only like a 75% chance that I still have your address. I'm *awesome* like that.

So! Now's the time! All comments screened so you can give me your address if you would like a card.

"Since I have spent a lot of time in India and a lot of time abroad, I am very conscious of how aggressive and cutthroat Indians are. How in any line for a bus, say, they will cut across and find a seat. I, of course, grew up in that environment, so I myself would do that. Then, after I had lived abroad for a few years, I became soft. (laughs) I’d come back to India and I’d be shocked. I’d be horrified, and I’d be contemptuous – ki kaise log hain. Then over the years, it hit me that people in India are merely reacting to their environment, just as people abroad are. Because there are ten people and five seats, they behave in this manner. The moment you double the number of seats or halve the number of people, this behaviour will change. Because I have seen similar behaviour in the most rarefied Western environments, when faced with a temporary shortage. That’s what The Peacock Throne was about — people in a society where the pie is very small, and people are doing what they can to get by, and to get a bigger piece of the pie.

...

Unfortunately, most reviewers seem to think that there are no good people in this novel, there is no place for romance, for tender relationships. They seemed to think, here’s this guy who lives in sunny California and this is his way of saying, ‘Look at this screwed-up place.' But in reality I thought what I was saying was, ‘Look at these people behaving how all human beings would, in similar circumstances.’"

-- Novelist Sujit Saraf, who was born in India and now lives in Palo Alto, regarding his novel The Peacock Throne

I've been waiting for a conservative woman to come out and say this, and finally it happened/I ran into it.

Rachael Larimore, "I Quit You, Sarah Palin," doublex.com:

I realize now that what I most liked about you was an idealized image of you that I created. I like that a woman can have a political career while raising a bunch of kids, that one could succeed without having the right pedigree or giving those kids country club names, that you were unabashedly pro-life. From now on I’ll be looking for those qualities in someone else rather than trying to reconcile your positive attributes with all the wackiness.

I can see liking all the things Larimore listed, I just cannot see liking "why-would-anyone-study-fruit-flies" Palin.

1.) snow! snow in oakland and berkeley! snow at 350 feet.

2.) small terrier puppies in knitted sweaters! yawning and snuggling against warm chests.

3.) a carpet of yellow ginkgo leaves on frosted green grass. a light crunch when i step across the lawn.

4.) hot chocolate, orange juice, crusty bread, a good, solid apple.

5.) two more weeks left until the holidays!

6.) my mom's legally old enough to live in her home now (she inherited a home in a retirement community, with a minimum age of 55). happy birthday, mom!