"Fraudera Ranch"

You've got to read this post at Bubble Markets Inventory Tracking [excerpt]:

12 Quartz Ln., Ladera Ranch, CA 92694
--05/2004: purchased for $421,500.
--06/2005: purchased for $530,000 by Angelica, associate of "The Family."
--06/2005: Angelica immediately deed the title to Janneth.
--01/2006: sold to Saul the truck driver for $630,000.
--07/2006: NOD filed, Saul just committed a first payment default.
--11/2006: REO
--Total Profit: $100,000 for "The Family."

There's more. Much more. To the tune of a profit for this family of around half a million dollars.

Tons of it at Mortgage Fraud Blog.

Casey Serin blogged his shenanigans.

Check out the Mortgage Lender Implode-O-Meter. Twenty mortgage lenders gone bust in the past couple-three months.

Hang onto your hats. We haven't seen the bottom yet.

UPDATE: I fixed the nonworking link. Sorry 'bout that.

Bank account spam

Seems like a day doesn't go by when I don't get one. "Attention, someone tried to access your account, so come to our fake bank site and give us all your secret information."

The latest one was from soapstone@yahoo.com. Why not send soapstone an email? Heh.

The email told me to login here.

Screenshot from dumbass spammer site:

Afghans for Afghans

I was at Michelle Malkin's site reading this post...

and followed the link to Crochet Guild of America's charity page...

and thence to Afghans for Afghans:

afghans for Afghans is a humanitarian and educational people-to-people project that sends hand-knit and crocheted blankets and sweaters, vests, hats, mittens, and socks to the beleaguered people of Afghanistan.

This grassroots effort is inspired by Red Cross volunteers who made afghans, socks, slippers, and other items for soldiers and refugees during World Wars I and II and other times of crisis and need.

Knit one, purl two for a great cause.

Where y'at? And why?

We're getting visitors from all over.

Are you displaced residents? Folks with family in the area?

Leave a comment and tell us your story :-).

NOTE: Comments don't always work correctly, and there isn't much I can do about that. Just keep tryin'.

Graffiti or something more sinister?

At The Aviation Nation:

The first time flight attendant Charlotte Smith* found the mysterious writing inside the bathroom cabinet of a 757 aircraft while flying for a major airline, she got spooked. It was February 23, 2005. A flight attendant for twelve years, Charlotte was working the coach class cabin of flight 853 traveling from New Jersey to California. Everything was normal, until her discovery.

In the first of a series of interviews, Charlotte explained:

“By a fluke, I opened up a compartment in the mid-galley lav [lavatory] and there it was, on the back of the cabinet behind where you refill the paper towels:

CHENAULT LIVES

ZATU

The three words Charlotte found were handwritten in black marker and in capital letters. Puzzled by the presence of odd handwriting on an area of an airplane that is off limits to passengers, Charlotte began to look further. She then opened up each of the compartments in that lavatory, carefully examining each panel wall. That’s when she discovered another set of words, also written in black marker, but inside a different cabinet.

Read the whole thing.

ADDENDUM: I finally moseyed over to the graffiti page. 64AB... I'm not connected with law enforcement, but the thing that comes to my mind with the letters "AB" is the Aryan Brotherhood.

And as the article points out, "Chenault" could stand for Marcus Chenault, the nutjob who murdered MLK Jr's mother in 1974.

Perhaps this graffiti isn't related to Islamic terrorism, but a more homegrown group of extremists?

Intrepid at Walmart

Listen, darlin'. If you can't see a vehicle smack dab in front of you with a turn signal on, and beginning to turn, you need to get your eyes checked. How'd you get home without running into a parked car?

Thank you for giving me the opportunity to tell my children that you should always pass up a parking space if it appears that someone else is waiting for it.

You've gotta be a native Washington Parishite. The immigrants aren't that rude.

ROTC news

Bogalusa High's JROTC Armed Drill Team placed third in the recent meet in New Orleans.

Good going :-)!

Dilbert - "The Knack"

Slothful Sunday

My plans are to NOT wash the truck. Heh. That's kinda cheating, as I never wash the truck.

Prolly will do some gardening, but that's a pleasure, not a chore. I need to dig up and move one more blueberry bush, get it out of the path of tractors and such; it's too close to the gate.

What aren't you gonna do today?

The state of Bogalusa schools

There've been a number of articles published recently in The Daily News detailing the trials and tribulations of our supposedly rotten school system. There are discipline problems, attendance problems, and low achievement.

Parents blame the teachers and the school board. Teachers blame the parents.

I've got to side more with the teachers here, folks. I'm old enough to remember the "good ol' days." Thirty years ago, there were not these huge problems in the schools that I went to, which I admit were more upper middle class than the ones in Bogalusa. So that may have skewed things.

One thing that has changed radically in the past few decades is the number of single-parent families. When one person is trying to do too many things, something is gonna suffer. We've seen the news items about how more juvenile thugs come from single-parent homes. We know that intuitively, eh?

Single-parent homes are also more likely to be poorer homes economically. Poor kids don't do as well in school as better-off kids, generally.

A recent article in The Daily News says the school board and city are going to try and place a "resource officer" at Bogalusa Middle - basically, a uniformed cop. Will that help? Does that help? Or does it simply mean quicker arrests?

If there are gangs, as school board member Raymond Mims claims, Know Gangs is one site with info. Gangs or Us is another. And here is a list of links courtesy of Michigan State University.

I suspect what Bogalusa Middle needs - more than a cop stationed at the school - is a couple more full-time counselors and after school programs with room for any child who wishes to participate.

Addendum: From the MSU site, and thanks to the internet archive - Developing a Gang Prevention Program.