A case study in housing collapse

Thanks to Infinitefetish for this story:

TAMPA — Thousands of miles from the trading floors of global stock markets, an abandoned house in one of Tampa's poorest neighborhoods is an improbable place to learn about why the world's financial system is collapsing.

But if you want to understand how we got into this mess, the stucco house at 4809 N 17th St. isn't a bad place to start.

Thank you, Dubya

I'm so proud of my dad.

I visited him the other day, and he dropped a bombshell on me: He registered to vote, and he's voting this Nov. 4 for what he says is the first time in more than 40 years.

To know why that's huge is to know my dad.

He is the quintessential crusty old veteran. Yes, that get-off-my-lawn, white-undershirt-wearing grouch who's socially conservative and handy with all things mechanical. As her father's daughter, I also know he has a heart of gold and a soft side, but as you might expect, he's very good at hiding that part.

He's also a 20-year enlisted man and a Vietnam vet. I love listening to his war stories, from how he cowered in a jet's cockpit as a VC sniper shot at the air base he was stationed, to how the servicemen there were paid (in "Monopoly money," so U.S. greenbacks wouldn't circulate overseas), to how he stood in line at the mess tent and and watched a large Marine, fresh from the jungle, get shot in the leg, only to insist he get his food and eat.

He's never said a bad word about our military and never will. Neither will I.

But over the course of the past couple of years, I've listened to how disgusted he's become with Washington. He's now convinced our current leaders have made a complete mockery of the uniform, have damaged our military hierarchy and tarnished our country's good name. And he's fuming mad.

"Why did they use funny money in Vietnam but bring real dollars to Iraq?" he asked me the other day, his voice and blood pressure rising. "Now, millions are missing. Disappeared. They'll never find it."

Also:

"Why aren't these [Wall Street execs] in jail? They knew what was coming."

"She can't name one newspaper she reads? Not even the Anchorage paper? Or one Supreme Court decision?"

"It's such a mess over there [in Iraq]. What are we doing?"

I just shake my head. Not because I disagree with my dad, but because I am in awe that a military retiree could hate the war(s) that much. He's become a big supporter of getting our troops outta Dodge.

I laughed out loud so hard when he recalled to me how a GOP supporter proudly sporting McCain buttons canvassed his neighborhood lately and knocked on his door.

"Mr. H, I see you're not registered to vote yet."

"Yeah, what business is that of yours?" (classic dad)

"Did you know that..."

"I'm voting for Obama."

"Sir, I think that would be a big mistake..."

"Who are you to tell me I'm making a mistake -- on my property? Goodbye."

Of course, a Democratic Party supporter also happened to be working the neighborhood that day, and, in true form, my dad quickly ushered that man off his property, too.

"Mr. H, I see you're not registered to vote..."

"How do you know I'm Mr. H?"

"Um, are you...?"

"What business is that of yours?"

So my dad went and registered. He's voting. This is a man who's vowed to me in the past that he never has had any interest in voting because he's completely disgusted with politics and politicians. As long as I can remember, his attitude has been, "They're all corrupt. There's no one to vote for. Waste of time. Why bother."

He says he's never cared this much about an election since JFK, the last time he cared about a candidate. "And the last guy I liked was shot" -- which also has him concerned. But this monumental change in my dad couldn't have been possible without the policies of the Bush administration. So I guess I owe him some gratitude.

Florida's Amendment 2

Don't voters have more important issues to worry about other than whether people they may or may not know can marry? What about education, the economy? I am trying, but I just can't wrap my head around conservatives' priorities.

Let's bag these up

Looking forward to shopping this weekend at ALDI, a Germany-based, no-frills grocery chain. It has the reputation and feel here in the States of being an IKEA meets Walmart: Although there are cashiers, you have to bag your own groceries; the food, mostly staples such as canned goods, produce, milk and bread, is mostly ALDI-branded; it has a warehouse feel, where food is stacked in pallets and replaced when only the pallets are empty; they sell plastic bags, but you can bring your own; and you have to pay a $0.25 deposit into a machine for a cart, which you get back when you return.

That last one sounds really cheap, but it's (1) common practice in Europe, and (2) meant to discourage lazy people from abandoning their carts in the parking lot, which takes resources to go track down. I'm definitely all for that one; it drives me nuts to see people leave their empty shopping carts in whatever space next to their car they can find instead of walking a short 10 paces to put it in the space clearly marked "Cart return."

The chain is trying to make a big move in the U.S., with 13 new stores in Central Florida, and from what's been going on in the economy lately, they've picked a strategic time to do it.

Downside: From what I've read on its Wikipedia page, ALDI started out with a rep like Food Lion, a place only poor people with food stamps would shop. Since most of their food is generic, ALDI brands, it also had a rep for being poor quality, a la "Dixie Darling."

On the flip side, you can say the same thing about Walmart, which hasn't exactly suffered for being low-cost. And with the European economy being dragged down by ours, ALDI's rep has been elevated a bit.