Anatomy of a foreclosure case

Consider this description of a Florida foreclosure docket by the Orlando Sentinel:

Most of the borrowers — maybe 95 percent — don't have representation," said dispute-resolution expert Sandra Upchurch, who administered the state foreclosure mediation in Volusia County courts. "Many made bad decisions, and some loans have legitimate problems. But if borrowers have no lawyers, the cases aren't being argued. And those cases are going to get opened and closed in 30 seconds, and those buyers don't have a chance.

If you don't believe this, go visit your own state's foreclosure docket--except, wait! Most states have non-judicial foreclosure. They don't even require a judge to review foreclosure sales. And this is in the context of a system where most home loans have seriously defective paperwork. These are numerous cases out there where a good lawyer can successfully fight off the foreclosure, yet 95% of foreclosed homeowners don't have lawyers.

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Why our electronic gadgets are so cheap.

Have you ever wondered how it is that our electronic gadgets, including iPhones are so cheap? According to Business Insider, it's because "they are built using labor practices that would be illegal in this country — because people in this country consider those practices grossly unfair." This story includes many details regarding the working conditions of the Chinese workers who make many of the gadgets that Americans consume.

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Rand Paul Appears to Back Sharia Law

I have recently been seeing a series of campaign ads for Rand Paul on certain liberal blogs. These are Google ads that target keywords, and thus regularly appear on pages that argue against those things supported by the ads. But the Tea Party slant of this ad series offends me. The 1976 Hyde amendment already and still prohibits tax funding of abortions, except in cases of rape and incest. That is, if you can go to court and get a judge to rule your pregnancy as such, you can then get federal funding for your abortion. This does not happen very often, as the abortion is cheaper than a court appearance. But the goal of this campaign seems to say that, as in the Old Testament and thus Sharia law, a poor rape victim must bear and raise the child of her rapist (and marry him, if he so chooses). This only applies to impoverished women; not the sort of folks that congresspeople know. After all, their servants have jobs. Rand Paul and the Tea Party: Old Fashioned Morality for those who can't afford better.

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Martin Luther King: Three methods of dealing with oppression

Martin Luther King eloquently asserts that non-violent resistance is the best approach to oppression. He asserts, though, that he is not advocating "anarchy," and there is such a thing as an "intelligent" use of police force. The backdrop to this discussion was the ongoing struggle to desegregate Little Rock Central High School. In the following conversation with Dr. Kenneth Clark, King disagrees with the criticisms of Malcolm X, emphasizing that non-violent resistance is "powerful" and it is not at all the same thing as "non-resistance," which is to be avoided, because it "leaves you in a state of stagnant passivity and dead-end complacency." Here is a transcript of this conversation. The above video is mislabeled. It is not a discussion involving Malcolm X, but it is about the differences between Martin Luther King and Malcolm X. It includes excerpts from a speech by Malcolm X, as well as numerous historical and entertainment clips.

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Larry Wilkerson discusses proposed military powers as “the road to tyranny.”

Larry Wilkerson, former Chief of Staff to Colin Powell, indicates that the National Defense Authorization Act (that passed the Senate) gives the military power for indefinite detention without trial is therefore a draconian violation of our rights. In this interview, it is pointed out that the highly offensive provision of the proposed new law that allows the U.S. military to detain and prosecute American citizens was inserted into the proposed legislation at the insistence of Barack Obama.

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