And we're back

/

Both Bambi and his butterfly friend are safe, though a week spent humping many miles up and down hills put me in far better shape than a relatively inactive summer had left me, so well worth the time.

I came back to find that Scott Frantz was turned out of office in favor of a wildly liberal wife of a multi-millionaire who wants to give our money away to her fellow Democrat friends in Hartford for redistribution (I’m sure that she and her hubby took steps to protect their own money, long ago). Scott was one of the last voices of sanity in Hartford, and his loss is our loss. Greenwich already supplies 38% of the state’s revenue; with a $2 billion deficit looming, it’s pretty obvious where Hartford and its looters will turn for succor. Hint: it’s not Derby.

Although it hurts me professionally to say so, I suggest that anyone who must live in Greenwich for professional reasons and is contemplating buying an expensive house in Greenwich should rent instead, at least for the next few years, to see how this all settles out (I can tell you, but …). We can expect another couple of years of the financial film-flam and accounting tricks that Hartford’s used to paper over previous deficits, but each year that deficit has increased exponentially, and the fraud gets harder to continue: what can’t go on, won’t.

Connecticut voters rejected Republicans and gave control of both the Senate and the House to the very same people who have long looked to Greenwich to fund their wildest spending schemes. Anyone with anything left to be taxed would be a fool to stick around for the coming rapine. The barbarians are not just at the gate, they’ve breached it, nd nothing good will come of this.

To quote the French, “Run Away!”

Speaking of game laws. Gone for the week to the wilds of Maine

/

No Internet, not even cellphone service, though I’ll drive somewhere on Wednesday morning to find out whether either Barbra Streisand will be heading to Canada or I’ll be heading to Switzerland to buy gold. No fear: I filed an absentee ballot last week.

In the meantime, and just in case the Democrats win and the country’s going to be thrown into a cataclysmic dysphoria, here’s a link to videos showing how to field dress, skin, butcher and preserve your deer. With luck you won’t need it, but if you do, at least take comfort from the fact that the urban intellectuals and suburban soccer moms who voted for disaster will starve to death long before you do.

While I’m gone, feel free to post comments on whatever you wish including, of course, the election.

Keelhaul him

/

Commercial NY fisherman caught with dozens of blackfish, way over the limit, and many undersized.

He’s still in the pokey, as of the date of Greenwich Free Press’s article, unable to post a $75,000 bond (a bondsman charges just 10% of that, so presumably this is not a very successful professional), and i’m glad to hear it. There aren’t that many blackfish and, while delicious, most recreational fishermen keep at most one or two, and always release the undersized ones. While there are certainly plenty of A-hole fishermen and hunters, the vast majority are ethical, and violators of game laws are despised.

This explains why Facebook and Twitter keep "accidentally banishing ads by conservatives

/
“In a sometimes-heated hearing in Washington last April, 55 U.S. representatives questioned Facebook Inc. FB -0.92% Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg about privacy concerns and leaked user data. In the week before the U.S. midterm elections, about two-thirds of those same representatives are spending campaign dollars advertising on Facebook.

Politicians’ enthusiasm for targeting potential voters and donors on Facebook cuts across party lines—as did their criticisms. Paul Tonko, a Democrat, told Mr. Zuckerberg at the time, “Users trusted Facebook to prioritize user privacy and data security, and that trust has been shattered.” Republican Tim Walberg expressed concern that Facebook was banning political content and advertising based on the views expressed in it.

Campaigns for both have subsequently sunk money into Facebook advertising, according to a tool Facebook recently released that allows anyone to look up ads for political campaigns and “issues of national importance.” Neither congressman’s campaign replied to requests for comment. ”

There have been literally dozens of reports (documented with Facebook and Twitter notification of their decision to block particular ads), most of which were reversed with an apology. zOf course, the reversals take a week or so, and the election is next week.

Here’s one: Facebook apologizes for blocking Tennessee (Republican) U.S. Senatorial candidate Marsha Blackburn’s ad.

And another: Facebook blocks ad by California (Republican) candidate.

And so on and so on. We don’t need the Russians to shape our elections: Silcon Valley monopolists are doing the job for them.

Fair is fair: judge this Milbrook house for yourself at tomorrow's open house, 1-3

/
overlook.jpg

I recently trashed a spec house at 248 Overlook Drive, disparaging its design. I based my comments on its photos, and readers, viewing those same shots, agreed. But this morning I received the following message from its builder, David VanHoeson, which made me think that I’d been unfair:

“David VanHoesen • 38 minutes ago

Hi Chris, and all others posting. Unfortunately, the photos don’t do this home justice. I would invite all of you out to see it in person on Sunday 11/3 between 1-3 during the public open house. Then, after one has walked through it, I will be happy to take any constructive criticism and engage in any meaningful dialogue. Feedback was the most positive I’ve had in 30+ years from the Broker Open House. So there is a disconnect here. Of course, I’m not looking to build a typical Spec house, but something special. Please come see it in person, I think you will be surprised. Best Regards, Dave Van Hoesen Builder/Developer”

I hadn’t realized that Dave built this house, or I would have mentioned that he builds houses of exceptional quality, and I have long admired his work. This blog is intended to be a report on current real estate activity in Greenwich, with a hefty dose of personal opinion tossed in. Tastes differ, and photographs can lie, so if you’re looking for a house in this one’s price range, by all means, go to its open house Sunday and decide for yourself. Which, of course, you should do for any property mentioned here, regardless of my opinion.

Mama Bear reacts

/

Mother of three shoots home intruder: “I’d have killed him if I’d had to”. Afterwards (the intruder fled, and was later captured, with non-life-threatening wounds), the mother told reporters that she’d never thought she’d use the family gun, “but I was calm”.

““So then he kicks the door in as soon as he kicks the door in and tries to take a step in my house that’s when I shot him and he ran off, she recalled. “Something just came over me, I got calm and my heart slowed down.”

The mother said she “would’ve killed him if I had to” if the intruder tried to come inside her home. She said she was thankful she had protection because she didn’t think she could fight off the man.

“Because if I didn’t have any kind of weapons I don’t know what I would have did. That guy was kind of big,” she said.

“I wouldn’t have been able to fight him off. I never thought I would have to shoot that gun, ever,” she continued”

I’m grateful that the mother was black and the man kicking in her door was white, thereby sparing us all from the usual tripe TV news serves up on these incidents, and the story’s a nice testimonial to the adage that “when seconds count, the police are just minutes away”, but I was especially taken by the mother’s determination to protect her children. I’m friends with a retired special forces warrior and we once had a conversation where I expressed some doubt over my ability to shoot another human, even if I feared he was going to kill me. “If you’re protecting your child or your wife you’ll do it instantly”, he assured me.

What he said rang true to me, and this woman’s reaction seems to bear him out. Which interests me: for some of us — me, at least — the instinct for self-preservation might be just weak enough to cause me to hesitate before pulling the trigger on someone I perceived as a direct, immediate threat to my life, but threaten one of my kids, or a loved one like their mom, Pal Nancy? You’re dead, MF.

Bears and other animals seem to react the same way, which makes me think it’s all part of our genes.

Fascinating.

I actually own this shirt, as well as a .45 Long Colt revolver. Beware.

I actually own this shirt, as well as a .45 Long Colt revolver. Beware.

You can't say that!

/
scolding-woman-image-734465-273x200.jpg

That’s what I was told, repeatedly, by some people back in 1994 when I was trying to find an agent for my first novel, “Stocks and Bondage”, based on the true story of a transvestite stock broker who’d murdered a client he’d defrauded. One offended agent took the trouble to call me and lisped (really) “In my thirty years in business, I have never been so offended in my life!” “Does that mean you don’t want to represent me?”, I asked, but rather than answer, he hung up.

I eventually got to a major publisher, thanks to the intervention of the late Warren Cassell of Just Books, but alas, while an editor there loved the story, publishers had by then turned all decisions over to committees, and committees have no sense of humor and certainly no taste for the off-beat. Hence my move to brain-dead career of real estate peddling.

My failure at establishing a writing career was due, at least in part — I will humbly concede that lack of skill was a perfectly plausible alternative — to the emerging political correctness movement. I regret that I didn’t start my quest to be published back in 1979, when I was wasting my time in law school. Here, for instance, is a snippet from Monty Python’s “Life of Bryan” from that year; a movie that could never be made today. Indeed, BBC’s current management has assured its audience that the Monty Python show itself would never be allowed to air today. “Six Oxford white blokes” would never pass the stern humor committee’s requirements. And so this would never has seen the light of broadcast day, even though it’s the perfect riposte to the current idiocy afflicting our world:

“Judith: Why do you want to be Loretta, Stan?
Stan: I want to have babies.
Reg: You want to have babies?!
Stan: It’s every man’s right to have babies if he wants them.
Reg: But you can’t have babies.
Stan: Don’t you oppress me.
Reg: I’m not oppressing you, Stan – you haven’t got a womb. Where’s the fetus going to gestate? You going to keep it in a box?… What’s the point of fighting for his right to have babies, when he can’t have babies?
Francis: It is symbolic of our struggle against oppression.
Reg: It’s symbolic of his struggle against reality.
”