She was a Republican, not an austere, religious scholar, so the Left has at her

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isis is nisist

And then there’s the Washington Post:

And this, from a gentlemen who is no doubt a graduate of Greenwich Country Day’s Inclusionary and Love program:

Well, coming from an administration whose VP thinks that the three branches of government are "the presidency, the House, and the Senate" Miss KJP is its perfect spokesman

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when constitutional scholars attack

When can we expect the Navajos to add their own land acknowledgement ceremony to the beginning of their tourist dances?

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thanks, guys. Sorry for the bum’s rush, but you were kinda in the way. Can I interest you in a dream catcher?

Humans settled in North America 17,000 years EARLIER than previously believed: Bones of mammoth and her calf found at an ancient butchering site in New Mexico show they were killed by people 37,000 years ago

That would be 17,000 years before the Clovis people, and, what, 36,500 years before the Navajos showed up?

Just as a reminder, the Sioux occupied the Great Plains for only about 100 years, from around 1775 to 1876, the year of the Battle f Little Big Horn (June 25th). They won that battle but lost the war, and were almost all rounded up and condemned to starve on bleak reservations with a year.

If you're black, welcome back; if you're white, sit tight

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Greenwich Country Day Students preparing to “nurture an inclusive community” by “engaging in dialogue” amongst themselves while waiting in the Whites Only Exclusion Room. CDC tuition is between $37,150 and $48,500. Its (white) Headmaster’s salary is $687,000.

Greenwich Country Day School is hosting a “Welcome Back cider and doughnut” party this fall, and everyone: blacks, chicanos, Latinxes, and Martian transvestites is invited. Except, of course, white students and their parents. The new Greenwich Republican party leadership is appalled, and GCD’s head person (he/she/they) doesn’t understand why.

“I think there are ways we could change the language a little bit in the letter,” Rohdie said.

How would he propose to make it clear to his white students and their parents that they are very much not invited, but really they are, by only changing the language a little bit”? And how, exactly, does separating students by race, excluding some, including others, teach racial harmony and friendship between peers? “Divide and conquer” isn’t exactly an educational policy that’s likely to bind a school community together, but then, that’s not what the policy is intended to achieve. Quite the contrary.

But wait, we don’t really mean to separate whites from the rest of the school:

“If any family wanted to attend they would be welcome to attend. [Hahahahaha! — ED] We celebrate community throughout the year, and we provide opportunity for affinity groups and families of students with common interests and backgrounds and experiences.”

Rhodie also said that “almost the exact same letter has gone out” in the three years since the school started the Cider and Donuts event. [When the BLM/White Guilt syndrome swamped the white, woke, world of academia.]

“The annual Cider and Donuts event is open to GCDS families who identify as Black, Asian, Latinx, multi-racial, Indigenous, Middle Eastern, and/or people of color,” read the letter, which was obtained by National Review.

The letter was addressed to “GCDS families” and was signed by the director and associate director of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI). Above the description of the event, scheduled for October 8, it mentioned the importance of “building an inclusive, just and equitable community reflecting the multitude of human identities and perspectives in our world.”

Price wars are still going on, even in the dead of summer

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Not for the elephant Graveyard listings, perhaps, but the builders are out there. Case in point, 346 Sound Beach Avenue, Old Greenwich, 1900 construction and showing every bit of its age (Ghost House” was one term I heard), was listed by agent Susan Isaaks at $1.495 million, had a contract by July 15th, and it closed today for $1,6750,000.

Is this purchaser actually a builder? I’m just guessing that, but there are a number of them prowling the town, looking for opportunities — in fact, if you have a run-down, sell-for-land-value property that you’re thinking of selling, contact me: I have a builder friend who’s in the market. Or call your own agent — he or she probably has a stable of such people, and, climbing interest rates, a collapsed supply chain, and the looming end of the world notwithstanding, there are still plenty of buyers in town.

What’s happening in the Mega-Mansion market?

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543 Stanwich Road

This morning a friend asked me about 543 Stanwich Road, a 17,000 sq. ft. behemoth which recently lowered its price from $17.5 million to $16.995. I responded that, if I were in the market for a huge mansion — unfortunately, my friend isn’t, either — I’d look much further south, closer to town, at 471 Lake Avenue, one house down from North Maple Avenue. 471 has a mere 14,500 sq. ft., and only 3 acres (in a one-acre zone) but it is currently asking only $22 million, down substantially from its 2019 price of $29.5. Custom built in 2011 by Wadia, one of the best, my guess is that its owner must be growing tired of entertaining low-life relators and their tag-alongs by now, and an offer close to Stanwich’s asked-for $17 million might be well received.

471 Lake Avenue

Or not. But there are currently 14 similarly sized mansions on the market, ranging in price from $30 million to $7.3, and in size from 23,700 to 14,532. Most of them have been on the market for years and years, and suffered millions of dollars in price reductions, with current asking prices well below what the owners paid originally. Sic transit cæmento.

There is hope, though. Of the 44 of this sized mansions that have sold since 2007, 1 has sold this year (435 Round Hill Road, $17,616,666, 2009 purchase price $20 million), 10 sold in 2021, and almost all of them had aged, if not mellowed, in fine, charred-oak barrels for a long, long time.

So there’s hope for the owners of some of these, and if the paltry single sale this year is an indication of a huge wave of buyers gathering their strength to surge into the coming fall market, all will be well. Or perhaps 2021 exhausted the current supply of people looking for houses to get lost in.

I told my friend that the mid-2000s Russian pool of lovers of the ostentatious was drained when Putin lured his kleptocrats home and redistributed their ill-gotten gains to his own pocket, but there’s surely been a new batch of thieves who’ve sprung up since then, and if so, they are probably ready to blow the joint and come here to this safe harbor for their treasure: you rarely hear of the Indian Harbor Commodore seizing someone’s yacht, for instance, and that should prove caviar to their troubled souls.

I disagree with the author, partly. This is coming for all drivers, not just EV weenies.

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sorry, didn’t pay your road tax

Stephen Green:

PRIVACY: Electric Car Drivers: Why You Might Not Be Pumped Over Privacy-Jolting Mileage Taxes.“The Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, passed with bipartisan support last year, authorized the Department of Transportation to launch new pilot programs to test ways to collect necessary fees. These include a range of high-tech means such as accessing location data from third-party on-vehicle diagnostic devices, smart phone applications, telemetric data collected by automakers, motor vehicle data obtained by car insurance companies, data obtained from fueling stations, and ‘any other method that the Secretary [of Transportation] considers appropriate.'”

Previously: New Law Will Install Kill Switches In All New Cars.

The Feds will know where you are and have the ability to shut down your car remotely.

It’s a tyrant’s dream made real. 

EV owners are already disconnecting other EVs whom they decide have stayed too long at a charging station: just wait until government thugs do it remotely


As predicted

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Last week I wrote about a new listing that was going to come on the market, 26 Marshall Street, in Havemeyer, and ventured my opinion that at $1.250 million, it was priced very well and would sell quickly. It did, and is now reported pending after just five days. The speed with which it was snapped up suggests a price war, and a winning bid from a builder, who needed no inspection and no mortgage contingency. Good news for the owners, sad for new home buyers.

But that’s what’s been happening in Havemeyer lately, as this post-war development transitions from small, but well-built Capes, to a $2.8 - $3.5 neighborhood. Owners of those original homes should be selecting a financial advisor and packing their bags.