"RAW" -- GOOD OR BAD?

The word "raw" can be used in many ways. Some of the uses of raw have a "this is bad news" meaning.

Raw skin is skin that is red and scraped. A raw book is a book that is NOT for children. But raw food is just uncooked food.

Somehow, the FDA has decided that the word "raw" is the word of choice to tell you something is uncooked.

Some of you have decided that "raw" food means that the food is somehow not good. This has resulted in people roasting and salting pecans.

Pecans are one of the foods of the gods. Pecans do NOT need to be cooked. They taste OK cooked, but pecans are best just out of the shell. Pecans definitely do NOT need to be salted.

So here is the rule of thumb. NUTS are from a tree. NUTS generally do not need to be cooked or salted. SEEDS like sunflower seeds, generally taste better cooked with a LITTLE salt. Too much salt overwhelms the taste of the seeds.

BUY RAW PECANS. See if I am not right.

WHY ARE THERE NO LOAN MODIFICATIONS?

People get very emotionally attached to their homes. Some of these homes are so far underwater that the owners may not see equity in their lifetimes. These loans were supposed to be modified. So far, I only know of one loan that has actually been modified.

I know you all think that the people who have these loans have only themselves to blame. I believe that the predatory loan and real estate people should also be blamed.

For example, I know a person who bought an small apartment building for WAY over its value. The person was told that he could make a LOT of money turning the apartments into condos. No one bothered to tell him that the city probably would not allow it, that the hot water was shared by all the apartments, and that the ceilings were almost certainly asbestos.

Homes were also sold with such optimistic (very close to fraud) sales techniques.

Banks do not want to do modifications for a variety of reasons. Couldn't we use the bankruptcy courts to force the banks to accept modifications?

I am not a bankruptcy specialist. I do not know whether this idea would need new legislation. Maybe the bankruptcy courts could use the same legal logic that they use to discharge second mortgages.

I honestly believe that the banks would welcome third party help with modifications. Banks understand profit and loss. What banks do not like is uncertainty.

So many people are doing anything they can to stay in their homes that the uncertainty in the real estate market is lasting longer than necessary. It is time to recognize that emotion also plays a part in people's attitude towards their home.

Let's get these loans modified, and move on.

YAHOO TO SCAN AND ANALYZE ALL EMAIL AND MESSAGES

Yahoo has decided to scan and analyze all email for both Yahoo users and anyone who emails to and from Yahoo users. If you have left email on Yahoo's server, it will also be scanned. It is YOUR responsibility (they fondly believe) to let your correspondents know of this new privacy breach.

They are going to scan and analyze for information that they can sell to advertisers.

I do not use free email services because I do not believe that anything is really free. If a stranger does give you something there always seems to be a price of some sort sooner or later.

However, Yahoo did tell everyone that they would not invade your emails in this fashion. And Yahoo does not seem to be making much of an effort to let their customers, and people who correspond with their customer, learn about this change.

Frankly, I believe that Yahoo needs to put a notification in every email that the email will be used for data mining. Otherwise, people will assume that they are providing a normal email service.

Yes, I know that Facebook does this kind of data mining and the young people who love Facebook do not care. But everyone knows what Facebook does, as their entire business model is based on taking what you post and selling it to advertisers.

I guess we ARE going to need a US PRIVACY LAW to control what these companies do.

Because I am VERY TIRED of saying that these companies can do these things with people who sign up for the service, or who play the game, but they should NOT be able to data mine information belonging to third parties.

CHINA'S FEAR OF FLOWERS

China has removed the symbol for "jasmine" from the internet. This is because the Tunisian revolution was called the Jasmine Revolution and some activists thought to use the same name in China.

The jasmine is a beautiful flower. It has a smell that is lovely and memorable. It seems a shame to have such a wonderful flower banned all over China.

It occurs to me that the Chinese democracy movement could do two things at once.

The Chinese need a name for their activists to use. So, may I humbly suggest that the Chinese democracy movement be called the "Shark Fin Soup" movement.

Hopefully, this will get shark fin soup banned and save those shark species that are being hunted to extinction.

It also makes a statement about those who are living in extreme wealth while ignoring extreme poverty.

With any luck, it takes several important Chinese characters to write "Shark Fin Soup". Certainly the word "soup" can not be banned.

You will have to explain to some people why the word "shark" is humorous when suggested by an attorney. NOLO Press used to have a lawyer joke book with a special section for the shark jokes.

SECOND MORTGAGE PROBLEMS? BANKRUPTCY SOLUTION

If you live in the US and have a second mortgage that you can not pay, you can probably discharge the second mortgage in bankruptcy. This leaves you with just the first mortgage to pay and may allow you to stay in your home.

This works for all mortgages other than the first mortgage.

USE A BANKRUPTCY ATTORNEY. Use a bankruptcy attorney who has an office near you.

DO NOT USE AN ON LINE BANKRUPTCY SERVICE. Your attorney fees in bankruptcy can be paid over time as per bankruptcy court order. BANKRUPTCY is for the expert. Money you think you save by doing it yourself or on line will generally cost you more than you save.

DO NOT BE ASHAMED TO DECLARE BANKRUPTCY. Donald Trump was involved with several business which declared bankruptcy.

SMALL BUSINESS CAN DO WHAT THE BIG GUYS DO. Business bankruptcy is often used to restructure the debt of the business, and to force a renegotiation of lease obligations. Sometimes businesses declare bankruptcy in order to "walk away" from leases that they can no longer pay or that they no longer want to pay.

In general, people who declare bankruptcy get their credit rating back faster than the people who negotiate with the bank for lower payments. (Don't ask me. I am not all that fond of credit reporting people anyway.)

I AM NOT A BANKRUPTCY ATTORNEY. The above is just an overview and could contain incorrect advice. If you think bankruptcy could help you, you need to talk to a bankruptcy attorney.

ARE BIRTHERS RACISTS?

The people who STILL believe that President Obama was not born in the US say that they are not racists. They do not understand why most everyone else thinks that they are racists.

Racism is not just saying that a group of people can not join your country club. Racism can also be more subtle. If you believe that every Black man you meet on the street is going to mug you, you might be a racist.

Racism can be your willingness to believe the most preposterous things about someone. (Preposterous is defined as a belief so devoid of wisdom or good sense as to be laughable.)

The person who believes in preposterous things about minorities NEVER believes that (s)he is being racist. This is because racism was taught to him/her at a very young age, in a manner that make her/him incapable of treating a minority as an equal.

As racism becomes more and more socially unacceptable, the person who is a racist will find other excuses as to why they are not treating minorities as equals.

There is a song in the musical South Pacific that perfectly describes the problem. The young officer is in love with a girl from the island, but he can not bring himself to marry her. He sings, "You have to be taught to hate and fear..."

It is really very sad. Especially since persons who can not treat everyone as equals have great difficulty getting and holding jobs in the modern day US.

People who come up with preposterous excuses for why they can not accept a woman or a minority can not hide their attitude. Modern corporations get sued if they have employees who are not being treated as equals. Therefore, most modern corporations will not keep someone employed if the employee is incapable of treating everyone as equals.

So, are birthers racists? Most of us think that they are racists, because birthers are incapable of accepting a President who's father was a very Black man from Kenya. I feel sorry for birthers. In my opinion, birthers were abused children, taught by racists to be racists.

DEATH OF A MURDERER

Osama bin Laden is dead. Please do not cheer his death. The death of a human being, any human being, is a tragedy to someone.

Personally, I am glad that bin Laden is no longer able to plan the death of thousands of innocents.

In the end, bin Laden was unable to effect the changes he wanted. When change came, it came from people who did their best to peacefully demonstrate for change. Change came from people who wanted to give everyone a chance to vote.

Now bin Laden will be judged by history and by Allah, who, the Koran tells us, does not approve of the death of innocents.