The Spirit of the Dingbat

I would like to see policy going further to get rid of occupancy restrictions (including owner occupancy restrictions) entirely and to get out of the business of regulating lease length.

That said, I'm glad to see any chipping away of occupancy regulations.

This Connecticut bill would require localities to allow single-family homeowners to be allowed to rent out at least three bedrooms as long as the lease term is at least six months: legiscan.com/CT/bill/SB00...

See also, why rail systems are impossible to integrate and maintain now

Wait what??

Pray that AVs take over the market before our idiot consumer advocates defer all the costs onto our kids like they foisted all the home insurance wildfire risk onto us.

AVs will both greatly reduce the externalities of driving and move the costs onto the balance sheet of someone with deep pockets and no public empathy.

Logical analysis: self inflicted by consumers preference for large vehicles & measurably more psychotic behavior since the pandemic.
Charitable analysis: also blame regulators for CAFE and crash requirements.
Political analysis: AVs will be a godsend for the suite of problems here.

The Birthrate Is Plunging. Why Some Say That’s a Good Thing.

imagine creating THE most hostile economic, social, and political environment in 60 years and expect people to procreate

www.nytimes.com/2026/02/27/u...

We’ve seen what happens when one of these Middle East autocracies comes uncorked in Syria and Libya, rest assured the day will come in Saudi too. Good thing blowback isn’t real I guess.

My assumption here is that it’s a combination of the US elite’s inexplicable love for Saudi royals and Trump’s 80s-brain “need the oil” mindset. Plus Trump’s general love for corrupt autocrats who operate with impunity.

Pete Hegseth really is an astounding idiot who truly does seem to believe that the way to win wars is just to war crime harder than the other guy.

Just an endless 'taking the gloves off' until your hands are reduced to bloody stumps because it turns out taking the gloves off usually doesn't help.

Given how many longstanding US policy positions Trump has smashed, it’s remarkable how rock solid the US-Saudi alliance remains, especially considering that it’s probably the foreign policy position with the biggest disconnect between US elite opinion and popular opinion.

To Separate or Not to Separate, That Is the Question Maine's separation from Massachusetts was a long process that involved debates over economics, taxes, and political representation, among other issues. Among the many votes on whether to separate, the...

This article says occupation during the war of 1812 was a major factor… so it’s all your fault. (TBH I think there was already long standing rural resentment towards Boston and Maine was less theocratic than Massachusetts in that era too). www.mainememory.net/sitebuilder/...

I do enjoy how Guatemala has a “volcan de fuego” and a “volcan de agua”; also the way “ciudad vieja” is older than “Guatemala antigua” is a nice touch. (To tie it all together ciudad vieja was destroyed by volcan de agua… but not by a volcanic eruption, by a mudslide.)

I feel like the history of Maine becoming an independent state is very lightly explained when you learn about the compromise of 1820.

His entire life is filled with things like that. His defining personality trait is that a he is a con man savant and something like 30-40% of people have fallen for it his entire life so he’s never had to learn to pretend to be normal.

Trump is not even good at imitating normal emotional responses; I’m remembering a moment from his first term where he told Jim Mattis at a military funeral (something like this) that he didn’t get why soldiers did it because there wasn’t anything in it for them.

This is extra funny if you know why the current regime is in power in Iran

Tbh a lot of what’s happening there in SW Florida probably reflects the fact that a lot of places were leveled in recent hurricanes and a lot of people left so there’s a surplus of lots and houses available. And as was said insurance costs getting capitalized into the price.

I don’t see why not, as long as the payout covers whatever you owe on the mortgage

I genuinely cannot get over him launching a war from his house in Palm Beach.

Would I be crazy to think people are also concluding it’s not worth the risk of rebuilding in Southwest Florida?

Impressive that Austin and San Antonio have been building housing so fast that prices are going down despite economic growth.

Louisiana and the gulf coast, I suppose everyone has concluded they are going to be underwater on more than just mortgages.

The Role of Historic Preservation in the Rise of New York Mega-Mansions Ultra-rich buyers are carving out mega-mansions in historic NYC neighborhoods. Also: Oslo’s new government quarter aims for openness

The final form of historic preservation is a Gilded Age mansion where 10 apartments used to be: www.bloomberg.com/news/newslet...

Interesting that building regulation in Ancient Rome imposed a height limit (70 ft.) close to the most important ones in the West today (75-ft. IBC high-rise definition, limit of light wood-frame construction, various 18m thresholds in Canada and UK, Berlin’s 22m eve height) cwc.ca/wp-content/u...

We should evaluate policies based on their real world effects, not their proponents’ stated goals.

Historic preservation froze the built form of the West Village and turned what had been a diverse middle class neighborhood into an exclusive enclave for the super-wealthy.

Like how many of the people who should have been supporters of shared ride scooters on theory were against them in practice because they were tech companies

Wag response: better than most public comment, which reflects no intelligence.

A software program is like your executive function, has to constantly run and assess itself; relays are lizard brain.