John Tory Sees Flying Spaghetti Monster

This is scary. Ontario Conservative Leader John Tory thinks that a creation myth is equivalent to the scientific theory of evolution.

The Conservatives have pledged to give private religious schools $400 million if they opt into the public system, teach the provincial curriculum, hire accredited teachers and administer tests, Tory said. The funding would not prohibit Christian schools from teaching creationism on top of the existing provincial curriculum, he added.

"It's still called the theory of evolution. They teach evolution in the Ontario curriculum, but they also could teach the fact to the children that there are other theories that people have out there that are part of some Christian beliefs."

He has confused empirical theory with metaphysics.

This is of course understandable since the word physics appears in the latter. Which has nothing to do with science but refers to the physical world.

Given John Tory's belief that creationism is equivalent to evolution I would hope his new curriculum would include the creation theory of the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster.

The Flying Spaghetti Monster created the universe, Earth and its creatures after drinking heavily from heaven's beer volcano.

SEE:

Creationism Is Not Science

Islamicists and Evangelical Christians

The War Against Secular Society

Dinos and World Systems Theory

Missing Link Missing Funding

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Free Speech?

Hmm, I have heard this argument before.

The Conservatives are defending themselves against allegations they broke election spending rules by arguing it's all a matter of freedom of speech.

From the NCC which used to be run by our current PM.

This, says NCC president Stephen Harper, is a gag on free speech. But it’s not the amount of the limit that troubles him. “I object not simply to the limits. I object to the entire scheme of regulation," he says. "Our view is fundamentally that communicating a political view to fellow citizens is a right; it is not a privilege granted by the government.”

The NCC argues that “In a democracy all citizens should have the opportunity to freely express opinions and to criticize or praise politicians.”

Sounds pretty good, but if you recall that what the law restricts is paid advertising in excess of $150,000, what they’re really talking about is freedom of speech for those few who can afford to spend huge sums on election advertising.

When are national election TV ads not national election TV ads? When you tack on the MP's name at the end of the ad.

A Conservative advertising initiative designed to allow Tory candidates to claim expenses for TV commercials produced for the party’s national campaign in the 2006 election was a potential fraud that subverted spending limits under the Canada Elections Act, the Liberal party says.

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Silence is Acquiescence

So the Americans want Uranium producing countries to accept nuclear waste as the country of origin.

Canada has also been asked to join a U.S.-led nuclear partnership that could eventually see big uranium exporters - like Canada and Australia - be asked to dispose of spent nuclear waste.

Sources have told The Age discussions are under way that could see Australia and Canada made part of the powerful Washington-led Global Nuclear Energy Partnership on a "parallel" track, without having to assume full membership of the organisation.

The Bush Administration has made it plain to the Howard Government informally that it would like Australia to be part of the GNEP — which is an alliance designed to restrict the number of countries enriching uranium to current players, such as the US, Britain, France and Russia.

GNEP members operate on a "leasing" concept whereby nuclear fuel is produced and exported and members ship back nuclear waste.

The initiative came to light in Canada in May 2006 when Prime Minister John Howard of Australia -- like Canada, rich in uranium -- visited Ottawa and voiced interest in the U.S. proposal, but also concerns about its effect on the mining and natural-gas industries.

And what does Harper say? Nada. Nothing. Zip.

Harper silent on nuclear energy initiative

And while Harper is silent on this crucial issue being discussed at the APEC meeting, Australia isn't.

Australia 'will never' accept nuclear waste

Of course it just so happens that his government is planning to open up a nuclear waste site in Northern Ontario. So will it be accepting American and other countries nuclear waste as well? Inquiring minds want to know.

Canada is poised to join an elite club of “advanced nuclear nations” that — led by U.S. President George W. Bush — plans to promote nuclear energy as a key solution to global warming and to control the international movement of enriched uranium and radioactive waste, CanWest News Service has learned.

Silence is acquiescence.

Remarks by President Bush and Prime Minister Howard of Australia

We also agreed on joint statements regarding climate change and energy, a joint nuclear energy action plan which involves cooperation on civil nuclear energy, including R&D, skills and technical training, and regulatory issues. Australia intends to participate in the Global Nuclear Energy Partnership, and there will be great benefits in terms of access to nuclear technology and nonproliferation. And the United States will support Australian membership in the Generation IV International Forum, which involves R&D to develop safer and better nuclear reactors.

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He Has A Point

And everyone thought Putin was just saber rattling.

Mr Putin, in announcing the resumption of round-the-clock flights by long-range bombers with a nuclear capability, pointed out that other nations – in other words, the US – had continued their missions since the end of the Cold War.

Defense News reports"A U.S. Air Force B-52 bomber mistakenly loaded with five nuclear warheads flew from Minot Air Force Base, N.D, to Barksdale Air Force Base, La., on Aug. 30, resulting in an Air Force-wide investigation, according to three officers who asked not to be identified because they were not authorized to discuss the incident.

The B-52 was loaded with Advanced Cruise Missiles, part of a Defense Department effort to decommission 400 of the ACMs. But the nuclear warheads should have been removed at Minot before being transported to Barksdale, the officers said. The missiles were mounted onto the pylons of the bomber’s wings.

Of course they are more of a danger to American civilian populations than to the Russians. Not because of a possible nuclear explosion but from a leak of toxic plutonium. Forget anthrax scares, this is scarier because it will never be announced.

At no time was there a risk for a nuclear detonation, even if the B-52 crashed on its way to Barksdale, said Steve Fetter, a former Defense Department official who worked on nuclear weapons policy in 1993-94. A crash could ignite the high explosives associated with the warhead, and possibly cause a leak of the plutonium, but the warheads’ elaborate safeguards would prevent a nuclear detonation from occurring, he said. In 1966, a bomber collided with an aerial tanker and exploded over Palomares, Spain. Four nukes fell to earth and were recovered. Studies on the effects of the nuclear accident on the people of Palomares were limited, but the United States eventually settled some 500 claims by residents whose health was adversely affected. Because the accident happened in a foreign country, it received far more publicity than did the dozen or so similar crashes that occurred within U.S. borders. As a security measure, U.S. authorities do not announce nuclear weapons accidents, and some American citizens may have unknowingly been exposed to radiation that resulted from aircraft crashes and emergency bomb jettisons.

At least 4,000 people died as a result of nuclear projects during the Cold War, and 36,500 became ill with radiation-related diseases, the Rocky Mountain News reported Friday.

The News said it collected the numbers by records from federal projects involving uranium, including the building and testing of bombs, and did not include people who had never filed claims or whose claims were rejected. People who mined uranium, built bombs and who inhaled dust from bomb tests – whether they were workers or nearby residents – were included in the tally.

The nation built 70,000 atomic bombs, beginning in 1945. Some of the uranium used in the bombs dropped on Japan came from Uravan, Colo. About 15,000 workers were employed 15 miles west of Denver at Rocky Flats, making plutonium triggers for the bombs.

Of the 36,500 who became ill, about 15,000 were involved in the manufacture of bombs. The radiation they were exposed to sometimes took years to affect them. Some of them may have ultimately died as a result of their work, but were not listed among project deaths by the government.

Hundreds of thousands of people, including soldiers, were exposed to radiation from nuclear tests.

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Cyberwar

While the Americans claim that the Chinese have hacked the Pentagon how do they know it wasn't the Russians?

Is the Chinese military responsible for recent attacks on Pentagon computers?

That's the question after numerous reports surfaced claiming that the People's Liberation Army of China hacked into a system in the office of U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates in June.

In a statement published Tuesday, Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman confirmed that a system in Gates' office was hacked in June.

He declined, however, to identify the origin of the attack.

After all they crippled Estonia last spring. Though there was no evidence proving this was a state sanctioned attack.

“In information warfare, you may know your opponents, rivals, and enemies, but you do not know who is actually attacking," Evron said.

These hack-attacks may be shadows of the new cold war.

Attacks on U.S. systems have never been linked directly to state-sponsored cyberwarfare, but in 1999 Chinese hackers took down three U.S. government sites after NATO bombers mistakenly attacked the Chinese embassy in Belgrade.

The astonishing thing about last spring's alleged Russian cyberattack wasn't the crippling effect it had on Estonian's government and the lives of its citizens but the lack of serious reaction elsewhere. The European Union raised but one scolding finger, NATO sent a few experts to the Baltic nation, and the US protested mildly and briefly — then President Bush welcomed Putin to the Bush family compound in Kennebunkport, Maine. In fact, as the world witnessed the trial run of a new mode of warfare, pundits at The New York Times and other publications dismissed the digital assault on the tiny nation as much ado about nothing.

Nevertheless, despite such outcry about these attacks, Beijing and those responsible in the PLA can sleep easy. What reprisals will seriously affect them? Earlier this year, Russia launched a major cyber-attack on Estonia, taking down the Baltic state's government, banking and press websites. Estonia is a Nato country and a cyber-attack is a hostile act yet no sanctions were taken and the Kremlin used this successful defiance to escalate its rhetoric and actions even further. As far as Titan Rain, it will probably soon descend to a "Team America" moment of "we will be very angry with you ... and we will write you a letter, telling you how angry we are."

The Russian bear is back with a vengeance. But seen from Moscow, the Kremlin is simply reacting to a series of provocations by the United States and Nato as the Western alliance creeps towards Russian borders, threatening the security of the state.

The "new Cold War" has its origins in a speech made by Mr Putin last February at a security conference in Munich, in front of an audience of Western defence ministers and parliamentarians, in which he listed Moscow's grievances and accused the Bush administration of trying to establish a "unipolar" world.

"One single centre of power. One single centre of force. One single centre of decision-making. This is the world of one master, one sovereign," the President complained.

In May, Mr Putin fired off another volley against American unilateralism, obliquely comparing US policies to those of the Third Reich in a speech commemorating the 62nd anniversary of the fall of Nazi Germany.

In the same speech, he attacked Estonia, a new European Union member, for relocating a monument to the Red Army, which he said was "sowing discord and new distrust between states and people". When Estonian government websites fell victim to an unprecedented cyber attack, Nato was called in as the finger of suspicion fell on the Kremlin.

Ironically the hack attack could have been launched in the U.S. itself and re-routed through China.

Web-Hosting Terrorists

Most Americans will be surprised to learn that many Islamist hacker sites are hosted right here in the U.S.

Consider it an unmistakable and very much intended irony that these cyberjihadists are using our own domestic Internet resources against us.

Under Executive Order 13224, companies are forbidden to provide services to organizations known to support terrorism.

Technology industry leaders have also been doing their part to raise threat awareness, but greater cooperation between government and industry would go far in closing these sites down.

In some cases, sites have been shut down in the U.S. only to reappear in highly Internet-savvy countries such as Malaysia.

As one of the 9/11 terrorist planning locations, Malaysia has hosted a number of jihadist sites after authorities acted to terminate them in the U.S.

To its credit, that nation has not been deaf, dumb and blind to the problem -- quite the contrary.

In May 2006, Malaysian Prime Minister Abdullah Badawi announced the creation of a program called the International Multilateral Partnership Against Cyber-Terrorism, or IMPACT, to help countries work globally to fight cyberterrorists.

In one notable case, an especially worrisome jihadist hacker site first registered in Florida was shut down, but the organization behind it reconstituted operations in Badawi's country.

The Malaysian authorities took action to shut the site down. Unfortunately, it has appeared again where it originated: Tampa, Fla.

The site has grown from a membership list of only about 300 to more than 122,000 over the past few years. Skill levels are improving and technical information-sharing is taking place.

Some in the intelligence field -- and many on its fringes -- have argued that the U.S. needs to keep these jihadist sites up in order to monitor and understand their activities. True, some of this surveillance is necessary, but this is a wholly misguided attitude.

SEE:

Israel Hacker Heaven

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CBC's Anti-Alberta Bias

Once again Don Newman interviews Ezra Levant on his Politics Show when it comes to Alberta Politics. And once again Ezra asserts that Albertans are 'genetically' disposed against Liberals, which is the flip side of his assertion, and those of other right wing historical revisionists in this One Party State, that Albertans are genetically disposed to vote Tory.

Levant also deliberately refuses to make any reference to the NDP in this province which happens to have four sitting MLA's , and has been a force in provincial and federal politics since the founding of the CCF in Calgary.

I am getting a little tired of the Don and Ezra show, which is an attempt to belittle Albertans as right wing red neck's when this province has a history being red, and it ain't just our necks.

I am asking fellow progressive bloggers from Alberta to email the CBC and protest about Don Newman only using Ezra has his 'voice of Alberta'. There are a wealth of other commentators available who are not so partisan and biased. And if we have to have comments from the right, then how about some fair and balanced perspective with someone from the left.

Contact Politics

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The CBC’s Office of the Ombudsman deals with complaints about information programming.

If your complaint involves Sports, Arts, Entertainment or Children’s programming, or if you have comments to make or questions to ask about CBC programming in general, please visit the CBC Contact page at www.cbc.ca/contact.

Complaints should be in writing. Please indicate the name of the program and whether it was on CBC Radio, CBC Television, CBC Newsworld or the CBC web site. Please
be specific. If you feel a program or report was unfair or biased, for example, please indicate how it was unfair or biased. When we receive your complaint we will ask the relevant programmers to respond. If you are not satisfied with the response you receive, you can contact the Office of the Ombudsman again to request an independent review.

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That's A Sound I Like

Ok I will accept the charge of speciesism when it comes to mosquitoes. In this case we can thank the arachnids for effectively doing what pesticides can't. And I am partial to spiders after all.

A real monster spider’s web has been found in Lake Tawakoni State Park in Texas, USA. Apparently the web, stretching 180 metres, is the result of millions of spiders working together, to the mystification of park rangers.

The web is proving effective in controlling the mosquito population. Donna Garde, park superintendent, said that “There are times you can literally hear the screech of millions of mosquitoes caught in those webs.”

Though scientists are yet to explain why, or which species, the spiders built this.

RICHARD MICHAEL PRUITT/DMN

Donna Garde, park manager at Lake Tawakoni State Park, sees tens of thousands of mosquito carcasses weighing down the webs.

Entomologist Professor John Jackman of A&M University said that similar webs were reported every couple of years. They are either created by social cobweb spiders working together, or by spiders spreading out from a central point. He commented that “until we get some samples sent to us, we really won’t know what species of spider we’re talking about”.

There is much debate amongst experts over the reasons for the web's construction, with some believing it was created by social spiders living as a colony, and others suggesting it is possibly a system of mass dispersal, with the spiders building webs in order to spread out. There is also uncertainty over the species of spider responsible, although it is known that smaller webs of an otherwise similar nature have been discovered elsewhere in the park, on another trail. It is thought that the species is likely a member of the genus Tetragnatha.

John Jackman, a professor and extension entomologist for Texas A&M University and author of "A Field Guide to the Spiders and Scorpions of Texas," said that the phenomenon is not particularly unusual and that reports are submitted to him every few years detailing similar webs. "There are a lot of folks that don't realize spiders do that," Jackman said. "Until we get some samples sent to us, we really won't know what species of spider we're talking about."

However, other experts disagree over the unusual nature of the discovery. "From what I'm hearing, it could be a once-in-a-lifetime event," said Herbert "Joe" Pase, a Texas Forest Service entomologist. "It's very, very unusual."

Norman Horner, an emeritus biology professor at Midwestern State University in Wichita Falls, has been studying spiders in Texas since 1965 and he says he's never seen anything like this. In 2002, there were reports of a massive spider web in northern British Columbia. And there have been anecdotal reports in other locations over the years.

"Social spiders," the rare exception, typically only form colonies in tropical areas across the southern hemisphere, said Dr. Horner, but they have been spotted in South Texas. After seeing pictures and learning that the webs would have been weaved in only a few weeks, Mr. Quinn decided this was probably not the work of social spiders.

Another theory is that the spiders secreted silk that lifted them into the air and landed them at this location. Dr. Horner, who has not visited the site, guessed these spiders dispersed together and landed on a windy day.

Multiple species of spiders helped weave the gargantuan spider web at Lake Tawakoni State Park, a Texas Parks and Wildlife biologist determined Friday.

But the highly unusual discovery of both frontal web and long-jawed spiders together raises more questions about just how the eye-catching phenomenon occurred, said Mike Quinn, the parks department biologist. He plans to send web and spider samples to Texas A&M University for definitive identification. The web spans an area estimated at 200 square yards. Once snowy white, the web has turned brown from the masses of mosquitoes and other bugs trapped in it.

Based on his preliminary evaluation, Mr. Quinn believes that it could only have resulted from what scientists call a “dispersal event.” Essentially, that means that baby spiders drifting in the wind all ended up in the same place somehow, for some reason.

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Postcard From Syria

From a travel article about Syria comes this striking example of culture clash.

There are some peculiarities to get used to when travelling in an Arab nation. We giggle watching Arab TV chat shows, where a burqa-clad host interviews a burqa-clad guest, testing TV's role as a visual medium.

In public, men vastly outnumber women, yet some girls wear tight jeans, sprout piercings and wear close-fitting Western tops, which no one seems to mind. G-strings and flimsy underwear are sold alongside scarves and burqas in the market. In restaurants, a menu is offered to my wife without prices. Despite the widespread poverty, there is no shortage of German luxury limousines zipping along the potholed streets.

On the Al Jazeera TV network, we see US President Bush and then British prime minister Tony Blair talking about tackling the isolationism of Syria. We feel like sending them a postcard from Damascus.

And speaking of Burqa's and G-Strings it is a hot topic in secularist Muslim Turkey as well.

Debate on g-strings takes the Islamic community by storm Hürriyet

A very lively debate among religious columnists continues around the topic of the religious legitimacy of covered women wearing g-strings, reported the daily Hürriyet yesterday. Discussions about the religious compatibility of burka and g-strings are getting lots of attention from Islamic columnists. İlhami Atmaca, a columnist at Renkli magazine, was the initiator of the argument, by dedicating a whole piece to the topic, first explaining about the sexual motivation a g-string can give to a woman, then connecting this to covered women. Atmaca who defines the g-string as a “demoralization tool” drew strong reaction from female columnists with his controversial article. Halime Kökçe, editor in chief of Gerçek Hayat magazine – and also a columnist – wrote, “Information concerning the choice of undergarment of covered women is of extreme privacy and it is not possible for a truly pious man to get hold of such knowledge.” Another reaction came from Nigar Tuğsuz, a writer in the same magazine with Atmaca, who said, “Invading privacy neither makes you famous nor makes your readers more moral.” On another side of the debate Professor Saim Yeprem, ministry of religious affairs high commission committee member, former President of the Ministry of Religious Affairs Mehmet Nuri Yılmaz and researcher and journalist İsmail Nacar all agree that such matters should not be cared about, as what is inside a woman's burka is private in Islam and the real sin is the curiosity that concerns the issue.

Though I am sure the Koran never mentioned G-Strings.

Sura 24:31 in the Quran is the key to this entire debate. Shakir's translation of this sura goes as follows: "And say to the believing women that they cast down their looks and guard their private parts and do not display their ornaments except what appears thereof, and let them wear their head-coverings over their bosoms, and not display their ornaments except to their husbands or their fathers... and let them not strike their feet so that what they hide of their ornaments may be known; and turn to Allah all of you, O believers! So that you may be successful."

This is the crux of the matter and reading this translation, its pretty clear that veiling is compulsory and the woman is not to show herself except to her husband or close relatives.

I bet these would be popular in the Damascus market.


SEE

National Pest Gets It Wrong

Hajibs and Habits

Spot The Contradiction

Breaking Out Of The Cultural Burka

Catholic Hajib

Watch How You Dress

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Religion, babuskhka,Headscarves, Veils, Hajib, Patriarchy, Women, Muslim, Islam,

Parliamentary Collapse

As predicted last spring Harper is proroguing parliament. Harper delays Parliament's return until Oct. 16

Folks are speculating that Harper recalled Parliament late because he is planning to force a confidence vote. Canada PM set for confidence vote

I think it was because they were waiting for the Parliament buildings to get repaired, or collapse. Parliament Buildings 'in danger of collapse'

Since they won't be repaired by then their imminent collapse is expected, much like the Harper government.

And in the process of all this politicking, maybe we'll learn what this word "prorogue" means, anyway.

In fact, however, the word is derived from the Old French "proroguer," the Middle English "prorogen" (and Latin before that). To prorogue can mean "to defer" as well as "to adjourn." In Canada, a prorogation has come to indicate the period between two sessions of a legislative body. In effect, the parliament is in recess until the Governor General opens a new session on behalf of the reigning monarch and reads the Speech from the Throne.

The word has been prominent in history, although not always in stories whose endings our prime minister would particularly like.

in the early years of his reign, King Charles I of England issued prorogation orders in his battle with a Parliament reluctant to grant his demands for new revenue. At one point, he advised them to "Remember that parliaments are altogether in my power for their calling, sitting, and dissolution; therefore as I find the fruits of them good or evil, they are to continue or not to be."

Sounds like King Stephen.

Of course if he does prorogue parliament he can blame the opposition for not passing his law and order bills which he has delayed implementing.

Proroguing would kill most bills currently before Parliament - including key government legislation on the environment and crime-unless opposition parties agreed to bring them back at the stage they were at.

And it will kill the green albatross around his neck, the controversial Environmental legislation that was redrafted by the opposition.

Perhaps the most important bill at stake is C-30, government environmental legislation that was substantially reworked by the opposition parties.

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Sub Prime Exploitation

Subprime mortgages impact disproportionately on the working class in particular the ethnic working class in the United State. Foreclosures will result in increased homelessness in the U.S. Even those who could afford better loans were subject to denial of access to better loan rates due to systemic racism.

This is what class war looks like under modern casino capitalism. It is the Enron moment for the mortgage industry.

The White House announcement of a Mortgage forgiveness program, after the Fed bailed out the financial markets, is too little too late.

Latinos and African-Americans who bought homes or refinanced mortgages in the San Jose metropolitan area last year were much more likely than white borrowers to get subprime loans, according to a study scheduled for release today.

In its annual survey based on federally collected data, this year titled "Foreclosure Exposure," community activism group ACORN said 47 percent of Latinos who got mortgages to buy homes in Santa Clara and San Benito counties in 2006 received "high cost" loans that the group considers to be synonymous with "subprime." Nearly 32 percent of African-American borrowers buying homes got high-cost loans, while only 8.5 percent of white borrowers did.

The trend is the same for those who refinanced loans - Latinos and African-Americans got subprime loans 23.5 percent and 22.8 percent of the time, respectively, compared with 9.4 percent among white borrowers.

"The racial disparity persists even among borrowers of the same income level," the report's authors wrote. Upper-income Latinos and African-Americans were more than five times as likely to get high-cost loans than upper-income whites, the study said. Upper-income borrowers were those with income of at least 120 percent of their area's median income.

Vallejo is the Bay Area's version of ground zero for the subprime loan crisis.

A significant number of residents of the largely blue-collar city of 120,000 have taken out subprime loans -- expensive mortgages issued to people with poor credit.

In 2005, almost one-quarter of mortgages in the Vallejo-Fairfield metropolitan area were subprime loans, according to the Center for Responsible Lending's analysis of Home Mortgage Disclosure Act data.

Vallejo home prices fell 8.5 percent from November to March, according to DataQuick Information Services. For people who bought in recent months without putting any money down, that means they may owe more on their mortgage than the house is worth.

In a report called "Losing Ground," the center spotlights the Vallejo-Fairfield metropolitan area (which comprises all of Solano County) as a potential trouble spot, with one of the highest projected foreclosure rates in the country. The report predicted "that 23.8 percent of subprimes there will end in foreclosure," said Paul Leonard, director of the center's office in Oakland.

Areas with high foreclosure rates tend to share some characteristics. One is sinking home prices. Many "tend to be on the perimeter of major metropolitan areas rather than at the heart," said Leonard. "The housing prices in those areas are most subject to change. Often they tend to have a high concentration of minorities."

The people seeking help have almost identical stories, Hardy said. They bought homes using subprime loans. After a low initial rate, their monthly payments skyrocketed. Meanwhile, home prices in their neighborhoods went down, so they cannot easily sell or refinance. The result is that the homeowners owe more on their homes than the houses are worth.

Hardy said her clients tend to be blue-collar workers who earn close to the median income for Solano County, which is $75,400 for a family of four. Some of them used what are called stated-income loans, meaning a loan officer allowed them to claim that their earnings were higher than they are.

They bought homes about two years ago, using a type of mortgage loan in which they made low, interest-only payments for two years, followed by 28 years of adjustable-rate payments. Usually they did not make down payments. Once the initial two years were up, their monthly mortgage payments shot up.

"Nobody sat down with them and said if your interest rate goes up just 2 percent, here's what your house payments will be," she said. "These people all of a sudden are getting notices that in 60 days their house payments will go up $600 or $800 a month, and they say 'I can't do that.' "

"Until six months ago, we could almost always save the person's investment, either by helping them to refinance or explaining that they needed to sell and get their equity out before foreclosure," said Martin Eichner, director of dispute resolution at Project Sentinel, a nonprofit HUD counseling agency in Sunnyvale.

"But more and more, the calls we're getting are from people who bought on a shoestring and have few, if any, options to avoid the foreclosure. They haven't built up any equity and they put themselves in loans that were essentially doomed to fail with 100 percent financing and/or negative amortization."

But a series of interviews with subprime borrowers, mortgage lenders, appraisers, current and former regulators, and the inspector general of the Department of Housing and Urban Development paints a different picture — of a widespread pattern of questionable lending practices and outright fraud that has already sparked a wave of criminal and civil actions against various players in the $10 trillion market for residential mortgages.

Questionable mortgage practices can take on many forms, but the fall into two broad categories:

• Predatory lending. In this case, complex mortgage terms and interest rate risks were not fully explained as required by federal law. The borrower is usually the victim.
• Mortgage fraud. In these cases, often carried out by sophisticated swindlers, the lender is typically the victim.

As the housing market boomed in the early part of this decade, lenders proliferated with deals that often seemed too good to be true. To be sure, some borrowers - eager to "cash out" their rising home equity generated by the housing boom - were too quick to refinance at below-market interest rates and artificially low monthly payments.

SEE:

Canadian Banks and The Great Depression

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