New format today, readers. Limited color coding and comments because I'm tired of the BS.
You don't even need me anymore; just read it!
Traveling from the front-page leads to the flip-in insides in the order I found them:
"Making Winnipesaukee a more golden pond; Sprawling mansions displacing many of the old, quaint cottages" by Sarah Schweitzer, Globe Staff | July 6, 2008
MOULTONBOROUGH, N.H. - One of the newest additions to a wooded cove on New Hampshire's great lake is an 8,000-square-foot faux-stone and timber-fronted house, wanting for little. It has an elevator, three washer-dryer sets (one per floor), three dishwashers (two in the kitchen and one in the wet bar), a gym framed by mahogany crown moldings, heated Italian tumbled-marble bathroom walls and floors, and a custom wine cellar with slots sized for regular bottles and magnums.
It is expected to fetch $5 million - maybe more.
"Cost," said Joe Skiffington, the property's developer, who sold five similar houses last year as second, third, and fourth homes, "is not a factor for the people buying."
While HOMELESS VETS are SLEEPING on the STREETS!
Long known for thrill-seeking boaters, arcades, and nighttime firework displays that drown out the calls of the loons, Lake Winnipesaukee in the last decade has become an increasingly favored spot of corporate high-flyers and self-made entrepreneurs. Where its shoreline once teemed with rustic camps built by the salaried middle class for summer use, year-round mansions now rise in their place, monuments to the lake's growing cadre of moneyed arrivals.
Home sales and prices on the lake have remained steady, despite the real estate slump that has devastated housing prices across the country.The lake has become a destination for luminaries like President Nicholas Sarkozy of France, who last summer rented the 22,000 square-foot home of Mike Appe, a former
Still, the growing ranks of the rich have done little to tamp down the raucous tenor of lake pastimes. A headline event of the summer remains Motorcycle Week, drawing thousands of bikers from across the country around the lake's byways. Summer days on the lake are filled with the roar of performance boat engines and the whine of Jet Skis. Weirs Beach, at the lake's southern tip, draws comers from across the region with its tattoo parlors, water slides, drive-in movie theater, and thoroughfares perfect for cruising. Meanwhile, new additions include the Town Docks, an upscale but rollicking restaurant with free boat tie-ups and live music at its "Tiki Bar."
Thw whole world is the elites oyster, isn't it? While we all suffer!
Also see: The Economic Untouchables
Realtors say their clients are mostly Boston-area residents, but a growing number, some 20 percent, are from places like the West Coast and Florida. Many are money managers and entrepreneurs in their mid-40s to early 50s, with school-age children, who use the homes year-round, for water sports in the summer and skiing in the winter.
At the other side of the lake, in Moultonborough, a retired lawyer who lived in Weston for many years, and who asked that his name not be used because he wants to keep a low profile, said he built a $4.2 million, 8,000-square-foot lakeside home, with eight bedrooms, including three in the grandchildren's "bunk room" above the garage, as a gathering spot for his family. He said that his home is large, but he said, "it suits the landscape so beautifully that we didn't envision it interfering with people's sense of aesthetics up here."
Some agree. "The [newcomers] have brought wealth and beautified the area," said state Representative Bruce Heald, a Republican of Meredith, who has written several books about the history of Lake Winnipesaukee. Heald said the newcomers are paying thousands of dollars in property tax and have propelled the starts of a slew of new businesses, especially home maintenance firms, caterers, and restaurants.
--MORE--"
Yup, there will be the SUPER ELITES -- and THOSE WHO SERVE THEM!
You know, like a SERF!!!!
And that is ALL GOOD according to the tone of this "journalistic" garbage!
Meanwhile, don't open that 401K statement, average American:
"Investors' anxiety builds as retirement nest eggs show cracks" by Robert Weisman, Globe Staff | July 6, 2008
In the coming week, millions of ordinary investors will rip open envelopes holding their retirement account statements for the second quarter and cringe. Most will find their stock and bond funds in 401(k) and individual retirement accounts sank between April and June as soaring fuel prices and woes in the financial sector dragged down markets.
"I open it when I get the statement and weep," said Joyce Kauffman, 58, a lawyer from Roslindale. "I keep putting money in, and I'm not getting anywhere."
Joanne Dalabon, 46, a Sharon office worker, said the quarterly ritual of peeking at her retirement statements is irresistible.
"I'm always dying to open the envelope, and see what's in it," said Dalabon, who has two children and college bills on the horizon. "When you have more, it's like a little Christmas present. When you have less, you have to live with it. I've learned to not let it upset me because I'm not ready to retire and there's nothing I can do about it."
--MORE--"
Yup, NOTHING SHE CAN DO ABOUT IT except take a poke in the pants!!!
NEW ORLEANS - Fuel prices are soaring and credit markets tightening, but the super-rich are still lining up to pay tens of millions of dollars for mega yachts.
The well-heeled buyers of the floating mansions are increasingly coming from emerging economies - in the Middle East, Russia, and South America. The source of their wealth runs the gamut - technology, venture capitalism, new industries. And, yes, oil.
Notice how the Zionist-controlled AmeriKan MSM always blames foreigners for the troubles -- as if the Zionist bankers and the Globalist plotters have nothing to do with it!
AmeriKan MSM, sorry to say, is ALL LIES!!!! They PROVE IT EVERYDAY!!!!
"Nobody is buying these yachts because they need them," said William S. Smith III, Trinity's vice president. "They're buying them because they want them."
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The elite shit stinks have SO MUCH $$$ they DON'T EVEN KNOW WHAT TO DO WITH IT!!!!
While YOU eat SHIT, Americans!!!!
And how about ANOTHER INSULT, Americans?
How about YOUR TAX DOLLARS paying for a BOATHOUSE for ELITES!!!?
Up the Charles River from the Esplanade and Harvard University, almost to the Newton city line, what may be the most expensive public boathouse in the country is under construction.
Built to house the narrow sleek shells that ply the river from dawn till dusk, it will cost $15.6 million, much of it raised through private contributions from wealthy donors.
No expense has been spared. The main building will boast a deep orange exterior made from specially treated wood imported from Barcelona. A classroom and function room will overlook the river. A separate boat storage shed, if you can call it that, is being crafted of steel and glass and specially designed to showcase the bright colored shells that cost as much as $10,000 each.
Even in a city of students, wealthy colleges, and some of the best-known regattas in the country, the new public boathouse is larger and costlier than any other on the river.
"It's iconic," Community Rowing executive director Bruce Smith said recently of the group's project. "And it's for the public. We want to make it open, as open as possible to everyone."
Yet while Brighton-based Community Rowing Inc. has set out to dispel the image of rowing as a pastime of prep schoolers and Ivy Leaguers, its new boathouse has become an elite monument to the sport. Benefactors have raised $13.2 million for the project so far, including several anonymous million-dollar contributions.
Earlier this month, the state also stepped in to offer Community Rowing $4.1 million in low-interest loans, saving the group thousands of dollars in interest and allowing it to pay contractors.
State Senator Mark C. Montigny questioned why a project with such well-heeled backing needs state help at all. "I would hardly say rowing is high on the priority list" for the state, the Democrat from New Bedford said in a recent telephone interview. Especially for a group that "thinks rowing is the best thing since golf."
Actually, they run a couple of courses -- and they definitely look government run!!!!
Officials at MassDevelopment, the agency that brokered the loans, said it approved the project because Community Rowing offers programs to the public, low-income children, and people with disabilities. The boathouse's location on the Upper Charles means amateur rowers are a safe distance from the college rowing teams. An individual from the general public can join Community Rowing for $400 a year, receiving lessons and unlimited access to the boathouse and its fleet of shells.
That's very different from the dozen private boathouses that line the river. Harvard, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Boston University, Northeastern, and other college boathouses exist for students and alumni. Buckingham Browne & Nichols, a private K-12 school, keeps its boathouse fenced off to the public. Exclusive boating venues like the Cambridge Boat Club, which sponsors the annual Head of the Charles regatta, offer membership by invitation only, and charge hefty initiation fees and dues.
Jane Morse, Community Rowing board president, said that without Community Rowing, she would have never learned to row. She took up the sport 10 years ago at age 55. "Rowing a single [scull] feels to me what a dragonfly must feel like," she said recently. "You're just skimming along the water."
Yet for all the pleasures of the sport, it has a relatively small following. Currently only about 250,000 people in the country row regularly, according to Rower's Almanac, compared with the millions who jog or play tennis. Community Rowing serves 1,200 people yearly.
Charlie Zechel, executive director of Community Boating Inc., a public sailing facility on the Esplanade, said the scale of the project stunned him. His group operates in a modest boathouse and has been struggling to get state funding for much-needed dock repairs.
"Look at all that money," Zechel said of the new boathouse. "I have to say, I'm absolutely jealous they have got [such] a community of donors. I'm just blown away by it."
You must not know the right people, Chuck!
You know, like these guys did:
The Big Dig ceiling collapse that killed Milena Del Valle two years ago opened a host of tunnel safety questions, many still unresolved.
One of the thornier ones: Who is responsible for safety in private tunnels like the one under the Shaw's Supermarket in Newton that hovers over the Massachusetts Turnpike?
Last year, Massachusetts Inspector General Gregory Sullivan reported that the Turnpike Authority had little knowledge of how such tunnels were being inspected and whether they were insured against calamities.
The Turnpike Authority began addressing the inspection question late last year, when executive director Alan LeBovidge created a policy that set up several more layers of inspections and more state oversight.
--MORE--"Yeah, right, MORE BUREAUCRACY will solve the problem!
How about some DECENT WORKMANSHIP instead of the CORPORATE RIP-OFFS?
"The Massachusetts Turnpike Authority - facing a near-certain toll increase - turned up the heat on the Legislature yesterday to get it to help pay for the Big Dig ."
(Blog author just shaking his head at the state shakedown)
And as a companion to the next piece, read this: Only U.S. Elite Need Apply
And this article was HIDDEN on page B6, folks!!!!
"Despite uncertainty, the more upscale still insist upon traveling; Say high costs won't keep them at home" by David Sharp, Associated Press | July 6, 2008
PORTLAND, Maine - High gas prices may mean fewer families will be headed to the beach or the mountains this summer, but rising prices likely won't be keeping wealthy people from missing out on vacation.
Although their stock portfolios may be in decline, wealthy Americans who are less likely to feel the impact of a slowing economy and rising energy and food prices are largely going ahead with their vacation plans even though consumer confidence is at a 16-year low.
"If you think about the high-income folks in the US, the CEOs and others who make a lot of money and have been doing well over the last eight years, they can afford to do that." said Doug Shifflet, chairman and CEO of the travel research firm.
At a country club outside of Portland, about 150 people spent part of a recent sunny day indoors at a "Luxury Explorers' Showcase" to learn about African safaris, tours of the
Organizer Pamela Hurley-Moser said not all of the attendees were loaded with money, but all had one thing in common: They had no intention of canceling travel. "There are many people who absolutely can't afford to travel [right now]. Then there's a middle range where people are going to scrimp and save in almost every other area in their life so that they can do a trip," said Hurley-Moser, owner of Hurley Travel Experts in Portland.
Those are NOT the people we are talking about here, though!
Look at how the shit MSM tries to make it seem like the wealthy elite are you and me!!!
I'm sick and hurt by the SHIT JOURNALISM and AGENDA-PUSHING, readers!
What GARBAGE!!!!!!!!!!!!
The tour operators that made presentations seem to be doing just fine. TCS Expeditions, which offers tours via private jets, says it is sold out for 2008 and nearly sold out for 2009 even though the standard price for trips like "Wildlife of the World" and "History's Lost Cities" is $64,950 per person, said Melanie Cole, vice president of sales in Seattle.
HOLY FUCKING CRAP!!!!!
Can YOU afford a $65, 000 VACATION!
I could live for FIVE YEARS of that $$$!!!!
Guests who are ponying up for a one-of-a-kind experience are well aware of the economic uncertainties facing the United States, said Martha Wharton, vice president of marketing. "They're very concerned about the economy, the political uncertainties, all of those things, but they're not changing their buying patterns because of it - yet," Wharton said.
Likewise, Conservation Corporation Africa is doing well with safaris launched from lodges it owns or operates in Africa and India. "Certainly the economic events have affected travel. There's no doubt about that. But it has not affected the luxury sector of the market as much as the middle-of-the-road market," said James Currie, a former safari guide who now serves as the company's public ambassador.
Michael and Hedy Cohen listened to Currie's pitch and said they hope to go on an African safari within a year. "It's not cheap. It's probably going to be $10,000 per person," Michael Cohen said. "If you want to go, you go. That's the way I feel," said Cohen, who's from Cape Elizabeth. "I've worked all my life. I've been fortunate. We've been able to make a few bucks and we like to travel. If I want to go on a trip, then we go."
Some tour providers have noticed a change in preferences. Instead of seeking outright opulence, many travelers are now seeking vacations that educate as well as entertain. Travelers are seeking out language immersion programs and cooking schools, for example.
"They want more than tiki torches and umbrellas in their drinks," said Jennifer Reynolds, director of travel agency sales for International Expeditions. "They want substance-driven travel. They're looking at something that has some mind candy."
Even their terminology makes me sick!
International Expeditions offers a seven-night Amazon cruise for $3,100, 10 days in the Galapagos for $5,000, and a 15-day tour of Egypt led by a naturalist for $6,500. So far, the Alabama-based company is holding its own, Reynolds said.
Can you shell out $3,000-$6,000 for a VACATION, American?
Are you as ANGRY as I am?
While it's difficult to quantify, one thing is clear: occupancy rates are higher at the top-tier hotels like Ritz-Carlton than at lower-end "economy" chains, said Bobby Bowers of Smith Travel Research in Hendersonville, Tenn.
That stands to reason: Those who earn the least are the first ones to cancel their vacations in tough times, and they're more likely to stay in economy hotels. Higher-end hotels, meanwhile, seem to be holding up better despite a dropoff in corporate travel that began when the economy started to sour.
Helping to offset the drop in business travelers is the weak value of the US dollar, which has discouraged Americans from traveling abroad for their vacations while luring Europeans who see travel to the United States as a relative bargain, Bowers said.--MORE--"
Except, of course, for the SUPER RICH!!!!
Readers, I really do feel ill after reading today's Boston Globe.
The blogs are right; the AmeriKan MSM is nothing but agenda-pushing garbage!
The tone of these articles are EVERYTHING IS NOT SO BAD!!!
What garbage, what absolute elitist garbage!
