Responding to an Anonymous Comment

The first time anyone comments on my blog, it needs to be approved by me before it’s displayed on the post. This is mostly to keep rogue X-rated comments from showing up that were missed by my Akismet spam catcher. But sometimes real people, who refuse to give real names and contact information, make nasty comments on my blog, hoping they’ll get published. Sometimes I do publish them and respond. Sometimes I just spam them

Ethics and Real Estate Agents

Gallup recently released the 2008 results of their annual Honesty and Ethics of Professions poll. Real estate agents came out in the middle of the pack of the polled professions, with the majority of those polled indicating that they felt the real estate profession has average integrity. This year’s results are not substantially different for real estate agents than surveys of years past. I never used to think much about these polls when I worked

Will Regionalism Ever Happen in Greater Hartford?

NOTE: This is going to be a long post, but hopefully informative. Grab a snack as you dive in… This morning I attended a Key Issues Forum focusing on the idea of regionalism, held at the University of Hartford. The event was co-sponsored by the Courant and UHart’s Center for Integrated Design. The panel of speakers was a good balance between academics and politicians, so the discussion focused on both theory and practice. The panelists

Regionalism in CT

This Sunday’s Courant contained an excellent editorial about regionalism as a possible strategy for addressing the financial challenges our numerous local governments face. It is a very helpful piece because it not only introduces & defines the idea, but also looks at pros & cons. Finally, the article cites other US metropolitan regions that are already making strides with this strategy and articulates first steps for Greater Hartford. Town finances impact all of us (even

Spewing Generalities: Is Your Realtor a Politician?

It’s the political season and we’re being inundated from all sides with debates, interviews, and commercials. The recurring theme that I see seems to be politicians speaking in generalities. When they’re asked a direct question about a plan they have to solve an issue, the response is usually some circuitous generalization. Here’s a spoof of what I’m talking about… UPDATE: Embedded video removed … see it here. I don’t understand why politicians cannot answer questions