With that disclaimer out of the way, I present to you a recent example of The Augusta Chronicle’s great cartoonist, Rick McKee, and his take on the difference between Tea Party folks and the “Occupy” movement….

But the couple who did buy it has done an amazing job of creating a place so nearly perfect that I cannot imagine ever having to go on vacation again if I lived here. Take a look at the listing and you’ll get some idea, although the pictures really don’t capture it.

And the waterfront? The best in this town, and yes, I’m including fabled Field Point Circle. The site, at the end of Meadowbank is real, live, TRUE waterfront. Everything else is in second place or lower.

The knock on the location is that it’s right up next to the Rocky Point Club’s swimming pool. Would I wish the club pool wasn’t there? Sure. But this place is so nice, I’m not sure I’d care if The World Wrestling Federation had its outdoor practice arena next door.

I’ve never been to Hawaii, I hear the waterfront homes are nice there. But until I go see for myself, I’m declaring this one to be the best I’ve seen.

Listing broker is Paul Larson.

41 Meadowbank: Not my client and I don't have a buyer for it, but it sure is nice.

Warren Buffett, Bill Gates, George Soros, the list of fools goes on and on… Trust me on this one, the rich have no better idea than you about the best doctor to see, the best auto mechanic to use, the wisest financial advisor, hell, they probably can’t even hire a decent cleaning lady!

I thought of all this while listening the other morning to radio host John Gambling (710 on your AM dial) do his weekly interview with NYC Mayor Michael Bloomberg. The Mayor was pontificating on his all-time favorite subject, gun ownership by private citizens. His Honor, who is never, ever without armed body guards, nevertheless would prefer that you and I were not armed.

Never mind the United States Constitution and its second amendment. The Founding Fathers conceived of this crazy notion of armed citizens back in, what was it, 1787? whatever…times have changed! People don’t need their own gun, for God’s sake! Clearly, only the government should have guns.

Bloomberg and his opposition to citizen gun ownership brings to mind the amazing story of Sarah McKinley. Read this short piece from the New York Post by National Review editor Rich Lowry. It’s about a young woman whose husband had died a month earlier, alone in her little trailer with her infant son when the bad guys arrived, and what she did about it.

If Mayor Bloomberg had his way, this woman would be dead. Luckily, she had a gun, so she’s alive. Sorry Mike, Ms. McKinley is an American citizen and she has a right to own a gun. But you will never give up your

Mayor Mike Bloomberg: Great company at a cocktail party, but an idiot just the same.

effort to deny her that right, will you?

Ok, so 18 Dingletown….

18 Dingletown has a deal. Yabba...dabbah...dooo! (to quote the great Fred Flintstone)

has gone to contract, good!  Asking price, eventually, was $1,895,000, bad! (The owners paid $2,400,000 in 2005).  So what will this formerly $2.4M house sell for this time?  We’ll soon see, and I will report it.

Ok, so where was I? Oh yes, my brother Chris. Chris Fountain has taken the liberty of introducing my newest listing at 10 Martin Dale. Great and swell, any publicity is good publicity (ha!) but perhaps I can do a better job describing it.

Martin Dale is one of those little streets you drive past a million times but never quite notice. This suits its residents just fine; they get to live really, really close to the center of town, but have an nearly traffic-free road to live on. If you have a cat or a kid, they will live past the age of 3, a comforting thought.

Number 10 Martin Dale is a true classic, a 1940′s gambrel-roof “cape-colonial” with a stone front that is actually made of stone. It has a slate roof, a brand-new circular driveway, and an absolutely HUGE yard. The lot is 1 1/2 times the size of the required minimum in the R-20 zone, so if you need it, you can build 7,086 square feet plus the lower level. The kitchen is new, the generator (whole-house, gas-fired) is new, and there is extensive new landscaping.

Best of all, you are a certified* one minute (you heard me correctly) from the entrance of Greenwich Academy and about 1 minute and 36 seconds from Brunswick School. Which means if you were any closer to Greenwich Avenue, you’d be woken at least once every year by that noisy St. Patrick’s Day parade!

*To make this time, you will be required to hit 78 MPH on that last stretch of North Maple. But just for 100 feet or so, Officer!

10 Martin Dale, a street people move to...and stay!

I know, I know, it’s a stunning development. So let’s try to puzzle this out together, shall we?

Let’s start with some factoids about young (27 year-old) “Sean” Stone.

Sean Stone was

Raised by crazy leftist, Oliver Stone who taught him to: Hate America

Sent to private school where he was encouraged to: Hate America

Graduated from Princeton University, where he learned to: Hate America

Upon his arrival in Iran, meets with, then lends aid and comfort to, ruthless, radical-Islam-following Iranian leader Mahmoud Ahmadinejad who: Hates America

Wow! Now I get it!

Oliver Stone's son Sean Stone, newest convert to Islam!

Carol Clarke listed, Blanche O’Connell sold (link shows before/after listings)

And a couple of other contracts got reported today, among them, two long, long, rides:

144 Zaccheus Mead Lane, started in 2009 at $2,795,000, finally reduced all the way down to $1,925,000. Sandy Shaw, list.  Bill Andruss, sell.

71 Perkins Road, began its market odyssey in 2009, at $2,595,000 before coming to rest at $1,750,000. Linda Hodge, list.

*Every once in a while, I lapse into Cowboy-talk, pardner.

195 Cat Rock (at the Stanwich Rd end), asked $3.695M. got: ?

Kim Jong ("Ill",no longer) Want to eliminate poverty? Eliminate guys like this.

Now that the theory of anthropogenic global-warming has been throughly discredited, perhaps we can focus on an anthropogenic (man-caused) problem that does exist and should be prevented, namely, man-caused poverty.

Everywhere in the world where you find misery and squalor, you will find a government that is run by thugs and gangsters, with names like Ahmadinejad, Castro, Kim, and Putin. And the principal cause of poverty in this world is not drought, floods, earth quakes, or war, it is the prevention of property ownership. Even a misguided chump like Rep. Barney Frank understood the importance of owning real estate. Of course, being a politician, his “solution” to the problem of how to encourage homeownership was to force banks to abandon their credit standards and lend recklessly for over two decades, but it is nevertheless significant that into even that tiny brain, there had crept the realization that all of society benefits when a growing percentage of its citizens own the ground beneath them.

What is the global solution? To go to war with all the countries that are controlled by the crooks and monsters? No. But what we can do is TEACH CAPITALISM AND DEFEND FREE- ENTERPRISE. The world’s most miserable people will never be helped as long as western democracies remain silent about the utter failure of the socialist model. We cannot inspire people by being capitalist-lite, or semi-socialist ourselves.

The ability to buy a piece of property and go down to the local town hall and register that purchase, secure in the knowledge that some government goon can’t come in one day and take it away, that is freedom’s foundation.