Haunted Property

Most people are familiar with the stereotype of the spooky house on the block.  Perhaps there are a few gnarly old trees rotting in the front yard.  Maybe that busted out window in the back still has a couple of 2x4s nailed over it.  And there always seems to be a crow perched on the fence, cawing as you walk by.  You know, the one that everyone dares each other to ring the doorbell of on Halloween.  For the more intrepid, this may seem like the perfect dream house; but for the rest of the world, it holds a certain stigma that can seriously devalue a property.

A haunted house is merely one example of a stigmatized property.  Properties are considered stigmatized when some aspect of the property, other than its physical condition, would lead to it being shunned by potential buyers.  These tend to be issues that would affect the potential buyers psychologically or emotionally.  Having a death occur in the home is merely one example.  Any sort of notoriety that could draw unwanted attention to the home could land the property under the stigmatized label, or a history of problems that would cause buyers to perceive a future risk should they invest in the property.  The former home of a famous person or a property that was used in a movie could draw unwanted attention from nosy tourists.  And in some special cases like California, having an earthquake nearby is enough to stigmatize a property.

In the past, property transactions have been ruled by the saying: "caveat emptor" or "buyer beware!"  This means that your real estate agent does not have to disclose that a property is stigmatized, though they legally cannot lie to you should you ask a direct question.  Most states now have laws protecting buyers from a host of problems, but stigmatization isn't often covered.  The laws regarding stigmatized property differ from state to state and country to country.  In some states, an agent is only required to disclose that a property is stigmatized if a death occurred in the past 3 years.  Seeing as how the events leading to stigmatization don't often leave obvious physical changes on a property, the buyer is generally unable to tell that there is something "wrong" with the house upon a reasonable inspection.  It's not until the neighbor's gossip reaches their ears that they realize they got more than they bargained for.  By then, it's usually too late to seek legal action.

One noted exception is the case of Stambovsky v. Ackley.  Helen Ackley's house in Nyack, NY was touted as being home to a multitude of poltergeists.  Her and several family members had reported these findings to both local and national publications on multiple occasions.  Unfortunately, they were apparently not any publications read by Jeffrey Stambovsky.  After putting a down payment on the house, he sued to be released from the contract and have his money returned to him once he discovered the home's reputation.  In a surprising and often cited court decision, Stambovsky was awarded the money he sought.  The court felt that since the notorious house had been publicly advertised as haunted by the owner that it was to be considered "legally" haunted regardless of the actual ghostly content.  In other words, Ackley could not suddenly claim the opposite of her published words.  The house eventually sold to a brave soul who actually wanted it because of its ghastly reputation.

If you plan on selling a property with noted paranormal activity, it would be wise to consult your realtor and local law books to determine whether or not it’s appropriate to disclose the information to potential buyers.  You don’t want to chase them off or lower your property’s value unnecessarily, but you certainly wouldn’t want to find yourself in legal trouble which could have been easily avoided.  Or perhaps you are the potential buyer – in which case, do your homework and don’t be afraid to ask questions even if they seem a little nutty.  It’s better to find a home you’ll truly be happy with (ghosts or no ghosts) than a property with unexpected annoyances.

1. http://www.aolnews.com/weird-news/article/haunted-real-estate-a-scary-good-investment/19608579?icid=main|main|dl8|sec3_lnk2|167269
2. http://activerain.com/blogsview/1313045/would-you-live-in-a-haunted-house-selling-stigmatized-property-in-ontario
3. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stigmatized_property
4. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stambovsky_v._Ackley
5. http://www.hinshawlaw.com/files/Publication/04e7c220-3d36-4fe3-a5f6-005defcc6d1c/Presentation/PublicationAttachment/d1f674aa-b485-4f9d-87e3-0465a0810b1b/0108TheProfLine.pdf
6. http://origin.bankrate.com/brm/news/real-estate/20031023b1.asp

To all the Snookis of the world...

This started out as response to this post, but it kind of focused too narrowly on the Halloween costume issue instead of the broader topic of cultural appropriation so I'm choosing to post it here rather than clog up Kenaz's blog.


When my friend and I saw these adverts, we made a joke about dressing up as the cast of Jersey Shore since we're both Italian.  And then she reminded me she had dressed up as a Native American one year, which is also part of her heritage. 

That got me thinking... Would anyone, other than Italian-American organizations, bat an eye at people dressed up as the Jersey Shore cast?  Is it OK because we're mimicking celebrities rather than directly mimicking the culture?  Is it OK because it's our culture?  Is it OK because most people think of Italians as "white"?  Or should we be offended because they're a horrible stereotype?  Most of the cast isn't even Italian...

Would certain costumes get a pass if they were historically accurate rather than derogatory stereotypes?  What if my friend went as a historically accurate Pocahontas? Would that be acceptable since she's going as a historical figure?  Is that any worse than me going as Sylvia Plath, whom I share no heritage with?  Where do we draw the line?  What about a Roman soldier costume or a typical English princess or even a Viking?

I didn't personally see it, but my friend swore one of the adverts was about Geishas, which to me is no different than going as a ninja, knight, or cowboy.  It's a profession with historical significance; not a representation of everyone in that culture.

I'm not sure where I stand on all of this yet.  I'm still forming my opinions.  But I will at least say that those adverts got me thinking.

Pluto

Back in my day, Pluto was a planet.

Amateur astrologers and neo pagans seem to think that this is some major blow to astrology. After all, what about all those poor people whose charts are really affected by Pluto? The consequences will never be the same!

First of all - chill. Let’s not conflate astrology and astronomy.

Pluto is no longer a planet in astronomy. That doesn’t mean that astrology needs to follow suit and diminish Pluto’s importance. Look at how important the moon is to one’s chart, and it’s certainly not a planet. It’s not like Pluto changed size or got destroyed. It’s still the same lump of space rock it’s always been. And if astrologers want to still consider it a planet, why not? This is an issue of taxonomy, not physical change. 50 years from now scientists might reinstate its planethood because they’re using some other method of classification.

The only issue I foresee is that Pluto’s demotion would mean a change of perception in the collective unconscious. But would this affect astrology? Well, only if astrology is based on people’s perceptions and preconceived notions of heavenly bodies’ attributes rather than something more mathematical and independent.

Test

Just testing the new blogger app.  I'm glad they finally made an official one.  I was getting sick of pop up adds.

This has been such a cool retrograde so far

zomg New Zodiac Signs!

Now this I can live with.

Your Sign Has NOT Changed (and neither has your future children’s)

Cross-posted on tumblr

OK, so first off - I don’t give a toss if you believe in astrology or not.  But I hate MISINFORMATION.

You see, the news media and these so-called scientists are trying to debunk something with a little drop of truth in a whole sea of misinformation.  It’s like trying to debunk the geocentric theory by saying “The earth is not at the center of the solar system.  Uranus is!”  Do you see why this is a problem?

The other problem is that everyone with half a brain (and only half) is trying to debunk the debunkers by saying that the sign changes only affect people born after a certain date.  So your sign is the same, but your future kids’ signs are all jacked up.  WHAT?!  Do you think the constellations just shifted overnight?  This is an ongoing process that has been happening since the beginning of time.  The constellations didn’t just chill in one spot and then decide to move after astrology got invented or after this news story aired.  Use some frikkin common sense.

So before I go further into this, here are the links you need to read if you want to understand what’s going on.  They are concise, informative, and not dry.

http://prolixe.livejournal.com/338600.html
http://thelaughingmagus.blogspot.com/2011/01/when-debunking-its-critical-to.html
http://austincoppock.com/2011/01/zodiacnews/

So I’m going to make this short since I’ve already explained this in my other blog and the other blogs cover pretty much everything else (and I know you all on tumblr have no attention span when there’s no pretty pictures):

1. Astrologers have known about the constellations shifting since they invented astrology.
2. It’s called precession.
3. Precession is how we determine what age it is, ie Age of Aquarius (like the song!)
4. Western Astrology, which uses the Tropical Zodiac, is not actually based on the stars.  It’s based on the planets.
5. It’s a fixed cross anchored by the solstices and equinoxes. These quarters are divided into 3 sections each and assigned with names that just so happen so be the same names as the constellations (yeah, they used to match up once upon a time).
6. Vedic Astrology uses the Sidereal Zodiac which is actually concerned with the stars’ influence.
7. It’s not affected by this “news” either as it’s nothing actually new.  Read the 3rd link.
8. If you’ve ever picked up an actual astrology book and noticed that the sun signs shift back and forth by a few days depending on the year, don’t make me smack you.  This is not precession.  This is the equinoxes and solstices shifting because of earth’s orbit and thus affecting astrology.
9. This really only affects cuspers anyway.
10. And btw, you’re not just your sun sign.  You have a whole frikkin birth chart including sun, moon, all the planets (even pluto!), ascendent, and a bunch of other stuff that I’m not going to get into because that’s where I stopped my studies about 12 years ago.

pdf heaven

http://darkbooks.org/

This site is pretty amazing... which is probably why I'm still kind of shocked that I found it through a facebook ad.  This woman has graciously put hundreds of public domain pdfs of magick and occult books up for us to download.  Crowley, Leland, Dee, Waite, Regardie, Levi, etc.  I am having a field day!  :)

Happy Halloween, All Saints Day, and All Souls Day!

Homemade Hand of Glory ;)

I had all these great aspirations to write Halloween themed blogs... but this entire month has been nothing but weekends (and sometimes weekdays) filled with parties, birthday celebrations, and catching up with old friends - not that I'm complaining! 

Anyway, I hope everyone had an awesome Halloween!  And I hope you all enjoy your All Souls Day festivities as well. ^^

religion is for nerds ;)

The World's 8 Nerdiest Religions via Topless Robot


When the usual religions just don't cut it... try these nerdy options! 

Witch burnings, Beer, and Waffles

Label for Witches Wit beer by The Lost Abbey

Tonight was a WH night, with Jhonn and a friend of ours.  If you haven't deduced from the sudden influx of droid posts, Jhonn really really likes his new phone.  In fact, as I sat there eating my delicious hashbrowns (scattered, smothered, and covered), both boys were thoroughly engrossed in their phones.  (OK, so maybe I'm a bit guilty of that too lately.  Shh!)  Well, Jhonn decided to peruse The Wild Hunt for some reason, which proved fortuitous as it led to him discovering this little gem: clicky!  The Wild Hunt reported on an email that supposedly originated with tarot creator Vicki Noble.

Oh, dear Pagan community, when oh when will we stop getting butthurt over ridiculous things?  Probably about the same time Wiccans stop trying to claim a monopoly on the word witch.  And that's half the problem right there really.  Any time witch is mentioned (whether in a historical context or the fictionalized, green-skinned antagonist) there's always a plethora of NeoPagans ready to freak out and claim it's representative or related to NeoPaganism.  (And by NeoPagans and NeoPaganism I really mostly mean Wicca and Wiccans, but I'm uhhh trying to be less of an asshole in my old age.  Maybe?)  Anyway... let's try to remember that witch has different meanings and that conflating those meanings is a naughty, naughty logical fallacy.  Let's also remember that Wiccans aren't the only self-described witches existing today and that not all those who call themselves witches fit under the NeoPagan umbrella.  Hopefully that didn't explode anyone's brains.

The other bit worthy of a good *headdesk* was Noble's "brilliant" assumption of misogyny.  Just because something you don't like features a non-ugly woman, it does not mean there is a case of misogyny afoot.  If we were to put a man in this same position, would you cry out that it's a case of misandry?  I seriously doubt it.  This wasn't a case of contempt or even objectification of the female form.  Sure the girl is hot (literally), but this isn't some Rob Liefeld disaster of epic proportions... this is more Strangers in Paradise.  Noble goes on to claim that the crowd (of vague, indistinct faces) are not only ALL male but also a bunch of monks "gawking" at our witchy lady.  W.T.F.  The gender of the crowd is indistinguishable, as are their professions and expressions.  Furthermore, the crowd isn't there to salaciously gaze at the bound heroine - it's merely a public execution.

Thankfully, Lost Abbey has calmly responded to the debacle by pointing out things that were clearly printed on the label.  So, dear Pagan community, in the future please lrn2READ.

I love October

One of my favorite things about October is all of the "spooky" news articles that start popping up to keep in theme with the upcoming holiday.  Even though you'll find a few of these incidents occurring throughout the year, it's like October just brings out the "best" in people.  Take this lovely gem for instance: click me!  These wonderful individuals all share an abode.  Two are into "vampire stuff and paganism", while the other just violated his probation.  Mr. probation violator is actually the "victim" in this story as he was stabbed for making fun of the vampires and not sharing his blood.  Don't worry, he lived (and was arrested for his earlier violation).

triptychs

Every once in a while I will learn something new or recall something old and then it will start popping up everywhere in a random burst of synchronicity.  The current one happens to be triptychs.  I'm particularly fascinated by the triptych Erika Moen recently finished, inspired by Coilhouse magazine.  It's very "art nouveau" meets "middle ages."  Despite the subject being secular in nature, there's still a nice undertone of saintly iconography to allude back to the art form's popular purpose.  I wish I were a better artist because I think something like this could make for a fantastic backdrop for my altar, either as multiple incarnations of a particular god/dess or the 3 main deities I choose to honor.

birthday month

Anthropologie sends me the cutest things!

If you can't tell, it's a little cloth pouch with a star shaped button closure and it says "What's in the stars for you, Libra?"

Published with Blogger-droid v1.6.1

6 awesome deities

This article was written by one of my LJ friends, and she unknowingly included my personal fave.  ;)

Check yo' sources

Lately I've been frustrated with people bitching about things they don't understand.  How do you know something doesn't work when you haven't even researched as to how it supposedly works?  How do you know a religion preaches violence when you've never cracked open its holy text?  How do you know the hidden meaning behind something when you can't even be arsed to check google or wikipedia (let alone read an actual book on the subject).  Do you really think dismissive, uninformed soundbites from the opposition are considered good research?  Come on - don't fall for the friggin' strawman. 

I'm not going to get into everything that's been vexing me, but I will share some links that illuminate a current popular news story as that's probably most relevant to the public interest out of everything I could potentially bitch about.

Satire.  History.
and now... one more.

Blaming it on the stars

http://www.astrologycom.com/mercret.html

Thanks to RC for the link.  I've been complaining about how I can't believe Mercury hasn't retrograded yet given all the crazy occurrences (you know, like my phone turning off every 5 minutes and exes popping out of the woodwork).  I didn't realize some of the effects could occur as the planet begins to slow or pick up speed before and after the actual retrograde.  And of course everything else craptastic that's been happening to me lately can be explained by this (thanks, Jhonn) which is also touched upon in the link at the top.  Well, not the roots of the issues, but why the issues came to a head in the manner that they have.

Remember, fellas: your wife is always right.

From Keeping it real Hearth & Home in Old Ohio.

"Take your wife as your helpmate.  Husband, counsel with your wife and be assured light will flash upon your darkness.  Woman is far more a seer and prophet than man if she is given a fair choice.  If you are in any trouble or quandary tell your wife all about it at once.  Ten to one her invention will solve your difficulty sooner than all your logic; what is wrong of your impulse or judgment, she will detect and set right with almost universally right instincts."


 I am amused.

I want to believe

 So aside from almost getting Lich King down last week, recent times have been rather dismal.  OK, practically this whole month has been dismal.  That's why last week I watched the alien abduction episode of Psych (Not Even Close... Encounters) and ate homemade-ish chocolate chip cookies (Betty Crocker mixes are practically cheating) instead of attempting anything productive.   Strangely, even though things have gotten worse this week, I've been slightly more productive.  Probably because I don't want to stay alone in my head too much right now.

But despite my pervasive funk, I can't ignore the blatant synchronicity occurring.  Aside from the Psych episode, I've been on an X-Files kick (both reading and watching), found out there's a toon named after Scully in the guild, ran into an AlexKrycek in a battleground, had a friend joke - out of the blue - that the FBI was on its way to my house (please let it be Agent Mulder!), and a few other strange things that I can't recall right now*.  It's safe to say that I've got aliens on the brain.

So it was both unexpected and totally not surprising when Dee called up to say she had just seen a UFO.  There had been military planes in the area earlier, then, as the daylight was fading, the object appeared.  It was silver with a red light, and it was spinning.  Dee and her dad decided it was definitely a UFO, whereas her mom and aunt dismissed it as a weather balloon (really?!).  I asked her if it was still hanging around but she told me she'd lost sight of it.

So obviously I asked her, "Dee, I'm going to go drive around town and try to find it.  Wanna come?"  "Yes!"  And we were on our way.

Armed with a container of snack mix and our cellphone cameras, we took off towards the south and caught sight of the red light moving off into the distance.  There was a plane headed that way too so we felt confident we were on the right track.  I took a short cut on the free way but it was moving too fast and we lost it.  We ended up cutting through 2 towns, going back through ours, and heading over towards the rival town's high school.  I thought I caught a glimpse of it again, but the light was smaller and dimmer (thus much, much farther away).  Still, we headed out that way, encouraged by the site of planes once again heading in the same direction.

Sadly, we lost track of it again pretty quickly and decided to bring our adventure to an end after over an hour of driving.  I'm pretty sure it wasn't a weather balloon.

*Hurricane Alex, the Russian Spy drama, running a pug with a toon named Mullder

Anne Rice interview on breaking away from the Church

but she still doesn't allow Vampire Chronicles fanfic to be published on fanfiction.net...  just saying.