Rob Thomas is a walking/talking joke, I owe him nothing and that is what he will get, nothing, were he on fire I would not spit on him.

What a spiteful thing to write ... just because I provided you with the opportunity to make a fool of yourself. You offer opinions that have no basis in fact, and you run from them when given the opportunity to back them up and take my money in the bargain.

I am no ones fool, I choose the time and place and games to which I play, no one chooses for me, no one especially a clown like you.

Hey Bob here is the challenge. Bring your ass and your $20K in cash down to Tampa to the Hard Rock Casino (we will give it to the Casino to hold while we play) and we will play heads-up Texas Hold EM in public, winner take all.

Here is Joe at his finest. He reads my earlier post wherein I state:

Point 2: I never gamble.

And then he challenges me to gamble on a card game. It doesn’t take much courage to challenge someone to an activity in which he has already stated he never participates.

It would be a pleasure to take your money and send you back to North Carolina on a greyhound bus. The challenge you offered me is bogus because I can't even prove that you are in business today.

That’s irrelevant. You didn’t opine that I was or wasn’t in business today. You predicted:

My guess is that you we won't be able to carry on this conversation a year from now as you will have gone back to flippin' burgers or some other menial task due to depending on home inspector licensing as one of the primary support pillars of your business plan. Tough to milk a cow or the public for that matter when sitting on a two-legged stool, time will tell.

I offered to risk 10,000 of my dollars that you are wrong (as usual), and that I will not have “gone back to flippin' burgers or some other menial task due to depending on home inspector licensing as one of the primary support pillars of your business plan” in a year from now. It occurs to me that, if I am not even in business today, your odds of taking my money increase exponentially, because startups in this profession take a long time to build steam.

My challenge isn’t bogus. It’s very real, which is why you are afraid of it.

You've got to ask yourself one question: 'Do I feel lucky?' Well, do ya punk?” - Clint Eastwood

I never depend on luck.


P.S. Rob, Before I reserve the table, send me a picture of either your money or a bank statement, you have already seen a picture of my house.

Actually, you’re wrong again. I didn’t waste my time clicking the link you embedded in your previous post. I don’t care where or how you live; I only care if you have the guts to put $10,000 where your mouth is. If you need to mortgage your house to raise the $10,000, that’s your business.

You need to realize that I don’t read the private messages you send, I don’t look at the photos your post, I am not interested in the prestigious (volunteer) boards you have joined, I don’t care if you are poor or rich, and I don’t care if you are a success or a failure. I just want to give you the opportunity to pay dearly for the foolishness you post here.

Attached is a photo of the important part of the May 14, 2007 statement of my personal checking account, proving that when you wrote:

"My guess is you ain't got two nickles to rub together let alone $10K"

You were wrong ... again.


Fearlessly,

Apparently, ‘fearlessly’ has a different meaning than I had always understood.

RT

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You & yours are simply pissed off that all your efforts to advance your restrictive home inspector licensing agenda has been an abject failure. But what really makes your head spin is knowing that the all efforts of a organized licensing coalition that has spent thousands of dollars and expended hundreds of man hours pushing legislation like a crack-whore can have their whole house of cards come tumbling down around their asses with very little effort from the opposition.

What irks you and causes you to lose sleep is the fact it is so much easier to prevent a bill from passing into law then to get one passed, I laugh at your feeble and weak forays into state politics thinking you have crossed all your t's and dotted all of your i's only to see it all be flushed down the toilet year after year. It is you who are the fraud & liar, sadly it is yourself who you have been lying to all these years, nobody else really cares.

Joe, I'm not sure where you got your information. Did you miss the part about my part in fighting licensing for over a decade? I have no idea what you are talking about when you say I am part of an organized licensing coalition. I believe it is in fact YOU that has been visiting those crack whores, since I have never been part of any such thing.

Now if you are talking about ASHI, then yes I am a member, but then you claim to be also, so you must be part of the same coalition.

From your posts, it is clear to me that you not only have no idea about who I am, how I run my business, how I feel about things, or ANYTHING about licensing in TN or it's history. In fact, from your posts, it is pretty clear that you don't have much in the way of rational thought on any subject. If anyone ever fit the definition of delusional, it is you.

You and harv are a pair - and deserve each other. You guys can pick each other's scabs. Have fun.

Well, June has come and gone. Burkeson is one month closer to losing $10,000 (I realize he was afraid to accept my challenge, but a loser is a loser), and in a cool market I inspected more homes in a month than Bushart/Hempelstern has inspected in his whole life.

Now that there are more sellers than buyers, the buyer can dictate the terms of the contract of purchase, including extending the window of time to have an inspection. Buyers can now wait two weeks or more to get the experienced inspector they want, rather than having to take whoever is available on short notice (always the new, inexperienced "inspectors").

Licensing is irrelevant. Experience solves everything.

RT

You will just have to come to Florida to collect, better eat your friggin Wheaties girly-man.

You're wrong again. I don't HAVE to do anything. I have been able to sit right here and illustrate to everyone you have tried to impress on this site that the messages you post aren't worth the time it took to read them.

Since you can't hold your own in a debate, you (and Bushart) try to demean your opponents in an effort to save face. When your bluff is called, all you can do is hurl insults and make veiled threats.

After this little exercise, I can't imagine there is anyone here who has any question about the content of your character.

RT

The obvious problem with you is jealousy, the fact that people look up up to me for direction has your panties in a knot. As far as debating you, why would I choose to provide a platform for the drivel you preach? Needless to say I don't debate fools like you I pity them.

Is it true that this is one of the questions out of the North Carolina Home Inspectors Exam?

Q: A front porch is constructed of 2x8 pine on 24-inch centers with a field rock foundation. The span is 8 feet and the porch length is 16 feet. The porch floor is 1 inch rough sawn pine. When the porch collapses, how many hound dogs will be killed?

The obvious problem with you is jealousy, the fact that people look up up to me for direction has your panties in a knot.

You’re right. I’m jealous of all clueless, short, balding, middle-aged men with waist sizes that equal their IQs. Of course, as we all know, the only people who look up to you are known collectively as “the departed”.

As far as debating you, why would I choose to provide a platform for the drivel you preach?

I don’t know why you do any of the ridiculous things you do, but I do know that I can make you jump any time I want by posting a short message here. You’re as predictable as the next day of the week.

Needless to say I don't debate fools like you I pity them.

And yet you feel compelled to respond every time I post a message. It’s true you don’t try to defend your indefensible positions, but you do try mightily to insult your opponents instead in an effort to keep them from hanging around and exposing your inadequacies in an exchange of ideas.

Is it true that this is one of the questions out of the North Carolina Home Inspectors Exam?

Q: A front porch is constructed of 2x8 pine on 24-inch centers with a field rock foundation. The span is 8 feet and the porch length is 16 feet. The porch floor is 1 inch rough sawn pine. When the porch collapses, how many hound dogs will be killed?

True to form, you offer the comment above. I don’t know if you are trying to insult me; to insult the entire state of North Carolina; or to provide proof that I have accurately described your lack of character. Given any choice at all, we are left to wonder why anyone would allow you into his home.

I’ll be back next month with an update of my business volume, since there is so much money riding on your prediction. Taking two weeks off will undoubtedly have an effect, but I expect to still complete more inspections than you.


RT

Like I said before, spend a few bucks of that money you cheated your customers out of girly-man and spring for a bus ticket to Florida then we can chat about whatever has your panties in a knot.

Hey, did you know that the tooth brush was invented in North Carolina, yeah, yeah, had it been invented anywhere else it would have obviously been called the teeth brush.

Well, folks, I got in rather late on this discussion, having only just joined Inspection News yesterday. I have finally, belatedly, and only recently given up trying to use reason to sway the opinions of some of the virulently anti-licensing crowd over on my beloved NACHI home. You may as well beat your head against the wall arguing with Mr. Humplestump, or whatever (whom I actually like, btw), and J.B. For the life of me, I can not understand why anyone would prefer to have to compete against the woefully incompetent jokers who don't know the difference between drip edge and dripping sinks. Well, maybe I can understand some of them, but that would be a different argument altogether. Since I can't seem to resist the urge, I'll take what seems to be the main and oft-repeated propaganda statement against licensing and make one statement, from a political science perspective, and then, I swear, I'm going to shut up.

"Licensing solves nothing."

No law ever enacted by any government in the history of mankind has ever enjoyed universal compliance. To even intimate, never mind reiterate, that a licensing law will actually solve completely any or all of the problems associated with our industry would be pure folly. To attempt to use the fact that universal compliance to that law would not be achieved as ammunition to oppose licensing is just so much horsey dookey. Licensed lawyers get disbarred. Licensed realtors have their licenses revoked. Licensed drivers have their licenses revoked, all for reasons, and in most cases good ones. The deterrant for bad lawyers, bad realtors, drivers, and, yes, even home inspectors, is that there exists a license to revoke. In the absence of a license, we only have the word of the individual that he/she can practice law effectively, inspect a home properly, or even drive a truck.

Some oppose licensing because it most likely would cause them to have to purchase E&O. They see this as putting a target on them for a lawsuit. This is an expression of a fear of possible consequences.

Some oppose licensing simply because they believe fervently government involvement in our business environment is a bad thing. A Jeffersonian view, but then, Jefferson's vision of America was a nation of genteel farmers living in small, contiguous communities. This is an expression of a fear of government intrusion, the Big Brother concept.

And then, there are those who oppose licensing because they know they lack the knowledge to ever pass an exam which only sets a minimum standard, and having to do so would put them out of business forthwith. This crowd is, for obvious reasons, mostly pretty silent, but they are the main reason we need sane licensing laws, with well-funded enforcement teeth. I do have some thoughts on what would constitute a fair and effective licensing law, and in all fairness to the anti crowd, most states don't measure up completely. The irony of all this is, if one filters through all the bantie rooster posturing on the subject, there are actually good ideas on both sides of the issue that could be included in the language of licensing laws.

Everyone should read James Madison's notes on the Constitutional Convention to gain an insight over how a consensus was finally reached. Our problem as an industry is that we can't seem to stop disparaging each other long enough to come to the conclusion that we need to have a round table discussion. The absence of that discussion creates a power vacuum into which other entities have stepped to have their versions of licensing laws enacted which serve their interests, not ours.

Put that in your slop jar and sniff it.

Here it is the end of July, and I was booked solid, except for the time I was vacationing. It looks once again like Burkeson's prediction is as unfounded as everything else he writes here. I'm one month closer to that $10,000, and Burkeson is one month closer to earning the coveted title "The Biggest Loser".

True story: While I was in central FL, I asked a FABI member who was inspecting a house near the one I was renting if he knew a friend of mine in the area to whom other inspectors look for advice. He asked: "Joe who?"

You can't make this stuff up.

RT

Hey, lookie who slithered back and they said you wouldn't make bail, well raise my rent, you know the slogan, come down to Florida on vacation, return on probation. Damn, you came all the way to central Florida and never stopped in, hell now I have to feed the dog.

How is that bullshit career going, tell us how many old folks did you cheat out of their social security check this week? BTW, ASHI says they never heard of you, what gives? But they do know Harvey for sure.

I pull the string, and the puppet jumps, just like I said he would.

I'll be back in a month or so with an update on my business volume. I don't have time to visit everday like Joe Who does, because I actually have homes to inspect.


RT

Each & every time you open up your mouth I'll oblige and put my foot in it, what did you expect... Candy?

BTW, when is a sophomoric hack writer like you gonna begin using a spell-checker? You're an embarrassment.

05-29-2007, 10:21 PM Joseph Burkeson This message has been deleted by Joseph Burkeson. Reason: Posted when my feelings were hurt, should have realizes who I was addressing.


Embarrassed? I make fewer typos than you and inspect more homes than you. You should have realizes that.


RT

Yeah, maybe, but who really cares about a stupid metric like that? Bottom line... Any way you count it, I live better.

You're on the internet at 2:30 in the morning trying to convince me how well you live? What kind of life is that?

I suppose that when you have no appointments, time is of no consequence. That's good, though. No customers to get in the way of your good life.

RT