Tuesday, August 14, 2007
cbs2chicago.com - Alderman Wants To Tax Bottled Water
This illustrates the point I've been making about the advantage cities have over HOAs. With this general "police power" and home rule, they can conjure up a tax on just about anything and anybody whenever they need more money. Now it is a "sin tax" on a new vice created by environmentalists: drinking bottled water. What next? Why not a tax on meat? (Save the rain forests!) How about a quarter for every quarter pounder? Or maybe on leather (Save the animals!). Or taking too many showers? (Save the water!) The Chicago Tribune today even (half-jokingly) proposed a huge tax on driving SUVs into the city.
This illustrates the point I've been making about the advantage cities have over HOAs. With this general "police power" and home rule, they can conjure up a tax on just about anything and anybody whenever they need more money. Now it is a "sin tax" on a new vice created by environmentalists: drinking bottled water. What next? Why not a tax on meat? (Save the rain forests!) How about a quarter for every quarter pounder? Or maybe on leather (Save the animals!). Or taking too many showers? (Save the water!) The Chicago Tribune today even (half-jokingly) proposed a huge tax on driving SUVs into the city.
The Public Role in Establishing Private Residential Communities:
I started a mini-debate with some comments about CAI having a perfect right to engage in lobbying. This led to another mini-debate over whether CAI is responsible for the spread of CIDs. The fact is that government, not CAI, has been the major promoter of CID housing. The FHA and other federal agencies promoted HOAs from the early 1960s on, and now municipalities, in conjunction with developers, are driving the spread of private governments. The best analysis of municipal mandates for CID development is Steven Siegel's recent law review article for Urban Lawyer, published by the American Bar Association (abstract follows). Conspiracy theories to the contrary notwithstanding, the fact is that CAI is not hatching more CIDs in an underground laboratory in the Arctic.
"Steven Siegel, The Public Role in Establishing Private Residential Communities: Towards a New Formulation of Local Government Land Use Policies That Eliminate the Legal Requirements to Privatize New Communities in the United States, 38 Urb. Law. 859 (Fall 2006). This article examines the critical and insufficiently understood role that government plays in the widespread and ever-growing establishment of private residential communities in the United States, particularly in the high-growth Sunbelt states. The author argues that local governments, on a broad scale and independent of market forces, effectively have required developers of new subdivisions to create community associations to operate and maintain the subdivision in lieu of the municipality providing traditionally municipal services to the subdivision, including such services as street maintenance, sewer service, water supply, drainage, curbside refuse collection, parks, and even traditional police patrols of public streets. This article aims to partly fill a gap in the literature and in the scholarly commentary. Part I catalogs and assesses the significant demographic, social, and economic factors that have contributed to the phenomenon of the explosive growth in the number of private communities in the United States. Part II traces the history of the PUD zoning concept and how this concept evolved from a mechanism to interject greater design flexibility into the zoning approval of new subdivisions into a vehicle for municipal privatization decisions affecting traditionally public facilities and services. Part III sets forth substantial evidence of the active and direct role played by local governments, through the exercise of their plenary regulation of new residential development, in the rise of the territorial community association as the standard template for new community development in the fastest growing areas of the United States. In Part IV the focus of the inquiry shifts from the empirical to the normative. In particular, the author identifies the adverse effects of a municipal land use policy that effectuates the privatization of the operation and maintenance of traditionally municipal infrastructure by way of the de facto or de jure requirement that a subdivision developer establish a community association (to operate the infrastructure) as a condition of subdivision approval. Part V explores potential judicial remedies as well as legislative policy recommendations aimed at reducing the future municipal imposition of public service exactions in new community development, as well as mitigating the effects of public service exactions in existing communities. If the public role in enabling private residential communities were to be more clearly delineated and analyzed (as this article seeks to do), then the groundwork can be laid for serious public discussion of the future of new community development in the United States and for a thorough and public assessment of what has been called “the most significant privatization of local government responsibilities in recent times.”"
I started a mini-debate with some comments about CAI having a perfect right to engage in lobbying. This led to another mini-debate over whether CAI is responsible for the spread of CIDs. The fact is that government, not CAI, has been the major promoter of CID housing. The FHA and other federal agencies promoted HOAs from the early 1960s on, and now municipalities, in conjunction with developers, are driving the spread of private governments. The best analysis of municipal mandates for CID development is Steven Siegel's recent law review article for Urban Lawyer, published by the American Bar Association (abstract follows). Conspiracy theories to the contrary notwithstanding, the fact is that CAI is not hatching more CIDs in an underground laboratory in the Arctic.
"Steven Siegel, The Public Role in Establishing Private Residential Communities: Towards a New Formulation of Local Government Land Use Policies That Eliminate the Legal Requirements to Privatize New Communities in the United States, 38 Urb. Law. 859 (Fall 2006). This article examines the critical and insufficiently understood role that government plays in the widespread and ever-growing establishment of private residential communities in the United States, particularly in the high-growth Sunbelt states. The author argues that local governments, on a broad scale and independent of market forces, effectively have required developers of new subdivisions to create community associations to operate and maintain the subdivision in lieu of the municipality providing traditionally municipal services to the subdivision, including such services as street maintenance, sewer service, water supply, drainage, curbside refuse collection, parks, and even traditional police patrols of public streets. This article aims to partly fill a gap in the literature and in the scholarly commentary. Part I catalogs and assesses the significant demographic, social, and economic factors that have contributed to the phenomenon of the explosive growth in the number of private communities in the United States. Part II traces the history of the PUD zoning concept and how this concept evolved from a mechanism to interject greater design flexibility into the zoning approval of new subdivisions into a vehicle for municipal privatization decisions affecting traditionally public facilities and services. Part III sets forth substantial evidence of the active and direct role played by local governments, through the exercise of their plenary regulation of new residential development, in the rise of the territorial community association as the standard template for new community development in the fastest growing areas of the United States. In Part IV the focus of the inquiry shifts from the empirical to the normative. In particular, the author identifies the adverse effects of a municipal land use policy that effectuates the privatization of the operation and maintenance of traditionally municipal infrastructure by way of the de facto or de jure requirement that a subdivision developer establish a community association (to operate the infrastructure) as a condition of subdivision approval. Part V explores potential judicial remedies as well as legislative policy recommendations aimed at reducing the future municipal imposition of public service exactions in new community development, as well as mitigating the effects of public service exactions in existing communities. If the public role in enabling private residential communities were to be more clearly delineated and analyzed (as this article seeks to do), then the groundwork can be laid for serious public discussion of the future of new community development in the United States and for a thorough and public assessment of what has been called “the most significant privatization of local government responsibilities in recent times.”"
‘Pull ’em up or pay up’ is new law in Mansfield: The Shreveport Times
Here is a town cracking down on saggin' and baggin':
Anyone caught wearing sagging pants who exposes his or her underwear will be subject to a fine of up to $150 plus court costs, or face up to 15 days in jail. Mansfield aldermen voted unanimously at today’s 4:30 p.m. meeting to enact the new law.
Here is a town cracking down on saggin' and baggin':
Anyone caught wearing sagging pants who exposes his or her underwear will be subject to a fine of up to $150 plus court costs, or face up to 15 days in jail. Mansfield aldermen voted unanimously at today’s 4:30 p.m. meeting to enact the new law.
Tell Ben Stein it Ain't Subprime: The American Prospect
Mystery Reader sends this cogent but disturbing analysis of the mortgage and housing situation from Dean Baker:
NYT columnist Ben Stein tells everyone that they [are] being Chicken Littles because they are worried about the fallout from the subprime meltdown. Mr. Stein calculates that of the $10.4 trillion in outstanding mortgages, only about 13 percent or $1.35 trillion is subprime. Of this, only about 5 percent, or $67 billion is actually in foreclosure. If the losses on foreclosed loans is 50 percent then we're talking about $33 to $34 billion. That's not a lot of money in a $14 trillion economy. The problem is that the Chicken Littles are a bit better at logic than Mr. Stein. The subprimes are melting down because house prices are worth less than mortgages. This is leading to rapidly increasing default rates in the Alt-A and prime markets as well. It does not make a lot of sense to payoff a $600,000 mortgage on a home that's worth $400,000. The problems are showing up today in the subprime market because these are the people with the least resources and therefore the ones who are first forced into default. However, as time goes by, and more homeowners realize the situation they are in, the subprime meltdown will turn into the prime meltdown. The chicken littles know this, which is why the markets are panicking.
Mystery Reader sends this cogent but disturbing analysis of the mortgage and housing situation from Dean Baker:
NYT columnist Ben Stein tells everyone that they [are] being Chicken Littles because they are worried about the fallout from the subprime meltdown. Mr. Stein calculates that of the $10.4 trillion in outstanding mortgages, only about 13 percent or $1.35 trillion is subprime. Of this, only about 5 percent, or $67 billion is actually in foreclosure. If the losses on foreclosed loans is 50 percent then we're talking about $33 to $34 billion. That's not a lot of money in a $14 trillion economy. The problem is that the Chicken Littles are a bit better at logic than Mr. Stein. The subprimes are melting down because house prices are worth less than mortgages. This is leading to rapidly increasing default rates in the Alt-A and prime markets as well. It does not make a lot of sense to payoff a $600,000 mortgage on a home that's worth $400,000. The problems are showing up today in the subprime market because these are the people with the least resources and therefore the ones who are first forced into default. However, as time goes by, and more homeowners realize the situation they are in, the subprime meltdown will turn into the prime meltdown. The chicken littles know this, which is why the markets are panicking.
Monday, August 13, 2007
FOXNews.com - Federal Reserve Finds Banks Tightening Mortgage Lending Standards - Real Estate News | Mortgage Information | House Hunting
At this point it doesn't look like the specific changes affecting lower-risk borrowers are that dramatic. But the high-risk borrowers do seem to be encountering significant hurdles. Until recently many builders were acting as mortgage banks and making many of these risky loans that have led to foreclosures. Read that Business Week article I referenced below. I thought the S & L meltdown taught people that developers shouldn't be able to lend people money to buy houses from them, but I guess history had to repeat itself.
WASHINGTON — The nation’s banks, in response to the subprime lending mess, are making it tougher for high-risk borrowers to get mortgages they can’t afford, and are moving to tighten lending standards across the board — even for borrowers with good credit. The Fed said it found that 56.3 percent of banks responding to a survey reported that they had tightened their lending standards for subprime mortgages, loans offered to borrowers with weak credit histories. But the tightening of the mortgage-lending belt is pinching more than just the less-than-creditworthy loan seekers. The Fed survey found that even on prime loans, which offer traditional payment options such as 30-year mortgages to borrowers with strong credit histories, 14.3 percent of the banks responding said they had tightened their lending standards "somewhat."
At this point it doesn't look like the specific changes affecting lower-risk borrowers are that dramatic. But the high-risk borrowers do seem to be encountering significant hurdles. Until recently many builders were acting as mortgage banks and making many of these risky loans that have led to foreclosures. Read that Business Week article I referenced below. I thought the S & L meltdown taught people that developers shouldn't be able to lend people money to buy houses from them, but I guess history had to repeat itself.
WASHINGTON — The nation’s banks, in response to the subprime lending mess, are making it tougher for high-risk borrowers to get mortgages they can’t afford, and are moving to tighten lending standards across the board — even for borrowers with good credit. The Fed said it found that 56.3 percent of banks responding to a survey reported that they had tightened their lending standards for subprime mortgages, loans offered to borrowers with weak credit histories. But the tightening of the mortgage-lending belt is pinching more than just the less-than-creditworthy loan seekers. The Fed survey found that even on prime loans, which offer traditional payment options such as 30-year mortgages to borrowers with strong credit histories, 14.3 percent of the banks responding said they had tightened their lending standards "somewhat."
Katrina Aid Used for Luxury Condos - TIME
Looks like the feds decided to do their part to support community association housing.
(TUSCALOOSA, Ala.)—With large swaths of the Gulf Coast still in ruins from Hurricane Katrina, rich federal tax breaks designed to spur rebuilding are flowing hundreds of miles inland to investors who are buying up luxury condos near the University of Alabama's football stadium.
Looks like the feds decided to do their part to support community association housing.
(TUSCALOOSA, Ala.)—With large swaths of the Gulf Coast still in ruins from Hurricane Katrina, rich federal tax breaks designed to spur rebuilding are flowing hundreds of miles inland to investors who are buying up luxury condos near the University of Alabama's football stadium.
Man arrested for assaulting neighbor for not joining exercise session - MSN-Mainichi Daily News
So you think your community association is meddlesome? Count your blessings:
KANDA, Fukuoka -- A man was arrested Monday after assaulting a neighbor who refused to participate in a gymnastic exercise event organized by the neighborhood association, police said. Katsuya Mori, 34, a company employee of Kanda, stands accused of inflicting bodily injury and damaging property. The incident occurred on Aug. 1 this year. Mori visited a 35-year-old self-employed man's home in Kanda when he was drunk, and hit him, investigators said. Mori then hurled a concrete chunk at the victim's 5-year-old daughter and threatened to kill her. At the time, Mori criticized the neighbor for refusing to participate in a radio gymnastic exercise session for summer vacation organized by the neighborhood association. Mori serves as vice president of the organization. "Come to the exercise session," Mori was quoted as shouting at the victim's home. "You never cooperate even though I'm enthusiastically organizing the event." Mori then summoned the victim to his own home and hit him with a golf club, leaving him with injuries that took seven days to heal. (Mainichi)
So you think your community association is meddlesome? Count your blessings:
KANDA, Fukuoka -- A man was arrested Monday after assaulting a neighbor who refused to participate in a gymnastic exercise event organized by the neighborhood association, police said. Katsuya Mori, 34, a company employee of Kanda, stands accused of inflicting bodily injury and damaging property. The incident occurred on Aug. 1 this year. Mori visited a 35-year-old self-employed man's home in Kanda when he was drunk, and hit him, investigators said. Mori then hurled a concrete chunk at the victim's 5-year-old daughter and threatened to kill her. At the time, Mori criticized the neighbor for refusing to participate in a radio gymnastic exercise session for summer vacation organized by the neighborhood association. Mori serves as vice president of the organization. "Come to the exercise session," Mori was quoted as shouting at the victim's home. "You never cooperate even though I'm enthusiastically organizing the event." Mori then summoned the victim to his own home and hit him with a golf club, leaving him with injuries that took seven days to heal. (Mainichi)
Details on the NASA climate date correction
Thanks to Tom Skiba for this link to an article explaining that many of the hottest years on record occurred before WWII, contrary to what has been said many times about the hottest years being much more recent.
Thanks to Tom Skiba for this link to an article explaining that many of the hottest years on record occurred before WWII, contrary to what has been said many times about the hottest years being much more recent.
Bar association works to put softer, friendlier face on maligned profession
This is what I was talking about earlier in reference to CAI--a trade association that constantly works to improve the public image of its membership and the clients they serve. Here we have a professional association, the Allegheny County Bar Association, trying to improve the public image of its membership by hiring a flack--excuse me, a director of media and public relations--to change the way people perceive attorneys. Nothing wrong with trying to do that. It won't work, though, because people's minds are already made up. The big difference is that the bar association admits what it is doing, and CAI always seems somewhat reluctant to admit even the undeniable fact that it is a trade association, much less that, like every other trade association, it is trying to shape public perceptions.
This is what I was talking about earlier in reference to CAI--a trade association that constantly works to improve the public image of its membership and the clients they serve. Here we have a professional association, the Allegheny County Bar Association, trying to improve the public image of its membership by hiring a flack--excuse me, a director of media and public relations--to change the way people perceive attorneys. Nothing wrong with trying to do that. It won't work, though, because people's minds are already made up. The big difference is that the bar association admits what it is doing, and CAI always seems somewhat reluctant to admit even the undeniable fact that it is a trade association, much less that, like every other trade association, it is trying to shape public perceptions.
Townhall.com::A Bridge Too Far Gone::By Thomas Sowell
Here is a provocative piece by Thomas Sowell who says that the solution to deteriorating public infrastructure is to privatize it. I understand how the theory works: if there is profit in it, private investors do what is necessary to realize that profit, and that produces greater efficiency. He also trots out the age-old economists argument about the electoral incentives that lead politicians to spend our money in a self-serving fashion. Sometimes privatization saves money and improves service, and I would be first in line to advocate it for goods where pricing will work. That would likely be true where it is possible to prevent people from acquiring the good without paying, such as with bridge tolls, and where you don't have market failure, significant symbolic concerns, humanitarian issues, or externalities that militate in favor of public provision. But it seems that sometimes the incentives end up not being exactly what the economists envision. Deregulation of the savings and loan industry worked out a bit differently than planned. Do you like the way airline deregulation has worked out? And whenever people point out examples like this, the answer is that government was still a little bit involved, instead of being entirely excluded. So it seems like economists never will have to admit that privatization has failed, anywhere, until government goes away entirely. In other words, never.
In the case of the massive amount of private infrastructure we already have in CIDs, I think we are looking down the barrel of a major problem caused by incentive structures that favor inadequate reserves, an insufficient supply of quality volunteer leadership, and a number of professionals (by no means all of them) who are enriching themselves by focusing on their own interests rather than those of the communities they are supposed to be serving. But when it happens, watch the privatizers blame the whole thing on government regulation. And to some extent, there may well be truth in that argument at some point--but it will never be the whole problem.
Here is a provocative piece by Thomas Sowell who says that the solution to deteriorating public infrastructure is to privatize it. I understand how the theory works: if there is profit in it, private investors do what is necessary to realize that profit, and that produces greater efficiency. He also trots out the age-old economists argument about the electoral incentives that lead politicians to spend our money in a self-serving fashion. Sometimes privatization saves money and improves service, and I would be first in line to advocate it for goods where pricing will work. That would likely be true where it is possible to prevent people from acquiring the good without paying, such as with bridge tolls, and where you don't have market failure, significant symbolic concerns, humanitarian issues, or externalities that militate in favor of public provision. But it seems that sometimes the incentives end up not being exactly what the economists envision. Deregulation of the savings and loan industry worked out a bit differently than planned. Do you like the way airline deregulation has worked out? And whenever people point out examples like this, the answer is that government was still a little bit involved, instead of being entirely excluded. So it seems like economists never will have to admit that privatization has failed, anywhere, until government goes away entirely. In other words, never.
In the case of the massive amount of private infrastructure we already have in CIDs, I think we are looking down the barrel of a major problem caused by incentive structures that favor inadequate reserves, an insufficient supply of quality volunteer leadership, and a number of professionals (by no means all of them) who are enriching themselves by focusing on their own interests rather than those of the communities they are supposed to be serving. But when it happens, watch the privatizers blame the whole thing on government regulation. And to some extent, there may well be truth in that argument at some point--but it will never be the whole problem.
ICEHOTEL® From the Ice Age to the present
As a follow up to the Dubai ice bar story I blogged about, Mystery Reader has defrosted this story about an entire frozen hotel in Jukkasjärvi. You know where that is, of course? At least it was cold there to start with.
As a follow up to the Dubai ice bar story I blogged about, Mystery Reader has defrosted this story about an entire frozen hotel in Jukkasjärvi. You know where that is, of course? At least it was cold there to start with.
Bonfire of the Builders
Check out this week's print edition of Business Week for "Bonfire of the Builders." It shows how "the rush by builders into mortgage lending only exacerbated the current housing mess." There is also a companion article on the increase in construction defect and related claims by owners. Seems there are two owner organizations on the web: HomeOwners for Better Building and Homeowners Against Deficient Dwellings. I wonder whether the construction defect owners and the HOA advocates will ever decide to join forces. If you put them together with seniors and consumer advocates, you would really have a powerful movement. But the problem is always that people want to be the head of their own organization and focus on their own particular issues.
Check out this week's print edition of Business Week for "Bonfire of the Builders." It shows how "the rush by builders into mortgage lending only exacerbated the current housing mess." There is also a companion article on the increase in construction defect and related claims by owners. Seems there are two owner organizations on the web: HomeOwners for Better Building and Homeowners Against Deficient Dwellings. I wonder whether the construction defect owners and the HOA advocates will ever decide to join forces. If you put them together with seniors and consumer advocates, you would really have a powerful movement. But the problem is always that people want to be the head of their own organization and focus on their own particular issues.
Death drops scythe, adopts 'softer' look - World - brisbanetimes.com.au
As any good public relations person can tell you, there is nothing like an image makeover.
As any good public relations person can tell you, there is nothing like an image makeover.
Sunday, August 12, 2007
Fathers Create Bulletproof Backpacks - News Story - WCVB Boston
Attorney David Kahne and I were talking over the phone a couple of weeks ago and he said he was concerned about an apparent willingness of Americans to give up liberty to get more of a sense of security. I see his point. Look at the changes in our culture over the last couple of decades: gated communities, street corner surveillance cameras, increased government power to eavesdrop on communications, greater police power to search and arrest and detain, and now...bulletproof kiddie backpacks.
Attorney David Kahne and I were talking over the phone a couple of weeks ago and he said he was concerned about an apparent willingness of Americans to give up liberty to get more of a sense of security. I see his point. Look at the changes in our culture over the last couple of decades: gated communities, street corner surveillance cameras, increased government power to eavesdrop on communications, greater police power to search and arrest and detain, and now...bulletproof kiddie backpacks.
Foreclosures may spur price drops: On L.A.'s edges, soaring repossessions could set off a downward spiral. - Los Angeles Times
Can't get worse, you say? Think again. So says the LA Times. And consider that this is mostly new housing on the urban fringe, meaning mainly CIDs. So, if people are defaulting on their mortgages, what is happening to the coffers of their HOAs? I realize the associations have liens for unpaid assessments, but it seems that generally speaking there isn't a lot of equity to go around, and you can't get blood from a stone.
Major lenders are repossessing homes in Southern California much faster than they can sell them, a development that could set off a downward spiral of price cuts and more foreclosures. At some point -- maybe this fall, maybe in 2008 -- the lenders' inventories will grow so large that they will have no choice but to start aggressively cutting prices, many agents and analysts predict. That, in turn, will put more pressure on individual sellers, who will have to reduce their own prices if they want to find a buyer. As values fall, more people could lose their homes, which would swell the lenders' inventories anew.
Can't get worse, you say? Think again. So says the LA Times. And consider that this is mostly new housing on the urban fringe, meaning mainly CIDs. So, if people are defaulting on their mortgages, what is happening to the coffers of their HOAs? I realize the associations have liens for unpaid assessments, but it seems that generally speaking there isn't a lot of equity to go around, and you can't get blood from a stone.
Major lenders are repossessing homes in Southern California much faster than they can sell them, a development that could set off a downward spiral of price cuts and more foreclosures. At some point -- maybe this fall, maybe in 2008 -- the lenders' inventories will grow so large that they will have no choice but to start aggressively cutting prices, many agents and analysts predict. That, in turn, will put more pressure on individual sellers, who will have to reduce their own prices if they want to find a buyer. As values fall, more people could lose their homes, which would swell the lenders' inventories anew.
Dare's role in Pastures cost association $100,000 - Albany NY
Another property manager financial scandal, this one from New York, unearthed by Fred Pilot:
ALBANY -- An advocate for the Historic Pastures Homeowners Association, which lost more than $100,000 in association dues from the mismanagement of the properties by Aaron R. Dare, said federal authorities have refused to identify the group as a crime victim, weakening their efforts to obtain restitution. Dare, 38, who bought the properties in August 2002 as part of an illicit $8 million scheme, defaulted on the mortgage shortly after it was approved. Still, he continued collecting rents, association dues and rent deposits, and had instructed his property managers to encourage tenants to pay their various fees in cash, according to federal court records and people who worked for him.
Another property manager financial scandal, this one from New York, unearthed by Fred Pilot:
ALBANY -- An advocate for the Historic Pastures Homeowners Association, which lost more than $100,000 in association dues from the mismanagement of the properties by Aaron R. Dare, said federal authorities have refused to identify the group as a crime victim, weakening their efforts to obtain restitution. Dare, 38, who bought the properties in August 2002 as part of an illicit $8 million scheme, defaulted on the mortgage shortly after it was approved. Still, he continued collecting rents, association dues and rent deposits, and had instructed his property managers to encourage tenants to pay their various fees in cash, according to federal court records and people who worked for him.
Charlotte Observer | 08/11/2007 | Everything's made of ice at Dubai bar
Hey, they got your answer to global warming right here...
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates --
Outside it was a sticky 111 degrees, but Ali Hamdan was shivering under two parkas as he sipped hot chocolate, surrounded by tables and chairs made of ice. Chillout, its owners say, is the Middle East's first ice lounge - the latest venture in this desert Gulf emirate, which has been transformed by a mania for the biggest, first or most outlandish.
Hey, they got your answer to global warming right here...
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates --
Outside it was a sticky 111 degrees, but Ali Hamdan was shivering under two parkas as he sipped hot chocolate, surrounded by tables and chairs made of ice. Chillout, its owners say, is the Middle East's first ice lounge - the latest venture in this desert Gulf emirate, which has been transformed by a mania for the biggest, first or most outlandish.
Micro-managing the common man: Elites vs. humanity
Here is a right-wing ideological rant on the expansion of government at every level that includes HOAs as one of the enemies of individual freedom. Seems that HOAs are brought to you by the United Nations. Who knew? And she is still supporting Alan Keyes for President, even after he ran the worst Senate campaign in American history here in Illinois, against Barack Obama.
Private property, according to the United Nations, must only be in the hands of government. Private property ownership is to be disallowed on a global basis. This is the reason for homeowner associations, gated communities, private policing forces inside of homeowner associations and gated communities, condo living, etc. When you buy a house inside any of the above, you do not own the land upon which the house sits. You are therefore totally and completely at the mercy of your "association" rules and regulations, and you may, in fact, lose your homes for failure to follow whatever rules are set into place. So, on top of the private policing forces which exist to enforce the rules of the association (which means to control you), you are also vulnerable to the whims, desires, and prejudices of your homeowner association boards. Even though you bought your homes, you can be forced to leave by "consensus," which actually means by the opinion of those in power who happen to have armed back-up in the personage of private and armed policing forces. And once again, the United Nations, in a document called Agenda 21, states that all nations are to "relocate" their populations into "human settlements." Your homeowner associations are "human settlements," and you are totally controlled within these settlements — controlled by private policing forces and their association board consensus-crats. Welcome to the American version of Communist sectors. Welcome to Communitarian government.
Here is a right-wing ideological rant on the expansion of government at every level that includes HOAs as one of the enemies of individual freedom. Seems that HOAs are brought to you by the United Nations. Who knew? And she is still supporting Alan Keyes for President, even after he ran the worst Senate campaign in American history here in Illinois, against Barack Obama.
Private property, according to the United Nations, must only be in the hands of government. Private property ownership is to be disallowed on a global basis. This is the reason for homeowner associations, gated communities, private policing forces inside of homeowner associations and gated communities, condo living, etc. When you buy a house inside any of the above, you do not own the land upon which the house sits. You are therefore totally and completely at the mercy of your "association" rules and regulations, and you may, in fact, lose your homes for failure to follow whatever rules are set into place. So, on top of the private policing forces which exist to enforce the rules of the association (which means to control you), you are also vulnerable to the whims, desires, and prejudices of your homeowner association boards. Even though you bought your homes, you can be forced to leave by "consensus," which actually means by the opinion of those in power who happen to have armed back-up in the personage of private and armed policing forces. And once again, the United Nations, in a document called Agenda 21, states that all nations are to "relocate" their populations into "human settlements." Your homeowner associations are "human settlements," and you are totally controlled within these settlements — controlled by private policing forces and their association board consensus-crats. Welcome to the American version of Communist sectors. Welcome to Communitarian government.
Las Vegas SUN: Will anyone see the (solar) light?
Fred Pilot sent this story about how HOAs are not exactly jumping on the Al Gore eco-friendly bandwagon:
Even as a wave of green washes over America, as Al Gore wins an Oscar and Congress talks climate change, the sun gets so little respect. Even though it's been powering satellites and calculators for decades, solar technology is still a hard sell. Just ask Janie Lynn, president of Las Vegas -based Lighting and Electronic Designs Inc. - the company that designed the solar-powered running lights on the Luxor. Her company is trying to persuade valley homeowners associations that use costly decorative gas lamps to replace them with solar ones.
Fred Pilot sent this story about how HOAs are not exactly jumping on the Al Gore eco-friendly bandwagon:
Even as a wave of green washes over America, as Al Gore wins an Oscar and Congress talks climate change, the sun gets so little respect. Even though it's been powering satellites and calculators for decades, solar technology is still a hard sell. Just ask Janie Lynn, president of Las Vegas -based Lighting and Electronic Designs Inc. - the company that designed the solar-powered running lights on the Luxor. Her company is trying to persuade valley homeowners associations that use costly decorative gas lamps to replace them with solar ones.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)