Well, I’ll cover all kinds of subjects on this blog, even if it sometimes turns my stomach.
Ilya Shapiro and Trevor Burrus Share are smart enough people. Like the rest of us, they’ve watched the rise of private gated communities and Homeowners Associations. And as representatives of the Cato Institute, they’ve filed a fascinating Friends-of-the-Court brief against the federal government under the ‘takings clause’ in the Fifth Amendment.
With the national tragedy that is the death of a 17 year old boy at the hands of an HOA neighborhood watch volunteer, it’s only fair to examine why this case was prosecuted at all. As noted by this blogger before, there are many tragedies in this case, not the least of which is the killing of a boy on a rainy night as he zig-zagged through an unfamiliar neighborhood.
Still, the elements for a successful prosecution of the neighborhood watchman were never there. They were never, ever there. And exculpatory evidence that should have freed George Zimmerman immediately, was illegally withheld from defense attorneys.
How the heck did we lose all our freedoms in this country? When did it happen? Did it begin with Political Correctness? Is it an actual political movement, or just what happens when a government grows too big? I have no answers. But I do have the ability sometimes to point to a bureaucracy gone nutz.
Alfred and Annette Rockefeller of Ramsey, New Jersey were shocked to discover they were criminals because they had installed a bird feeder in their yard. A simple birdfeeder. Not a mass wildlife feeding center, just a bird feeder.
Guest blog by Nila Ridings
I recently spent eight long days in Wichita at the federal courthouse observing the pre-trial hearing of an HOA lawsuit where a Homeowners Association board member attacked and severely beat a homeowner with a crow bar! These six photos, taken at the hospital, show the viciousness of the attack.
It seems the homeowner discovered work being done on a neighbor’s condo that also happens to belong to the mother of an HOA board member. While others had been on a long waiting list to have their work orders completed, the board member opted to make his mother’s condo top priority over everyone else. The homeowner took his camera and phone to the nearby common area and proceeded to document this “special treatment.”
No army can operate without generals, officers and foot soldiers. It’s the foot soldiers who are thrown into battle and suffer the most injuries and fatalities.
My father, a Lt. Colonel who commanded a tank battalion in Europe in 1945, was massively wounded when a bazooka hit his tank in the German town of Kaiserslautern.
All his life we kids asked him questions about being an officer in the military and what the experience was like. He refused to answer those questions, always referring to the heroism of foot soldiers who paid the highest price in the war to defeat facism. His biggest love in life was the common soldier who fought on the front lines.
