Jeff German of the Las Vegas Review Journal is one of the few who’s done ongoing stellar work in reporting on the massive Nevada HOA scandal. If there are still any skeptics in America who think I’ve been exaggerating about the American HOA Movement being rife with old fashioned organized crime, then please follow German’s reporting.
Here’s his latest:
original source:
Governor Rick Perry talks frequently about how tort reform in Texas has turned around a medical malpractice crisis.
Possibly it did work. But after reading the article linked below, ask yourself if deceptive HOA fines, liens and foreclosures in Texas shouldn’t attract the same kind of reform?
Texas is one of the top states where the HOA system has deprived homeowners of fundamental Constitutional rights.
I used to live in Texas. In fact, I grew up with the ‘Blue Book’ which was required reading for all Texas elementary school students. It taught Texas kids to be proud of their state’s revolutionary heritage and to question authority. Back then it was a thing of pride to be a Texan. But that was before the HOA Movement put millions of Texas homeowners in a death grip.
If you know someone who lives in a Texas HOA, ask him or her if they’ve observed out-of-control HOA boards and ridiculous fines and lawsuits. Or give them to link to my blog from last night about the San Antonio man who’s facing $200,000 in fines and legal fees for not keeping his grass short enough.
Come on, Governor Perry. Do the right thing! Get your HOA lawyers under control, too!
original source:
http://www.statesman.com/news/news/opinion/rollins-tort-reform-sparked-texas-miracle/nWzRP/
By Guest Blogger, Nila Ridings
A 90 year old French man who found himself suddenly widowed has turned to some novel advertising for a new “dame.” He’s posted a plywood sign in his garden asking for volunteers. I’ve heard of internet dating and mail order brides, but if this works it could turn into an interesting trend.
It wouldn’t work in this country, though, since American Homeowner Associations ban advertising of any kind.
On second thought, maybe this fellow should consider moving to my sister’s HOA in California? She tells me that every time a woman in the neighborhood passes away the local “casserole ladies” swoop in like buzzards on road kill. The “casserole ladies” obviously have to keep their freezers well-stocked, but no plywood signs would be needed.
Of course, in America putting up a lonely hearts sign would probably get this poor widower fined, liened and foreclosed upon before he had a ghost of a chance of meeting anyone new.
Maybe the French actually do have an easier life than those of us on this side of the pond?
(original source)
Yes, indeed, certain Homeowners Associations are actually doing unannounced mandatory inspections for hoarding. Among the items not to be hoarded are books! Scary, isn’t it?
I have to make a confession here. I hoard books. I still own just about every book I ever read. None are piled on the floor, but my shelves are packed. Somehow, I just thought my grandkids might someday wonder how their old grandpa got the nutty ideas in his head for some of the directions in life he took.
My mother was a wise old bird. She had a ‘secret compartment’ on her shelves that held some books my brothers and I were forbidden from reading. Of course, as soon as I discovered the ‘secret section’ I made a good inventory and went back as often as I dared. So at the age of ten, I started making my way through a number of naughty writers like Ayn Rand, Gore Vidal, D.H. Lawrence and Aldous Huxley. I don’t remember many turned down pages, but I do remember that Ape And Essence was kind of titillating,
Among the forbidden books were some by James Madison and Charles Dickens. Ah yes, there was also a book called Fahrenheit 451.
It was about people who hoard such things as books. And the local HOA squad goes out and torches the illegal collections.
In my forty year career as a news reporter, I’ve walked into hundreds, perhaps even thousands of homes. Some were clean. Some were not. But in all those years I never saw anyone’s book collection that should have been confiscated.
Hoarding is a problem. But isn’t it the wildest form of arrogance for a private non-profit corporation known as a Homeowners Association to do surprise inspections and make random decisions about what is and isn’t ‘hoarding’? I don’t like mice. Or termites. But just keep your hands off my books!
These words were once penned by one of the mightiest men in our movement. Understand, of course, there are still miles to go before we sleep. But read, Dear Friend, and take heart.
In the beginning
There was the land,
And the land was good
And the people were happy.
Soon upon the land
Came the moneychangers
In the guise of builders
Of the community.
And the moneychangers said
Behold, the covenants, conditions and restrictions
Were sacred and holy works,
And the people shall flourish and prosper.
And the legislature looked upon these CC&Rs
And said they were sacred and holy,
And that land values shall multiply ten-fold,
And the people shall flourish and prosper.
But the moneychangers were not content,
Seeking laws that forced the people
Against their judgment and wishes
Into mandated planned communities.
Soon, the multitude became angry at their plight,
Yet the moneychangers and legislature
Cast the people into involuntary servitudes
With continued tithes while disputes went unresolved.
The child-like people, seeking paradise
on earth and the gates of heaven,
Were not permitted audiences
With the magistrates.
And so the multitude suffered
A long and terrible time,
Praying for a savior one day
To deliver them from their existence.
One sect sought the accommodation
With the ruling powers and moneychangers.
Another sought a cleansing
Of an unworkable oppression upon the people.
Those seeking accommodation held fast to their desires
To see their fortunes on earth multiply ten-fold,
And that all such plans were good and just,
For the land values increased for all the community.
But many saw the desecration of the beliefs, values and ideals
Of the founders of the Great Nation that covered the land,
Saying behold the society that thou hast created,
Where Me First has replaced Love Thy Neighbor.
A babble of communities arose
By the followers of the moneychangers,
With beliefs, values and ideals of the Old Ways,
Once rejected by the Founders of the Great Nation.
Woe unto the followers of the moneychangers
For the sins of the fathers shall be cast upon the sons.
Repent now and restore the beliefs, values and ideals
Of the Great Nation and make the land good once again.
