Hoo, boy, I’ve got several reactions to this story. First is disgust. This dirtball spent six months secretly video taping his bedroom romps with his girl friend. When the relationship developed some cracks he paid her back by sending tapes to her co-workers.
He also sent those naughty pictures out to the Homeowners Association! He’ll probably get off with a warning.
I can already hear his argument in court: “Your Honor, my actions were no more insidious than what’s done in Homeowners Associations across the country! Look, they’re all flying drones to peek into backyard hot tubs and bedroom windows and they pass those videos around the HOA board. HOAs are all about shaming homeowners for breaking the rules.
This girl broke my rules so I shamed her. But that’s what our neighborhood teaches us to do.”
Depending on whose pocket the judge’s fingers are in, this guy could actually win.
I have no idea if what’s linked below is the real deal. It’s posted by the Smithsonian Magazine which tends to give it some credibility. I’d feel more comfortable if this had been posted on an April Fools Day. But it’s a hilarious look at what life might have been like in a Homeowners Association in Britain in 1365.
Today, while driving to the Post Office in my old Denver neighborhood, I passed a little girl’s lemonade stand. She couldn’t have been more than eight years old but she was shouting at motorists like a professional carnival barker. Had I not been in traffic I would have pulled over and bought a cup. In fact, I may even go back tomorrow to see if she’s still there.
It brought back childhood memories of life at Ft. Sam Houston, Texas, where our home was located immediately across the street from a ball field where Army soldiers played softball every weekend. Mom taught us how to make and sell something she called ‘duros.’ It might have been a totally made-up name. I never knew. But a duro was Kool-Aid in a Dixie cup, a Popsicle stick in the center, frozen hard in our big basement freezer. In the hot Texas sun the softball teams lined up to buy duros from my little brother and me.
The coincidence of seeing today’s news story linked below was remarkable. An Overton, Texas cop has put a little girl’s lemonade stand out of business because she didn’t have a permit.
I’m glad I grew up in a more innocent age when political correctness wasn’t used to beat up little kids.
These stories are nauseating. Here’s another California Homeowners Association which has decided that kids are ‘Satan’s Spawn’ and need to be harassed out of the neighborhood. It’s understandable that HOA boards want kids to be safe. But I drive around neighborhoods all day long and see basketball hoops and skateboards and hockey nets. There’s rarely a story of any kid being hit in a neighborhood.
We’ve done enough in the PC world to screw up our kids’ heads. I’d far rather see kids playing basketball than getting fat playing video games.
Fie on the Whitney Oaks Community Association in Rocklin, California. Fie. Yes, I know that’s a little archaic. But it just feels good to say.
Zillionare FaceBook founder Mark Zuckerberg is trying to start his own HOA in Palo Alto, California. He just doesn’t want anyone else to live there except him.
Understandably, when Zuckerberg built his own mansion he wanted some privacy and bought up all the homes around him. He can afford to toss around 38 million bucks. But he’s being sued by a couple who claim they were conned into selling their property at too low a price to a ‘mystery’ corporation that turned out to be Zuckerberg.
I sympathize with this billionaire wanting some privacy and security. He’s probably got more stalkers and paparazzi than George Clooney. But with his wealth why would you subject yourself to the incredible invasion of privacy that happens during depositions and court testimony? To Zuckerberg, 1.7 million dollars is pocket change. Pay these reptilians off and get on with life!
