Category Archives: beekeeping

Outlaw Gardens!

It’s amazing to read the hundreds of stories about neighbors who’ve been fined, sued, liened or foreclosed for the simple crime of planting some vegetables somewhere around the house. HOAs hate any kind of plant that’s edible. And planting a cucumber or other veggie can actually end up costing you your house. Welcome to HOA Amerika!

So it’s kind of fun to see that there really is a growing movement called Outlaw Gardens. How to have a vegetable garden without the local lawn Nazi knowing about it.

I’ll link to one of the sites below, but please understand that this isn’t a be-all end-all solution for you. Some of these lawn Nazis are so intrusive that you still can get busted. And remember that most HOAs have approve of any and all of your landscaping changes. So have fun. But just be cautious!

http://tinyurl.com/m6mmfy8

 

CAI Organizes to Lobby Congress!

One of the most articulate, knowledgeable Homeowners Rights advocates in America is Arizona’s George Staropoli. When he makes a prediction you can bet on it. In his current blog, linked below, he says the Community Associations Institute (CAI) is turning its massive lobbying arm into a lobbying effort specifically targeting the U.S. Congress.

CAI is an extremely deceptive organization that turns George Orwell’s Animal Farm on its head. Up is down and down is up, good is bad and bad is good, all animals are equal but some animals are more equal than others. CAI is drowning Congressmen and Senators in the blatant lie that it represents the ‘collective’ rights and interests of all homeowners.

CAI’s website has a more honest depiction of its own organization. It says it represents 44 billion dollars worth of American real estate. What CAI will NEVER tell you is:

     the billions of dollars in fines against homeowners it has encouraged or precipitated,

     the hundreds of thousands of American homeowners it has helped bankrupt,

     the massive numbers of embezzlements from Homeowners Associations by HOA insiders,

     the numbers of murders and suicides precipitated after raw harrassment of homeowners,

     the billions and billions of dollars in HOA dues and homeowners’ legal fees it helped divert to private pockets,

     the complete fabrication that HOAs protect and preserve property value.

During the years of prohibition, Al Capone and his cronies made a fortune in illegal activities surrounding the illegal importation of alcohol. His corruption and his ability to corrupt public figures led to the explosion of La Cosa Nostra. Our Thing. The Mafia. It would be outrageous to think of such an organized crime effort creating a legal lobbying arm to twist the arms and the minds of the dimwits in Congress.

But anyone who takes a closer look at the Community Associations Institute will see how it got its start as a public ‘education’ organization, and then twisted itself into a private lobbying group that made massive profits referring HOA matters to its own ‘preferred’ phalanx of lawyers and service providers. If you’re anywhere close to the CAI, you’re going to get rich. Money from the pockets of dismayed homeowners will pour directly into yours.

CAI won’t tell you that dozens of its members or affiliates were indicted, arrested, committed ‘suicide’, or are facing racketeering charges in the current federal investigation in Las Vegas.

CAI won’t tell you that.

But I will.

And our movement is growing.

http://tinyurl.com/lv3fxhh

Another ‘Best’ HOA Bill Of Rights

Regular readers of this blog know that I never brag. And I’m never one to offer hyperbole. <smirk>

But I think MY proposed Homeowners Bill of Rights is the best one out there. It reads simply:

“All Homeowners Associations are governments, subject to all constraints in the U.S. Constitution.”

Enough said.

 

For Today? Just A Definition To Mull Over

The following definition is taken directly from the FBI Glossary. No further comment is necessary.

Organized Crime

The FBI defines organized crime as any group having some manner of a formalized structure and whose primary objective is to obtain money through illegal activities. Such groups maintain their position through the use of actual or threatened violence, corrupt public officials, graft, or extortion, and generally have a significant impact on the people in their locales, region, or the country as a whole.

http://www.fbi.gov/about-us/investigate/organizedcrime/glossary

 

Darcy Spears Pitches A No-Hitter

Yes, it’s one, two, three strikes you’re out…..

And for a third time, Darcy Spears of KTNV TV has gone to the Southern Highlands Country Club area and learned it’s a community of frightened homeowners with a leadership of gangster-minded bullies. Maybe that just comes naturally for people who move to Las Vegas: Find out how to join the Mob! In her latest HOA Hall of Shame report she tries to locate the skunks who are trying to chase a black man out of the neighborhood.

Even though Louis Washington is one of the original residents of Southern Highlands, the HOA is demanding that he plant a couple of trees in his yard. Never mind that the country club just behind Washington’s house, has a few trees that clearly look like they’re dying, this monstrous HOA tyrant wants the homeowner to plant a tree right in front of his picture window, or they’ll fine him out of existence.

Darcy says this is the third time Southern Highlands has been on her Hall of Shame report, Readers of my book, Neighbors At War already know about Southern Highlands for the way it treats black families. Just go back and re-read chapter eight where I document the shameful history of Homeowners Associations and minorities. Southern Highlands is featured. In 2006, Troy McMullen, a reporter for The Wall Street Journal Online did an investigative story on how blacks are treated at Southern Highlands. It was called “Trouble in Paradise: Minorities Report Bias in Vacation areas.”

Some people just have no shame.

They’re too ignorant to have shame.

 http://tinyurl.com/mbcbgog

 One footnote: the management company which runs Southern Highlands brags that it sends out a thousand violation notices per month. Am I wrong, or does that sound a little fascist to you?