Category Archives: beekeeping

Please Make This Kansas Story Go Viral!

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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.”

The board member saw him taking pictures while looking out his condo window, grabbed a crowbar from his garage and started clobbering the camera holding homeowner. The homeowner did not fight back. Obviously, one man was taken to the hospital by ambulance and the other went to jail!

Surprisingly, the District Attorney declined to press charges. The injured homeowner proceeded to file a civil suit in federal court. And as bizarre as this sounds, the HOA members, not their insurance company, are paying all the legal bills because the board member claims his actions were part of his “official duties” as a board member. The legal bills are already estimated at more than $200,000 and the case hasn’t even gone to trial yet!

The homeowner who was beaten began sending emails expressing his anger and frustration with the board of director’s conduct. He did not send any to the defendant. He admitted to the judge that it wasn’t one of his better moments when he attached the somewhat crude “Revenge Song” by Miles Betterman. The HOA board’s legal team actually played that YouTube song in the courtroom, claiming it amounted to a “death threat” to a board member. Give me a break!

The board is seeking a court-ordered injunction to take away this HOA member’s First Amendment rights to communicate with his neighbors. The board also created an HOA “no call” list and they fine this homeowner $100 for every email he sends. The U.S. Constitution be damned!

The community is divided with supporters and haters on both sides. This community has been plagued with lawsuits causing property values to plummet. Even more dramatic, the HOA members have installed security cameras aimed at every nook and cranny of this neighbor’s condo. They even have them installed in their cars!

One other interesting note: While being interrogated about life in this Kansas Homeowners Association, the board member on the stand was asked about a suicide committed by a female resident of the HOA. The woman reportedly had told neighbors she could no longer take the harassment from this particular board member. She hanged herself from a tree right next to the entrance sign to this HOA. I was stunned: When questioned under oath about this tragedy, the board member chuckled.

Dear Readers, let me take you by the shoulders and shake you until you totally understand the madness that’s happening in American HOA neighborhoods!!! “Love thy neighbor” is a completely dead commandment when it comes to life in an HOA!

Insanity!

I cringe to think of the special assessments these HOA homeowners are going to have to fork over when the dust clears. If this homeowner wins a sizeable lawsuit over the crowbar beating or the invasion of his privacy….put a fork in it…this HOA is done!

This story is so sickening, that I’d like to close with the only amusing part of the pre-trial hearing. It involved the HOA attorney and happened on Day 2.

The HOA attorney is very large with a girth that rivals that of Governor Chris Christy. Can you envision that image? While standing at the lectern and questioning a witness his suspenders came loose letting his pants drop down to the floor on one side while he was gripping the other and still questioning the witness. The judge didn’t see it, but those of us in the gallery sure did! Priceless! I nearly burst my lungs trying to keep from laughing out loud!

(Editor’s note:)

Please help this story go viral. Every homeowner in America should read it. Send it to everyone on your email list and ask them to do the same. Send it to your friends, and make the same request to keep it moving throughout our country.

I’m including a link to the song that was actually played as evidence in this Federal Court of law in the case described above. If you are easily offended DO NOT click on the link. If, however, you do listen to the song, just keep in mind that it was introduced into the U.S. District Court record by a well-known Kansas Homeowners Association and its attorneys and is now part of the official court record. Actually, this song could eventually become the national anthem for the anti-HOA movement. Bizarre.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=my7sxZ0KfHU

Hanging The Flag

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A neighborhood in Pendleton, Oregon is furious with a homeowner who’s begun flying his flag upside down as a protest against President Barack Obama. The upside down flag is recognized internationally as a symbol of distress.

Oregon has long been one of the most left-leaning states in the country and it’s full of Homeowners Associations. The surprising thing is that an Oregon neighborhood is protesting any display of the American flag at all, right side up or upside down. While this blogger takes no public position, left or right, on politics, he still believes that American citizens have a Constitutional right to Freedom of Speech. And historically that means freedom of expression, even if the way a belief is expressed nauseates others.

We’ll see what happens in this case. But this kind of display of the American flag usually ends up in lawsuits, liens, foreclosures, or even violence.

Our Supreme Court has recognized that citizens have a right to desecrate Old Glory. That couldn’t happen in some countries. I find it interesting that in certain totalitarian regimes like Cuba it’s impossible to fly the flag upside down. It looks the same either way. That has to have been an intentional design by a country that didn’t want its citizens putting out calls of distress.

If an official flag is ever designed to fly over HOA Amerika it will also have to have a design that can’t be flown upside down, sort of like the all-white flag of surrender.

Just a few random musings on a dull afternoon.

http://tinyurl.com/lf2eq8a

original source:

http://seattle.cbslocal.com/2013/06/03/oregon-man-flying-american-flag-upside-down-to-protest-obama-presidency/

My Book’s Declining Price

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LOL! I have no idea how Amazon used book sellers work. But it’s only fair to note that TSC books apparently feels my book isn’t as saleable as it was a few weeks ago. Initially, TSC said a used copy of my book (in perfect condition) was available for 735 dollars. That made me laugh, of course. Sadly, they’ve downgraded the price of a used copy of Neighbors At War to just 555 dollars.

Funny. For that price I’d still fly to your city, drive to your home, and personally autograph the book!

Ah yes, I’d also personally feed your dog and water your lawn!

Have a great Father’s Day!

Bieber Bashing!

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This one is actually kind of funny. Justin Bieber is apparently not well-liked by many of his neighbors. The singing sensation lives in the ritzy neighborhood of Calabasas, California, where homeowners pay $1000 a month in HOA dues.

But the teenager’s antics, including loud and late parties, driving like a maniac and threatening other homeowners are causing a neighborhood revolt. Neighbors have repeatedly demanded that HOA officials take some kind of action. Even Sheriff’s deputies are demanding that the D.A. charge Bieber with assault and battery.

Now, the revolt has escalated to the point that a number of homeowners are refusing to pay their thousand-buck-a-month dues until the HOA takes action.

It’s amusing. Not paying your HOA dues is a serious crime in HOA Amerika, even more serious than late parties, speeding and assault. So these neighbors have all decided to become even worse criminals than Bieber is.

Hypocrisy?

Yup.

http://tinyurl.com/lvcfc8t

original source:

http://www.irishexaminer.com/breakingnews/entertainment/neighbours-want-home-owners-association-to-act-against-bieber-596428.html

Words of Great Wisdom

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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.

And the Land Shall Be Made Good Again

George K. Staropoli

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.

And the Land Shall Be Made Good Again

George K. Staropoli

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