Some stories are just too weird to embellish, even for the sake of humor. But the U.S. Senate seat from Iowa may boil down to a neighborhood dispute over chickens.
Democratic Congressman Bruce Braley is running for Senate in a razor thin race. Braley has a vacation home in the ritzy Holiday Lake neighborhood in Brooklyn, Iowa. Covenants in the neighborhood say, “No animals or birds other than household pets can be kept in the subdivision.” But one of Braley’s neighbors (also a registered Democrat) keeps chickens on her property as ‘therapy animals’ for mentally handicapped youngsters.
The chickens apparently strayed into the Braley’s yard and litigation was threatened. The owner of the chickens tried to make amends with a gift of eggs, but the Braleys wouldn’t have any part of that.
Now, there’s a hot new Iowa Republican attack ad with some talking chickens making fun of Braley’s threatened lawsuit. You can read the rest of the details at the links below, but the story is just too ridiculous for words.
If the balance of power in the U.S. Senate shifts in this election, finally, FINALLY folks in Congress might start talking about the idiocy and meanness of neighborhood disputes in Homeowners Associations.
Here are some crooks who desperately need to be shut down, so spread the word on this scam to everyone you know.
I just had the most incredible scam caller on my private phone line. By his accent, the guy was obviously from India. He said he was from Windows and that my computer and my website were constantly mailing out error messages to the Windows company. I played along and acted dumb as long as I could. The caller eventually hung up, but he was a very gifted scammer. I searched online to see if others had received a similar phone call and I pulled up the following article:
My experience was identical to that of the author of this article. This is apparently a huge world wide scam, and it’s quite convincing so avoid it like the plague.
BTW, if you don’t want to click on the link (which is obviously wise) here’s the following search string I ran on Google: strange call windows event viewer
It will pull up the same article I’ve linked above.
Feel free to send anyone you know the link to tonight’s post on the Neighbors At War site. Heck, it might even generate some new readers for our regular fare.
“Lawyers representing the HOA and Banyan Property Management said in a statement that they are trying to verify the medical conditions of the Halpern children as well as to verify whether Wilbur qualifies as a service or emotional support animal.”
This comment really disturbs me. Why is it okay for the HOA and property manager’s attorneys to delve into the medical conditions of these children? That’s what we have pediatricians for!!! And what happened to privacy policies regarding medical records? Exactly where is the stopping point for HOAs when it comes to invading your life and privacy?
One child has been diagnosed with Asperger’s Syndrome and both have ADHD. Wilbur is part of their therapy. He calms them. But he sure does not calm the board at Cypress Woods! They want the family’s pet pot-bellied pig out!
It’s been many years now since pot-bellied pigs first became family pets. I remember calling on some clients who had two of them. Those pigs were so smart and did the funniest things! I certainly learned from that experience they can be entertaining and loving animals and just as trainable as a dog.
Do these HOAs really think they only have cats and dogs living inside their communities? Are they ignorant enough to think people don’t have snakes, reptiles, and birds…and who knows what other living creatures inside the four walls of their homes? I would much prefer a pot-bellied pig next door than to have a snake get out of it’s cage and crawl up into our adjoined attic! And I’d be fine with some chickens as long as there are no roosters… especially if the neighbors shared some eggs once in awhile.
Nobody has stated how Wilbur is disturbing the neighbors. Or is he disturbing anybody other than the board members? Has he chewed up the HOA’s flower beds? Does he go wild when the neighbors are frying their breakfast bacon? What exactly is he doing that is causing such a ruckus? Or is it just a matter of the HOA having rules that don’t exclude pot-bellied pigs? Mrs. Halpern was trying so hard not to break the rules. I guess she just hasn’t learned yet that she can be fined for wearing the wrong color eye-shadow to the HOA meeting if the board decides to fine her! HOAs have literally become about that ridiculous!
I wish the Halpern’s the best in their battle to save Wilbur, so I signed the petition in hopes it will help. Their boys love Wilbur and he’s well-cared for so that should be all that matters!
I swear, I’ve gotta quit doing stories about outrageous treatment of the American Flag, there are just too many of them. I could get stuck doing 12 or 15 stories a day. Still, I feel duty-bound to at least occasionally tell you when the latest cretin is pushing around his weight after having been given new power over other homeowners.
The latest victim of a flag outrage is a retired veteran named Larry Murphree of the Tides Condominium at Sweetwater, Jacksonville, Florida. It’s actually just a small flag that he placed in a flower pot on his porch. You can barely see it. It’s sticking in the flowerpot behind the right porch rail in the photo below. He’s been fined $8000 before and he got it settled in court.
After his court victory, Larry replaced the flag. And once again he’s being sued for $8000 and confiscation of his home. Here’s a very tight shot to show you a real good closeup of this tiny flag.
“It’s worth fighting for,” says Larry. “It’s a small flag but it stands for a big thank you and it shows the love and respect I have for my country.”
Larry, a little advice here from someone who knows. It’s not about the flag. It’s about a brain chemical called Oxytocin. If you don’t know about it look it up. When a chimpanzee of either sex is placed in a cage with a bunch of other chimps at the zoo, there’s an immediate disturbance. The new chimp races around the enclosure showing off his or her ‘equipment’, spraying the cage, making other chimps a little frightful of his or her prowess. Jane Goodall spent a lifetime studying this kind of behavior in all kinds of primates.
Larry, you’re being victimized by a new board member who thinks his or her virility is a little more chemically tinged than yours. Or maybe this board member wants you to think his or her influence among the weaker members of the tribe will carry more weight on the evolutionary scale. Whether you’re an evolutionist or not, you cannot deny that chimpanzees share approximately 96% percent of their DNA with humans. They (and orangutans) are our closest relatives. In so many ways, they’re a lot like us and we can learn from them. Your flag fight is not about patriotism. It’s about simianism. It’s about oxytocin. It’s about sex.
All science aside, there’s perhaps a bit of usable truth here. Spread this blog far and wide around the Tides At Sweetwater condominium complex. Without putting yourself in a slander trap, figure out which tiny dickensonian creature has been causing you all this misery. The good women of the Tides at Sweetwater know that as a veteran you probably came from good genetic stock. They’ll respect you. Then gather the whole community’s support as they publicly and visibly show this ‘little’ simian how ‘little’ they think your challenger’s virility really is. Each hour of each day when those community members greet that simian they should hold up their fingers about one inch apart. It’s just a guess. Just to show how much that person is regarded in the community.
Most journalists won’t tell you all of this. But since I know a little about science I will.
After the financial blogs of the past two nights, let me pass on another warning about the approaching housing market disaster: I’ve have lots of questions about using gold as a hedge against whatever is coming.
Please listen carefully: Do not! Do not! Do not buy gold unless you truly understand it, which I seriously doubt anybody does!
Look at the charts linked below: every peak represents a person who’s won a fortune in gold investing at the right time. But that subsequent valley represents an investor who’s lost a fortune in gold investing. If you think you can time the market you’re just flat out wrong. Many’s the speculator who bet on gold to hedge a collapsing economy and ended up as a net loser.
If you ever see that I’ve made a fortune in the gold market, then I give you carte blanche permission to tell everyone, “Ward cheated. He’s a liar. He’s a shyster.”
Betting on gold is worse than going to Vegas. Stay home. Pay the bills. Buy some emergency rations, enough to last your family for a few months. Don’t go nutty on me. We who are questioning the HOA debacle aren’t survivalists. (I have serious doubts that a survivalist can survive much of anything, anyway.) We’re just carefully analyzing an approaching disaster that every economist in the country is talking about… and puzzling over. There are just no clear answers. But I guarantee there’s a phalanx of con men out there being trained to take advantage of your fears.
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