Whether you agree or disagree with the Wall Street Journal columnist linked below, the term ‘hate speech’ is a constantly sliding scale. And it usually slides in ways that benefit the current political power. The first act of dictators is to ban some kinds of speech. Certainly, some speech is in bad taste but if you allow any ruling power to regulate what can and cannot be said in public, then you’re on a decidedly slippery slope.
On the Neighbors At War blog we frequently take note of certain Homeowners Associations where a battered neighbor who tries to run for the board is banned from speaking out, banned from handing out campaign literature, forbidden from expressing opinions to neighbors. That kind of fascism threatens the very homes and neighborhoods in which we live.
At the same time, censorship of any kind is a double-edged sword. On a website like this, the moderator has the power to permit or to edit out language or thoughts that he deems are simply in bad taste. But this website is not a government institution. It’s a place where we share concerns, thoughts, feelings.
Our Republic is unique in that the very first right granted to Americans was the right to express thoughts without government censorship. Are there limits? Of course. And we granted the Supreme Court the power to analyze certain kinds of speech to see if they constituted an endangerment to others. In some cases (yelling fire, libel, slander) the Court ruled that freedom of speech is not absolute.
Although Wall Street Journalist Bret Stephens is being pilloried for writing this column, in my opinion he should be congratulated for his analysis.
I’ve give anything to be able to personally report on the upcoming federal HOA trial in Las Vegas. The whole nation should be abuzz with this story about racketeering and Homeowners Associations. But few people outside of Nevada have actually heard of it. The networks simply aren’t covering it.
But reporters and columnists for the Las Vegas Review Journal are doing a great job ferreting out the weasles. The column linked below shows some pretty fascinating ties between a well-known mob drug trafficker and the HOA business.
Our guest blogger, Deborah Goonan first wrote about this HOA several months ago. But it’s so nightmarish and such a good example of how damaging HOAs can be to your mental and financial health, it’s worth dragging out again. These homeowners in a collapsing HOA in Virginia’s Historic Triangle will never be able to solve their problems.
Homeowners who bought into Riverwalk Townes are beginning to learn how stupid they were. Just a few years old, the Homeowners Association is suddenly deciding that fundamentally bad construction cannot be corrected by suing the builder. Now they’re having to turn to York County to see if their unfinished subdivision can be finished at taxpayer expense.
Street lights don’t work, roads are unsafe, drainage systems are falling apart. The roads aren’t properly crowned so rainwater flows down the middle of the streets, two foot wide trenches crisscross yards which actually isn’t a bad idea if you’re a fisherman looking for worms.
But the real worm is the developer, Gary Sheppard of Sheppard, Hale & Associates, now one of Virginia’s most well-respected builders.
Didn’t anyone warn these homeowners that they were stupid to buy into the HOA concept?
Please send me your submissions! ABC 20/20 did a story on these two couples on January 2nd. Amazingly bad neighbors.
I’m going to start soliciting similar nominations from you for the year’s worst neighbor…not sure what prize I’ll award for the most nightmarish neighbor…maybe a free copy of Neighbors At War, but these two couples are a prize.
God bless them. What would the rest of us do for entertainment without idiots like these?
