Category Archives: Texas

Another American Flag Outrage

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Yes, I know I’m harping, but every time I see one of these outrageous stories about homeowners not being allowed to display the Stars and Stripes I’m going to erupt.

As I’ve said before, I have five family members buried in Arlington, another war hero family member buried in a National Cemetery in Portland, Oregon. These men and women stood for a principle, that the American ethic means something. It means we’re courageous in the face of evil. It means we stand up for what’s right and against what’s wrong. It means that when we realize we’ve made a mistake we have a Constitution that allows us to correct it. It means if our leaders in the White House, the Congress, the Senate or elsewhere are too wimpy or too cowardly to stand up for what’s right, we have the right as American voters to toss their butts into the street.

For this Vietnamese hero fighting for his right to fly the American flag in a Houston apartment complex, I say we support him in every way possible.

(link to latest flag outrage, this one in Texas)

 

The Straight Poop

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The Gates of Allen Station, shame, shame on you.

Yes, folks, another Texas Homeowners Association is taking the idiotic and pathetic step of DNA testing all dogs in the neighborhood. Swab your doggie’s cheeks, submit the DNA sample to your HOA. That swab goes to the lab and your pooch is branded for life. Now, if your dog brands the lawn of the HOA president or a board member, the feces fits the crime, the owner gets the fine. The thought of HOA officials dropping to their hands and knees and probing poops with thermometers and scoops just defies the imagination. The HOA claims it’s a way of stopping canine terrorists from messing up the neighborhood.

Well, frankly folks, it’s just another way of wrecking a nice neighborhood by turning neighbor against neighbor. First of all, who’s motivated to institute such a practice? It costs a couple hundred bucks per pooch per swab. And the owner of each defiling dog is fined hundreds of dollars. That money is going into someone’s pocket. It’s a real revenue generator.

But second, it won’t work. Once homeowners start getting angry at being fined, they’re going to start collecting poop from all over and tossing it onto the board president’s lawn. He’s going to get innundated. Of course, he’ll submit hundreds of different DNA samples from the hundreds of brown spots in the front yard. And of course, he’ll charge thousands and thousands of dollars in lab costs to the HOA’s ‘secret’ reimbursement budget. The homeowners will be assessed, of course. Everybody will hate everybody, the president’s house will really get bombed now.

When people get stupid, stupid things happen.

(click here for Dallas dog story)

 

The Straight Poop

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The Gates of Allen Station, shame, shame on you.

Yes, folks, another Texas Homeowners Association is taking the idiotic and pathetic step of DNA testing all dogs in the neighborhood. Swab your doggie’s cheeks, submit the DNA sample to your HOA. That swab goes to the lab and your pooch is branded for life. Now, if your dog brands the lawn of the HOA president or a board member, the feces fits the crime, the owner gets the fine. The thought of HOA officials dropping to their hands and knees and probing poops with thermometers and scoops just defies the imagination. The HOA claims it’s a way of stopping canine terrorists from messing up the neighborhood.

Well, frankly folks, it’s just another way of wrecking a nice neighborhood by turning neighbor against neighbor. First of all, who’s motivated to institute such a practice? It costs a couple hundred bucks per pooch per swab. And the owner of each defiling dog is fined hundreds of dollars. That money is going into someone’s pocket. It’s a real revenue generator.

But second, it won’t work. Once homeowners start getting angry at being fined, they’re going to start collecting poop from all over and tossing onto the board president’s lawn. He’s going to get innundated. Of course, he’ll submit hundreds of different DNA samples from the hundreds of brown spots in the front yard. And of course, he’ll charge thousands and thousands of dollars in lab costs to the HOA’s ‘secret’ reimbursement budget. The homeowners will be assessed, of course. Everybody will hate everybody, the president’s house will really get bombed now.

When people get stupid, stupid things happen.

(click here for Dallas dog story)

http://www.dallasnews.com/news/community-news/allen/headlines/20140501-dna-testing-used-to-uncover-dog-owners-who-dont-scoop.ece

Carona Bites The Big One!!!

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Not in a million years would I have predicted this one. But perhaps the most ethically challenged senator in Texas state history has lost his bid for re-election. 

For 24 years, John Carona has reigned supreme. From his position as Texas State Senator he has built a multi billion dollar company managing 8000 homeowners associations across the country. Around his HOAs he has built banks, insurance companies, landscaping firms. Homeowners who had the misfortune of living in those neighborhoods learned more than anyone else what the phrase ‘lawn Nazi’ means.

Carona lost by just a few hundred votes. Obviously, recounts are being demanded. But at this point it looks like this is one election Carona couldn’t buy. He will still be able to retire as one of the richest men in Texas and he will still reign over those hundreds of thousands of hapless homeowners. And among many of them Carona won’t be ‘former senator,’ he’ll be ‘ex-senator.’

Our political system is slow. But unlike many others, it is eventually self-correcting.

 

The Lawn Nazis Grab Another Home

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Each story I read disgusts me more: A Homeowners Association in the Colorado Springs area has foreclosed and auctioned off a 350,000 dollar home for about 11,000 dollars. And the homeowner never saw it coming.

Christopher Wright lived in the Woodmen Hills Filing Number 11 HOA. He thought he was fighting a fine for leaving the kids’ bicycles outside, but he discovered that the home was really taken because he hadn’t been paying his annual dues. His $900 nonpayment had turned into more than $10,000 worth of late fees, collection fees and attorneys’ fees. But non-payment of annual dues in most HOAs is a more serious crime than rape, armed robbery or burglary. Overstatement? No, rape and armed robbery usually net a less serious sentence than the confiscation of one’s home.

The management company is owned by Associa, which in turn is owned by an ethically-challenged Texas State Senator who has long faced criticism for his shifty dealings. Senator John Carona is a billionaire who owns or controls more than 8000 Homeowners Associations across the country, many of which are required to use insurance companies he owns, banks he owns, the list goes on and on. Media criticism of Carona’s ethics goes back years.

But none of that really impacts Christopher Wright’s case. He lost his house. And he’s dazed and confused about the Constitutional rights he thought he had.

Was Christopher Wright just stupid? Some would say so. But others would look with awe at the record of the Woodmen Hills Filing Number 11 HOA.

853 homes.

225 liens filed.

126 lawsuits filed.

4 foreclosures.

About his sky-high fees, the Woodmen’s HOA attorney, Hal Kyles, of the law firm Orten, Cavanagh and Holmes says, “I’m not cheap.”

No, you’re not cheap, lawyer Kyles. You’re not. But you are arrogant.

Shame on you for your arrogance.

(click here for KOAA-TV news story)

http://www.koaa.com/news/news-5-investigates-hoa-forecloses-on-home/