Here's a good one for opponents of freedom. The headline reads:
N.C. lawmakers jump into local building height fight
However, a member of the supreme royalty North Carolina Legislature decided that THEY didn't give permission for the peasants to build the building 80 feet tall, so they stopped that sort of insubordination from the minor noble lords local city councils.
Why in the name of freedom these a-holes have any right to determine how tall I build MY building on MY land is utterly beyond me. This is the anti-freedom attitude that exists across the country today. These people in elected positions actually believe that you should have no freedom. In the words of the Lord mayor pro tem of the town, "It doesn't fit in," so you should be jailed for exercising your freedom.
Oh, how I yearn for freedom.
The rights of property owners throughout our nation are constantly eroding, thanks to our local officials, who are on a power-drunk.
A few years ago, my neighbors got a permit to demolish their 1956 rambler in order to put onto the property a two-story McMansion (a modular). Fairfax County gave the demolition permit with little trouble, but when it came time to get the permit for the modular to be set (The County had known from the git-go all about the specs for that modular and had orally promised to grant the necessary permit), the county said no--then blah, blah, blah--do this, do that. To add to my neighbors' grief, the county refused to void the real-estate tax on a structure which had been demolished. My neighbors eventually caved in to the county's demands and have ended up with a structure worth less in resale because the garage is attached.
Another example....Last month, I visited the county's zoning commission to check on some options for my own property. I was told that I had to build a McMansion structure in order to be in keeping with the other houses in the neighborhood. These other houses were erected from 1984-2005. I pointed out to the zoning official that my house, a 1930 structure, was here first and that those McMansions weren't in keeping with my house. The official didn't much like my rant. So...I'm stuck here in an outdated house because--get this--the county now won't give me a permit to raze and rebuild. UGH!
I'm convinced that we rent our property from the county, and the rent is the real-estate tax.
You're dead on with that last statement. We no longer have the right to own property in this country -- which is why we have no real freedom. We are all slaves to the government, whether you want to admit it or not.