New Law

[Chad Fabry]

The Supreme Court ruled today 5 to 4, liberal against conservative, that it is now up to local government to determine best use for all property.

This means that if you're lucky enough to own a cottage on a lake somewhere... let's say it's been in your family for generations and it's a small, but comfortable place for your family, that someone rich can petition local government to force the sale of the land.

It doesn't have to be for business or government use. An individual that wants to build a nicer, bigger cottage that will be taxed at a higher rate can make you sell them your cottage and the local officials get to determine what your place is worth.

So if you live in a neighborhood that would be a nice location for a mall, or if you have mountain top property that has a view and would make a nice place for a vacation resort they can force you to sell.

In the future if you read about some crazed home inspector that was shot to death by police while protecting his property and his rights you can safely assume it's me.

[Bruce Thomas]

Chad,

I couldn't agree with you more. Vote in the fall

Bruce

[DonTx]

Mr. Fabry, it's obvious you need some sensitivity training. Don't you realize by now that the Gov. knows what is good for you whether you realize it or not? The slogan "Don't worry, we're from the Government, we're here to help" still rings true today as it did all those years ago when it was coined. Relax, you need to understand that the people from the Gov are more inteligent than you are, just look how well they spend your tax dollars!

Okay, enough sarcasism. I feel your pain. Intrusive - overstepping their bounds - government types have been been my pet peeve lately. CPS down here snatched a 11 year old girl from her family, plus all the other children, briefly, because the parents wanted to wait to see the results of whether or not the childs cancer was in remission before they allowed the Dr's to do chemo. These B#@&^ *ds even kept the girl away from the family on her birthday.

I cringe every time my wife takes our 2 1/2 daughter to the Dr. because she has hurt herself. There's this one Dr. who is always asking my wife "How'd she get this bruise" "What is this scratch from".

Then there was another Dr. who proceeded to give my wife a stack of "parenting How To brochures" and verbally discussed "Parenting Do's and Don'ts" with her.

My wife is an angel. She makes me wait in the waiting room because she knows that I wouldn't hold my tongue with these nosy, over bearing, freakin' Doctors. (perhaps you noticed, I don't much care for many of the doctors I've met)

I don't even want to think about the school years.

Where do I go to get that Gov. chip in my hand at????

[Brian G]

I don't usually get very excited when the government is handed more power to intrude on private lives, because more often than not I know it'll never affect me or mine in our insignificant law-abiding lives, or anyone like us. I don't worry much about the privacy rights of criminals or terrorists.

This is different. The ownership of private property and the sanctity of a homeplace (within reason and law) is at the core of what America is about. I'm at least the 6th generation on my land, my son is the 7th. I feel we were stabbed in the heart today. I'm sure this will lead to violence in the future, when those of us who still do not view land and home as a mere commodity are violated by arrogant politicians and profiteers, backed by the horribly misguided highest court in the land. And to make it all the worse there was not even the slightest pretense that this was about anything but MONEY (or "economic development" if you prefer). What a black day this is in American history. The founding fathers must be spinning in thier graves.

Brian G.

Praise the Lord and Pass the Ammunition [:-grumpy]

[Scottpat]

Kind of makes you wonder why one political party wants bleeding heart liberals sitting on the Supreme Court bench! The dissenters on this action were the conservative judges from what I have been able to tell.

Has "W" given his opinion on this?

[hausdok]

Talk about your timing,

This morning my son called. Apparently my ex-wife, his mother, has a home in Hampton, Virginia that is a block from the beach. She'd purchased it less than 10 years ago for under $50,000 and had refused a number of offers from condominium developers to purchase it over the years - figuring that she would let it appreciate and one-day sell it as her retirement nest egg.

Well, two days after the Supreme Court's decision, the city informs her that they are exercising their right to Eminent Domain and will be purchasing her property at a "fair" price, so that a private developer can develop the area into a revived beach district which will benefit everyone in the city, yadda, yadda, yadda.

She went back to the last developer to see if the offer was on the table. "Nope, sorry Lady, you missed the boat," she was told. She then went to see what the city was offering. As it turns out, it is substantially less than the developer but still a tad over the appraised value on the property. Problem is, with all of the improvements she's sunk into the property, she'd have to own the home another ten years to recoup her total investment, which is more than what the property appraises for now.

So, I guess that one's right to own a home isn't a sacred right in this country anymore, as long as it will benefit someone richer who can enrich the city's coffer's and not your own. Us self-employed folks, who've been thinking that investing in lucrative property locations as a means to be comfortable in our old age, are now all potentially sh*t out of luck.

What's it going to take to fix this - a constitutional or bill-of-rights amendment?

ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!!

Mike

[Garcha]

I hope they don't come for your guns first. In the words of Hawkeye Pierce,"Lousy Commies!"[:-pirate]

[homnspector]

Dont forget, Hawkeye is Alan Alda acting

[Scottpat]

I bet that a semi conservative news outlet such as FOX would love to air this. I just can't believe that we have come to this in our country.

[homnspector]

I know we are not supposed to talk about politics.........

This has been all over the news today. In AZ we have a state law prohibiting this. At this point I guess it will be a state issue. What happened to the 5th ammendment??

[Bach]

Our government is slowly starting to get us use to fascism, slowly take away rights, invade other countries without enough reason, get us use to military prisons, throw people in there in huge bunches even if their not sure they did anything, soon they'll start throwing americans in there because we make statements like this. The American Gulag of Home Inspectors! It is getting scary people better wake up. But the government knows where a nation of sheep that will whine a little but never do anything.

[DonTx]

...then there's the issue of ChiComs buying everything imaginable, including IBM, Unocal and tons of T Bills. You'd think they would have been happy with controlling the Panama Canal and a large interest Venezuelan oil. What do you imagine these friends of ours are up too?

[Jim Morrison]

If Fox is semi-conservative, could someone point me toward conservative news outlet? (Hint: The John Birch Society Newsletter doesn't count.)