Quick! When I say “outdoor playhouse” what’s the first thing that comes to your mind?

For many it might be something like this: fun, neat, cool, independence, getaway, or any number of other positive terms.

Unfortunately, what I think of these days is code enforcement.

When I named my book (and the blog, etc.), “Technically, That’s Illegal,” I knew the phrase would come up in conversation quite often. You see, many things people do are, technically, illegal.

Last fall, I told you about an illegal treehouse. Today, I’m going to tell you about an illegal playhouse. It belongs to a 5-year-old boy.

One neighbor said the playhouse takes up too much space and “makes it look like junk.”

But neither youth, charm, nor ignorance are any excuse for not following the law in Ocala, Florida.

…the family has been told the playhouse requires the special variance from code enforcement and approval from the historic preservation board.

If it doesn’t get approval, the playhouse must be moved or torn down within 120 days, or the family will start accumulating fines of $25 a day.

Of course, even if they apply for the variance, it doesn’t mean they will get approved. It seems like some folks in that neighborhood have some serious issues!

A good way to tell whether government officials are out of control with their power-hungry, nitpicking, forced adherence to a myriad of rules is when they begin to harass people who are trying to do good deeds.

For the last 30 years, a group of nuns in Miami have been operating a soup kitchen that was founded by Mother Teresa. A few days ago, these sisters found a violation notice from the city’s code enforcement department. You guessed it — they never got a permit to feed people. (The linked article is an opinion piece)

The sisters felt intimidated because the notice ends with a threat: operating “a business without all required licenses is illegal under state and city law and is punishable by criminal arrest and/or closing the business.”

With such aggressive language, it is obvious that city government shows no respect toward these religiously devoted women and lacks the basic sensitivity to differentiate between a business without a license and charity work.

Over a year ago, I found out that allowing your dog to ride with you on your motorcycle was illegal. Today, I found out that lawmakers in the state of Illinois are discussing making a law that bans driving with a dog on your lap.

Dogs in the driver’s seat — on their owners’ laps — is a dangerous but common habit, said state Rep. Dan Burke (D-Chicago), co-sponsor of the bill.

“Because I travel, I can’t help but observe the number of people with dogs on their laps,” he said. “It is a public safety concern. If a driver is distracted, certainly it would be a risk to other motorists on the road.”

So, he travels and observes and that’s supposed to be good enough? Please notice that he did not mention ever witnessing this causing an accident in his extensive travels. If dogs on laps are causing accidents, I would hope that we would hear those statistics when trying to get a new law passed, rather than personal, anecdotal observations.

In order to sound more legitimate, the lawmakers start talking about how dogs in accidents can become dangerous projectiles, which is true. However, this has nothing to do with whether the dog is on your lap or not. The dog could be a dangerous projectile in the back seat. So, if the problem is unrestrained dogs, that’s what the proposed law should reflect. They should build public support for it by citing statistics in a scientific manner and build the case for a public safety/health concern. That shouldn’t be too hard to do in today’s safety-obsessed culture.

Instead, the plan in Illinois is to build up to the law they really want — that all animals in cars have to be restrained. (The quoted person is someone who has started a dog seatbelt company after her personal experience with a car accident where her dog was present).

Although she’d like to see a bill that requires dogs to be fully restrained like Burke’s, not just prohibited from riding in a driver’s lap, Ramirez knows changing the trend will take “baby steps.”

“It is the most dangerous when a dog is on your lap,” she said.

All of this discussion goes back to the idea that laws should be in place to punish actual crime, not the potential to cause damage somehow. It’s not as if there’ s a 1:1 ratio of lap dogs to accidents. Not even close. However, I am starting to think the ratio of lawmaker to control freak is coming pretty close…

Hey guys! It’s tournament time, so I thought I’d weigh in on the situation while we’re waiting for the games to resume. FYI, I picked Indiana to win it all this year.

Please be aware, that this episode is shorter than usual, and this is probably going to be typical from now on.

Links:

NCAA Athletes are Slaves

Obama’s Tournament Bracket

Kids Forced to Break Up Their Tournament Bracket

Betting on NCAA Brackets is a Victimless Crime

The secret to surviving a bad economy if you are a local government is to “ramp up” code enforcement.

Property values are down, which means that real estate tax revenues are down as well. Of course, most cities don’t re-appraise the property values, but any person who receives an unfair tax bill will have redress with the city and will probably win since it’s a known fact that property values have plummeted in the last few years.

So, when municipalities discover they have budget shortfalls as a result, they go into hyper mode about enforcing codes. Here are some examples that have been highlighted recently:

1. In Ballwin, Missouri, a homeowner can be fined for having children’s toys in the yard.
2. Even though the typical American lawn is wasted space at a time when we are concerned about the environment and having enough to eat, homeowners in Orlando can get fined and have their garden removed if it is in the front yard.
3. People are typically into environmentalism until it means that they might see large planters and clothes lines from the street. The horror!

In Huntington, West Virginia, they are attempting to take it a step further by not only ramping up the enforcement of their current codes, but also making more things illegal. They are set to vote on a new ordinance. (Emphasis added)

The ordinance also prohibits building materials being stored outdoors unless they are for a permitted project on the property. Penalties include fines of up to $500, up to 30 days in jail or both.

The ordinance is just one part of Williams’ multi-pronged approach to improving the quality of life in Huntington by ramping up code enforcement. The council also will vote on a resolution Monday that authorizes Williams to apply for a federal Justice Assistance Grant in the amount of $28,000 to hire a compliance officer. The position is proposed to fall under the Police Department, not the Division of Inspections and Compliance.

Naturally, this is phrased as a “quality of life” measure rather than a revenue generating measure. Safety! Safety!

If you click the link and continue to read, you will also find out that the city is attemping to get a federal grant in order to pay the salary of a new code enforcement officer that would be needed. That’s practically akin to acknowledging that the city doesn’t have enough money to pay their own officer. Yet, they want people to believe that these new measures are about quality of life and safety.

Additionally, the city of Huntington is looking into having the ability to issue on the spot citations, rather than giving a warning period for compliance.

Williams also has indicated that he will seek the ability to issue on-the-spot citations through the Municipal Home Rule Pilot Program, Williams said. Property owners now have a 10-day warning period to clean up their messes before they receive a citation. Charleston was granted the authority to issue on-the-spot citations as part of its home rule plan and it has worked well, Williams said.

Now is probably a good time to go ahead and read your city’s municipal codes. If something like this hasn’t begun to happen in your town, it’s probably only a matter of time. You never know when they’ll start enforcing these things, and you don’t want to have to rely on the ignorance claim.

So, what is the secret to surviving this bad economy? Have a steady stream of revenue at your fingertips in the form of taxes. When that begins to fail, make sure someone gets punished and literally has to pay.

You should have come to the point by now where you distrust nearly every recommendation that comes from any government official. They have interests in the statements they make, and it’s not often altruistic safety and health concerns. Most politicians are bought and sold by business interests, lobbyists, NGOs, etc. So, when they form committees and make blanket recommendations for the health of the nation, you should be just as wary about their statements are you are about any salesperson’s claims about their product. Because, like the salespeople, they have a vested interest in their product, whatever it might be.

When a salesperson lauds their latest gadget or service, we know that we’re not getting the full story. We assume they stand to make money on their endorsement of the product. But, for some reason, we don’t always analyze the government claims in the same way. Somehow, we think that the government officials are unbiased and have our best interest in mind. After all, their not even referred to as politicians anymore — they’re public servants.

One of the obvious ways that government oversteps its bounds is to make food recommendations. It is vital that people get good information on food/nutrition, and be left to make their own decisions. In no way should government restrict our food choices by outlawing what they might consider to be unhealthy. For one thing, this is not a proper role of government. Secondly, they are abysmally bad in their health conclusions.

The most recent example of this calls for a compare and contrast:

Government recommendation regarding dairy –

Choose fat-free or low-fat milk, yogurt, and cheese.

Latest study regarding dairy –

Skim milk may not lower obesity risk among children.

It’s just one study and it only touches on one point of health (obesity), but more will be posted in the future. Until then, if the government says to choose lean protein, I’d look for the nearest goose if I were you. It seems that no amount of studies will change what government recommends (and tries to legislate) that we eat.

Other government recommendations from choosemyplate.gov:

Most Dairy Group choices should be fat-free or low-fat.

Choose lean or low-fat meat and poultry.

Fortunately, the tide is turning in popular culture and media regarding fat’s role in obesity, but don’t expect government to catch on anytime soon.

Two weeks ago, I took a break from the Internet. I hadn’t done that in…my whole life. I didn’t do facebook. I didn’t do twitter. I didn’t do stumbleupon. I didn’t read blogs. I didn’t promote my content. I didn’t write new content. I didn’t do anything online. And…I didn’t miss it like I thought I would.

I didn’t want to take a break from the Internet. It was something I agreed to do with a friend. I didn’t want to do it, and I don’t necessarily like the implications of what I learned from my unplugged time. But, here’s the bottom line: My podcast will be less predictable (length-wise and schedule-wise). I would prefer to do them at my leisure, rather than being on a schedule. Therefore, I will no longer be airing on Indiana Talks. They have given me a great opportunity, and I loved my time there. But, it’s just not practical to continue.

I will continue to post here about absurd laws and people getting into trouble for stupid stuff, so I encourage you to maintain your subscription or to subscribe if you don’t already. Please keep in mind that I have two different feeds. You can subscribe to the podcast or to the blog. I want to continue to make great content while not being obligated to do so on a schedule.

Some of you may be interested in my rationale, so I will use the next few paragraphs to explain myself. If you just want to know how this affects my website, just know that I plan to continue to blog and podcast, just at my leisure.

1. First of all, I have noticed that since I started my podcast, my blog content has been less than stellar. If I make a post at all, it’s less than one per week. Even then, however, it usually turns out to be something that I thought was interesting but that I couldn’t talk about for an entire segment of the podcast.
2. I only have so much time. When I started the podcast, it was before Christmas. Now that the weather is going to get warmer soon, I just don’t see myself sitting behind a computer that much. For reference, I work on my podcast for 6-10 hours per week. I know that’s not a lot by some standards, but I am a stay-at-home mom and my only work time is when my kids are sleeping. They aren’t going to continue to sleep this much every day, especially once it’s warm outside. Also, as a stay-at-home mom, I have many other duties, including cooking dinner every night, doing the grocery shopping, etc.
3. I want to have more time to do things locally. I want to be more involved with Harvest of Talents. This requires me to do crafts and refinish furniture, etc. I can’t do that if I’m behind a microphone or an editing screen during the only free time that I have (during naps).
4. I want to hang my laundry out to dry — literally. I want to take life more slowly, and with fewer obligations. I only get to be a mother of young children once. I don’t want to be this busy. I don’t want to tell friends “no” to a picnic lunch outside because I’m recording my podcast.
5. I am also the “webmaster” for my church. We are looking at embarking on a big project — an online pictoral directory, which will take a good chunk of my time.
6. I have narrated three audiobooks so far. I’d like to be open to doing another one in the future, but there’s no way I could schedule that into my day while I am recording podcasts.

I hope you guys can tell that I am passionate about the topic of liberty, and I will continue to promote it with this website.

On March 10th, I released a podcast episode called, Behold the Power of Children. This is a partial transcript of the first segment of that episode. Please keep in mind that my writing in this post reflects my speaking style, and therefore contains some imprefect sentence structure.

In the episode, I discussed a show called Hoarding: Buried Alive — and something interesting that transpired in a certain episode:

I like the show (Hoarding) because I have a background in counseling. And one of the most effective ways of counseling I believe is Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, which is what is typically used on hoarders and other people with OCD.  What it amounts to is exposing the person to whatever it is that makes them anxious, making them sit there with their anxiety, and reporting on their anxiety level as they go on.  It’s very similar to the pain scale that they use in hospitals. They’ll ask you to rate your pain on a 1-10 scale, and 10 is like the worst you’ve ever experienced in your life and then 1 is just like whatever, nothing.  So doctors and nurses will come in every now and then and ask you about your pain level and they’re trying to gauge how your medication is working and how the treatment is progressing, and so on.

These behavioral therapists do this with the people’s anxiety level.  So these hoarders have a mental disability that causes them extreme anxiety when they go to throw something away.  It manifests slightly differently from one person to another, but that’s the basic gist of it.The therapist will take and handle this person’s belongings and say, “I am going to take this item home with me, how do you feel about that?”  And they’ll say, “Oh that makes me so nervous.” That’s like a 9 or a 10 on their anxiety and they just sit there. And they ask in a minute or two and they receive a similar response only it’s like maybe a 7 or a 8.  And they sit there and they let their anxiety run its course. They realize eventually that their anxiety goes down. Typically, they’re eventually able to get rid of things knowing that their anxiety about it will go away; they’ve just never allowed themselves to sit with the anxiety that long.

I believe it’s an effective therapy. Really it’s one of the more scientifically-based therapies out there because it has a procedure, and it has a rationale to it. One of the most interesting things happened in an episode I watched the other day.  This is episode 1 of season 2.  There is a woman who takes her children into their grandfather’s hoarded home to see the severe hoarding situation. Keep in mind this man does not even have plumbing or anything like that, because when things break in these houses are hoarded there is no way to get a repair person in there whether they can afford it or not. They’re either too embarrassed or their pipes aren’t even accessible.  So when the house becomes so cluttered that you can’t even get workmen in there, you know you obviously have a problem.

But I thought bringing her children in was an exceptional method of therapy.  For one thing, we always question whether we should expose our children to anything negative or uncomfortable. And this woman specifically said that she likes to teach her kids about reality. This man, their grandfather, doesn’t even have paths to walk through. He’s literally walking on top of things.  Now I’ve seen hoarding and I’ve watched the show Hoarders and I’ve seen a variety of different severity levels of hoarding.  This one was pretty bad, to not even have a path.  Most people even if they have to shimmy down or turn sideways, they can have a path where they can see the floor.  This guy didn’t even have that.

Sshe did her best to prepare her kids for what they were going to see but then she just hasd to expose them to reality. And I love that; I love that we cannot plan our teachable moments for our children.  If we could just plan them out conveniently into our schedule, there would be no such thing as a true teachable moment.  It has to be based on reality in real time for it to really be effective.

Secondly the impact that those kids had on the grandfather was amazing.  Kids just say what they’re thinking, they break it down into simple terms , and they’re honest. And so even if they say the exact same thing that a 35 year old or a 45 year old would say- it means something different. Because you know they don’t have all this clutter in their mind about what needs to be said or about how not to hurt someone’s feelings and so on.  And so the kids went into the situation and said thing like, “Grandpa why did you start saving all of this stuff?” This is obviously something that all of us want to know, but we might not say it like that. It was the innocence that the children bring to the situation that was so profound.

Our tendency to protect and shelter our children form everything negative- first of all it’s not healthy for them to be sheltered in that way. Secondly, we are underestimating the difference that our children can make to other people when they are exposed to that negativity if they are allowed to process it. The title of that episode is called “Everything’s Junk” and like I said it’s available on Netflix.  Season 2, episode 1 of Hoarding: Buried Alive.  I really recommend that you guys check that out if you have an opportunity.  A lot of that TV can be very just sensational and ridiculous but I do find interesting tidbits regarding therapy, and human behavior, and psychology in shows like this. And getting the kids involved in someone’s’ therapy I thought that was remarkable.  And it just speaks to our tendency to shelter them. And makes me really want to emphasize that we need to second guess that strategy with our kids.

This episode of the podcast features a list of six laws that you’ve probably broken without realizing it. This is followed by a discussin of why it seems necessary to overreact to everything these days, when the fact remains that it is impossible to completely follow the law.

Links:

Laws You Have Broken

Fresh Prince Causes Lockdown

Hurting Others Hurts You Just as Much

Counseling for Kids Who Saw a Pop Tart

Man Arrested and Charged with a Felony for Pointing His Finger

This episode of Technically, That’s Illegal discusses the power of children — they are capable of more than we realize. While modern adults don’t even trust kids to cross the street, the fact is that children are capable of so much, inlcuding facilitating healing.

Unfortunately, the government, however, is not as capable as a few small children…I hope to prove it with this post. Some articles to help my case:

Kid gets suspended for eating his pop tart into the shape of a gun

Man faces summons for laughing in his own house

Health inspector destroys perfectly good food

Man faces possible 7 years for empty ammo magazines

Police are your enemy

Never take a plea