RED ALERT -- OUR PROPERTY RIGHTS DENIED IN SANTA CRUZ COUNTY, CALIFORNIA

[Jonez712]

Recently, my family has decided to do some work on our backyard, which includes felling some useless trees. As many of you probably know, this is one of the most liberal counties in the country. In fact, Santa Cruz county employs more people than any other county in the state, aside from Los Angeles county. And the difference here is that our county has a population of less than 150,000, and Los Angeles county has a population of over 10 million...

Naturally, with this kind of ulta-liberal collectivism going on in a county, the Board of Stupidvisors will get out of hand. These mentally-warped fools have passed certain regulations, supposedly in the name of saving the "enviiiiironnnmeennt," that are outright un-Constitutional violations of our property rights. In an effort to save "old grooooowwwth," the illiberal stupidvisors have made felonious to fell a tree, a TREE, in your own backyard, on your own property that you bought and that you own, without a permit, which costs time and money to obtain.

So now we have to go down to the big county building (a shrine to liberalism) and get down on our knees and beg permission from the almighty stupidvisors to simply cut down a couple trees on our own property.

Sounds like a great liberal idea, doesn't it??

[Jonez712]

Haha, I used to go to school with that writer's son!

He was a smart kid, but something must be wrong if his mom writes for the Sentinel, one of the country's worst news papers.

[Jonez712]

Oh, and "local folks" don't have the right to pass un-Constitutional laws, that's for damn sure.

[Jonez712]

Yeah, a buddy of mine is a big conservative too, you know, into talk radio and all, but other than that most of my friends are content just being jag-offs for now. ;)

[Jonez712]

Maybe in a few years when I'm done with both high school and college.

But yeah, although this is a beautiful area and I live in a great home here, I'd be glad to live somewhere else later in life. :0)

[Jonez712]

Yup, I'm convinced the proverbial Fifth Column has a strong presence in this region.

[nunya bidness]

Yard work.

[Greenpees]

Monterey here.

Sometimes I watch the town council meetings on TV, that way I don't get thrown out of an actual meeting for screaming at those idiots.

Ah, what can we do? December is my last month in California. That's all I have to know.

[farmfriend]

ping

[Carry_Okie]

Oh LORD, My garden is so big,
And my chainsaw is so small!

[Sir Francis Dashwood]

Meanwhile, we are absolutely groaning at the seams from the unbearable stress of thousands of illegals pouring in. Way to go, Mayor.

Anna Caballero. Left wing nut case.

In many ways our county is WORSE than Santa Crud. They have more money to hide things and to buy people off. You will find it difficult to get jobs or contracts with the county or regional districts as a local business if you don't pay off some county employee(s) first. The courts are kangaroo courts that cater to the usual suspects in both civil and criminal matters.

With all the murders we have had, when was the last death penalty sentence? How many unconstitutional land-use decisions in favor of the Left wing nut cases have been adjudicated? How many financial scandals involving school districts go unpunished? And routine violations of the Brown Act?

Our newspapers are all Leftist rags who portray Caballero as a crime fighter, even though she is a criminal defense attorney.

Here's more... Fred Keeley: the Santa Cruz Metro bus scandal, the Aubra Bennett scandal with the Monterey Bay Regional Air Pollution Control District payoff, and there's another juicy issue about a twelve year old girl...

Santa Cruz and Monterey are joined at the hip in some of these things.

[EggsAckley]

"I suggest you go to Democrats Underground for companionship in this one. "

What in the HELL is wrong with you?!?!

[muawiyah]

Really now! I thought the professional "Left Coasters" needed toilets with both an enormous capacity as well as a low flow characteristic ~ the idea being that this would maximize the wafting of the odor of corrupt Liberalism!

[SlamFaraday]

You people who think you have total reign over your "private property" are like children. It is because of people like you that these environmental laws must exist in the first place. It is sad that we need the government to tell you to be RESPONSIBLE. Your "private" property is valuable to the community, social and bio-regional, and when you destroy it for your own selfish needs we all suffer, liberals, conservatives, and spotted owls alike.

If you don't like trees, get an apartment in NYC.

[gitmo]

Ain't gonna' happen. One thing for sure, just about all of us believe in the right of local folks to pass local laws and to keep the federales (and their state equivalents) OUT OF OUR NEIGHBORHOODS as much as possible.

The first slogan of the American Revolution was "Liberty, Property an No Stamps!". It was later shortened to "Liberty, property & prudence".

The Massachusetts Circular Letter of 1768 said it is "an essential, unalterable Right, in Nature, .. ever held sacred and irrevocable ... that what a man has honestly acquired is absolutely his own."

The 1774 Declaration of Resolves by the First Continental Congress said Americans were entitled to "life, liberty, and property". This phrase was originally in the Declaration of Independence, but was altered to "pursuit of happiness".

John Adams said "property is a right of mankind as surely as Liberty". Thomas Jefferson said the "true foundation of republican government is the equal right of every citizen to control his person and his property." The right to own and control one's own property is a fundamental plank of conservatism. If one loses the right to one's property, one has lost liberty.

[multipurpose]

I'm only 16 too. ;)

[muawiyah]

Look, you might not believe it but you live in a DESERT!

I live in a place that had 72 inches of rain last year.

Several places on the net suggest you have but 12 inches of rain in a normal year. Adding two and two together it's quite obvious that it's simply not possible for trees to live in Santa Clara WITHOUT some serious human intervention.

In our area we have to get after them suckers with some serous tools on a quite regular basis or there'd be nothing but gigantic trees with enormous root systems lifting even the Interstate highways out of the ground!

It does surprise me that somebody who'd spent so much time and effort getting trees to grow in an area where they really shouldn't grow would end up cutting a bunch of them down!

What you have, really, is an hypothetical problem with an hypothetical solution. These things are best left to local judgment, particularly the business about growing trees without adequate water supplies.

Better go oil up my chainsaw anyway ~ you should see what this last winter's rains have done to my 17 foot high hedges ~ they're going to bolt FUR SHUR this time if I don't stop 'em now.

[gitmo]

Sounds like pure Socialism to me. The desires of the commune overrule the rights of the individual. That's why our founding fathers insisted on a republic and flatly rejected democracy and rejected any form of kingship.

[muawiyah]

Only the braindead debate the "rightness" of trees in a desert environment.

What you have is both sides doing that ~ the pro-tree and the anti-tree people.

Plus, they are all filthy rich if they can afford to live there.

I have enough problems of my own to waste any sympathy on braindead rich people.

[antaresequity]

I'm sure some roundup drilled into the roots would probably acomplish the same thing only faster.

Round Up only works when sprayed on the foliage. Copper nails take forever, and do not work on some trees.

The quickest way to intentionally kill a tree [besides cutting it down] is to girdle it. Girdling is removing the bark all the way around the tree about 3-5 inches in height. The cambium layer exposed to the elements soon dries out, and the tree will no longer be able to send water to the canopy.

The only living tissue in a tree trunk is the cambium layer. The center of the tree is as dead as a door nail.

[FairEnough]

What happened to message number 53? I thought this was a forum so what's with the censorship?

Anyway, we are talking about SANTA CRUZ, not SANTA CLARA, which is in fact a desert. Santa Cruz has lot of trees.

As far as our founding fathers wanting liberty and property rights and all that, imagine this country 200 years ago. Cutting down a few trees did not make an impact, but now with the population growing as it is and the fact that every single square inch of this county is "private property" save a few nat'l parks, we need to be a little more responsible to the bigger picture.

It's the people who think less than 5 minutes about anything that gives conservatives a bad name. What ever happened to Republicans such as Roosevelt. He did great things for the environment.