I’d just tell them it’s lawn furniture. and they need to get a life.

Mmm, yes. I see you haven’t seen the video of Ian saying “Umm I ah…” before getting the beatdown by 7 government cronies.

I suppose if you had shouted it out as they dragged you away you might have gotten that much out. The consequences likely would have been worse though.

Mike Rotch

Zeus,
Perhaps you are wondering if Mike’s posting will cause me to trot out all the stuff about how all my land in Danville and Sandown came from the town of Kingston in 1719?

I was waiting for it to pop up at some point.

Mike,
We will just have to disagree. No person in the United States is a sovereign. All property titles in NH derive indirectly from the government with reserved rights to the government. Exactly the same way I could sell you some of my land yet reserve a perpetual right for me or future owners of my remaining land to cross your land to get to mine. You can omit mention of that when you sell the property to somebody else, but the right exists nonetheless.

Yes Curt, your comments indicate that you believe Ian is not sovereign and the city of Keene believes that Curt is not sovereign. The problem is that Curt believes that he is the sovereign owner of his property based on the fact that he bought it and paid for it and they are bent on not allowing him to live in peace. If I were to come there and tell you how to organize your possessions and where you could place them on your property you would tell me to go to hell because I have no authority and you would be right. Just because the city of Keene is a “government” and just because a lot of people may agree with their “authority” does not change the fact that they are a bunch of thugs hell bent on imposing their will on Ian, a peaceful outstanding specimen of a neighbor whom I wish were in my neighborhood.

Mike Rotch

I would like to suggest to anybody moving to NH that you think carefully about what town or city you are moving into. LFODness does vary. If you move into a city or into one of the larger towns, there will be code enforcement departments and all that. If you move into a smaller town, your neighbors are the \”bureaucrats\”, they do it on a volunteer or token salary basis, and the last thing they want to do is tussle with people over stupid stuff. They probably have junk in their own yards. But then there are some towns populated with wealthy busybodies who meddle with their neighbors on a \”volunteer\” basis.

I am thankful that Danville has high LFODness in its DNA and we seem to attract people of like mind, for the most part.

It’s rare that I have any wanted interaction whatsoever with city bureaucrats and I like being oblivious to them. I have plenty of other daily burdens — both business and social — to worry about. Dealing with bureaucrats (let alone studying them enough to know who they are and what they do) is at the bottom of my to-do list until they make me put them at the top.

I think you’ll find the majority of people go about their lives the same way.

I don’t think your analogy is apt. Suppose we were neighbors, and you knew of my reputation for looking up laws and telling people what they actually say, as opposed to what they want them to say. Suppose the couch were on your lawn, and the city guy told you to move it based on an ordinance. Suppose you groused to me about it, and I looked up the ordinance and went over it with you and convinced you the ordinance did not apply. What would you say to the guy when he came back the second time? Would you spout off theories about “consent of the governed”, or would you tell him to go away because you are not in violation of the ordinance? Wouldn’t you demand that he explain to you exactly how he thinks you are in violation? Wouldn’t you call your city councilor and ask that they get involved? I think most people would take the bull by the horns and put the city on the defensive. Of course I might just be projecting my own approach onto the population at large.