Real Estate Rants

Since yesterdays ‘rant’ I’m feeling a little bit better but still not in the best of moods. I went to the doctor this morning and at least she seems to understand where I’m coming from. Apparently the doctors are getting blackmailed by the Feds just as bad as the mariners are.

Forced to go to the doctor every 3 months now instead of yearly, or it’s ‘malpractice’? I really don’t see the need to go any more than yearly, but I certainly do understand her need to protect her license. Just like I need to protect mine. We’ve both spent WAY too much time, effort and money to take losing it lightly.

So, my choice now is to be forced to spend $1000’s of extra $$ per year (for nothing), get my medical care in Mexico or retire. Wow, some ‘choice’.

I’ll never understand why so many people think it’s necessary to have someone else force us to live the way ‘they’ want instead of living the life we choose. Does everyone truly believe that every single person other than themselves is just out to rape, rob and kill? That we, along with our friends and neighbors can’t figure out some way to solve our problems without the use of force. That the world will go to hell if we don’t have some other idiot up there running our lives, making all kinds of decisions for us that we should be doing ourselves? That the world would really be worse off it we got rid of the sociopaths we allow to run it now?

I really don’t see how it would be possible to have all these enormous wars without governments. How we would have so many big problems with large corporations without government allowing them and helping them to destroy their competition and grow so powerful. People in small groups usually figure out how to make things work without relying on the use of FORCE. In our society, everywhere, that is what it all comes down to.

Personally, I think most people are just the opposite. They’ll go out of their way to help someone else. If nothing else, they’ll ignore it. That is- IF- they have not been ’empowered’ by some group to stand behind. When people join groups, it’s like they’ve lost their minds. All personal responsibility disappears and ‘it’s not my fault’.

A perfect example: I own some rental property in Freeport, TX. Freeport has been on the downhill slide for decades. When I moved to this area in 1978, Freeport was still a going concern. Other than the major employment opportunities (GOOD JOBS) at all the chemical plants around, there was also plenty of work at the port. There were still lots of shrimp boats working out of Freeport and with their related businesses (fuel, ice, mechanics, groceries, chandleries, hardware stores, bars, restaurants, etc), they brought a LOT of money and other advantages to the town.

Even then Freeport was known to be a little run down, but it still had a lot going for it. It would get pretty lively when the shrimpers were in town. That all ended when the city let their police department run wild.

The cops would go around arresting everyone in sight (and not even in sight- plenty of bars raided without any view from the street) for “public intoxication”. I must’ve paid for at least 2-3 brand new cop cars just with my own fines!

They used to go into all the bars in town and arrest everybody in there. Drinking or not. It was just about impossible to prove you weren’t drunk. It was so much easier to just pay the $53.50 so you could get out of jail and go home.

Well, fishermen may be crazy, but they’re not stupid! A few years of that and they all stopped coming to Freeport. The loss of their business started shutting down a lot of other businesses around town (along with loss of jobs for low skilled workers). The docks shut down, the shipyard closed, the ice houses shut down, the mechanics and fuel docks shut down. Grocery stores lots huge amounts of custom. Most of the bars and restaurants went from booming businesses to barely able to keep their doors open (if they did- many just closed up).

Basically, the out of control cops killed Freeport.

Instead of thinking about this mess they caused, the city fathers decided to double down and have lately been coming out with all kinds of absolutely ridiculous rules and regulations. They want to “improve” Freeport.

Question: Who spends tens of thousands of dollars to buy property so someone ELSE gets to dictate what you can and can’t do with it?

Answer: NO ONE! Everyone who buys property (of any sort) buys it so that THEY can decide what to do with it. They can use it, give it away, sell it, improve it, or not.

Somehow, our ‘educational system’ has bamboozled everyone into imagining that their property value depends on what someone else does with theirs. WRONG! Just think for a minute! If YOU buy something to use it, and someone then takes away your ability to use it, you LOSE value in your property. If YOU can lose value like this, so can your neighbor and everyone else. All it takes is a squeaky wheel. This is NOT the way it’s supposed to work here in America. We’re supposed to have the right to own property (but don’t get me started on property taxes). Just look at the definition of the word…own…

adjective
  1. of, relating to, or belonging to oneself or itself (usually used after a possessive to emphasize the idea of ownership, interest, or relation conveyed by the possessive):

2.  verb (used with object)to acknowledge as one’s own; recognize as having full claim,        authority, power, dominion, etc.:

So, why do people keep falling for this? Because they’re greedy, power-hungry busy bodies that just can’t mind their own business!

Freeport is full of low income people (if they have any work, most are trying to survive on minimum wage jobs). I bought low priced property there, thinking it would be easy to keep those properties rented out. Low costs to buy and repair the properties would help both me and my tenants.

I was able to buy and fix up a property for a reasonable price. Not any more. The Freeport city council passed a bunch of rules that made any repair work 3-4-5 times the cost it was before the rules were passed. I just spent $15,000 to work on a house that originally cost me $4000 for the exact same work before they passed those rules. I guarantee I am not the only person in town who can’t afford to spend that kind of money to keep my property up to someone else’s standards.

And why the hell should I have to bow down and submit to their standards? Who the hell gives them the power to dictate whats right and proper? I sure as hell didn’t and neither did anyone else I know of. Why are their standards any better than MINE? We are all supposed to be equal under the law. That’s in the US Constitution which overrides any city, county or state ‘law’.

And what idiot came up with the idea of making a law out of such a subjective subject anyway? How your property looks to them. LAWS are supposed to be objective! Not subject to the whims of any certain group of people, but obvious and the same to everybody.

Well, Freeport city fathers have decided that they don’t want ‘scum’ like me around. They don’t want any low income people living in their town. They’e flat out come out and said that they will do what is necessary to get rid of us.

Is it really necessary for them to insist that everyone puts in a driveway? That no one can park on the streets anymore, even tho the streets are plainly meant for that? That it’s illegal to park on the grass? In my own yard! That there are very, very few houses in Freeport that already have a big enough driveway to fit more than one car since they were all built long before most people had even one car, much less 2, , 3, 4 that they have now. How many thousands of $$$$$ should a person have to spend to keep up with the Joneses? To keep their property they’ve struggled for years to earn for themselves?

Here’s another one… Freeport has decided to pass a rule that anytime you want to rent a property, they will have to send an inspector (that YOU will be forced to pay for). They will ensure that your property is “fit for human habitation.” Well, damn! I had always assumed I was a human. I thought all my tenants were humans too (maybe 1-2 of them not so much). Who the hell are THEY to determine what kind of living conditions are on offer? That should be between the buyer and the seller, period!

Oh yeah, they won’t allow you to occupy it until you’ve brought it ‘up to code’. Which pretty much means you might as well tear it down and start all over since there is no way you can bring an old house up to modern standards without spending 10 times what the house is worth! Which is their objective.

They’re harassing the hell out of everyone in town who doesn’t measure up to their high standards. Why the HELL should some high on the hog a**hole decide what’s OK and what’s not? Just because they felt like running for city council and I had an actual job to do? Sorry, but in THIS country, we are NOT a democracy, we are a constitutional republic and that means my rights are protected from the majority whims! That was the whole point of the Bill of Rights!

Unless and until what I am doing OBJECTIVElY HARMS someone else, they have NO right to STEAL my property which is exactly what they are doing with their stupid rules!

Is it right that they get to even make these rules, simply by coming up with them at a meeting when most people involved (the huge majority of the people who live in the city) are not even informed of the meeting (oh yeah, its in tiny print in the back of the newspaper that nobody gets), and certainly aren’t able to be there? NO, obviously it is NOT right. It is 100% WRONG! It should not be accepted!

People wonder why there are so many shootings, where ordinary people just seem to lose it? This sort of thing makes it completely clear to me. When a group of people gets together and conspires to STEAL everything you’ve worked for, and you have a slim to none chance of ever being able to get it back. Yeah, I completely understand it.

DON’T tell me I should go ‘vote’! The times when voting mattered for anything are long gone! The politicians have been out of control in this country, from the lowest dog catcher to the highest President of the USA for decades. WHY do we even need them any more?

I’ve said for years, that we DON’T! We would all be a hell of a lot better off throwing the whole lot of them under a rock at the bottom of the stinkiest, slimiest sewer which is where they belong! Program a computer with the Constitution and Bill of Rights and let it throw out any ‘law’, rule or regulation that doesn’t comply. We DON’T need politicians, we DON’T need leaders, we DON’T need ‘authorities’. We NEED to take back control of our OWN lives, liberties and property and we’ll never be able to do that until we stop begging for someone else to ‘take care of things’.

The entire Freeport city council should be run out of town on a rail! AFTER hanging them! For their arrogance, stupidity and just plain meanness.

Paints and Politics

Tuesdays are usually busy days for me. I get up early so I have time to check email, take out the garbage, eat breakfast and get out of the house by 9:00.

I’ve been going to take painting classes at the Art & Science Center every Tuesday morning (if I’m not able to go to work in Houston). I’ve missed quite a few classes, but I can still see some improvement.

I have only completed 2 paintings so far. I’ve started a few others, but not close to finishing them yet. I don’t really like any of them very much so far. One friend of mine told me she really liked one abstract (mess) I was working on. I thought about it for a while and then turned it into an alien jungle scene. Kind of reminded me of something Rousseau might have done. Here’s the before…

I had it framed and gave it to my friend. I wasn’t all that surprised, but she liked it better before I added to it. She thought I ‘ruined it’. Here’s the after…

Which one do you like best?

The other one I’ve finished was the 1st one I started in this class. I’ve really been trying to learn how to paint water. I found a picture in one of the art books in the classroom and tried to get the technique down. It didn’t turn out much like my reference, but I think it wasn’t too bad for my first try.

Today, I was trying to finish up a couple of others I’ve been working on for a while. This will be my last class since I’ll be at the TBEX next Tuesday. I still have a long way to go on both of them, but I think they’re shaping up nicely.

I especially like this one (below), the photo doesn’t really do it justice. 🙂

I really get the feeling like I’m out there on the water. I wish I really was. 🙂

So, that’s what I do Tuesday mornings.

Tuesday evenings I go meetup with my friends from the local Campaign for Liberty group (ex- Ron Paul meetup group). We like to talk politics over dinner at a local restaurant. Lately we’ve been meeting at the Bella Roma on highway 332, next to the old skating rink. They serve large portions of pretty decent Italian favorites (pizza, pasta, etc). I usually get either ravioli with Alfredo sauce or the Philly cheesesteak sandwich. The Italian Cream Cake and Cheesecake for dessert is good too.

Lately we’ve been talking a lot about how we’ve managed to come so far from our beginnings as a free country. Last week we were watching a slide show, but as we kept stopping to discuss various points, we didn’t finish the whole program before they started closing down the place- it didn’t help that we had one extremely socialist guest. 😉

I do like to argue, but this guy put me to shame! I think the only thing we all agreed on was that the ‘banksters’ were screwing us and the entire world.

The more I learn about what’s really going on, the more frustrated and depressed I get. At this point, I think the only way possible to really live as we’re meant to- is to get completely out of the ‘system’. I don’t know how to do that, or if it’s even possible any more. All I know is that I’ll never accept the way things are now (even tho I feel like I’m beating my head against the wall most days).

So, I go to the meetings on Tuesday nights, just for a change- to talk to a few people who mostly do ‘get it’. Yeah, we still argue about things, we still struggle to understand- but we try mostly to inform people. We’ll never fix what’s wrong with this country or the world as long as the vast majority prefers the status quo.

Yeah, OK- call me a ‘conspiracy theorist’. But what if it’s true?