Guns and Cows
Well, let me give a big Yahoo! to the Supreme Court for upholding the Constitution!
Gun laws are stupid. The people who are going to break the law don’t worry about registering their guns, trust me. We don’t even own a gun, but know plenty of people who do. None of them are criminals. Swords are covered in the Second Amendment too, “keep and bear arms” etc. I’m hardly Ninja Dorie, but I do own some swords. Earlier this year, a ban on the sale of less expensive “reproduction” swords went into effect in the UK. But as one critic noted, better put a ban on the sale of bricks, cricket bats and meat cleavers too, because violent people will find a weapon to use.
Culture Clash! We are having a bit of this in central Maryland these days. This county and adjacent Frederick county have mandated agricultural preservation laws. So say you have a farm that’s been in the family for 75 or so years. If Mom and Dad have had enough and they’re ready to sell out and move to Myrtle Beach, the property has to be sold in keeping with the zoning ordinances for the area. Sometimes when a person owns a 40 acre farm, it must be sold as a 40 acre farm- even if a developer wants to buy the property for houses, 40 acres of building sites for “executive” homes would be worth a lot of money; more than a small family farm.
On the Frederick radio news, I heard of a confrontation the other day. There’s a farm that’s in an area where the zoning “flip flopped” As I understand it, some years back, the zoning was changed to “low density residential” and some houses were built along the road. Then the powers that be changed the zoning back to agricultural. Stopping the development and preserving the farm land. Sounds good but…
The owners have to make a living and pay their property taxes so they keep farming. Anyhow, this particular farm, the pasture is across the road from the buildings. So twice a day the cows are taken across the road to the pasture. The farmer pulls his tractor with a tow trailer across the road to block it and takes the ladies to the pasture. This is really dangerous anytime. A few years ago, somebody at a horse farm got killed in the road trying to get horses across and a driver just plowed into him!
“Rush Hour” around here anymore is anytime between 5 a.m. and 9, and from 3 to 6 p.m. Tuesday, some people trying to get to work, got really mad about the road being blocked. One fellow got out of his car and unhooked the trailer to get it out of the lane. Then a woman attempted to drive on, resulting in a confrontation with the farmer. Nobody was hurt, but the police were called in. The report says that he’s had an offer from a builder to sell out since 2004- he needs that zoning change for the sale to go through.
Zoning laws always irk my inner Libertarian. I understand- nobody wants a pig farm next door (trust me on this- eewww!) So to provide for the general welfare and all, there are restrictions on land use. But while it’s desirable to have rolling farmland, instead of suburban sprawl, the farm owner is the one trying to make a living- it’s his land to sell and the zoning ordinance rips him off. This report says he’s going to get his hearing about the variance this week.
About time! We don’t need a range war out here!
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