All politics is local...

Once again i have dipped my toe into the political mess that is my homeowners association, and have found the experience to be a complete nightmare. After my last experience about 8 years ago, I shouldn't be surprised, but somehow I just assumed that things would have worked themselves out. The kinder, gentler homeowners association that I hoped to find simply does not exist.

So here's the story...

One of my neighbors came by a couple of weeks back to get my signature on a petition to recall the trustee from my neighborhood. (we call it a village) I gladly signed, since I have had a number of issues with the individual, and told my neighbor that I would happily attend the trustee meeting to air my grievances in person.

On the night of the trustee meeting I was appalled by the dysfunction of the trustees. They seemed to bicker and argue and get nothing done. They must have had some really bad meetings previously because it appeared that half of the attendees were there simply to bash one of the trustees for what they viewed as threatening behavior in a previous meeting. Based on my observation of the trustee in question, I'm sure that if he acted-out in a meeting, it was purely out of frustration at the environment.

So toward the end of the meeting, I gave what I consider to be a rather eloquent speech about the trustees role in representing the homeowners, and their obligation for transparency in their duties. Everyone appeared to echo those same comments, and I'd hoped that the board would move forward with business. Specifically the business of the recall election that was the catalyst for my attendance. That isn't quite the way it worked out. They simply reviewed some old business, and closed the meeting.

The following Tuesday, there was another meeting that was specifically to cover the recreation committees request for a budget to address some issues with the pool and playground. The same core group of people who attended the previous meeting attended to get some answers or action on the recall election. After they refused to address it in the meeting, which accomplished nothing on it's agenda either, they closed the meeting. I took the opportunity to address my trustee about the recall election, and got nowhere with her in the discussion. She simply said that they would have to discuss it further.

Now I'm not a lawyer or anything, but the point of having indentures, and for that matter a process for recall of a trustee, is so that it doesn't need much discussion. When the head trustee is the person who is being recalled, they in good conscience recuse themselves from the discussion completely. But, were not talking about people here who have a lot of sense, or for that matter an interest in serving anyone but themselves.

The community budget is almost $500,000, and that's enough money to make the choice of our trustees an important decision. I intend to continue to "fight the good fight" to get this trustee recalled. Her behavior through this experience has made my desire to see her recalled as quickly as possible more intense.

I'll keep you updated as things progress. If anyone has any suggestions... short of retaining an attorney, let me know.

- ND

Payback is supposed to be a...

Apparently someone decided that a little payback was in order for old grievances. Unfortunately, they have wonderful Photoshop skills and a complete dearth of creativity.

Figure 1
(The original)

(I like the picture of Tony Blair in the background - nice touch)

Figure 2
(The cheap knock off)

(Adding the clock at 3:00 in the background was a nicely veiled Hillary reference.)

Please people, let's get creative with the content of these things in the future. No one really believes that either of these people is dumb enough to get caught doing something this stupid. They make enough legitimate gaffes, so let's focus on those. If that's not enough to keep you smiling, be more creative in your abuse.

- ND

The other PC...

I can't speak for everyone, but I can tell you that I'm just sick and tired of the pervasive political correctness that drives almost everything today. It seems that everyone spends nearly as much time vetting their words to insure that they are politically correct as they do assembling them to be politically important. I'm sure that you're thinking, what did Nabor Dan see or hear from the campaign trail that raised his ire this time? Guess again... it didn't have anything to do with the campaign season. This diatribe was generated by a link I was sent to a video that perfectly expressed my view of the nature of our PC society. Have a quick watch...



This is not about Islam, it's about the perversion of beliefs. A perversion that has run rampant in our society, and for that matter, all of the western world. The belief that we must choose to tread on no one has made western culture the doormat of society. By believing that we must be sensitive to all cultures, we lose the very value that our culture is founded on. Yes, we must embrace tolerance of others beliefs and values. That is a point that I will not disagree with. But we must keep a watchful eye that we don't sacrifice our dearly held beliefs in granting that tolerance. We become the worst kind of people when we fail to acknowledge the ills of others because we fear offending their sensibilities. These same people who we are so careful to not offend are the first to criticize our culture as offensive.

We need to open our eyes. We need to see that both ends are being played against the middle. We either need to drop our PC attitudes and address things in the open, or admit that we are a culture in decline.

- ND

Look alike...

I received some pictures which were taken at a "The Real Me" gig over the weekend. I thought that the pictures were pretty good, which is not normal for me, so I showed them to a friend at the office.

One of my co-workers suggested that in the picture below I look like Tom Arnold. We conducted a poll by printing out these two pictures for comparison.














My co-workers unanimously agreed that I did in fact look like Tom Arnold. Honestly, I didn't see the resemblance. I have another picture of me from the same evening with glasses on, and everyone agrees I look less like Tom Arnold with glasses. Either way, I think they are dead wrong.

So I'll leave it up to you, my readers, to decide for yourselves. You have now seen both pictures, so please let me know what you think. I have created a poll for you to express your opinions. Don't let that stop you from commenting.

- ND