Just in case you weren’t sufficiently disgusted by yesterday’s post on the out of control, hyper-regulation rampant throughout our government, here’s another one.
Courtesy of wptv.com:
HYPOLUXO, Fla. — A U.S. Marine who served overseas in Iraq has returned home in Hypoluxo, only to be told he cannot fly his American flag.
Days after Gregory Schaffer installed a flag pole in his front yard, he received a citation from the Town of Hypoluxo listing the flag as a code violation.
“It’s sad. It’s sad that we have to go through that just to fly a flag,” said Schaffer.
The 24-year-old Iraq war veteran said after serving overseas, it was a must to have a flag flying in his yard. But within days after hoisting up the flag, he was slapped with a citation after an anonymous neighbor filed a complaint with the town.
“It’s disgusting that anybody should have to go through that. I fought for the flag, now I’m paying for the flag,” said Schaffer.
The Town of Hypoluxo said this issue is not with his flag. “Well he can fly his flag the issue is that he has to get a building permit,” said Tim Large, who heads the building department for the town.
Large said the flag pole is considered a structure. If Schaffer does not have a permit, the flag has to come down.
He was slapped with a citation!? What, no warning or conversation? And the gutless “anonymous neighbor” didn’t even have the common courtesy to come to him first? Gaaaahh…
C’mon, folks, it’s a flag pole! I don’t suppose the local authorities could simply inspect the installation he did and just approve it, could they? And if not (which would be bad enough), okay, he has to obtain a permit. But even that may not be too big a deal, or very expensive, right?
Guess again:
Schaffer said because he is renting the house, he has to have a third-party contractor come in to apply for the permit, which could cost him nearly $1,000.
THIS is beyond ridiculous.
All levels of government, large and small, need to be brought back into line. Far from doing our bidding, government today is become more controlling, more intrusive and ultimately more tyrannical. The case above is a perfect example, since such a law doesn’t serve any purpose other than to further empower the local government at the expense (literally) of the citizen.
It’s up to us to make this happen, both locally and nationally. ‘Cause it’s pretty obvious by now that Government ain’t gonna just volunteer to become smaller on its own. Or, as one of our Founding Fathers once said:
“In framing a government which is to be administered by men over men, the great difficulty lies in this: you must first enable the government to control the governed; and in the next place, oblige it to control itself.“
–James Madison, Federalist No. 51, February 8, 1788
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Two Heads are Better Than One 
Local governments are sometimes even worse than the feds. St. Clair county Illinois (home of East St. Louis) is a good case in point. And where I live now, we just recently got rid of our tyrant president of the board of supervisors, who caused our tax rate to be double that of any other county in Iowa.
Any council members of a city which voted to make flying the American flag to be a code violation deserves to be hung from the flagpole. This is absurd! Are we still in America? Or has it become the USSA? Geesh.
Next thing will be you need a permit and a contractor to drive a wooden stake in the ground to hold up your tomato plant because the stake will be considered a “structure”…