Stories like this make be believe people who say, “The Founding Fathers would be shooting by now!”
From Reason:
Martha Boneta owns a small farm in Fauquier County, Virginia, where she recently hosted a birthday party for eight 10-year-old girls. They wore hats, picked veggies, and made goat’s milk soap. The county says she should have obtain a license before hosting such an event and hit her with a $5,000 fine.
Boneta also got slammed with two more fines for $5,000 each, one for advertising a pumpkin carving and another for violations in the small shop on her property. Boneta sells produce from her farm, as well as eggs, yarn, birdhouses, and local crafts. She sought and received a license for the shop in 2011, but the county now says she can’t sell handiwork or produce from her neighbors under that license.
So in Fauquier County, Virginia, you cannot sell produce that you grow on your own land and you cannot hold a birthday party for a friend’s daughter without direct permission from the government. And unauthorized pumpkin carving carries a $5,000 fine.
Why do we still call ourselves a free country?
Maybe because the people can still protest the fines and elect new members to the board. At least, I think they can.
Maybe that carries a fine also.
As long as “da gubmint” gets their cut via permit and license fees! Maybe Ayn Rand was right:
“Did you really think we want those laws observed?” said Dr. Ferris. “We want them to be broken. You’d better get it straight that it’s not a bunch of boy scouts you’re up against… We’re after power and we mean it… There’s no way to rule innocent men. The only power any government has is the power to crack down on criminals. Well, when there aren’t enough criminals one makes them. One declares so many things to be a crime that it becomes impossible for men to live without breaking laws. Who wants a nation of law-abiding citizens? What’s there in that for anyone? But just pass the kind of laws that can neither be observed nor enforced or objectively interpreted – and you create a nation of law-breakers – and then you cash in on guilt. Now that’s the system, Mr. Reardon, that’s the game, and once you understand it, you’ll be much easier to deal with.”
― Ayn Rand, Atlas Shrugged
Maybe it is because the Paris Farmer is smokin hot and the zoning witch is jealous!
I mean really – has anybody seen the pictures of Farmer Martha Boneta?
She looks likes some kind of a Playboy Centerfold pictorial on a farm! Heck, if this is what farm girls look like, then Green acres, here I come!