This is local but it has wider implications. It seems every quiet, peaceful place that’s a nice place to live attracts people who want to turn it into a noisy and no-longer-as-nice place to live:
. . .
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This shows that zoning is BS. Teachers in government schools always praised zoning, as it “protected” property owners against things like this. Obviously, it didn’t protect the residents adjacent to this venue. I guess the teacher neglected to mention the golden rule: those who have the gold make the rules.
Speaking of zoning, a zoning Nazi has died of lead poisoning – the high-velocity kind, administered by one of his victims:
https://www.wkyc.com/article/news/crime/north-royalton-david-smerek-shooting-suspect-edward-biesiada-building-commissioner-zoning-dispute-3news-investigates/95-7a227373-5196-48bb-bc4b-6181f12e0b84
His fellow employees are whining about senseless violence, and how “he was such a nice man.”
It wasn’t senseless. The shooter had his reasons. And I doubt if he was a nice guy to the people he threatened with criminal prosecution for failing to maintain their homes and yards to House Beautiful standards.
If I were to serve on the shooter’s jury, I would vote Not Guilty. It was justifiable homicide, in a country founded by armed rebellion against government tyrants.
I agree, SLH –
Assholes hide behind the law and use the law as a weapon. I could be an asshole and fire up my Trans-Am at 10 in the evening and rev the engine – but I don’t do that, because while I can be prickly, I’m a civilized man and so do my best to not be an asshole. The Floydfest people are assholes. They whoop it up for four days straight, all day and well into the night – annoying people for (literally) miles around. This is not some hippie kumbaya around the campfire. It is a major concert event. Imagine Motley Crue playing for four days straight – in the open – a couple hundred yards away from your house. I’m five miles away, at least – and I can hear the obnoxious noise from that far away.
Hey, Eric,
I don’t know what the laws are where you live, but
Where I live, there are objective noise standards, i.e. maximum X decibels, depending on time of day. Noise meters are readily available, and cheap.
“To measure is to know.”
– Lord Kelvin
If no such laws exist where you live, I encourage you to push for their passage. Everyone has the right to “quiet enjoyment” of their property.
Hi Adi,
I hear you. But the millionaire greedheads behid Floydfest own the county, so it’s a pointless quest. I expect I’ll eventually have to sell my place to be subdivided for McMansions or a Taco Bell. Cue the Lee Greenwood song.
>lead poisoning – the high-velocity kind
Using medical terminology, I believe that would be known as “acute” lead poisoning. 🙂
Sign in a local shop:
“Due to rise in the price of ammunition, do not expect a warning shot.”
Right next to a portrait of Sitting Bull, with the caption:
“Sure you can trust the U.S. Governmnt. Look what they did for my people. “
Police Are Deploying 60 MPH Autonomous Drones to Read Your License Plate from the Sky
(Motor Biscuit) If you thought Flock Safety’s Automated License Plate Readers (ALPRs) were deeply invasive when they were just mounted to neighborhood stop signs and hidden inside speed trailers, you might want to look up.
The company that built a massive, interconnected surveillance net across American roadways has officially taken its technology airborne. As highlighted in a viral X post by Josh Walkos, Flock is rolling out “Flock Alpha”—a highly advanced, autonomous police drone designed to track vehicles and suspects from the sky.
Walkos perfectly captured the escalating nature of the tech in his post: “Remember when everyone was told Flock was ‘just reading license plates’? Anyway, here’s Flock Alpha, the autonomous drone.”
Well, if we all start taking up rifle practice they shouldn’t last too long. Property ownership usually conveys an airspace up to 500 feet. Sounds like a relaxing way to spend an enjoyable Sunday afternoon as they fly overhead. Think of the family fun as the dog and kids run excitedly around the yard picking up little bits of drone and tossing down into the woods (with gloves, of course) before the govholes can locate them.
According to the US Federal Aviation Administration, shooting down a drone is a violation of federal law:
‘Can you shoot down drones above your property?
No. It’s illegal under federal law to shoot at an aircraft. A private citizen shooting at any aircraft – including unmanned aircraft – poses a significant safety hazard. An unmanned aircraft hit by gunfire could crash, causing damage to persons or property on the ground, or it could collide with other objects in the air. Shooting at an unmanned aircraft could result in a civil penalty from the FAA and/or criminal charges from federal, state or local law enforcement.’
https://www.faa.gov/newsroom/what-know-about-drones
Hi SG,
It is also illegal to spy on one’s citizens under the Fourth Amendment. I am just giving the government back the respect that they give us.
As long as their drone is not on my property I won’t take potshots at it. If it comes on my property she’s mine.
I gather that you have never been the victim of a federal indictment. The US DOJ is utterly without a shred of humanity, and their minions live to destroy other people’s lives. Guilt or innocence matters not to them; conviction rate is all that matters.
About 95% of all federal indictments result in a plea bargain (because they pile on charges and threaten maximum penalties for the recalcitrant), and of the 5% who chose to go to trial (many of whom are undoubtedly innocent), the conviction rate is about 95%. So your chances of walking away from a federal indictment are about 1 in 400. And even if you’re one of the rare few who do walk away, you will not walk away unscathed. At the very least, you will be poorer and emotionally traumatized.
Never underestimate the ability of any government — local, state, or federal — to assemble a jury that will happily convict you of any and all charges that the government throws at you.
You’re a nice lady. I’m trying to help you.
Hi SG,
In all sincerity, I thank you for the information and appreciate your concern.
One, I don’t live in an area where drones fly overhead so the odds of tackling one is about nil. Two, what is the likelihood of it being a government drone? I am surrounded by other farms and thousands of acres of open land. Other than some cattle and a whole bunch of goats and horses there isn’t too much to experience, which is why I like it.
The upsetting thing is the amount of innocent victims that are castrated by government for doing nothing wrong. I understand it is an unfair system.
Thank you for that kind reply. It appears that the lines have fallen unto you in pleasant places. Congratulations; I wish I had thousands of acres of open farmland around me. The South Carolina Upcountry around here was pretty rural 40 years ago; now it’s a new subdivision or an incipient one every quarter mile.
To clarify: the federal government can burn you for shooting down any drone — not just one owned by the feds. The FAA considers all drones to be aircraft. And they take themselves very seriously.
Hi SG,
The Upcountry is about the only part of SC I haven’t traveled through. 🙂
It is building up here in VA as well, but there are still pockets of open farmland that has been untouched due to generations of families that have continued to pass it down.
It’s just shear luck that no one has sold to the highest bidder (developer), and I am extremely thankful for that.
>rifle practice
Or shotgun. Bird loads ought to do it.
https://www.mossberg.com
At least in California, IIRC from RE law class, you “theoretically” own the column of air extending to infinity above your property. Anyone on (or “in”) your property without your permission commits a trespass. The law *should* be on your side.
If you live in town, as I do, you do have to be mindful of laws which prohibit discharging a firearm within city limits, but other than that….
Hi Adi,
I may or may not have one of those in the 12 gauge variety.
Due to my bad eye site I mistakenly believed the drone was a bird. 😜
When I went rural many decades ago, one of the first things I did was to introduce myself to my farm neighbors with the assurance that farm operations, smells and the like would never be a problem and that if they needed anything, I would be happy to help as much as possible. We have helped each other from time-to-time. If the SHTF, I already have a number of neighbors that I can trust.
Outsiders, rightly so, are looked upon with suspicion as far too many want a rural lifestyle that is “not too rural” and complain about normal rural farm operations.
Yeah, the Asheville of Montana is sad to see, but it has not gone completely Communist like that of Colorado. More specifically, Denver & Boulder. I always joke (or not) that these migrants are just smart enough to figure out Communism didn’t work in their former state, but are too damned dumb to leave it behind. As such, none of them should ever be allowed to vote or run for any form of office. Just sit and enjoy (or not) why you moved here in the first place, rather than “…trying it again” in a state no one invited you to.
The front range has had a major federal government population since at least the end of World War II. There’s a massive office park called The Denver Federal Center, NIST and associated national labs up in Boulder, of course the Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs… and all the ancillary activity associated with government contractors who set up shop in town to be close to their “customer.”
What gets me is that, with a few exceptions, Colorado was a place you moved to because you wanted to live here. Maybe you came here on vacation when you were kids. Or maybe you went to school in Boulder and wanted to come back. You came for the lifestyle, not the job. But that’s all changed now. The growth in government contracts and associating yourself with government projects (especially military) means the prime driver has shifted to available jobs than lifestyle. As corporations flee the west coast they move here, and that means they bring their workers too. Workers who miss California’s past and never stop to think that it wasn’t sustainable. So, “Nothin’ up my sleeve… Presto!” we’re back to stabbing the golden goose.
Back when I first moved to Austin in 1980 we called it Californication. Hold tight, this shit is about to come to a screeching halt. Asheville was also great back in the 20th century….now I love the environment but the town and the ones surrounding it have a severe invasion of Karens, Chads and homeless drug addicts. Since nothing real gets produced in these areas, come the financial collapse, living there will become tentative…..one thing I’ll say about people from the rural south…..they tend to be honorable IME….you would not think that to hear the leftards who consider such folks to be white trash but I like ’em.
I like them…mostly. But I’ll never be one of them. I’ll never be quite enough of a country mouse for that. But unlike most city micr I do know better than to try to tell them how they oughtta live, which is why we usually get alog just fine…mostly. There’s an invisible wall of some sort that’s always kind of been there.
I am probably like you….live in the sticks but not one of them. That said, if you respect their values IME, they will treat you right. This became demonstrated to me when I recently had body work done on my 2002 Toyota Tacoma right here in small town TN. I established a rapport with the business owner and he did me right. I also made him a charcuterie board and we will do business in the future. There are also Mennonite communities in the area with whom I do business because they are honest and deliver in a timely manner at the agreed upon price. If you make these connections everybody benefits because it’s all voluntary exchange. This was the way this country was supposed to operate. Beyond the upcoming shitstorm these kinds of relationships may mean the difference between survival and the alternative. I know a lot of libtards who will not survive the upcoming events, and it makes me sad because in spite of their toxic rhetoric, they do not deserve what’s coming.
Weird — for the past four hours, I’ve been priming the raw-lumber interior of a new 10′ x 12′ shed I had installed last week.
Unlike contractors who need loud tunes playing, I paint in silence and let my mind wander. One of the idle thoughts that popped into my head was … Floydfest. Probably from Eric’s essay about it last year. Call it teleconnection.
Then the silence was interrupted by a squeak and a bang. A brown speckled bird, deceived by the 6″ x 36″ slit window in the propped-open front door of the shed, smashed into it and fell to the ground, stunned.
I saw that it was still subtly moving, flexing its tail and wings. Then mighty peels of thunder erupted from a monsoon storm. First the bird hopped under a concrete block step for shelter from the rain. Next time I checked, it was gone.
If I leave here tomorrow
Would you still remember me?
For I must be traveling on, now
‘Cause there’s too many places I’ve got to see
— Lynyrd Skynyrd, Free Bird
It’s the loss of our culture. My grandparents would never dream of even inconveniencing anyone. I never really thought too much about him pulling over every few miles because there was a car coming up behind. I mean, that’s what being considerate meant. And considerate people were the norm. Even the worst POS in high school turned down his radio when he hit city limits.
When I headed to college in Minneapolis, I found out that being considerate was not universal.
They need to bring back punching rude people in the face. Those who didn’t learn manners from home will have to learn by a more hands-on approach.
I’d add that for some reason, loud cars were never treated the same way. No one seemed to mind when a loud car went down the street. Maybe people thinking back on their youth or something. Until I went to Minneapolis. There they were quite happy to write tickets and call the cops over loud vehicles.
Minneapolis is the epitome of “Minnesota nice” which means chit chatting to your face and sending cops after you for anything and everything. Lots of democracy and enforcement.
Hi Steve,
In re: “They need to bring back punching rude people in the face. Those who didn’t learn manners from home will have to learn by a more hands-on approach.”
100 percent. Civilization requires civility.
The doctrine of “fighting words” is a very sound one and absolutely necessary to civilization. Dueling was just a logical extension of that.
Amen, Ernie –
Civilization cannot exist without civility. The difficulty – today – is that civility isn’t expected, much less enforced.
>Civilization requires civility.
“An armed society is a polite society.
-R.A. Heinlein
Isn’t it interesting how the parasites who charge you to live on your own property and tell you what you can do on it, live on multi-million dollar properties? Funny how that works out. I can just see them [icturing the people who live in the singlewides and saying “HAhaha! What are THEY gonna do! Hahaha! Hey Fred, maybe they’ll vote for you next time…LOL”.
The venue sits on private property, no? Are they not free to do whatever they want with and on it? Or do we presume the authority to tell them otherwise because it annoys us?
Yes, Larry –
It’s on private property. But that is neither here nor there as far as being obnoxious to your neighbors. I could fire up my Trans Am at 2 in the morning and rev the engine all night long, but I don’t do that because I’m not a jerk. How much of a jerk do you have to be to import thousands of people to annoy your neighbors? This is what ends up souring people on private property.
If the audience is not infested with Californians or people from the Right Coast, I have no problem with this – as long as the bands are playing James Brown, Smokey Robinson or Rockabilly.
OK, sure, there’s the common decency argument but who gets to set the rules of engagement for that? How is it enforced if your private property neighbor doesn’t agree?
How is your ‘obnoxious spectrum scale’ any different than the assertion that we need an EPA. Is your Trans Am an absolutely zero impact car?
If everyone decided tomorrow that fuck emissions, I’ll do what I want, the air would look like Pittsburgh during the peak of steel mills.
I don’t like the EPA or DOT one bit but I also don’t trust most people not to be assholes either.
It’s a Sophie’s Choice. A little bit of common sense government invariably leads to socialism and tyranny. But trying the other way a little bit of common sense laissez-faire leads to robber barons and exploitive company towns.
The problem is humans are imperfect. Greed, lying, cheating, stealing are the default behavior, not the exception.
I’d go with Heinlein’s observation “An armed society is a polite society. Manners are good when one may have to back up his acts with his life.”
Probably 20 years ago, there was a guy in Montana or Wyoming who got out of a murder rap with the defense, “the guy needed killin'”, and the jury agreed. Wouldn’t take much to bring back manners. Just enough people who valued a decent society.
Hi Larry,
Yes, true. But this is much worse than an annoying neighbor. It’s a “neighbor” that is ruining the neighborhood. I don’t say anyone’s private property rights ought to be forfeit or restricted. I say that this sort of obnoxiousness undermines property rights because people – rightly – resent the abuse of property rights and that will ultimately lead to property rights being curtailed.
The obnoxious noise they’re making doesn’t stay on their own property; it invades and degrades other people’s property for miles around.
I know how the sponsors of this event would react if an adjacent property owner blasted a train whistle for 3-4 days in self-defense during the event: they would claim that he had no right to do so.
If ruining your neighbor’s life with unnecessary loud noise — whether from music, barking dogs, a bad bearing in a swimming pool pump, or any other source — doesn’t constitute an aggression, then I don’t know what would, short of shooting out his windows and burning down his house.
Wonderfully stated, Straitgate!
Defenders of property rights undermine property rights when they defend such things as FloydFest. If the people running this show were able to keep the music within the boundaries of their property, they’d have every right to play the music as much as they like. But this is not the case. And it is worse. It is not just the occasional/unavoidable noise we all hear coming from a neighbor’s place every once in awhile, such as a chainsaw or lawn mower running. It’s understood that’s part of life and also that it’s necessary and temporary. Floydfest is a massive commercial operation. They’re annoying people for miles around for days in a row – and making big money doing this.
It’s the very definition of asshole-ness.
I think, at the very least, the affected neighbors have a right to a cut of the money generated by FloydFest. They are being made to pay for it, after all. This includes the cost of renting out the county cops who are put to work managing the traffic clusterfuck.
Agreed. That’s why I specified unnecessary loud noise. Everybody understands that sometimes you have to mow your yard, pressure wash your house, or cut some firewood or trim some trees. Or run a generator for a while when the electric grid goes down, as after Hurricane Heleeeeeeeene here a couple of years ago.
You forgot target practice, SG. Nothing should be more comforting than listening to one’s fellow neighbors keeping up their marksmanship.
RG,
I agree with you in principle however we have one asshole South African that shoots daily for long sessions….another has a baying hound that can be heard all day and all night….this in a neighborhood where the average plot of land is north of ten acres. People just need to learn to be courteous….that said, I was a right asshole in my youth WRT noise so in a sense it’s karma coming back to me. Not everybody likes Pink Floyd or Black Sabbath or Frank Zappa at volume…..
Hi Giuseppe,
“We have one asshole South African that shoots daily for long hours”.
Do you live near Elon? He is the only one that I can think of that would be able to afford the ammo for shooting daily. 😉
I don’t mind loud music as long as it is good music. Somebody is blaring CCR, Bob Seger, or the Allman Brothers…they are okay by me.
Who gets to define it? What if someone isn’t a hard core car guy? It’s a necessary tolerance that people have a right to travel and have a choice of modes. A hobby Trans Am is cool but I find it irritating that assholes cruise in town and I have to listen to them revving and racing at 11PM and I can hear it 6 blocks away. I’m really not upset when the cops shut that shit down, it’s not necessary. It’s not getting anyone to work, no farmers are delivering produce, visiting anyone. You have a right to travel and it’s none of my business why or where you go. But is not cruising basically pointless? Sure, I did it as a kid and the point then as now was to mostly irritate the old fossils who want to just get some damn sleep.
Hi Larry,
It is an asshole move to rev the engine of a loud car at 10 at night – which is why it’s an asshole move to play loud music at 10 at night and for days on end. FloydFest is far worse, though – because it’s a massive, organized, for-profit event approved by the county. Some kid briefly revving the engine of his loud car is absolutely annoying, but what he does is not a sanctioned event that has the local cops defending it. Yes, indeedy. I get to pay the god-damned county property taxes so that the county can send sheriffs’ cars to direct traffic and police FloydFest. These cops are literally right there at the venue, with the obnoxious loud music bellowing out across the land for miles – and they not only do nothing, they are there to protect it. What do you suppose would happen if I were to drive my TA to just outside the home of one of the organizers of FloydFest and rev its engine for a few hours?
How about I get some uber loud speakers and play the Lee Greenwood song at top volume? I won’t even charge anyone tickets to hear it.
>It is an asshole move to rev the engine of a loud car
How about a water ski boat with a big block Chevy and straight headers?
Former neighbors had one of those. 🙂
Younger brother once owned a gasoline powered altered:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Altered_(drag_racing)
which he liked to fire up in the driveway.
Neighbors were not appreciative. 🙂
That’s the slippery slope rational. Does not your vehicle emissions travel in the air over your neighbor? What about if your sewage that goes into water that someone downstream drinks.
It’s known as the tragedy of the commons in philosophy, although the concept is applied broadly beyond libertarianism to most things collectivist, both to justify as well as argue against the boundary where individuals have to interface to cooperate or compete.
The idea is that a person acting in his self interest will invariably be in conflict with others because resources are not infinite. We all want it all for nothing.
More possible example of this.
I had my bee colonies die due to a neighbor who persisted in using Roundup on his property. It wasn’t like he sprayed the poison directly on my bees, killing them instantly. There was more than a vague connection that two hives that were stable and fine for a couple of years both collapsed within a couple of months.
There is at least one farmer not far from my who has been dealing with a different sort of problem. He’s trying to stay organic but is getting cross pollination from larger farmers who are using GMO varieties that the wind carries, not recognizing arbitrary lines on maps.
The ground water in our area sometimes gets high in farm runoff, mainly leaching ponds, and must be treated if you’re on a well. They’re not trying to pollute the water but a big storm or occasional issue with their liners happens.
>if an adjacent property owner blasted a train whistle
Which brings up an interesting point.
If you buy property on Railroad Avenue, with [name of railroad goes here] directly across the street, you have constructive notice on what you are getting into. But what happns if the railroad shows up later, without your consent?
I’ve noticed this trend. Vermont, the Pacific Northwest and California. I’m in Upstate New York, which mostly hasn’t changed in my half century of life. Upstate New York, once mercifully overlooked is unfortunately now finally attracting people. Also there is the industrialization of the countryside with solar instalation and other things which will eventually lead to the despoilization of the countryside. A lifetime of watching “Progress”, I just want it to stop. It’s one long process of going from a world of dirt roads and farms that made sense to a more crowed world that lacks the charm and grace of the world that I knew.
Amen, Gabe –
The irony of it is that many of these people “come to the country” to get away from the despoiliation of suburbs and cities just recreate in the once-quiet places they migrate to.
I needed to calm myself a little; here’s how: https://rumble.com/v7dat7c-a-little-therapy-.-.-..html