Recomended Reading

[sheepdog 10]

Just finished a very good book that I highly recommend everyone put on his or her reading list. Joel Salatin's "Everything I Want to Do Is Illegal."The purpose of the book is defiantly twofold. First, to promote local agricultural practices and keeping healthy, fresh food in the community where it’s benefits promote not only the health of the consumer but the local economy as well. But the book also goes into great detail about how ridiculous government regulations make it impossible to do this. If you have every wondered about the stupidity of our own government, this book will be a real eye opener. While it deals mostly with agricultural regulations, it also delves into several other problem topics, like insurance and zoning regulations. You will be shocked at the number of things that make everything we do not just difficult, but in some cases, impossible. Did you know, for one example, that in many locations, the government can tell you what size house you can build on your own property, and that it is illegal to build a house too small? Having myself personally dealt with the same mentality and brutality of federal inspectors as the author has, I enjoyed the book on a very personal level, it’s nice to know I’m not the only one who has been harassed unmercifully by bureaucratic buffoons who have let the tiny bit of power they have with their job to make the persons they are overseeing life a living hell. As the saying goes, power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely. Many of these inspectors have mental problems. They cannot tolerate anyone who defies them or stands up to them. Some of the things they do are actually criminal against the people they are hired to oversee. One case in the book told of how one of the officials the author had argued with actually went to his customers, local restaurants, and threatened to shut them down if they continued to purchase fresh eggs from him. Government officials can and do use the power of their positions to inflict harm upon the citizens they are in charge of. While we champion the cause of freedom and our rights to chose our own leaders, it is a very sad state of affairs when these people in unelected positions are the ones that can make our lives a living hell and can dictate weather or not we can conduct our business and make our own livelihood. The sad thing is we have virtually no recourse when we fall victim to one of these corrupt officials. We can complain, but everyone thinks we are just some nut case who is mad because we didn’t supposedly do good enough to pass their inspections and therefore are dead beats or no goods, and the more you complain, the more harassment you will receive from the inspectors as payback for bucking them. It is a sad and dismal situation, and has caused many small businessmen and farmers to simply throw in the towel on their dreams and aspirations and give up in despair. Which of course, further hurts the economy and the local job market. My hat is off to Joel Salatin for the courage to write this book, and I hope to help him promote it and make everyone aware of the terrible havoc corruption in government causes. Please read this book!

[jlhaslip 4]

I will add this to my Reading List. Thanks for the referral.

[sheepdog 10]

Hope you get a chance to read this one. There are so many eye opening facts in it, and also, as far fetched as it may seem, many of ideas in this book are small but helpfull solutions to many of the problems we face in the world today. Polution, bad economy etc.