more batshit crazy capitalism

[sharqi]

I've been informed by the solid waste coordinator that composting (any animal) manure in the city is illegal. Also found out that composting newspaper in the city is illegal. And so I continue to do what makes sense, and ignore bureaucrats' dictates.

carey

[ChloroFeelsNice]

Some laws trump others. Keep a low profile and your head down.

[jstorvick]

My grandfather used to say, "act normal and the boys in blue won't notice nuthin."

Its unfortunate that so many of our laws (and codes and regulations and so on) are essentially retarded. I suppose you could look at this as a form of civil disobedience, in addition to the benefits to your garden. Yay, another function! As long as you're not advertising the fact that you compost animal waste or (gasp) newspaper, I think you'll manage to stay out of trouble. I find it hard to believe that someone is going to start inspecting compost piles to make sure we're only using the "approved" list of ingredients.

[Justin Boland]

It would be interesting to start/float a Total Repeal movement on the local level. Most cities and counties have thousands of pages of laws that nobody is even aware of, in addition to the thousands of pages that few people know about enough to enforce. This is clutter, and clutter is seldom a good thing.

America, like any other nation, needs a culture of legal hygiene -- periodic cleanups.

Legal code, like any other code, can be written 10,000 ways, and 9,997 of them are convoluted to the point of stupidity. Even a minimal open-source movement with a couple hundred competent participants would yield a universal Town Legal Code Template that makes sense, works functionally, and takes up a small fraction of what used to be on the books.

[Korey King]

an interesting concept that really stuck with me was shared in one of jacque fresco's interviews back in his wildcat days, larry king in the 70's:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RVOPkGAtt48
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RVOPkGAtt48[/youtube]
[youtube]RVOPkGAtt48[/youtube]

he (and many others since) have argued that laws are completely unnecessary and the problems that we try to prevent w/legislation can be solved by proper use of technology. hashed out a very rough concept for a social thingamajig to explore ways to prove or disprove this theory:

"outlaw"
first draft, 10/8/2008

Making law obsolete.
history, tradition, outdated approaches+failures to control behavior, new applications
jacque fresco, mj, venus project

Is this even possible?
Maybe, I don't know. Who knows. Do you know?
Let's find out.

Goals.
It's mostly a massive social experiment and brainstorm session. It's been said that the idea is like merging two concepts that aren't typically merged: using freedom and collective wisdom to come up with the best solution to then impose restriction on freedom.

Advantages. ex

It's been proposed that most, if not all, laws can made obsolete through the proper implementation of existing and future technologies. Many theorists, futurists, and other esteemed thinkers have proposed similar ideas backed with varying degrees of practicality and morality. ex

But I'm not damn near arrogant enough to say what should be the best course of action to get it done.
And I don't think any one person should, either.

Reasons. ex

As a side effect of the free flow of ideas there is the opportunity to inspire engineers, developers, scientists, and investors to pursue applications of technology that are not only demonstrably popular (therefore, economically viable) but have been allowed to mature and develop over time due to collective user input (allowing rapid prototyping and production).

By doing this we are not only spreading an (arguably) beneficial meme through mass brainstorming -- but we're providing a medium through which practical, positive, and tangible changes in the world can manifest.


implementation

A database of lawlessness
Have a database of common laws showing the name and a brief definition of each. Users create solutions to a law based on existing or theoretical technology and present arguments why their solution is a good idea in three or four parts:

Causality
Detailing why you think the law is in place and/or the underlying causes behind the crime.

Technology
Where you would describe the application of a social or physical technology that exists now, can be adapted from existing technologies, or theoretical technology to make the law obsolete.

Feasibility
How practical the solution is -- in terms of resources needed to implement, whether the technology is available, and if not what would be required to develop such a technology.

Morality
From an objective viewpoint (might even work out) -- outline moral implications, infringed freedoms, and/or comparisons to existing models resulting from the widespread application of your solution

The community would be able to give each argument a rating for each part, and the overall rating of parts would allow the solution to rise to the top or fall off. Additionally users will be able to comment on each part to add their suggestions, corrections, and arguments for or against. These comments would in turn be able to be rated or voted upon allowing for rise and fall, with a limited amount of votes per user per argument to encourage critical analysis of each comment.


A social network
profiles integrated with major social networks (facebook, linkedin et al), personal blog feeds
epeen, user has proposed X solutions to make X laws obsolete, personal ratings?
similar projects, suggestions, watching/following, argument/comment outside discussion


A weapon of mass creation
Highly rated, mature solutions will be pushed forward from ideas to workable projects.

Idea originators, commenters, and possibly other users who have demonstrated expertise in a specific area can be nominated to get together -- and produce either a prototype application of the solution in the real world, or a formal presentation to bring forward to universities, investors, inventors and businesses if the necessary physical/social technologies and/or infrastructures do not exist yet.

In the best case scenario -- individuals and institutions with the resources needed to bring an idea to fruition will be actively watching the developing ideas and may request a push, if a desirable solution is identified that they have the means to deploy. We may also be able to fund some projects ourselves through donations, premium memberships of some sort, and/or advertising revenue when the project becomes popular.

While this particular collective brainstorm may not (immediately) attract individuals and institutions willing to invest in proposed solutions, the framework itself can be repurposed and applied to other projects -- such as Open Source Engineering branches -- providing a medium for garage inventors who would take advantage of simplified worldwide collaboration with others who have similar interests.

An Open Source Engineering framework can be niched into various emergent fields -- such as alternative energy production -- where there is a large existing base of independent researchers and significant demand for such technologies, thus attracting attention of investment firms and others who have resources available to fuel production, application, and continued research of proposed solutions.

_______________

might be just what's needed to start cleaning up bureaucratic BS and scrub the system of batshit crazy, unproductive, and harmful laws.
fun thought experiment anyway.

[sharqi]

I've been in contact with the zoning administrator, mostly regarding micro-livestock within city limits. According to animal control, micro-livestock are perfectly fine The zoning administrator opines they are not legal. Perfectly legal in residential areas is crop production, and later on, it says "similar uses" are okay too, which apparently means gardening.

If you want to use your land for agricultural purposes, you need a conditional use permit, which costs a couple hundred dollars in fees, plus you have to show up at a few city council meetings, and they may or may not approve your permit. Specified as agricultural uses are viticulture (grapes for wine), apiculture (bees), floriculture (flowers), and horticulture, which seems to cover just about everything but bio-concrete (lawn).

Springfield's zoning laws need updating to reflect our world of food insecurity. We are surrounded by agricultural fields, and yet our state imports 95% of the food we eat. We find ourselves in the third world, growing crops for export, and buying imports. We live in a food desert. There is not much fresh and healthy available in this city at the moment, and increasing numbers of us do not have the means to leave town in search of farmers who are willing to sell or trade.

We're getting together an urban food task force to figure out what to do in official means. I will hopefully get the last clarification letter from the zoning administrator soon. I hope to find online some well-written zoning codes for micro-livestock, and educate myself on what all this means to us, our city at large, and to figure out how to acknowledge valid concerns. Then we'll start educating others, including those who have the power to change the law.

I'm kind of ambivalent about how all this is going to turn out. Partly, I feel constrained with food not lawns regarding animals. I have not yet suggested people get animals illegally. I stopped voting a long time ago, but I'll give entirely local politics one last hurrah. I figure next year at this time, I'll have chicks. It'll be legal or not. If not, I'll be bribing my neighbors with fresh eggs, just like all the other chicken bandits in town.

carey

[jezzicaz789]

I've been informed by the solid waste coordinator that composting (any animal) manure in the city is illegal. Also found out that composting newspaper in the city is illegal. And so I continue to do what makes sense, and ignore bureaucrats' dictates.

carey

Hi l!
I've just visited this forum. Happy to get acquainted with you. Thanks.

[silverwolf]

As for the composting comment - Composting animal manure, along with human feces is problematic because omnivores and carinores can carry pathogens in their feces that will remain active in decomposition. If your compost is being put into a food producing garden or there are fruit trees nearby, it can also affect their integrity.
Alpacas, along with Ilamas are great for manure because they eat grass, not grain or meats and break it down into a finer amount for your compost.

So it's not necessarily 'batshit capitalism' , just protective