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If people can tell you what to do with your own property, do you really own it? Or do you just get to use your property as long as you do things with it that the majority like? A financially struggling South Carolina woman found out that her neighbors’ complaints about her yard can send her to jail.

Linda Ruggles is a photographer who lives in a suburb of Charleston, S.C., and her photography business has fallen on hard times recently. She lost her photo studio to foreclosure and she almost lost her home to foreclosure last year. She now works part-time as a cashier at a grocery store, and she sold her blood, collected scrap metal and volunteered for medical experiments to come up with the money to barely keep her home.

The roof of her house leaks, so she was able to buy some roofing tiles, but she hasn’t yet been able to come up with the money to pay roofers to install them, so they’ve been sitting on her roof waiting to be put on for three years. Her yard has some junk, including some columns that need to be installed on her porch.

Her neighbors aren’t happy. After they complained to the local municipal government, she was issued a fine for $480 — which she can’t afford to pay. “I told everyone, ‘If I had $480 to pay the fine, I’d fix the roof,'” she told the Charleston Post and Courier.

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The progressive Left has always seen itself as the high-minded reformers of the world. They’ve always been the moralists who stood for what was right. Those who opposed them were seen as evil and selfish. So why do they ignore the evil in their own roots?

When we talk about eugenics and forced sterilization to control the purity of a country’s people, our thoughts turn to Nazi Germany. But how many Americans understand that the progressives had been successful in getting eugenics laws passed in more than half the states — before the Nazis ever even came to power? What’s even worse is that the Nazis seem to have gotten the idea from Americans.

All of this comes up this week because a state panel in North Carolina has just recommended paying compensation of $50,000 each to people who were sterilized against their will. I find it interesting that none of the news stories seem to be mentioning that it was the progressive Left behind these programs starting in the early 20th century. I don’t think it’s an intentional omission. I just think it’s a part of history that the progressives have buried deeply — and few understand how deeply something such as forced sterilization is emblematic of what progressives really stand for.

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I’ve never met a Mitt Romney fan in person. They obviously exist — because I see evidence of them on TV and they show up to vote for the man — but I don’t talk to real people who admit to having any enthusiasm for the guy. So why is he going to win the GOP nomination?

The short answer is that he’s the guy who most Republicans see as the least-offensive available candidate who can defeat Barack Obama. That’s not a very high standard to set, but given what most voters believe, it was almost inevitable for Romney to win.

The question I have for Romney voters is what they would hope to achieve by replacing Obama with Romney. Other than the color of their skin and their party affiliation, what are the substantial differences between the men? They certainly pander to different people with their rhetoric, but on the issues of substance, I can’t see that they’re much different. Can you?

The question I have for supporters of the social conservatives in the race — Rick Santorum, Newt Gingrich, Rick Perry — what do you hope to gain by supporting Romney as your eventual nominee? Does he stand for what you believe? Or do you simply hate Obama so much that you’ll support anyone else?

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