{"id":2288,"date":"2011-08-09T11:00:44","date_gmt":"2011-08-09T16:00:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.davidmcelroy.org\/?p=2288"},"modified":"2011-08-08T22:08:25","modified_gmt":"2011-08-09T03:08:25","slug":"private-property-ownership-is-just-an-illusion-in-this-country-today","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/davidmcelroy.org\/?p=2288","title":{"rendered":"Private property ownership is just an illusion in this country today"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.davidmcelroy.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/08\/Eminent-domain.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright size-full wp-image-2289\" title=\"Eminent domain\" src=\"http:\/\/www.davidmcelroy.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/08\/Eminent-domain.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"248\" height=\"174\" \/><\/a>If you have a clear <a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Deed\" target=\"_blank\">deed<\/a> \u00a0to property, you own it outright and can do whatever you want with it. Unless, of course, the <a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Eminent_domain\" target=\"_blank\">state wants it to build a school or public building<\/a>. Or to give it to a <a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Kelo_v._City_of_New_London\" target=\"_blank\">developer to build shopping centers<\/a> and fancier homes. Or to <a href=\"http:\/\/www.washingtontimes.com\/news\/2011\/aug\/7\/eminent-domain-used-to-push-out-blacks-suit-says\/?page=all\" target=\"_blank\">build a stadium for a baseball team<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Since that&#8217;s true, do you really own property in this country? Or do you just have the use of it until a politician&#8217;s whim decides to put it to another use?<\/p>\n<p>Here in Birmingham, the city government is planning to build a new stadium and &#8220;entertainment district&#8221; that will center around the return of a minor league baseball team that wisely fled to the suburbs 20 years ago. <a href=\"http:\/\/blog.al.com\/spotnews\/2011\/08\/mayor_bell_might_use_eminent_d.html\" target=\"_blank\">Mayor William Bell said Monday that the city is ready to use eminent domain to force property owners to sell<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>In Latin, eminent domain means &#8220;supreme lordship,&#8221; and that&#8217;s exactly what it means in English, too. The state owns you <em>and<\/em> the property that&#8217;s allegedly yours. The state is the supreme lord over you. Don&#8217;t forget that. But also don&#8217;t forget why you&#8217;ll be better off without the state.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>If you have a clear deed \u00a0to property, you own it outright and can do whatever you want with it. Unless, of course, the state wants it to build a school or public building. Or to give it to a developer to build shopping centers and fancier homes. Or to build a stadium for a <a href=\"https:\/\/davidmcelroy.org\/?p=2288\" class=\"more-link\">Keep Reading<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-2288","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-uncategorized","7":"entry"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p1x9iR-AU","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/davidmcelroy.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2288","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/davidmcelroy.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/davidmcelroy.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/davidmcelroy.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/davidmcelroy.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2288"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/davidmcelroy.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2288\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2297,"href":"https:\/\/davidmcelroy.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2288\/revisions\/2297"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/davidmcelroy.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2288"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/davidmcelroy.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2288"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/davidmcelroy.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2288"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}