How do you suppose the story of “The Emperor’s New Clothes” would have ended had the town’s people been prohibited from yelling that the emperor was naked? The emperor was being robbed, lied to, made a fool of and convinced that he was indeed wearing beautiful new clothes, clothes that he could not see.  Afraid of admitting he couldn’t see them he went along with their deception. Fortunately the thieves were not able to brainwash everyone and the truth did get out.  These days it is so much easier to convince large groups of people by broadcasting the lies and then controlling free speech.  It can be as simple as controlling words or preventing people from gathering or even setting up websites and enforcing much of that through the courts.

Deborah Goonan joins us  On The Commons.  Deborah is the host, prolific author and owner of the  Independent American Communities, a must read blog if you want to keep up with what’s going on in HOA land.  Two of her recent blogs dealt with a couple of my pet peeves, the much abused and often ignored 1st Amendment in HOAs and whether or not HOAs, as some people would have us believe, are here to stay.  We’ll talk to Deborah about a 10 year lawsuit dealing with an owner’s right to free speech.  In an effort to prevent the homeowner in this association from yelling that the emperor was naked, any excuse will do, they headed to court.  In this case the creative argument was a trademark infringement. And then I ask Deborah whether or not we will ever be  free of HOAs.  She had some very interesting facts and comments.