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               “I want to own nothing, but control everything.”

I'm back at Condo Conner, updating the journal here (since we don't have
connectivity at the Facility in the Middle of Nowhere yet) and I read the
latest certified letter [1] to Spring [2] (since she hasn't actually had a
chance to see it yet). She then mentioned that in each letter, it refered to
an “apartment” and not a “condominium.”

I went back and checked, and while it wasn't all three letters, it was listed
as an apartment on the two [3] letters [4] about the non-existant dog we have
here.

I'm beginning to see what might be happening here.

Last year a very vocal minority of owners here tried to get the Board to pass
a regulation outlawing the renting of properties. There was a return volley
by the opposition and the resulting vote reaffirmed that the owners could
still rent their properties.

We (Spring, Rob [5] and I) think that there may be a new board in place, due
to the increase in Condo Commando activity.

I'm beginning to suspect that the Vice President of the Board is a member of
the anti-renting faction and for units that are suspected as being rented are
under more scrutiny than units who's owners live in them. The result: slowly
drive out renters and owners who rent.

Or that this is, in fact, a clear sign that while we (in the collective,
condo-owners-all-over sense) may think we own property (or more acurately, a
volume of space) what with the mortgages and various association fees, we are
in fact, nothing more than glorified renters who paid for the priviledge of
living here (in fact, I'm beginning to think that the whole concept of
private ownership is outmoded, since the insanely rich don't even own stuff—
they either lease it, or “own” it through trusts or foundations that they in
fact control. Heck, in some states when you buy property, unless you get the
“mineral rights” (for an appreciable larger amount of money) you only own the
“surface” of the land—and that's if you can actually buy mineral rights).

By the way, the title to this entry is a quote from John D. Rockefeller, Sr.

[1] http://boston.conman.org/2002/02/09/cert3.letter.png
[2] http://www.springdew.com/
[3] http://boston.conman.org/2002/01/18/cert.letter.png
[4] http://boston.conman.org/2002/02/09/cert3.letter.png
[5] http://www.tragic-smurfs.com/

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