By DR. LARRY MOSES
No one asked me but… Clark County regulatory agencies are at it again. A few years ago storm troopers from the Clark County Health Department attacked a dinner party in the valley and arbitrarily shut the operation down. It took an act of the State Legislature to return sense to the situation, and now, once again a farmer can hold a dinner serving food grown in his garden rather than processed elsewhere and shipped in.
Last fall the valley suffered another attack as truck loads of code enforcement officials from the county descended on a small local zoo. The zoo has been operating under a special use permit granted by the county in 2009, and renewed, in 2011.
This led the owner-operators, a successful husband and wife team of veterinarians, as well as any other sane individual, to believe the zoo was operating within the rules and regulations of Clark County. However, a spokesman for the county explained that was not the case. He reasoned that just because one is issued a permit from the county, they should not assume they can operate under that permit. What? He indicated he could not discuss the issue further because of that great government dodge “it is an open case“. He did, however, indicate that there were no health or treatment problems for the animals.
One of the issues he did cite was that restroom facilities were port-a-potties. Not that they were not clean or maintained but that a $100,000 septic system was required because the zoo was a public entity.
One might ask about the port-a-potties, row on row at the speedway on NASCAR Sunday, or many of the other events taking place in the city of Las Vegas on a regular basis. But that is an issue for another day.
The very county officials who shut down the zoo, because of the port-a-potties, were aware of the fact for over four years and took no action. The county spokesman indicated that they responded to one anonymous compliant.
Excuse me, are we to believe that the government will permit the law to be knowingly broken without acting to stop the law breaker unless some one complains? I might point out to him that no one complained about the dinners being served in the valley and the County Health department reacted as if an ax murderer was on the loose.
If indeed a law has been broken, even though the citizen is meeting the requirements of the permit, is not the permitting agency at fault rather than the citizen?
The owners were also told they could no longer allow people into a private residence on the property. We now have a government that can tell us who can enter our private homes? But an even greater question is how can one county agency override the permit of another? If the citizens cannot assume that when they get a permit finalized that it is finalized, how are they to operate?
The zoo is made up of over 385 animals. Only 150 of them are mammals which fall under the need for a permit. Therefore, the animals on the property fall within the legal limit of the special use permit the county granted to the zoo. None of the animals are large predators or animals that are known to attack people. Those who have gone to the zoo were pretty much allowed to mingle with the animals, and animals of all kinds were mixed together. The zoo is accredited by the Zoological Association of America and licensed by the U.S. Department of Agriculture for the exhibition and captive breeding of exotic animals. Above and beyond that, the owner operators were cleared by the county for a special use permit to run a zoo on their property.
Once again the inter-agency rivalry and stupidity of county officials has come to interfere in the lives of the citizens of the Moapa Valley. We may once again need to go to the legislature to rein in these overzealous bureaucrats who seem to not have enough to do in Las Vegas.
No one asked me but… The national news media’s campaign for Hillary Clinton for President has begun. The opening salvo was fired at New Jersey Governor Chris Christy.
Let no one kid you, this has nothing to do with a bridge incident or anything else. This is an attempt to scuttle Christy’s presidential voyage before it can get started. If he fades, the Hillary Democrats will move to the next candidate that appears on the horizon.
Before fellow Democrats get too jubilant over what is happening to Christy, they need to understand it will also happen to any viable Democrat as well. Democrat Party leaders have pre-determined who their 2016 presidential candidate will be, and it will be Hillary. With the help of the mainstream media, all other options will disappear.
Democrats in New Jersey are coming out of the woodwork to paint Christy as a bully. The dictionary definition of bullying is intimidation of the weaker person: the process of intimidating or mistreating somebody weaker or in a more vulnerable situation. By that definition all politicians are bullies, it is the name of the political game.
The day of the benevolent king, if it ever existed, is long gone. American politics is a power game and the most powerful and politically astute machine in America today is the Clinton machine.
It was amazing that they lost control of the Democrat Party in 2008. They will not let that happen again. Unless something unforeseen happens, prepare yourself for a Clinton in the White House in 2016. The present Republican Party has neither the leadership or political savvy to combat the Clinton’s.
Thought of the week… I am quite sure … in matters concerning … politics a man’s reasoning powers are not above the monkey’s”
– Mark Twain
