Big Brother is here...

[Varmit]

Thats all well and good wilma, but why should taxpayer money go towards finding that information for you?

[Diane Amberg]

So if many, many market researchers called your house or knocked on your door you'd talk to them? I doubt it! If a prospective shop or store owner can go to the local planning Dept. to see aerial photographs, learn about traffic patterns and zoning regs. etc. they don't have to bother you. Those business people pay taxes too, plus through the whole process they pay fees.Tain't free.

[Wilma]

Why shouldn't the taxes I pay go to find information for me that I can access immediately instead of having to spend time and my money interviewing people that don't know me.  The money I don't mind, but my time is valuable.

[redcliffsw]

Diane-

There's a lot of free public info out there and the gov't knows too much.

Without "planning and zoning", there would be no need to know or find the
planning and zoning regulations.

There are many areas without planning and zoning in the USA. 
Hopefully, there'll be less and less in the future.

[Diane Amberg]

For areas that don't need zoning, I think that's fine. We certainly do here or the neighbors would all be suing or shooting each other all the time. D  I don't think huge piles of old tires, full of water and attracting rats and mosquitoes is something my neighbor across the street should have to put up with in his new neighbor's back yard. Nor, do I want overgrown pot belly pigs as neighbors or barking dogs either. Now pigmy goats, those are cute..... can't have chickens anymore either. So you think everyone should be free to do whatever they want? I'll come out and put a rendering plant right next to you and see how you like it. or a chicken sewage plant or a sulphur plant. or an active dog kennel with 80 dogs that never shut up. Or a bar right across the street from your school.

[Varmit]

I think ya'll are missing my point.  While I do not want market researchers calling me or showing up at my door, I think that is a chance you take in business.  People should not 1) be forced to provide info. about themselves that they don't want to for this purpose. 2) tax money should not go towards providing info. that that benefits private business.
As to zoning laws, I think that they are helpful to a point, (i.e. industrial plants in residential areas).  However, they can and are taken way to far.  If my neighbor has old tires in his yard, that is his business, and frankly just makes my yard look better.  Frankly, I adhere to the saying, "Strong fenses, Big dogs, and Concealed weapons make for better neighbors." 
As for GPS marking every door...yes, directions to your house can be found using Goggle maps or whatever.  What if I don't particularly want my house on mapquest?  It would be different if the folks doing the marking were obtaining permission first, but they aren't.  I see this as an invasion of my privacy.

[Diane Amberg]

We have West Nile virus here and Lyme disease too. If those mosquitoes would respect my property line...but rats and mosquitoes are a public health issue. Most of us don't want to succumb to " broken window" syndrome. Tire piles and junk affect the whole neighbor- hood. It's not like it is out where you are. So you don't believe in much of anything for the public good? If your house is on fire I expect you to put it out yourself!   We have a "Fire Chief's Law" that during the time of the alarm the property belongs to the fire company until such time as it is turned back to the owner.  We recently had a fire in one of our local sub shops. The owner  came running up demanding to be allowed to go into the fire to rescue the food and put it in his pick up. Can't do it. The board of health has to be notified and the open food etc. has to be destroyed. He was not happy.  Big dogs make good neighbors ? My sister had a neighbor, very old woman, who was out in her back yard when the dog of the neighbor on the other side (pitbull) jumped the fence, knocked her down and bit her very badly. She never recovered.The police did nothing because it was on private property and she would have to sue for damages. A board of health report was taken because it was an animal bite. It did have all its shots, but that dear lady went down hill and died sometime later. Doesn't sound very neighborly to me.

[Varmit]

On the tire issue...talk with your neighbor.  Come up with a viable solution that would work for both of you.

On the Dog issue...I said strong fences.  If a person has a dog they should know how to control the dog.  If that dog leaves the property then any damages done by said dog should be paid for by the dog owner.  And I don't care what the breed is, that makes no difference.  Pits are not bad dogs but they do have bad owners.  I have shot 3 dogs because they were on my property and appeared dangerous. 
Any fence that is small enough for a dog to jump over is not a good one.

The fire chief law is absurd.  My property is my property, regardless of circumstance.

[Teresa]

I just checked and next year every household will get just a census short form sent to your place of residence. It will be based on the form that was tried out in selected ares in 2008. There is room for information on 12 residents in the household. The more detailed information that was sent to some people last census is being relegated to the American Community Survey that is sent to some people every year on a rotating basis across the country. Everyone eventually gets it too.

You are right on the short form thing Diane. I did some more research on it..

I guess trying to gather all that personal data once every 10 years isn't enough, so in 2010 the "official" census will be just what it should be.  Everyone gets the short form.  No toilet counts..   Just the basic who are you and some basic demographics.

BUT how do the bureaucrats and elitist get all the other data they really want. 

OH....they've authorized something called    "American Community Survey" which isn't just every 10 years but it is on-going survey and in their words

    * tells us what the population looks like and how it lives

They send out the questionnaire each year to a "sample" of the population.   And under Title 13 of the US code, just like the Census, you are REQUIRED to answer all the questions.

http://www.census.gov/acs/www/SBasics/SQuest/SQuest1.htm

I say required because the mafia manifesto called our government has stated that
There are fines for incomplete or false answers.

Understand.... I  DO NOT LIKE IT.
But the US Code, Title 13, Chapter 7, Section 221 says.

      (a) Whoever, being over eighteen years of age, refuses or
    willfully neglects, when requested by the Secretary, or by any
    other authorized officer or employee of the Department of Commerce
    or bureau or agency thereof acting under the instructions of the
    Secretary or authorized officer, to answer, to the best of his
    knowledge, any of the questions on any schedule submitted to him in
    connection with any census or survey provided for by subchapters I,
    II, IV, and V of chapter 5 of this title, applying to himself or to
    the family to which he belongs or is related, or to the farm or
    farms of which he or his family is the occupant, shall be fined not
    more than $100.
      (b) Whoever, when answering questions described in subsection (a)
    of this section, and under the conditions or circumstances
    described in such subsection, willfully gives any answer that is
    false, shall be fined not more than $500.

I've done some more digging on their slime ball tactics and come up with this.
I thought to myself.. Fine.. I have 100$ , hell with them. They can fine me.
But...
They take your $100 and then give you another questionnaire.  Don't answer that one.  Another $100 and another questionnaire. [/b]

[Teresa]

I just keep thinking about this......
I understand the need for a census for apportionment purposes, but I don't think, at the point of a gun, we should be required to answer any other questions regardless of what government allocations are involved.

This is another scenario concerning gun census questions which is being whispered about in the back rooms...

They make a big point about privacy and Title 13 makes a big deal about it,

BUT

All it takes is for just the right crisis to come along and "they" will repeal the privacy clauses, retroactively, so quickly as to make your head spin.  Regardless of what the government promises, they can just as easy with a single roll call vote reverse themselves.

So just use a little imagination.  You're the MoveOn/Brady Bunch/Saros team and your goal is total gun confiscation.  First you must locate all the guns.  So on the guise of full understanding the problem you include a "gun related" question in the Census, err sorry, the ACS (which has the same power as the census).  Privacy, privacy, privacy you exclaim.  Just want to get a handle on the true scope of gun ownership.  Maybe even the NRA is convinced to support this because they think it'll show how big and pervasive gun ownership is and it will scare congress into inaction.   WRONG.  The next crisis to come along congress will be urged to reverse the census privacy as it relates to firearms to help avoid the "crisis".  (You can't waste a good crisis you know.)  That private information you gave.....out the window.    Feds now know what house doors to knock on.  Lied on the survey form did you?  Well, for those that didn't lie it'll just be confiscation.  For those that lied, it'll be confiscation and jail.  (you see it's always worse for those who lie to the government.)

Maybe won't happen that way.   Maybe..........................