What Made My Blood Boil…And Still Does

One of the reasons I ended up a libertarian is because way back when, as a cub reporter for a non-great, non-metropolitan newspaper, I was assigned to the high school graduation and planning board beat. Seeing multiple high school commencements in a short period of time simply drove me to distraction; checking out planning and zoning board meetings on a regular basis "made my blood boil."

So does this story, involving the 87-year-old mother of Wired cofounder–and Reason aficianado–Louis Rossetto.

Afraid of falling in her Berkeley, California home, she's trying to build a first-story bedroom and is running into all sorts of trouble with the planners there. Here's a PDF of an ad she ran recently in the Berkeley Barb that tells her whole outrageous tale of local martinets screwing her over. (Warning: large-loading file.)