Feng Shui building codes?

[aerocontrols]

Sad

If a leading Democratic lawmaker has his way, your next new house may be built according to standards that supposedly put it -- and you -- in harmony with unseen natural forces.

Leland Yee, the assistant speaker pro tem, is backing a bill that could insert the millenniums-old strictures of feng shui into California's building code.

Some lawmakers roll their eyes. Some chuckle. Some wonder privately how an ancient system of alignment with invisible life forces could possibly fit into a nuts-and-bolts building code designed to ensure fire safety and structural integrity.

To Yee, however, Assembly Concurrent Resolution 144 is an acknowledgement of the wisdom of Asian culture and a way to help all Californians live a better life.

I love San Francisco Democrats.

 

[DialecticMaterialist]

Well this is very ridiculous, though in my opinion it does not hold a candle to the mayor who actually made a law banishing Satan from her town:

http://www.americanhumanist.org/press/SatanFL.html

http://www.sptimes.com/News/112901/Citrus/Mayor_banishes_Satan_.shtml

When the Inglis mayor finished, she put the fierce rhetoric down on official town stationery complete with gold seal.


"Be it known from this day forward that Satan, ruler of darkness, giver of evil, destroyer of what is good and just, is not now, nor ever again will be, a part of this town of Inglis. Satan is hereby declared powerless, no longer ruling over, nor influencing, our citizens."

Part of this seems to include people who dress in all black, something the Town Clerk thinks has supernatural significance:

Town Clerk Sally McCranie, who signed the proclamation, offered another observation: Kids in town, she said, have taken to dressing in all black and painting their faces white, a style known as Goth.

Torches and pitchforks for everyone!

 

[JesFine]

Yee said his critics should find out more about feng shui before dismissing it.

Wow.

It's not hocus-pocus, [Penny Redman, owner of Chinatown Enterprises in downtown Sacramento] said. "It's not a religion. Asking if you believe in it is like asking if you believe in the weather.

"If they do this, it's just going to help," Redman said. "And what's the matter with helping people?"

Double wow.

 

[DialecticMaterialist]

Well as ORiely, and many conservatives would say, Fung Shui isn't technically a religion. And isn't there religious freedom?

Also there is a difference between religion and spirituality, of course.

 

[Zep]

No big fuss. If it ever becomes law, simply ignore it. Anyone trying to prosecute because their new house they bought is not OK-with-Feng-Shui will be laughed out of court, I'm sure. If it even gets that far.

This is about on the same level of silliness as some southern state or other trying to make the trilobyte the official state fossil. Until the opposition amended the bill to give the honour to the sitting governor instead.

 

[Landis]

Wow, as a California Democrat, I am totally embarrassed. I sent Mr. Yee an email and advised him to prove his Feng Shui claims by taking on the JREF million dollar challenge. I also informed him it would be much better if he would utilize his time to work on affordable housing for the middle class. The cost of an average home in the Bay area is around $500,000 and this Woo Woo wants to make it more expensive! It is very hard to be a Democrat in woo woo land.

 

[Nyarlathotep]

I would be pi$$ed off if I were building a home in California an Mr. Yee and his nonsense added so much as a dollar to the cost of my house. Not only because I think Feng Shui is ridiculous in and of itself but because Mr Yee's idea unecesarily intrusive. What's next, mandating that the interior of all houses are painted in relaxing colors? I really don't see the difference between that idea nd Mr. Yee's.

 

[aerocontrols]

Well this is very ridiculous, though in my opinion it does not hold a candle to the mayor who actually made a law banishing Satan from her town:

1) That law will not effect a single thing that people actually want to do.

2) Leland Yee, assistant speaker pro tem of the California Legislature, vs. Carolyn Risher, mayor of Inglis, FL (population 14xx)

I disagree about which holds a candle to which.

No big fuss. If it ever becomes law, simply ignore it. Anyone trying to prosecute because their new house they bought is not OK-with-Feng-Shui will be laughed out of court, I'm sure. If it even gets that far.

This is about on the same level of silliness as some southern state or other trying to make the trilobyte the official state fossil. Until the opposition amended the bill to give the honour to the sitting governor instead.

I've spent a lot of time around construction (Stepfather is a building contractor, I worked from age 8 or so till age 22 in construction, and from 22 till 25 in the design of power and lighting systems for commerical construction)

Having established that, let me just say that it's not been my experience that one can simply ignore the recommendations of the building inspector, which he makes based on his interpretation of the building code.

Even when they are dead flat wrong one often finds oneself doing as they say just to get them to go away.

 

[DialecticMaterialist]

1) That law will not effect a single thing that people actually want to do.

2) Leland Yee, assistant speaker pro tem of the California Legislature, vs. Carolyn Risher, mayor of Inglis, FL (population 14xx)

I disagree about which holds a candle to which.

1) Yee's idea isn't even a law but a mere proposal. And it was for the most part laughed at.


2) How the heck do you know the law didn't effect anything? It certainly inspired a lot of prejudice. There are now signs in the city put up as a result. And now anything deemed "satanic" can be forcibly removed can it not?

 

[aerocontrols]

1) Yee's idea isn't even a law but a mere proposal. And it was for the most part laughed at.

Perhaps we have different criteria for deciding what is serious and what is not.

2) How the heck do you know the law didn't effect anything? It certainly inspired a lot of prejudice. There are now signs in the city put up as a result. And now anything deemed "satanic" can be forcibly removed can it not?

I guess: No?

 

[wollery]

Seeing as Satanism is an actual religion, practiced in this world (and in America in fact), is this not a law regarding religion, and as such unconstitutional?

 

[Michael Redman]

No big fuss. If it ever becomes law, simply ignore it.

Ignore it, and you won't get a building permit. That's the real danger of this nonsense. If people want to "acknowledge" or "respect" this ancient asian cultural sillyness, there is nothing stopping them. It doesn't need to be codified. This guy's been hanging around the Republicans too long, trying to force his religious views on everyone else.