Republished from The Week, here are seven of the most controversial commandments:

1. Do Not Plant Too Many Roses
A Rancho Santa Fe, California, homeowners’ association targeted Jeffery DeMarco for exceeding the prescribed number of rose bushes allowed on his four-acre property. When DeMarco balked, the HOA levied monthly fines, threatened foreclosure, and ultimately defeated DeMarco in court. After a judge ruled that the willful rose enthusiast had violated the community’s architecture design rules, DeMarco was forced to pay the HOA’s $70,000 legal bill — and lost his home to the bank.

2. Do Not Use “Inconsistent” Shingles — Even After a Plane Destroys Your House
After a plane crashed into the Sanford, Florida, home of Joe Woodard, killing his wife, Janise, and their infant son, he decided to rebuild a new home on the same lot. But his reconstruction came to a screeching halt when his HOA informed him that he’d positioned the new structure unacceptably and failed to achieve a perfect shingle match with his neighbors’ homes. Threatened with a lawsuit, the grieving widower told a local reporter that he’d hoped to change things up to avoid “reliving” painful memories — but eventually capitulated to the unsympathetic HOA.

3. You Must Carry Your Dog at All Times

Pamela McMahan, a geriatric who walks with a cane, was fined $25 every time she failed to carry her cocker spaniel through the lobby of her Long Beach, California condominium, which stipulates that pets’ feet must never touch the floor of common areas. “There are just too many things going on in the lobby,” said Stormy Jech, the building’s assistant property manager. “The dog might jump on someone or go to the bathroom.” After racking up hundreds of dollars in fines, McMahan was forced to move.

4. Do Not Post a “For Sale” sign
When Denise Hicks placed a “For Sale” sign in front of her Lebanon, Tennessee, residence, the Spence Creek homeowners association quickly reprimanded her for a breach of contract, citing a rule prohibiting signs, banners or billboards. Ultimately, Hicks was forced to display her realtor’s signs in her home’s windows, hidden from view.

5. Do Not Offer Your Homeless Granddaughter Shelter
Assuming guardianship of their six-year-old granddaughter, Kimberly, after her drug-addict mother was ruled unfit, Jimmy and Judy Stuttler brought the child to live with them in their Clearwater, Florida, retirement village. Since Kimberly was not technically “over 55″ or arguably “retired,” the alarmed HOA tried to force the girl out. Attempting to move, the Stuttlers failed to sell their home even after slashing its price from $250,000 to $129,000 and were eventually sued by the HOA. Kimberley’s fate is now in the hands of the courts.

6. You Shall Maintain a Consistently Green Lawn
The Beacon Woods Civic Association in Bayonet Point, Florida, took 66-year old resident Joseph Prudente to court for failing to properly maintain his lawn after a $600-per-month increase to his adjustable rate mortgage threw him on hard times. Though Prudente was ultimately jailed for failing to resod his lawn, other members of the community took pity on the faulty landscaper, and paid for new sod, flowers, mulching, and functioning sprinklers. Their charity was enough to spring their elderly neighbor from the slammer, but Prudente still faces court and association fines.

7. No Smoking — Even in Your Own Bathroom
HOAs’ ban on smoking in all public areas — including balconies, patios, courtyards, and swimming pool areas — has recently been extended into residents’ homes. Citing the negative health effects of secondhand smoke, multiple court hearings have ruled in favor of HOAs. As Realty Times points out, “The Constitution does not guarantee Americans the right to smoke in their homes….”

What’s really quite pathetic about these ridiculous rules is that 2,3 & 7 would apply to my own HOA.

The 22-year-old journalism student shoved his backside against the window of a low-slung double-decker train when staff forced him off in Lauenbrueck for travelling without a ticket, a spokesman for police in the northern city of Bremen said.

“It’s a miracle he wasn’t badly hurt,” the spokesman said on Monday. “This sort of thing can end up killing you.”

Instead, dangling by his trousers, the man got pulled along for about 200 metres, all the while managing to keep his legs away from the wheels of the train.

The ordeal ended when a passenger pulled the emergency brake. Rescues services were called in, causing rail services between Bremen and Hamburg to be suspended for over an hour, delaying 23 trains.

The man — unharmed except for cuts and bruises — now faces charges of dangerous interference in rail transport, insulting the train staff, and may face a sizeable compensation claim for the delays he caused, police said.

“He was full of remorse when I talked to him,” the spokesman said. “And he advised others not to try the same thing.”

Original story from Reuters

Members of the ship’s crew saw the man suddenly run out of his cabin with his hands covering his ears, and shouting, “I can’t stand it any longer.” They initially thought he was suffering from an ear injury and went to help him but found he was unhurt.

“While we were still puzzling over the this, his wife ran up and continued nagging him,” said a crewmate. “The husband covered his ears again and said, “I need a break,” before jumping over the side into the rushing river.

“We immediately found lamps to light up the water but found nobody. The possibility of survival can be zero.” However, later that night, police found the man who had managed to swim about 2km across across the broad river.

“I felt I was dying, but even that’s better than my wife’s nagging,” he reportedly told the police.

The couple were reunited the following morning at the local police station where Zhou’s wife promised to give up her habit of nagging him.

Well, see for yourself.

Everytime I think that I have seen the most stupidest, idiotic thing that people can do, I stumble upon something else that is worst than the last. This one takes the cake.

Oh and if I have to explain to you what is wrong with this picture, you are a bigger dipnoid than these guys.

Photo courtesy of There I Fixed It.com.

Environmental enforcement officers backed by Mexican navy personnel closed off hundreds of feet of powder-white coastline in front of a hotel accused of illegally accumulating sand on its beach.

While this may seem ironic or even idiotic, keep in mind that Mexico spent $19 million to replace Cancun beaches washed away by Hurricane Wilma in 2005. However it seems that much of that sand pumped from the sea floor has since washed away, leading some property owners to build breakwaters in a bid to retain sand.

“Today we made the decision to close this stretch of ill-gotten, illegally accumulated sand,” said Patricio Patron, Mexico’s attorney general for environmental protection. “This hotel was telling its tourists: ‘Come here, I have sand … the other hotels don’t, because I stole it.”‘

Patron said five people were detained in a raid for allegedly using pumps to move sand from the sea floor onto the beach in front of the Gran Caribe Real Hotel. The hotel is also suspected of illegally building a breakwater that impeded the natural flow of sand onto other hotels’ beaches, he said.

So if thought it was okay to take or in the eyes of Mexican authorities – steal sand in Cancun, think again. You may just find yourself the subject of a crime scene.

Original story at Fox News.

Not sure if it was gas coming from the sewage system or the man’s gas but at any rate, gas plus flame, not a good combo.

The poor guy suffered severe burns on his face and upper body, but is expected to survive. Adding to his dilemma, authorities discovered marijuana in the man’s home. Bummer!

The Potty Patch solves the problem of your dog’s crude bathroom habits by allowing them a nice patch of synthetic grass to do their business on. This is of course if you can train them to go in this one spot. Oh and if you don’t mind the smell of urine in your home or possibly a nice steamy pile should they decide to go number 2.

Rather than explain the product any further, here is a video commercial promoting this revolutionary product (note sarcasm).

Much like the Comfort Wipe, I have to file this product as one of the most idiotic products I’ve seen come to market. In all reality if you don’t want dog urine or feces present in the place you call home, make that damn dog go outside – or just don’t have a dog at all.

Now her parents are suing the city.

The story says nothing about whether there were warning signs or even barriers set up to block access to the open manhole. Nevertheless, this does not negate the fact that one should pay attention to where they are going, especially in a busy city.

How often have you seen someone walking or even worse, driving who are completely oblivious to anything else going on around them?

Hopefully Alexa is okay but one thing for sure – I would imagine she will pay more attention when walking about in the city in the future, despite the fact as to whether her parents will succeed in suing the city or not.

Magdalena believes the teenager conceived from stray sperm after taking a dip in the hotel’s mixed pool. She is now seeking compensation from the hotel.

I am curious as to whether the mother came up with this idea or the daughter. At any rate – sperm in a swimming pool? How did sperm get in there in the first place and if the little guys did, how did they find their way up… well you get the picture.

A travel industry source said: “The mother is adamant that her daughter didn’t meet any boys while she was there. Yeah right.

“She is determined to go ahead with the case.”

Tourist authorities in Warsaw, Poland, have confirmed they received the bizarre complaint.

All I got to say is good luck with that one.

The official police report says the sons, ages 22 and 29, jumped Shannon Monday night after he hit one of them. They pinned him down until their mother ordered them to let him go. The father says he then decided to use his own brand of discipline on his sons and that’s when he got his gun.

Shannon admits he fired his .38, but says he didn’t aim it at his sons and would never actually shoot them. Shannon is out of jail on bond on charges of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon.

My question is, “Why in the hell are two men who are 22 and 29 still living at home?” Okay, maybe the 22 year old but the 29 year old man? Kick him the hell out.

If both sons don’t leave now after their father, who is pretty old, fires a gun as a measure of discipline, they are pretty dumb. Likewise, if the father continues to allow them tobum off him after he spent time in jail, then he is pretty dumb as well.