Well Beagles I think you have summed up the current situation in the mideast quite succinctly.  I've got nothing for the Saudis or the Houthis.  I don't know if we'll ever know to any certainty who did the attack.  I've been hearing about all this high tech surveillance going on, but it's all kind of ironic because at some point it will get on Trump's desk where everybody knows he won't read it.  In the buildup to our invasion of Iraq there was this thing called stove piping https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stovepiping going on which is how the neocons 'proved' that there were weapons of mass destruction, which turned out not to be true.  One suspects something like that might go on here, but again what does it matter because it is going to end up on Trump's desk.  Trump loves the Saudis because of their dictatorship and he loves that sword dance.  On the other hand he is pretty isolationist to so, as Beagles says, who knows?

Meanwhile closer to home the big board meeting is coming up Thursday.  This whole thing is taking its toll on me.  It runs through my mind like that dreadful earworm Marie  and I, well, I get all fired up until I feel like I am fighting the ultimate war for truth, justice, and the American way instead of a small matter in a small tower in a city of hundreds of towers in a land of a hundred big cities. 

I'm clearly overwrought.  Yesterday when I learned for sure that the matter will be brought up at the board meeting I sent the following out to a portal which is supposed to go to all board members, about which I have some suspicion, but what are you going to do?

Here's the text of the letter.

I will be speaking at the upcoming board meeting on the issue of multicolored vs white only lights on the balcony.  I am not sure how long I will be allowed to speak so I wanted to send this to board@mtca.com because my understanding is that when I email to this address it goes to each board member.

I put this all in the body of the letter because i was afraid that attachments might cause trouble.

I hope you will read this and if you want to hear more from me my email address is kenschadt@gmail.com

Multicolored vs white only lights data

Owners……………………….389

Multicolored lights..…….145

White only……………..…181

No opinion………………….63

Renters..........................173

Multi colored lights.........111

White only.......................223

No opinion........................83

Combined........................562

Multi colored lights..........256

White only.......................223

No opinion........................20

I am presenting the data in this format because I found that the way it was presented at the Rules and Regulation Committee to be confusing.  There was no display of how many renters responded to the survey, and the results were given in percentages which made it difficult to combine the owners and renters.  Additionally the owner data was by unit rather than by owner.  I have asked for a query by owners ten days ago but as of today I have not had a response.

While owners have favored white rather than multicolored lights by 36 (181 – 145), renters have favored colored lights by over 2 to 1.  And if we combine renters and owners than multicolored lights carry the day by 70 (112-42).  If one decided to count the residents for only have a vote then it is a virtual tie at 201 at 202.

If one reasonably assumes that no opinion means that the respondee does not care if people have multi colored lights on their balconies.

In any case I believe the survey shows that the residents are about evenly divided on the issue.

One thing to consider is that the people favoring multicolored lights are not imposing their will on their neighbors.  But the whites only people are Imposing their will on their neighbors.  In this case they should have a large majority which they do not have.

I’ve lived here since 1992 and I have never heard of any problems with the lights situation. Why mess with something that works?  Do we really want to be fining our friends and neighbors fifty to a hundred dollars for celebrating Christmas the way they choose and for something well over half the residents have nothing against?