Another day in the land of the free...

...free, that is, to make anonymous complaints to trouble your neighbors:

It seemed like a great idea -- build a treehouse on his property for two growing boys. But for one local man, it's turning into a big, expensive lesson in government red tape. 
He called Fairfax County before starting to find out the rules for the Broyhill Park neighborhood in the Falls Church area of the county.
"The guy in building permits laughed me off the phone," Grapin says. He was told it's a treehouse and not built to any code.
So Grapin went to the local home improvement store, bought $1,400 worth of supplies and spent six weekends building the treehouse.
Grapin says his immediate neighbors had no complaints, but someone did complain anonymously to Fairfax County.
Grapin was told he had to treat it like an addition to his house and get a zoning variance. He spent more than $1,800 getting the proper forms and going through a hearing.
The variance was rejected. 

Now, I have three growing boys myself, but I don't think I'd spend $1400 building a treehouse.  That said, it used to be a bedrock principle that what you do with your own property is your own business, so long as it doesn't impact anybody else (i.e. polluting a creek).  So how is it that in Amerika, 2011, any comrade can call a hotline, prompting a besieged citizen to spend an additional $1800... just to be told "no, you have to tear down your kids' playhouse?"

What the heck???  What standing does a cowardly busybody have to sic the authorities on this family?  (Another principle used to be the right to confront your accuser!)  What business is it of the local government if someone constructs a treehouse?  At $1400, it's not like he skimped on the construction!

Worse, if the homeowner's story is true, he did try to perform due diligence, asking about the rules beforehand.  If so, he only made one mistake: not keeping and listing the name of the functionary who served him so poorly.  First rule of any dealing I have with any government agency: get the full name of the person providing me the information.

I fear this kind of nonsense isn't going to stop until a critical mass of Americans decide to tell all levels of government to take a flying leap when it comes to how they manage their land and homes... and are willing to defend said castle.

How has it come to this???