The police come to your door. They inform you that your nephew is not part of your family, and that he must vacate immediately. Why, you ask? Turns out a neighbor called the cops on you, possibly because they didn't like you, who knows? And in your town, unless your relative is "related to the second degree of collateral consanguinity by blood, marriage, adoption or guardianship" (whatever the heck THAT means!), you're in possible trouble with the law.Think this is a really bad joke? Government run completely amok? Something from a George Orwell novel (or a George Bush nightmare)? Well, think again - it's happening in Manassas, Virginia, where "a zoning ordinance adopted this month by the city of Manassas redefines family, essentially restricting households to immediate relatives, even when the total is below the occupancy limit." Huh? Since when does the government tell you which relatives of yours can live in a house that YOU OWN? What on earth? Is this, as Edgar Rivera claims, " not only unfair; it's racism...a way to just go after certain communities?"
Sure sounds like it. And "constitutionally questionable" at best. What do you think? Is this bizarre or what?