Chacala_Nayarit
Nov 15, 2005, 06:06 PM
An Orange Co., CA, quilt store named Piecemakers has been in the news lately. The quilters, all members of a church, expanded their store to sell food. But they think that since they are doing the Lord's work, the County Health inspectors should just leave them alone. :rolleyes:
Piecemakers website (http://www.piecemakers.com/)
Commune members are jailed after refusing an inspection of their store's kitchen. Code enforcement violates their rights, they say (http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-piecemakers28oct28,0,3646036.story?coll=la-home-local)
Piecemakers started almost three decades ago, when a group of Orange County Christians who read the Bible together on the beach and quilted in their garages decided to form a commune. Its 25 members live in a few houses near the Adams Avenue store and restaurant.
Kolasinski and the other members contend the county is smothering them with laws. They fight back with profanity and threats, they said, because that's the kind of language that makes an impact.
Piecemakers has long been at loggerheads with the government.
In August 2002, after dubbing two county code inspectors "rapists," "Martian reptiles" and Gestapo whores" in a newspaper ad, the group settled a libel lawsuit for $20,000. In 1997, it fought a misdemeanor charge of failing to acquire a permit after staging a musical in the store's parking lot.
And in 1995, the FBI investigated the commune after members sent a letter to county officials that was sprinkled with salty language and included a reference to the bombing of the Oklahoma City federal building. Agents concluded that the group did not represent a serious threat.
She Speaks for God, but We Can't Print It (http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-parsons4nov04,1,386412.column)
I ask why the store shouldn't be subject to oversight. "They're stupid. They lord it over you. They're worse than Hitler. They terrorize you. They take away your pursuit of happiness, your privacy. They could give a ®%$# about our Constitution."
She didn't understand that, she says, until she "met Christ and reopened my eyes to the difference between what's righteous and unrighteous." She suggests that inspectors "run for their ¡®{spade}*&% lives because they're going to get lynched by somebody that's not going to be as gentle as we are."
I suggest her language doesn't bespeak gentleness. "I don't give a #*&%$!" she says, cheerily. "I love it," she says, then mutters about "Christian religious pious £°%$#!"
...
Kolasinski says God once told her not to worry about using four-letter words. "He said, 'You are my mouthpiece, and I want you to say exactly what I tell you to say.' "
She then tells me that God has designated me as "Sweetsie baby."
Piecemakers website (http://www.piecemakers.com/)
Commune members are jailed after refusing an inspection of their store's kitchen. Code enforcement violates their rights, they say (http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-piecemakers28oct28,0,3646036.story?coll=la-home-local)
Piecemakers started almost three decades ago, when a group of Orange County Christians who read the Bible together on the beach and quilted in their garages decided to form a commune. Its 25 members live in a few houses near the Adams Avenue store and restaurant.
Kolasinski and the other members contend the county is smothering them with laws. They fight back with profanity and threats, they said, because that's the kind of language that makes an impact.
Piecemakers has long been at loggerheads with the government.
In August 2002, after dubbing two county code inspectors "rapists," "Martian reptiles" and Gestapo whores" in a newspaper ad, the group settled a libel lawsuit for $20,000. In 1997, it fought a misdemeanor charge of failing to acquire a permit after staging a musical in the store's parking lot.
And in 1995, the FBI investigated the commune after members sent a letter to county officials that was sprinkled with salty language and included a reference to the bombing of the Oklahoma City federal building. Agents concluded that the group did not represent a serious threat.
She Speaks for God, but We Can't Print It (http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-parsons4nov04,1,386412.column)
I ask why the store shouldn't be subject to oversight. "They're stupid. They lord it over you. They're worse than Hitler. They terrorize you. They take away your pursuit of happiness, your privacy. They could give a ®%$# about our Constitution."
She didn't understand that, she says, until she "met Christ and reopened my eyes to the difference between what's righteous and unrighteous." She suggests that inspectors "run for their ¡®{spade}*&% lives because they're going to get lynched by somebody that's not going to be as gentle as we are."
I suggest her language doesn't bespeak gentleness. "I don't give a #*&%$!" she says, cheerily. "I love it," she says, then mutters about "Christian religious pious £°%$#!"
...
Kolasinski says God once told her not to worry about using four-letter words. "He said, 'You are my mouthpiece, and I want you to say exactly what I tell you to say.' "
She then tells me that God has designated me as "Sweetsie baby."
