[croon]

While I agree with everything you said, it's a bit ironic that the comparison drawn is between an HOA putting restrictions on what you can do in service of collective benefit as something negative, to before such restrictions was put on restaurants in service of allowing people to get food without second hand smoke.

I understand people will have different preferences, but someone making tar or smoking fish on their lawn 24/7 affects all neighbors, while an HOA rule restricting that only affects that one person, and everyone else can enjoy their yards unsmoked.

[MereInterest]

Good point, and I realized that partway through writing it, but couldn't find a good way to tie it all together. It's more that I get frustrated at "freely entered agreement" being used as justification in any argument, as it's usually a wild stretch of the word "freely".