Bloodless Coup

It's the "your shitty attitude is what's divisive" update:

A subdivision has withdrawn its threat of $25 daily fines against a homeowner who put a Christmas wreath shaped like a peace sign on the front of her home.

Homeowner Lisa Jensen told The Associated Press on Monday that the board of directors of the Loma Linda Homeowners Association had apologized, called the incident a misunderstanding and had withdrawn its request for the wreath's removal.

Jensen was ordered to take the wreath down when some residents in her 200-home subdivision saw it as a protest of the Iraq war. Bob Kearns, president of the board, also said some saw it as a symbol of Satan.

The homeowners' association demanded Jensen remove the wreath from her house, saying it doesn't allow flags or signs that are considered divisive.

Got it? Signs are divisive. Telling people that they cannot express their opinions is not.

really, i get chills when i read these items. the big dais-pounding for us or against us rhetoric, hell even the patriot act, these don't scare me half as much as these little acts of oppression and censorship playing out at the individual and community level, so many of which are simply acceded to by people who don't have the heart to fight. and when it reaches conduct as innocuous as this, it's terrifying, because for every one of these stories that's resisted and / or reported there are probably 20 that are just gone along with.

repression only works with the assistance of the people. and the american people are all too willing to help out.

Precisely. That's why I get pissed and post about things like rent-a-cop library guards getting all homeland security on people looking at porn at the library. People say, oh, you're getting bent over some little thing, but it's not just a little thing. It shows the level to which fear and the ability to see people as being "the other" pervades society.