Today we visited the Barnes & Noble in Appleton to buy some fun stuff with Jodi's gift certificates. Jodi noted later that while our old B&N on 82nd St & Broadway specialized in psychology and Judaica, there is a bit more of a conservative focus in northeastern Wisconsin. These two books were prominently displayed on the welcome table.
I think I was offended not so much by the titles (it's fine to have a "case against Barack Obama", and despite his objective qualifications he has gained a cult of personality) as by the super-evil-looking pictures used on the front covers. In any case, I vented my political rage with an act of minute civil disobedience, turning one of the books over so you couldn't see the front cover.
A few minutes later, walking through the bargain stacks, I found this book:
Someone had apparently felt a similar call to political protest from the other side; whether an Obama or McCain supporter we can't tell, but I have to guess a Republican since Obama supporters should have stopped focusing on her by now. But this person had taken a slightly less agressive approach, turning the target book not backwards but simply upside down. This strikes me as simulataneoulsy less rude and more effective, since a customer can now immediately see the object of dissent. It also matches the
only vandalism we've received thus far to our own Obama bumper magnet.
Having been taught a valuable lesson by my conservative neighbors on effective First Amendment expression, I returned to the anti-Obama books and turned them simply upside down.
Edit: By the way, Mom, I turned the Hillary book back right-side up.
The local summer crime wave I reported on earlier continues unabated. As a public service, please be alerted to this criminal act reported in a mass email I received at work today. The names have been removed to protect the innocent.
