PEACE IN OUR TIME
Some girl, Miss Templeton, and a couple of others forwarded this story from Associated Press
"A homeowners association in southwestern Colorado has threatened to fine a resident $25 a day until she removes a Christmas wreath with a peace sign that some say is an anti-Iraq war protest or a symbol of Satan. Some residents who have complained have children serving in Iraq, said Bob Kearns, president of the Loma Linda Homeowners Association in Pagosa Springs. He said some residents have also believed it was a symbol of Satan. Three or four residents complained, he said. "Somebody could put up signs that say drop bombs on Iraq. If you let one go up you have to let them all go up," he said in a telephone interview Sunday. Lisa Jensen said she wasn't thinking of the war when she hung the wreath. She said, "Peace is way bigger than not being at war. This is a spiritual thing. "Jensen, a past association president, calculates the fines will cost her about $1,000, and doubts they will be able to make her pay. But she said she's not going to take it down until after Christmas. "Now that it has come to this I feel I can't get bullied," she said. "What if they don't like my Santa Claus." The association in this 200-home subdivision 270 miles southwest of Denver has sent a letter to her saying that residents were offended by the sign and the board "will not allow signs, flags etc. that can be considered divisive."
The subdivision's rules say no signs, billboards or advertising are permitted without the consent of the architectural control committee. Kearns ordered the committee to require Jensen to remove the wreath, but members refused after concluding that it was merely a seasonal symbol that didn't say anything. Kearns fired all five committee members."

What also boggles my mind is that the AP reporter instinctively operates within these acrid hicks levels of ignorance. "He said some residents have also believed it was a symbol of Satan." But only because some residents were too fucking pig-uninformed to be aware of any facts, even though the history of the so-called "peace sign" is very well documented. It was designed by Gerald Holton, a graphic designer from the Royal College of Art, in the late 1950s for the British Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament. It's based on the semaphore signals for N & D enclosed in a circle, and, of course, there's the vague look of a stylized rocket/bomb with fins. Satan wasn't even at the meeting. Later it was coopted by hippies, various marketing and merchandize organizations, and now the Gap.

But if you really want to get down to double unplus-good, sick and twisted shit, try this genius from the Christian Resource Center of Bermuda...
http://www.nisbett.com/symbols/peace_sign.htm

The very secret word is Love

MEANWHILE...
Although I do not even want to hear the name Michael Richards (unless he’s maybe eaten by sharks) I do worry that loopy self-promoting, legal vulture-hack Gloria Allred seems to believe there is a basis in law for an audience member to sue the performer if the performance causes them pain or discomfort. So there goes the entire function of art, not to mention my career.