Guns love Bush but he does not love them back

US Secret Service visits blogger over photoshopped picture

Via Doug Lain's Blog, Jeremy Lassen, noted publisher of fantasy/horror/sf at Nightshade Books, was either asked or forced to take down his blog by US Secret Service. Allegedly, Lassen put up an image of kids aiming guns at President Bush in protest over what he perceived to be violations of First Amendment rights.

That Jeremy Lassen. I told him from the start that his plans to dominate the free world with an army of preschoolers were doomed to failure.

By the way, here's the Secret Service action the picture was in response to:

Shortly before the gallery opening of "Axis of Evil: The Secret History of Sin" last Thursday at Columbia College in Chicago, two Secret Service agents came to the gallery to ask questions and take photos. "Axis of Evil" is a provocative exhibit of mock postage stamp art that explores the question, "What is Evil?" and includes many disturbing images. Among the works prompting questions was artist Al Brandtner's "Patriot Act." It portrays President Bush with a gun pointed to his head in a style that parodies the typical American Flag and Presidential Portrait postal stamps.

According to The Chicago Sun-Times, Secret Service spokesman Brandon Bridgeforth commented, "We are doing some inquiries into the art exhibit. We're just doing some looking into it."

I'm blogging this out of mild interest, but my heart's not really in it. It's difficult to work up a feeling of outrage or whatever knowing that if someone did something like that here in Singapore and a visit from the ISD plus removal of the offending blog were all that resulted, that in itself would have to be considered a great victory for freedom of speech.