Collisions

I had to stop by the body shop to drop off an extra key this morning, and I got a chance to take a look at my car. Not “officially,” mind you, but it was parked around the back, so I gave it a quick once-over. They’ve taken off the spare tire assembly, started work on repairing the rear gate, and dismantled the whole bumper.

More significantly, I noticed that they had removed my “Bush/Orwell ’04: Ignorance Is Strength” bumper sticker.

The sticker wasn’t on the bumper (in which case its removal wouldn’t exactly raise an eyebrow), but on the rear gate. I suppose they could argue that they had to remove the sticker to repair the gate — after all, they’re also replacing the gate’s existing Honda emblem. But seeing as how there wasn’t actually any work done in the vicinity of the sticker, I have to be just a bit suspicious.

I shouldn’t really be surprised. After all, the only magazines in their waiting area were American Rifleman and American Hunter, the newsletters of the NRA — of which they had a dozen issues. (Some... interesting reading — I debated entering their “Win My ‘Cold Dead Hands’ Rifle” contest, just on the slight chance that I’d win at least one of the prizes. Would have made for some pretty amusing coverage.)

But in the end, I’m not going to get all that upset about it. After all, it does a good job of showing us just the sort of mentality we’re up against: One thing Duh-bya has clearly demonstrated is that silencing opposition is the preferred G.O.P. method of “debate.” And I can always order another one.

In fact, since the car will be in the shop for some time still, the new sticker should arrive just in time for me to put it back on as soon as the car’s finished. Before I’ve even driven it off their lot.

Shutting me up isn’t quite that easy.