Via Weevilite Ministress to the Sportsman's Paradise, Janis Gore, who received it via Rand Simberg, the heartwarming story of passion and bolt cutters:

Protester picks wrong spot to lock himself

SCOTT GUTIERREZ THE OLYMPIAN The Olympian Online

OLYMPIA -- A man spent hours chained to the wrong building Tuesday in an ill-planned effort to protest war with Iraq, police said.
Jody Mason padlocked himself to an entrance of the Washington State Grange building at 924 Capitol Way S., thinking it was a sub-office of the U.S. Department of Energy.

Grange employees found him about 11:45 a.m. Tuesday and asked what he was doing.

He told employees he'd chained himself to the building in civil disobedience Monday night after listening to President Bush's televised ultimatum to Saddam Hussein.

Mason padlocked one end of the chain around his neck and the other to a door, which opens to a bottom-floor office. He told onlookers he was protesting Bush's foreign and domestic policies. He had affixed a sign to the building reading, "Reduce Deficit."

Grange employees explained that he was at the wrong building. The Grange is a nonprofit, nonpartisan group that advocates for residents in rural areas.

Uh-huh...and just what do all those so-called "rural" exploiters of farm animals use to grow their pesticide-laden poisons and their freakish genetically-modified cows? THAT'S RIGHT!! OOOIIIIILLLLLLLL!! They had it comin', that's for sure!! FIGHT THE POWER!!

"I don't think that's ever happened before," said Larry Clark, Grange communications director.

Police officers used heavy-duty bolt cutters to free Mason.

SEE!! SEE the violence inherent in the system!! Oh no, can't just use normal bold cutters--oh no, we have to haul out the military/industrial-complex approved HEAVY DUTY bolt cutters, wielded, no doubt by jack-booted racist THUGS!! STIFLING DISSENT!! HELP!! HELP!!

"He asked for help because he didn't have the key," Olympia police Cmdr. Steve Nelson said.

SURRRE he asked for help--TO STOP THIS WAR!!!

Mason wasn't arrested and won't face any charges. Officers let him go and didn't take his name, Nelson said.

I DEMAND HE BE CHARGED!! SUCH LACK OF CRUSHING OF DISSENT MUST NOT BE TOLERATED!!

"He was our first protester since President Bush's speech," Nelson said.

HE WON'T BE THE LAST!! Fight the Grange!! FARMERS KILL BABY ANIMALS!! THEY POLLUTE OUR ATMOSPHERE!! RURAL LIFE CONTRIBUTES TO SPRAWL!

Mason, who identified himself to a photographer, said he had looked up the Department of Energy in the phone book. The phone book, under the Department of Energy, lists a Bonneville Power Administration Office at 924 Capitol Way S.

Just another ploy to hide from the PEOPLE, man!!

What a schmoo.
posted by Terry at 1:13:00 PM