Barnes and Noble

We've all heard at least something about the brouhaha at the Wilmington, DE, Barnes and Noble, where Little Ricky "man-on-dog sex" Santorum was signing copies of his latest screed. A couple of students decided to go ask Little Ricky some embarassing questions, and found themselves being escorted out -- and subsequently dragged down to the hoosegow -- by a uniformed Delaware State Police sergeant.

I sent the following letter to customer service at B&N:

Gentlemen:

I have been a Barnes and Noble customer for years, and have always appreciated not only the vast selections, but also the ambiance of your stores.

The recent happenings at the Rick Santorum book-signing (at the Wilmington B&N), and the refusal of B&N management to condemn these activities, have shown me that B&N is no longer worthy of my business. As a book store and publishing house, your company should be a champion of free spreech. Instead, you allow Santorum and his goons to stifle any dissenting opinions.

I'll be spending my money elsewhere from now on.

And when Santorum and his fascist cohorts eliminate freedom of speech and of the press, and B&N is gone, you will have yourselves to thank.

Today, I received a reply from them:

Thank you for bringing your concerns to our attention. I appreciate having the opportunity to clarify the situation regarding Senator Santorum's signing at our Wilmington bookstore:

Barnes & Noble did not remove the students from the store, and we regret what happened. A law enforcement officer took control of the situation and acted on his own. He physically removed the students without talking with us or notifying our store managers beforehand. We do not agree with the actions of this officer and feel the situation was mishandled.

This kind of usefully ignores the fact that B&N "knew or should have known" (as the lawyers put it) of the behaviors previously exhibited by Little Ricky and the rest of the Bushies -- the "free spech zones" at political rallies (designed to keep protesters out of the sight of Dear Leader), the recurring attempts to brand dissension as "commie-sympathizer" rhetoric, the outright theft of elections, the steady erosion of civil and Constitutional rights, and the rest of their sorry panoply -- yet B&N still expressed surprise that such behaviors occurred. It's akin to saying "we didn't know the Illinois Nazis were going to be making hate speeches in Skokie".

Come on.

If one is going to invite a hate-monger to one's business, one should realistically expect hateful speech. And if one invites a politician whose entire career is based on quashing dissent, one shouldn't be surprised that Gestapo tactics are used in that situation.

Yes, the lady from B&N was polite, and expressed the usual big-business platitudes about being sorry, but they knew what Santorum was like, and they invited him anyway.

I'll still be buying my books elsewhere from now on.

Oh, and lest someone think I'm lettingDelaware's answer to Major Hochstetter off the hook... the sergeant in question should be fired immediately, and charged under Federal statutes for violating the civil rights of the students involved.

Not that Twig's "so-called 'Justice Dept"" will ever do that. These kides were, after all, commie-sympathizin', Murica-hatin' libtard scums, right?