saturn return to sender

NO smelling the roses

As far as I know, this collection of caps-locked injunction isn’t on a residence for some group of people that would be especially vulnerable to harm or apt to cause harm. It’s next to the parking lot of an apartment building in Louisville, CO, and it bothered me.

All persons entering this property should proceed directly to resident’s unit. No loitering, trespassing, gambling, or illegal activity is permitted in the common areas. Violators will be subject to arrest. NO bicycle riding, roller blading, skateboarding, scooter riding. NO soliciting, loitering, trespassing.

The sign below the crop says, “NO laughing, discussion, or happiness. Visitors with ideas or thoughts must keep them leashed at all times.”

I can understand wanting to warn off the random genuinely destructive person, but this is just so spectacularly un-friendly and paranoid. To me, it reflected an ugly side of our culture.

This Guardian piece hit a similar emotional note for me. Scotland Yard has suggested that children as young as five should be added to the criminal DNA database if they exhibit behavior that criminological theory says is an indicator of future criminal tendencies. The Yard’s spokesman’s suggestion not to regard as criminal everyone indexed in the database is a nice one, but until everyone is indexed, I don’t see how that perception could change.

At least the American FCC has finally arrived at what I think we can all agree is a reasonable compromise with our no-so-latent fascist-puritan urges. Obscenity on television will henceforth be defined against a standard of Alyson Hannigan. I applaud their vision and integrity.

This entry was posted on Monday, March 17th, 2008 at 8:40 am and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.