This is getting to be ludicrous. Just this week I read an article (which you can read here) which described an effigy of Vice Presidential candidate Sarah Palin which had been hanged out in California. It created an uproar among local residents who reported it as a hate crime.

The sheriff’s department took the time to investigate and discovered (lo, and behold) that it was “bad taste” but not a hate crime by any means.

Now we read that somebody decided to reverse the roles and hang an effigy of Barack Hussein Obama from a tree at the University of Kentucky. Although you can read the article for yourself here, it doesn’t too much imagination to guess what the reaction is to this stunt.

Weeping, gnashing of teeth, apologies, tsk-tsking and shaking of heads are about par for the course.

Hey, UK officials, whatever happened to the free speech which is allowed in California? Hey, Raoul Cunningham, president of the Louisville chapter of the NAACP, where is your condemnation of the Sarah Palin effigy? If you DO disagree with it, post your comment here for all the world to see. You, too, John Johnson, executive director of the Kentucky Commission on Human Rights. (NOTE: Isn’t it interesting that this person has the same name as the alias given by Guy Fawkes, someone who was committed to overthrowing Parliament by the use of explosives? Makes you wonder if it’s an alias.)

I don’t recommend hanging effigies as a way of dealing with disagreements. Otherwise, most of the neighborhoods in the US would be full of them — mostly of ex-spouses or employers. But, if you’re going to allow one, then you must allow the other.

What do you think of the double standard?