Nanny State Finds Pirate Birthday Decorations for Child Offensive, Threatens Dad with Court

By Duane Lester • May 6th, 2008

A father in Great Britain helped decorate for his daughter’s pirate themed birthday party. He hung the Jolly Roger outside his house, some namby-pamby busybody took offense, and Dad faces legal action for his efforts.

No, really:

David Waterman, 41, is being threatened with court proceedings after a neighbour complained about the skull and crossbones.

In a letter dated 21 April, seven weeks after the flag was unfurled, the official said he had seven days to remove it.

Mr Waterman, who works at Battersea fire station, said: “I find it ridiculous that the council are fighting me over this.

“It’s a £5 flag, not hurting anyone, and they’re probably spending hundreds of pounds of our cash getting me to take it down. That could be spent on improving the local area — it’s disgraceful.”

I guess this “former trooper with the 2nd Royal Tank Regiment” turned firefighter actually let’s his kids play outside, too. That has got the hackles up on these knucklehead neighbors, but Watterman says they are taking their frustration out on the flag.

The bad part about this all isn’t that these neighbors are causing a ruckus. Everyone has bad neighbors. The bad part is that the government is backing them. Can’t have anyone be offended by anything, you know.

Duane Lester A one-man political wrecking machine, Duane was not always such a strong conservative. He did not always see things from through the filters of a right wing/libertarian belief system. Now he does. Duane grew up in the midwest, the son of two staunch Democrats. He served in the military overseas and has since moved back to the Midwest after touring around the world. He has a wife and four children. He has a big head. I’m tired of writing in the third person. God bless America.
Email this author | All posts by Duane Lester | Subscribe to this author's RSS Feed