In what he describes as a small act of nastiness Professor Bainbridge reports that Ann Coulter was almost “pied” the other day at the University of Arizona, evidence of the escalating debate between the left and the right.

The days that pie throwing were considered to be clownish acts of protest are long over. It was shortly after Pim Fortuyn was murdered in the Netherlands a few years ago that those who had pied him at a book presentation shortly before his death were apprehended. They spent a considerable amount of time in detention and although they were cleared of any links to the actual assassin it had become clear that pie-ing in effect puts the spotlight on a person as a potential target. That message was heard in Canada not to long ago when the man who pied Alberta Premier Ralph Klein got a 30-day jail sentence. It will be interesting to see what will happen to the Arizona pie-throwers but it should be evident that you only need one nut to throw more than just a pie and things will get really ugly. Throwing pies, a slippery slope.