Austinite paints car to look like UN vehicle; UN "looking into the matter"

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Austinite has decorated his car with United Nations symbols
By Michael Hoinski
SPECIAL TO THE AMERICAN-STATESMAN

As if peacekeeping in an endlessly warring world isn't enough for the United Nations to deal with, it's now faced with curbing a South Austin prankster who has transformed his wife's Toyota Camry into an official-looking U.N. field vehicle. Only 28-year-old Rad Tollett's sly conception of an art car is more a statement for the U.N. than against it. "I've always sort of had this love for the underdog," said Tollett, who works at advertising agency GSD&M. "And I've always viewed the United Nations as an underdog, especially over the past four years."...

That sympathy, coupled with a low trade-in value for the '94 Camry and the realization that no two U.N. vehicles are alike (a Google "Images" search yielded automobiles of no particular make or model as long as they're white and have a blue "UN" on the doors), was enough to seal the deal. Plus, the design was criminally easy. "It's almost as if they were painted by U.N. staff in the consulate garage," Tollett mused. "A copy of a copy of a copy. If there is no standard, then essentially what I did was the standard."...

Tollett is forthright about his intention to get a rise out of people. He fancies his art car a solution to the anti-war movement, calling it his "anti-anti-war stance" because at a minimum it's a solution to his criticism. He hopes that by singling out the United Nations, he will draw attention to flaws in the organization's governance. Not surprisingly, he was singled out as the car's driver. "The day I finished it, I went to Home Depot, and a guy pushing a cart — just some Joe off the street — walks up to me with a totally serious face, and he's like, 'Hey, man, what are you guys going to do about Iran?' And I was like, 'Well, we're working on it.' "

In the four months since making over his wife's ride (she now drives a new Lexus), Tollett has managed to cruise under the radar of law enforcement — an unthinkable feat, considering U.N. vehicles are synonymous with foreign lands, and would seemingly stick out like a Zinedine Zidane soccer head-butt on our own. "Cops see me all the time," Tollett said. "Probably once a day I'll drive by a cop car, and never once has one even done a U-turn to follow me."...

http://www.statesman.com/life/content/life/stories/other/07/23uncar.html

I've been saying for a while that the US needs Peacekeepers inside it to stop the Crypto-Fascists who are taking over the government.

Maybe cops don't stop him because they assume that UN staff have diplomatic immunity...

...baby blue with white clouds. Cops loved to pull me over and people yelled nasty things at me. Of course, I was in West Texas. Just the same, it made me sad. I mean come on! Baby blue and fluffy white clouds? How can that possible make people angry?

Does Texas have a law against putting the letters U and N on a car?

Wasn't there some plan to paint planes with UN Colors and buzz Iraq with them to goad Saddam to an actionable response??

I pity the poor pilots who were used as bait in the run-up to the war (Bush & Blair hoping that an allied plane would be shot down to provide a casus belli).

:tinfoilhat: