For almost a year now, the death lab freedom fighters have been spamming anyone who’ll listen with forwards and links regarding the National But not in Athens Facility.

Personally, I don’t mind – I get NBAF Google alerts, but hey, maybe I missed it – so whatever anyone wants to send me, keep it coming. I can understand, though, why Athens-Clarke Commissioner Andy Herod finally snapped.

Activist Nancy Zechella sent a link about the Connecticut attorney general opposing the NBAF to Mayor Heidi Davison, all 10 commissioners me and Flagpole news editor Ben Emmanuel. It was the organic straw that broke the free-range, grass-fed, humanely raised camel's back.

“Please remove me from your listserve,” Herod replied Sunday. “I am quite capable of reading newspapers online on my own, thank you.”

And so the strained relationship between the mostly liberal anti-NBAF-ers and the mostly liberal A-C mayor and commission became even more tense. None of them can stand President Bush, but on this issue the loonies and the lefties must part ways.

Initially, it might be surprising that the guy who wrote Labor Geographies: Workers and the Landscapes of Capitalism would back NBAF. Herod probably listens to Bikini Kill all day as he sits in his office gazing at his Che Guevara poster, leafing through a dog-eared copy of The Wretched of the Earth and writing love letters to Naomi Klein that he’ll never send.

As he explained at last week’s Homeland Security hearing, he was initially suspicious of Homeland Security’s intent. But as he looked into further and talked to scientists, he learned that Plum Island is actually safer under DHS than it was under the USDA.

“I’m quite comfortable with NBAF coming to Athens and I hope you choose us,” he said.

That comfort level, coming from someone like Herod, might seem like one of the best arguments that we need not fear the lab. But not to Grady Thrasher, who continues to maintain that our local officials are beholden to UGA and should hold a formal commission vote and referendum on the issue.

And what if they did? This debate is, after all, more about Athens' identity as a community than it is about jobs or a cattle epidemic or some confused birds flying in circles.

It would be ultimately pointless, but surely a sight to see.

Blake.aued@onlineathens.com