"Damn Abortion Damn Dumocrats."

Tom Herb had barely finished putting up a sign on his one-and-a-half acre lot at the corner of Oak Street and Denny School Road bearing that message when a neighbor drove by and flashed him her middle finger.

That night he found the sign laying on the ground. It is now firmly anchored in place with cable stretched between metal posts.

Although some drivers might find the sign offensive, Herb, 53, is well within his First Amendment rights and county sign ordinances to display it.

"Almost every property can have a sign on it," said Steve Michaels, Linn County planning and building director. "We don't regulate the message, only size and number."

The county code generally permits land owners two signs not larger than 64 square-feet, provided that they do not interfere with drivers' vision.

For Herb, the sign was simply a way of expressing his conviction against abortion.

"I don't like abortion, and I damn sure don't like the government paying for it," Herb said. "I pay taxes, and that makes me an accessory to murder."

Herb said "liberals" who are against the war in Iraq make the same argument about their tax dollars.

A retired trucking company owner, Herb and a brother use the shop on the lot for tinkering with antiques. The brothers recently found an old steam engine in working condition that they proudly demonstrate for visitors.

If he gets too much guff about the sign, he might paint the whole side of the shop with a similar message, Herb said.

Herb said he was raised a Democrat and even has a liberal brother.

"I'm kind of the outlaw in the family," he said, adding with a laugh, "We don't have many family reunions, at least not many that last long."

If it were not for the Democratic Party's stand on abortion, Herb said he'd be a Democrat himself. In the next breath, he claimed to be against capital punishment, but thinks dropping convicted murderers out of aircraft from 20,000 feet and giving them a chance to swim back to shore was a fine idea.

The 1.57-acre lot is for sale. Herb said it would make a great location for a gas station and convenience mart if re-zoned. No broker would agree to list the property unless he took down the sign, so he decided to sell it himself.

"There's one way to get the sign down, someone could buy the property or get it rezoned and I'd open an AM/ PM on it," he said.