Noose on the loose

What’s with the resurgence of nooses? We learned that George Allen kept one in his office. There was the Jena Six incident. There was the incident at Navistar. The University of Maryland is investigating a noose hanging in a tree near buildings housing several black student groups. Theatre workers in TN hung nooses in their stage riggings.  And somebody hung a noose at the office of the Massachusetts Rehabilitation Commission.

And WTF is up with USA Today captioning a story “Noose tightens around Vick at amazing speed”?