Ice cream that leans to the left? Don’t be surprised if that piled-high cone you get at Mariposa Ice Cream starts slowly melting in that direction. This isn’t, after all, your typical ice cream parlor.

Located in the heart of Normal Heights, the shop has served as a political show ground for owners Dick and Anna Van Ransom-Magana ever since they opened the business five years ago. With 20 homemade flavors available on any given day, customers also get a triple scoop of anti-establishment missives in the form of posters, bumper stickers and newspaper clippings papering the walls.

On one side of the room, a large Pride flag drapes an unused refrigerator case. The word “peace” is stretched across it. On the opposite wall a sticker reads: “There is no flag large enough to cover the shame of killing innocent people.” Another states: “An Eye for an Eye Leaves the Whole World Blind.”

Within minutes, the inevitable comes into focus. “Join the MOB,” reads a larger sticker in bold font. MOB stands for Mothers Opposing Bush. The couple proudly points out that one of their regular customers is president of the local MOB chapter, and many others are members.

Women’s rights, same-sex marriage, the war in Iraq, immigration policies and teachers’ wages are among the hot political issues that get blended into the business of making ice cream the old-fashioned way (less sugar, half the air, no eggs and with nothing artificial). For some of the recent anti-war protests in San Diego, the couple closed the shop in order to participate.

“We started taking part in those protests even before the war was declared,” says Dick Van Ransom-Magana, who expresses his views on George W. Bush faster than you can consume a sample spoon of the shop’s top-selling coconut ice cream.

“Bush is the biggest disaster that ever came along. When he got re-elected, my wife and I almost moved out of the country.”

For many business owners, Mariposa’s blatantly liberal ambience might seem risky regardless of the fact that the neighborhood in which they operate is considered progressive. In today’s politically charged climate, not even a pint of high-quality ice cream can cool the heads of some who oppose the couple’s viewpoints.

“We’ve lost customers because of our politics, but we don’t care,” adds Van Ransom-Magana, whose long hair and tie-dyed T-shirt attest to his disdain for all things corporate. “Last month, a woman came in with her three children, and her husband was fighting in Iraq. She got very upset and walked out without buying anything.”

His wife, Anna, says that the shop’s political overtures weren’t planned when she and her husband first opened the shop. “We hung mostly sports posters. But so many things have happened since 2000,” she said.

Mixed into the mosaic of political messaging are posters of famous musicians from the 1960s: Janis Joplin, Jimi Hendrix and The Beatles. A plush doll of Jerry Garcia peers down from a ledge over the doorway. And there are crayon drawings by children of banana splits and ice cream cones that they bring into the shop when visiting on school field trips or dropping by with their parents for the “dollar-a-scoop” after-school special.

Yet looming above the kiddie art is a framed red T-shirt signed by Cesar Chavez and sporting the United Farm Workers logo. A few feet down is a decal, “The Death Penalty is Dead Wrong.” And then there’s a cartoon of George W. Bush with his pants on fire. As intended, it’s enough fodder material to send conservatives running to Dairy Queen.

Politics aside, the shop was cited this year by San Diego Magazine as “the best place for homemade ice cream.” The ice cream is made in an obsolete Taylor-brand machine that puts in the same low amount of air (25 percent) as hand-cranked machinery does – a desired outcome among aficionados. The ice cream is sold in cones, cups, pints and quarts. Flavors include Mexican-chocolate, pistachio, fresh pumpkin, rum-raisin and white-chocolate raspberry ripple.

Though Mariposa’s politically charged theme is hard to overlook, the couple offers food for thought to liberals, conservatives or anyone in between: “You’ve gotta stand for something, or else you don’t stand for nothing,” they say.

Mariposa is located at 3450 Adams Ave. Hours are Mondays and Wednesday through Saturday from 12:00 noon to 9:00 p.m.; and Sundays from 2:00 to 9:00 p.m. The shop is closed on Tuesdays. For more information, call (619) 284-5197.