Taliban

Trump’s Plan for Afghanistan Was to Abandon Our Troops and Allies, Psaki Reveals His Lies

Posted by on August 24, 2021 at 5:34 pm. 4 Comments :

One of the problems that Joe Biden inherited from his predecessors when he became President was the two decades long war in Afghanistan. And he made it clear that he was determined to make certain that it wasn’t handed down to another president.

Jen Psaki, Donald Trump

Biden’s goal was strewn with obstacles placed in his path by Donald Trump, whose abysmal deal with the Taliban has been lambasted by his own National Security Advisor as a “surrender agreement,” that lifted all sanctions on the Taliban and freed 5,000 of their imprisoned fighters, including their leader.

Not one to be deterred by reality, Trump is still hammering away at Biden with blatantly dishonest representations of the situation now unfolding in Afghanistan. He released a statement on Tuesday via his spokes-shill, Liz Harrington (whose proxy Trump tweeting is violating Twitter’s rules against circumventing a ban), that sound more like a madman on a street corner yelling at passing cars than a diplomat:

“Biden surrendered Afghanistan to terrorists and left thousands of Americans for dead by pulling out the Military before our citizens. Now we are learning that out of the 26,000 people who have been evacuated, only 4,000 are Americans. You can be sure the Taliban, who are now in complete control, didn’t allow the best and brightest to board these evacuation flights. Instead, we can only imagine how many thousands of terrorists have been airlifted out of Afghanistan and into neighborhoods around the world. What a terrible failure. NO VETTING. How many terrorists will Joe Biden bring to America? We don’t know!”

There’s a lot to unpack in that hysterical harangue. Starting at the top, Biden did not surrender to terrorists. That was Trump. And Biden has not left a single American for dead, much less thousands. Trump appears to have ingested some powerful hallucinogens.

Moving on, Trump is surprised that 26,000 of the evacuees were Afghans. He apparently doesn’t know that there are far more Afghans in Afghanistan than Americans. He also doesn’t seem to know that thousands of them served our troops loyally and bravely and deserve to be rescued from a dire fate at the hands of the Taliban. Trump is actually repeating the very same racist lines that he previously used on Mexican refugees, implying that they are all criminals being “sent” to America by wily foreign governments.

What’s more, Trump is outright lying (surprise) about whether these Afghans are vetted before being evacuated. This question was raised at the White House daily press briefing by Fox News correspondent Peter Doocy. Which gave press secretary Jen Psaki yet another opportunity to publicly humiliate him. Doocy asked a loaded question suggesting that there are suspected terrorists among the evacuees. Psaki replied saying that…

“We have a stringent vetting process, which includes background checks before any individual comes to the United States. So I can’t speak to one individual, but I can tell you and confirm for you that we take the vetting of any individual who comes to the United States and comes out incredibly seriously and it’s an extensive process.

“I would say that this is now on track, Peter, to be the largest airlift in US history. And that is bringing American citizens out. It is bringing our Afghan partners out. It is bringing allies out. So, no, I would not say that is anything but a success.”

Doocy, masochist that he is, persisted with another question suggesting that because Biden is hoping to stick to the August 31 date for the withdrawal to be completed, that the Taliban had “the same kind of influence over military planning as the Commander in Chief?” And once again, Psaki had to set him straight:

“Well, first of all Peter, the Taliban’s deadline was May 1st, struck in a deal with the prior administration. The President’s timeline was August 31st. That’s the timeline he set, and a period of time he needed in order to operationalize our departure from Afghanistan.”

Anyone who had even a glancing knowledge of these matters knew that the Taliban and Trump had agreed to a May 1st exit date. So it’s just a demonstration of his ignorance that Doocy didn’t know that the August 31 date was Biden’s decision, not the Taliban’s. And Biden is reserving the option to extend that date if conditions on the ground require it. The Taliban has no role in that decision making process.

It’s clear from Trump’s remarks that his plan was to leave behind both Americans and Afghans. He had not initiated any operations to evacuate anyone prior to his evacuation from the White House, even though there were only three months between his exit and May 1st. That may have been his purposeful attempt to hamstring Biden, or it may have just been his incompetence and negligence.

Either way, Trump has no right to complain about how things are turning out. Just the fact that the Biden team has evacuated 70,000 people since August 14 is a testament to what competent leadership can achieve. And he did it while also dealing with a surging pandemic (also Trump’s fault) and a busy legislative agenda that included bills to provide relief payments to the American people, a historic investment in infrastructure, and an effort to preserve voting rights.

NOTE: Twitter suspended the News Corpse account after 11 years without giving a reason. So if anyone wants to tweet articles from my website, please feel free to do so often and repeatedly. Also, Be sure to visit and follow News Corpse on Instagram. Thanks for your support.

How Fox News Deceives and Controls Their Flock:
Fox Nation vs. Reality: The Fox News Cult of Ignorance.
Available now at Amazon.

The Taliban Bureau of Fox News Condemns Democrats for the Mortal Sin of Dancing

Posted by on August 23, 2021 at 9:17 am. 2 Comments :

Twenty years ago a group of religious extremists committed a terrorist act that brought down the World Center towers in New York City. Ever since then the right-wing Republican Party has regarded all Muslims as responsible. And one of the consequences was an overtly bigoted crusade of fear mongering over a manufactured threat of Sharia law taking over the in United States.

Fox News, Taliban

Of course, that was just a deliberate attempt by the GOP to inflame an irrational hatred of Muslims in order to stir up division for political purposes. However, it’s an ironic tactic considering the devotion that Republicans have for imposing their radical, evangelical, Christianist beliefs on all Americans by passing laws with a religious focus on matters concerning abortion, school prayer, medical research, the teaching of evolution and climate change, and more.

On Sunday Fox News joined the crusade for “Christria” law in an article on their website with the alarming headline “Schumer, Pelosi panned for dancing with Stephen Colbert, Napa fundraiser with Biden’s presidency under siege.” Apparently it is now verboten to dance according to right-wing doctrine, just as it is under the most conservative sects of Islam.

First of all, the headline needs to be corrected. It falsely accuses of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi of participating in the sinful act of gyrating to the devil’s music. It was only Sen. Chuck Schumer who was “spotted dancing backstage with late-night comedian Stephen Colbert during the “We Love NYC: The Homecoming Concert” in Central Park.”

More to the point, the article insinuates that there was something sinister about politicians enjoying themselves while backstage at a music festival. In the view of Fox News there can be no such expressions of celebration while there is any strife anywhere else in the world. And in this case the strife is bizarrely described as “Biden’s presidency under siege,” which is only true to someone who exclusively watches Fox News. Curiously, Fox News wasn’t bothered at all about Donald Trump dancing at his cult rally in Alabama the same day.

What’s more, the headline asserts that the partying pols were “panned.” But the only evidence it provided were predictable criticisms from partisan Republicans, including Sen. Ted Cruz who is best known for jetting off to Cancun, Mexico, during a deadly winter storm in his state of Texas. “Cancun” Cruz, who abandoned his constituents when they were in dire need, tweeted a video of Schumer at a concert held to show appreciation for the citizens, businesses, and first responders of New York City, who persevered through a difficult year. Cruz affirmed his reputation for being a nasty S.O.B. by adding the comment “Celebrating the demise of the Republic…”

The article went on to make preposterous comparisons between the New York concert and the recent motorcycle rally in Sturgis, South Dakota:

“There were reportedly thousands of people at the ‘Homecoming Concert,’ but Democrats and the media made no mention about it being a possible superspreader, as they did with an outdoor event attended by thousands of people in South Dakota just days ago.”

What Fox News left out was that the attendees of the Manhattan concert had to show proof of COVID vaccination to get in, while the Sturgis event not only didn’t require vaccinations or masks, they were openly hostile to them, regarding such common sense, life-saving measures as impositions on their freedom.

So while the right-wing American Taliban is adamant that their “god-given liberties” not be abridged, they continue to clamp down on the liberties of others with oppressive laws and intimidation. And god forbid anyone dares to dance at a music festival celebrating Americans who are emerging from the hardships of pandemic. Because now they must also face the wrath of Fox News.

NOTE: Twitter suspended the News Corpse account after 11 years without giving a reason. So if anyone wants to tweet articles from my website, please feel free to do so often and repeatedly. Also, Be sure to visit and follow News Corpse on Instagram. Thanks for your support.

How Fox News Deceives and Controls Their Flock:
Fox Nation vs. Reality: The Fox News Cult of Ignorance.
Available now at Amazon.

Watch Trump Bragging About His Taliban Deal That He Now Calls ‘Embarrassing’

Posted by on August 16, 2021 at 10:24 am. 15 Comments :

Expecting Donald Trump to be honest about anything is guaranteed to lead to bitter disappointment. He is a pathological liar whose self-serving distortions of reality are his way of avoiding having to face the torrent of failures that define his existence. His malignant narcissism prevents him from seeing anything he does or says as anything but perfection.

American Afghanistan Taliban

In the wake of the tragic events in Afghanistan, Trump predictably embarked on a frantic crusade to absolve himself of any responsibility. And naturally he blamed it all on Joe Biden. It’s the same deranged defensiveness he had to the COVID pandemic that he so horrendously bitched, and the January 6th insurrection he deliberately incited.

However, Trump’s raging irrationality inevitably fouls up his attempts to exalt himself no matter what disaster he produces. On Monday morning he said that “Afghanistan is the most embarrassing military outcome in the history of the United States,” in a proxy tweet that his spokes-shill, Liz Harrington, posted for him (a violation Twitter’s rules against circumventing a ban). But Trump can be seen on video bragging profusely about the conditions for which he is now castigating President Biden. Here is Trump just one month ago at one of his cult rallies:

“I started the process. All the troops are coming back home. They couldn’t stop the process. Twenty-one years is enough, don’t we think? Twenty-one years. They couldn’t stop the process. They wanted to, but it was very tough to stop the process when other things were… Yeah, thank you.

It’s a shame. Twenty-one years by a government that wouldn’t last. The only way they last is if we’re there. What are we gonna say? We’ll stay for another twenty-one years, then we’ll stay for another fifty? The whole thing is ridiculous.”

Is this what Trump means by “embarrassing”? The “process” to which Trump is referring is the deal he made with the Taliban in March of 2020. At the time it was not exactly heralded as “the Art of the Deal.” To the contrary, it was widely repudiated by foreign policy and military experts as “disgraceful” and a total surrender to the Taliban.

One representative appraisal of Trump’s folly said that it “gives the Taliban a series of concrete, measurable gifts.” It began by promising an immediate drawdown from 100,000 troops to less than 3,000, and that “American and allied forces will leave within 14 months” (by last May). It also promised “the release of 5,000 Taliban prisoners,” including their founder and leader, Abdul Ghani Baradar. The deal also committed “to the ‘goal’ of removing sanctions from members of the Taliban that include travel bans, asset freezes, and an arms embargo.” And it came “without any agreement by the Taliban to cease hostilities against our allies.”

Trump’s comments a month ago affirm his belief that exiting Afghanistan was a priority that superseded any other strategic considerations. He virtually confessed that he “started the process” as a means of boxing Biden into an untenable dilemma. He also admitted that the outcome we see today was inevitable because Afghanistan had “a government that wouldn’t last.” without U.S. support.

All of that failure was Trump’s own assessment of the consequences of the deal that he made with the Taliban. It was a deal that he excluded the Afghans from even participating in, which assured that they would have no stake in complying with it. But now Trump is accusing Biden of causing the calamity that he claims to have foreseen when he made the deal more than a year ago. Talk about embarrassing.

NOTE: Twitter suspended the News Corpse account after 11 years without giving a reason. So if anyone wants to tweet articles from my website, please feel free to do so often and repeatedly. Also, Be sure to visit and follow News Corpse on Instagram. Thanks for your support.

How Fox News Deceives and Controls Their Flock:
Fox Nation vs. Reality: The Fox News Cult of Ignorance.
Available now at Amazon.

Trump Dishonestly Blasts Biden in an Ego-Drenched Defense of His Own Afghan Failures

Posted by on August 15, 2021 at 9:58 am. 3 Comments :

As the Taliban completes its brutal military takeover Afghanistan, Donald Trump is predictably seeking to absolve himself of any responsibility, while casting blame on others. This time, once again, it’s President Joe Biden, who repeatedly has had to finish the hard jobs that Trump either left undone or irreparably botched. Whether it’s the COVID pandemic or the nation’s infrastructure or the economic recovery, Biden has been forced to clean up Trump’s failures.

Donald Trump, Joe Biden

Afghanistan can now be added to the list of Trump’s fumbles. But even as the Taliban is advancing on Kabul, Trump is trying to pin his mistakes on Biden. In a statement that was on posted Twitter by his spokes-shill, Liz Harrington, (whose proxy Trump tweeting is violating Twitter’s rules against circumventing a ban), Trump displayed his penchant for slathering himself in undeserved praise that invariably ignores reality. He wrote that…

“Joe Biden gets it wrong every time on foreign policy, and many other issues. Everyone knew he couldn’t handle the pressure. Even Obama’s Secretary of Defense, Robert Gates, said as much. He ran out of Afghanistan instead of following the plan our Administration left for him—a plan that protected our people and our property, and ensured the Taliban would never dream of taking our Embassy or providing a base for new attacks against America. The withdrawal would be guided by facts on the ground.”

Setting aside Trump’s tiresome, knee-jerk insults, his claim that Biden disregarded his “plan” presumes incorrectly that he had a plan. Trump’s entire approach to Afghanistan was evolved from a meeting in Doha, Qatar in 2020, where he agreed to lift all sanctions on the Taliban and release 5,000 Taliban prisoners, in exchange for a three month cease fire. Trump expressed his misplaced trust in the Taliban terrorists saying that “I really believe the Taliban wants to do something to show we’re not all wasting time.” The Afghans were not even included in those negotiations.

Trump went on to brag falsely that he “took out ISIS.” Then he closed with another ad hominin insult, projecting on Biden his own “weakness, incompetence, and total strategic incoherence.” Which is interesting considering his initial praise for Biden’s withdrawal as “a wonderful and positive thing to do.” Although he still criticized Biden saying that “we can and should get out earlier. Nineteen years is enough, in fact, far too much and way too long,”

For his part, Biden responded to Trump’s baseless criticisms in his announcement of the troop drawdown, saying that…

“Over our country’s 20 years at war in Afghanistan, America has sent its finest young men and women, invested nearly $1 trillion dollars, trained over 300,000 Afghan soldiers and police, equipped them with state-of-the-art military equipment, and maintained their air force as part of the longest war in US history, One more year, or five more years, of US military presence would not have made a difference if the Afghan military cannot or will not hold its own country.” […]

“When I came to office, I inherited a deal cut by my predecessor — which he invited the Taliban to discuss at Camp David on the eve of 9/11 of 2019 — that left the Taliban in the strongest position militarily since 2001 and imposed a May 1, 2021 deadline on U.S. Forces. Shortly before he left office, he also drew U.S. Forces down to a bare minimum of 2,500.”

That’s right, Trump actually wanted to leave Afghanistan months sooner. He proposed rewarding the Taliban terrorists with a visit to Camp David. And he left Biden with a skeleton deployment of 2,500 troops. Trump virtually handed Afghanistan to the Taliban. That’s the same Taliban who were in charge in 2001, and were harboring Osama Bin Laden as he was plotting the 9/11 attack.

However, now Trump thinks he should get credit for his “weakness, incompetence, and total strategic incoherence”? No thanks. The only thing Trump should get is a prison sentence for his innumerable crimes against America.

NOTE: Twitter suspended the News Corpse account after 11 years without giving a reason. So if anyone wants to tweet articles from my website, please feel free to do so often and repeatedly. Also, Be sure to visit and follow News Corpse on Instagram. Thanks for your support.

How Fox News Deceives and Controls Their Flock:
Fox Nation vs. Reality: The Fox News Cult of Ignorance.
Available now at Amazon.

Trump Lies Too Much to Take His Word that There Was Ever a Taliban Meeting

Posted by on September 8, 2019 at 10:56 am. 12 Comments :

Our Reality TV President has done more to debase the presidency of the United States than anyone could ever have imagined. Donald Trump’s pathological lying, infantile insults, willful ignorance, blatant self-dealing, mental infirmity, disrespect for the law and the Constitution, and bizarre affinity for foreign dictators, cannot be dismissed as mere character flaws. They are dangerously and deliberately anti-American.

Donald Trump

Among Trump’s multitude of personal and presidential improprieties are his official proclamations via Twitter. They represent an unprecedented devaluing of governmental discourse. It’s a cartoon version of diplomacy. And Trump’s latest Twitter pronouncement may truly have blasted through the bottom of the barrel and excavated a rough passage to China.

There is so much wrong with this tweet it’s hard to comprehend that it wasn’t the work of comedians on acid. And while many of Trump’s Twitter outbursts seem astonishingly stupid, this one really deserves further examination. So let’s break it down, shall we?

Disclosing Peace Talks with Terrorists
The first problem with this tweet is that it exists at all. No sane leader would even contemplate disclosing on Twitter that there was a secret meeting being planned with the same terrorists who harbored the 9/11 mastermind, Osama bin Laden. Nor would the cancelation of such a clandestine meeting be tweeted along with petulant threats to make future talks even more difficult.

Invitation Without Pre-conditions or Concessions
Trump’s tweet revealed that he intended to reward these still unrepentant terrorists with a meeting at a presidential retreat on U.S. soil, despite the fact that they have not conceded a single thing to earn it. To the contrary, they still celebrate 9/11 as a proud victory in their struggle to impose a radical form of islamic rule. They continue to be affiliated with Al Qaeda and it’s religious and imperialistic principles. And since the Taliban haven’t agreed to anything prior to the meeting, an agreement that fails to restrict their governance of Afghanistan appears all the more likely. Especially since Trump is such an awful negotiator that he already said publicly that he wants to get the U.S. out of Afghanistan. He needs a deal more than than they do, which can only result in a bad deal for the U.S.

Staining the Anniversary of 9/11
Trump also managed to show callous disrespect for the victims of 9/11, their families, and all Americans by scheduling a meeting with bin Laden’s protectors for the week of the anniversary of 9/11. The memory of that horrific event is still an open wound that millions of Americans recall in stark and painful detail. Apparently that isn’t the case for Trump.

Canceling the Meeting Because Terrorists Committed an Act of Terror
This is a mind-boggling admission by Trump. Peace talks are always held between two warring factions. It shouldn’t come as a surprise that one side or the other engages in violence prior to the completion of any peace treaty. That’s the whole reason for the talks. But Trump is pretending that a recent car bombing in Kabul is his excuse for calling off the meeting. What was he expecting? He never demanded anything, including a cease fire.

Trump Wants to Know: “How Many More Decades Are They Willing to Fight?”
It’s hard to imagine that Trump thinks this is a serious question. The Taliban, and their comrades in Al Qaeda, have already been fighting for many decades that go back to before the U.S ever set foot in Afghanistan. He should ask his friends in Russia. It’s further evidence that they are committed to a long term battle that Trump is showing he doesn’t have the stomach for. Most Americans certainly do not want this war to continue, but as President, it’s foolish and dangerous to show your cards to the enemy.

What Peace Talks?
It’s notable that there has been no confirmation from the Taliban that any meeting was ever actually scheduled. There is no indication that they traveled to the U.S., or were preparing to do so. There is no indication that they have had to alter such plans. They have not issued any statements criticizing Trump for abandoning the peace effort. Just total silence from the Taliban.

And that may be the most revealing part of this whole affair. Why is anyone taking Trump’s word that there were any peace talks scheduled in the first place? This is the President who has spent the last week insisting that his inclusion of Alabama among the states at risk during Hurricane Dorian was correct, despite documented evidence that it wasn’t. He went so far as to summon the Fox News White House correspondent to the Oval Office for a spanking because everyone at Fox wasn’t obediently regurgitating his lies. He’s the President who has told more than 12,000 lies just since his inauguration.

Consequently, it would be foolish to assume that any peace talks were actually scheduled with the Taliban. Trump could easily have made it up the way he made up what he said was the question he was asked most at the G7 meetings in France a couple of weeks ago. Or the way he made up the size of the crowd at his inauguration. Or the way that he made up that China pays the tariffs, not American importers and consumers. Or the way he made up untold numbers of other purposeful fallacies intend to deceive the American people. So until there is proof that peace talks at Camp David were actually scheduled between Trump and the Taliban, no one should believe they were. His tweet is just not good enough.

How Fox News Deceives and Controls Their Flock:
Fox Nation vs. Reality: The Fox News Cult of Ignorance.
Available now at Amazon.

Would You Trade Bergdahl To The Taliban To Get The Gitmo Prisoners Back?

Posted by on June 3, 2014 at 1:40 pm. 10 Comments :

Conservative pundits and politicians are making another fuss over President Obama’s leadership, this time due to his successfully securing the freedom of American soldier Bowe Bergdahl who was a captive of the Taliban. Critics are complaining about everything from the legality of the operation, to the wisdom of releasing a few Taliban detainees, to the value of retrieving a soldier who has been accused of desertion.

All of these complaints can be resolved by requiring the critics to answer a simple question: Knowing what we know now, would you favor trading Bergdahl back to the Taliban in exchange for the former prisoners released from Guantanamo Bay?

If the answer is yes, then you have a perverse notion of patriotism. No citizen should consider the captivity of an American to be acceptable. Even if that captive is suspected of criminal behavior, it is the responsibility of our country to adjudicate his fate, not some foreign nation or military faction.

If the answer is no, then, like it or not, you agree with the actions of the President. It would be foolish and inhumane to even consider trading an American away to our enemies in exchange for some of their operatives.

In almost every commentary on this exchange, the conservative critic prefaced his remarks by saying that he was glad that Bergdahl was free and heading home. Then, just as predictably, he would say that it was unconscionable that such hardened terrorists were allowed to leave the prison at Guantanamo Bay. Of course the former would not have been possible without the latter. But what none of them are saying is that the former prisoners do not have much to look forward to. Their movements are being monitored closely by officials in Qatar and, very likely, various U.S. intelligence agencies as well. With regard to the prospect of them returning to a life of terrorism, Obama said…

“Is there a possibility of some of them trying to return to activities that are detrimental to us? Absolutely. But I wouldn’t be doing it if I thought it was contrary to American national security, and we have confidence that we will be in a position to go after them if in fact they are engaging in activities to threaten our defenses.”

In other words, the detainees swapped a life of leisure in the Caribbean for one of constantly looking over their shoulders for drones. Should they choose to rejoin their former comrades on the battlefield, they are most likely going to join more than two hundred of them in the place where they now call home – the graveyard.

Club Gitmo Limbaugh

It’s more than a little curious that so many right-wingers are now lambasting the release of the Gitmo Five when not so long ago they complained that the detention center was more like a luxury spa than a prison. For example:

  • Rep. Ted Poe (R-TX): Gitmo is lap of luxury for detainees. […] The accommodations had a freshness and newness about them. Some of the rooms afforded waterfront views.
  • Charles Krauthammer (Fox News): How do I get two weeks at Gitmo? Sounds really good. The weather’s good. I get eighteen channels. A lot of exercise and I don’t have to work.
  • Rush Limbaugh (Loudmouth): There’s no better place than Gitmo. Club Gitmo, the Muslim resort. […] It’s a tropical paradise down there where Muslim extremists and terrorist wannabes can get together for rest and relaxation.

You might think that these witty whiners would be happy to see some bad guys evicted from such enviable quarters. Now they are sweating in the desert, dodging bullets, and having to work for a living. Under the circumstances, the implausible hypothetical question posed above might actually offer an appealing alternative to the now “free” Taliban operatives. But all of a sudden, the wingnuts who once thought that Gitmo was coddling their guests, now think they should have remained there to suffer.

Shameless self-promotion…
Get Fox Nation vs. Reality. Available now at Amazon.

The one common thread that runs through this affair is that conservatives, who like to fancy themselves as Constitutionalists, are all too happy to abandon that document when it suits them. That’s why they have no problem holding enemy combatants for indeterminate periods without ever charging or trying them. And they also don’t object to trying Americans like Bergdahl as a deserter (which carries a penalty of death) without ever conducting an investigation or even getting his testimony.

The Art Critics Of The American Taliban

Posted by on October 7, 2010 at 1:08 pm. 7 Comments :

Taliban Art CriticAt the Loveland Museum Gallery in Colorado a controversial work of art was attacked and damaged by a woman offended by the content. The work that incited Montana resident Kathleen Folden to travel to Colorado to deface the art contained a representation of Jesus who appears to be receiving oral sex. What do these extremists want? At least he wasn’t engaging in intercourse, and Christine O’Donnell would be pleased to know that he wasn’t masturbating either.

Stanford University professor Enrique Chagoya created the work entitled “The Misadventures of Romantic Cannibals.” He described the piece as a statement about religious and political institutions, not beliefs. But that didn’t assuage Folden who was arrested after she took a crowbar to the piece, shattered the glass frame, and ripped the print, while shouting, “How can you desecrate my Lord?”

Islamic jihadis around the world could be heard celebrating Folden’s act of intolerance. Her behavior was perfectly in sync with Sharia law which forbids the depiction of God. Perhaps she was inspired the Taliban, who destroyed several historic sculptures of Buddha after they assumed power in Afghanistan.

The only people praising Folden more fervently are the American Taliban of the Christian Right, along with the censorious denizens of the Fox Nation and other rightist web bunkers and culture warriors. It’s ironic because these are the same people who are so vocally defensive about the Constitution and the freedom it provides. It is these hardcore conservatives that always pretend to be so concerned about freedom of speech and religion, and the protection of private property. They are the first to condemn the censorship of artists who portray the Islamic prophet Mohammad. They say they want smaller government, but they want it to remain big enough to suppress thought and actions that they disapprove of.

Another irony is that Folden, the art mauler, was wearing a t-shirt that reads: “My Savior is Tougher Than Nails,” with a reference to Revelations 1:18. Apparently nails are no match for her savior, but paper hanging on a wall is a mortal threat.

Folden’s ill-conceived vandalism is not going to further her cause. More likely it will make a media star of Mr. Chagoya, and enhance the demand for his work. (I wish some nutcase would slash up some of my work). Furthermore, her disgraceful intolerance serves as a case study for what we can expect if we allow that brand of fundamentalism to become entwined in our cultural and legal institutions.

So thank you, Ms. Folden, for demonstrating so clearly the sort of repressive, small mindedness our nation seeks to avoid. Thank you for being a repulsive and ignorant jerk whose stupidity will set back the efforts of other neanderthals like yourself. Thank you for helping an obscure artist gain some much needed attention. Your court-ordered compensation to the artist and the gallery will also be welcome, I’m sure. And no doubt society will benefit from your incarceration. Thanks again, goodbye, and good riddance.