Ace is So Wrong

Ace complains that it is "impossible to capture a terrorist using art," in response to news that the National Endowment for the Arts is getting increased federal funding, while Bush's defense request is getting underfunded by seven billion dollars.

Ace, Ace, Ace. Don't get me wrong, here, I like Ace. He's a funny guy, and he makes some good points on a lot of issues. So I don't mean it personally when I say the guy lacks imagination.

Consider the following scenario. The NEA gets a huge wad of cash to give to artists who want to challenge our worldviews. One such artist (I'm certain there would be many volunteers) makes a creation entitled "Piss Koran," essentially a follow-up to Andres Serrano's bold and daring 1989 work, which challenged worldviews. The government also funds the exhibition of "Piss Koran" in a museum. A bunch of terrorists, who want to have their worldviews challenged, come to the museum. The FBI arrests them all.

And in one masterstroke, the NEA will justify its existence.

Of course, after a while, "Piss Koran" would lose its effectiveness, both because eventually all art becomes less challenging to worldviews, and because eventually the terrorists would realize it was a trap. So another bold and daring artist could challenge worldviews by creating "The Holy Prophet," a painting of Muhammad covered in elephant feces, a follow-up to Chris Ofili's bold and daring "The Holy Virgin Mary." And when that one ceases to lure in terrorists who want their worldviews challenged, maybe we could get one of the vast pool of professors who publish papers on why Muhammad was gay to give public lectures, again with a view to capturing terrorists who want to challege their worldviews.

Actually, I think the best suggestion comes from Allan Guyton, commenting on Ace's post:

"Gitmo is not a Gulag. Gitmo is not even a POW camp. Gitmo is federally-funded PERFORMANCE art. If the libs have a problem with that, they can take it up with the ACLU."