Hotheads prevail

You’re an artist of so-so talent starving for wider recognition. What do you do?

Paint a picture of Osama bin Laden as Jesus Christ!

That’s exactly what the artist who calls himself “Tafa” did. His painting is currently on display at the Puck Building here in Manhattan as part of the National Black Fine Art Show. Judging from what he created, it appears that “Tafa” is yet another angry leftist who somehow equates Christianity with radical Islam. Call it secular chic in the pomo world.

Oh well, it’s a free country. It’s not like this brand of guerrilla artistry is anything new. Anyone remember Piss Christ?

Some Christians are adamant in their belief that such works of “art” should not be publicly displayed. Most of us, however, have learned to turn the other cheek, so to speak. There will always be some artist somewhere who, short on talent and long on ambition, will go the “controversial” route for his 15 minutes.

Meanwhile, the Muslim world has completely lost it over cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad appearing first in a Danish newspaper and then in papers throughout Europe. Apparently the latter papers ran the cartoons in response to the initial outcry against the Danish paper, and as a gesture of solidarity in support of freedom of expression. I haven’t had the time to really research this story, but I have seen the news footage of incensed throngs, burning buildings, and a placard that read, “Freedom go to hell.”

You can’t get more polarized than that.

It’s times like these that I’ll log on to Victor Hanson’s website. He hasn’t commented on the cartoon flap yet. But in his essay, “Three Pillars of Wisdom,” historian Hanson’s verdict on the Middle East, its rage, and its nuclear ambition, confirmed my worst fear:

“[U]ntil we arrive at liberal and consensual governments that prove stable, there will be no real peace. And if an Iran, Saudi Arabia, or Syria obtains nuclear weapons, there will be eventually war on an unimaginable scale, predicated on the principle that the West will tolerate almost any imaginable horror to ensure that one of its cities is not nuked or made uninhabitable.”

Why do I suddenly feel like it’s 1936 all over again?