“We did not imagine it was something so serious!”
––One of two young California women, ages 21 and 25 , after being arrested by Roman authorities for carving their initials “J” and “N” about four inches high into a wall of the Colosseum.
Get this guy a ticket to Rome. I’ve got a little job for him….
Naturally, as is the current practice among morons everywhere, they posed for a selfie with their “artwork.”
Well, you have to sympathize with them: why would anyone get upset over a couple of letters carved into a 2,085-year-old irreplaceable iconic architectural structure?
I find myself unable to discern the upbringing, education and cultural conditioning that would produce two adults from our nation capable of such a pointless, stupid, destructive act against history, art and civilization.
I am similarly incapable of arriving at an appropriate punishment that recognizes the enormity of their crime and their proven worthlessness to society that does not resemble the screenplay of “Saw.”
Would it be too cruel to pass a law that allows the U.S. to just revoke the citizenship of people like this?
Ethics Alarms 
“Would it be too cruel to pass a law that allows the U.S. to just revoke the citizenship of people like this?”
Every country has some trash that no other country would want. You can keep them.
Send them all to Sealand!
Wait…landfill???
Seriously though… Doesn’t she know that, in Latin, her name starts with an “I”?
Thanks, Indy. Glad you learned that lesson.
Are they Kardashians?
Kardashians can’t spell initials.
As Jack would say, you owe me a keyboard.
And let’s hear it for IS and their bulldozing millennia older Mesopotamian treasures while our President community organizes and does the diversity two-step.
I almost made that comparison, but it’s unfair to ISIS. At least they have a reason, however mad, for destroying priceless relics of past civilizations.
Whoa. So you’re defending IS with the “they could be worse” ethical excuse? What number is that? I’d say, “Unlike the community of civilized nations, at least the Romans are arresting the vandals they’re dealing with right in their back yard.”
No, I’m saying wanton destruction for the fun of it is ethically worse that destruction on principle. ISIS has a justification—its radical interpretation of the Koran—so from its (warped) perspective, the action can be justified. The defacers of the Colliseum have no justification even from their own perspective..it’s ethically worse.
That’s not #22. #22 would be to argue in defense of the morons, “At least they didn’t destroy ancient Assyrian artifacts and statues!”
Amen!
Risa
Sent from my iPhone
>
If you want to see a critical mass of these obnoxious, self-absorbed little bastards that think they give the world a reason to spin, just spend a day at your local university. Milquetoast absentee parenting and those Goddamned cell phones.
Get off my lawn !
Self-absorbed, arrogant little snotrags, actually worse than that woman who decided to take a selfie shouting and giving the one-finger salute at Arlington because they did actual damage.
Closer to those idiots who destroyed the rock formation for fun.
Dumb girls should just have called their vandalism performance art. No problem.
At what point in history do we not care anymore and consider this vandalism part of the historic record?
Because there is centuries worth of vandalism underneath plexiglass at the coliseum with placards explaining how this is a rich insight into the lives of the people at the time…
3 generations?
30?
Or is the old vandalism valuable because we literally have no information of the “commoners” whereas in this days’ near infinite amount of information, we’ll never have to worry about documenting the lives of the “commoners” and therefore this vandalism will never be accepted?
I like the question, but don’t care for the application. At some point, we freeze the record. Ann Bolyn’s graffiti in her Tower cell is history; some American tween in flipflops carving “Bieber 4ever!” is criminal.
I should probably start reading all comments before I end up parroting someone else’s.
We’re probably a lot more common now than we were back then.
There is, carved into a railing at the Hagia Sophia, in Norse runes, “Olaf was here”.
After Rome was sacked, didn’t they find, scrawled on a latrine wall:
“Here I sit, cheeks a flexin’,
Just gave birth to another Visigoth.”
?
and
“Alaric’s mom is easy”
Almost certainly. Just goes to prove that there have been idiots in every generation since humanity began.
Unfortunately, these two are OUR idiots.
Sorry. Didn’t click on “Notify me”. Rectifying that.
“We did not imagine it was something so serious!”
To be fair, there is a very large display of 1000 year old graffiti on that very same building.
Is it significant, however, that those who would deface a civic monument so long ago also likely enjoyed watching lions eat prisoners?
Do you think we wouldn’t like to watch lions eating prisoners today?
Sure! (As long as they defaced a priceless monument first…)
Like that stupid UN revolver tied in a knot thing, or the Georgia Guidestones.
This is why so many places are now cordoned off from visitors. I was fortunate enough to be able to walk through Stonehenge just before it was closed to the public. Vandals. A beautiful limestone cavern in central Texas was attacked by young punks with hammers and spray paint. Ruined. Priceless paintings by Cliff Dwellers in the Southwest painted over with graffiti. Destroyed. When you have a spoiled “Me” culture, these things happen.
Which caverns? Been to all of them, and all are beautiful.
It was a privately owned cavern near either Bandera or Boerne. It was said to contain some of the best limestone formations in Texas.
Doesn’t narrow it down much. Still, just idle curiosity, no more.
I’m sorry I don;t remember the name. Possibly “The Living Cavern”?
If it’s the one on I-10, close to Boerne, going out towards Kerrville, I can’t remember the name, either. But, they’ve got a campground and a waterfall in the cave, and it is primo pretty. Hope that wasn’t the one.
It’s been a few years, now. I’m sure they did all they could to repair the damage, but there are some things that can’t be repaired in a cavern.
Yeah, once the water-formed formations are dead, it is EXTREMELY problematic whether they can be revived. Generally more effort and money than it’s worth. Add to that, the destroyed petroglyphs…need I say more?
I say that they should both be armed with spears and forced to engage in glorious cleansing battle in the Colosseum. Whoever emerges will be pardoned of all crimes. You know, “When in Rome….”
Can’t believe I didn’t see that coming…
Spears?
Nah. Use imagination.
One of them gets to have the trident and net and the other one gets the helmet and gladius!
Secutor vs retiarius for entertainment!
A Reticuli vs. a Samnite!
I was going to suggest a lion and a Christian, but since there’s 2 of them, 2 lions….
Granted, your battle is more interesting, but I think mine is fairer. I mean, dibs on the helmet and gladius!