What the hell is wrong with these people?!

Given the above headline, you figure I’m going to talk politics, right?  I mean, there’s plenty of stuff to talk about there, right?  Every day is a party when your “President” is Trump!

But no, that’s not what this is about.  From CNN.com and written by Ellie Kauffman and Ben Westcott, we have the story of how a very dumb (American, alas) museum goer decided to take a very, very valuable souvenir while visiting a museum…

Chinese angry after terracotta warrior’s thumb stolen in U.S.

As per usual, I really don’t want to give away everything from the article, but I will spoil parts of it…

The Chinese loaned Philadelphia’s Franklin Institute a few of their famous terracotta figures (the article is unclear as to how many, but they had at least one warrior and one horse figure).

Here’s a photograph of some of the terracotta warriors that were dug up…

Excavation of the world's largest underground army started after local farmers discovered the first Terra-cotta warrior while digging a well in 1974 in Xi'an, China.

…and here’s a photograph of the piece whose thumb was snapped off by a fool who is identified in the above article:

After confronting the vandal, they found two pictures on a cellphone which were taken concurrently when he was around the objects.  As you can see, the concurrent pictures show the figure with, then without, a thumb.

So, shame on him.

I have to say, though: This is far from unusual.

Go to any historical building, say an arena or fortress, and you’re likely to find graffiti on the walls, some of which might have been made when the structure was in use, some of which was likely made later on.

While I don’t do it (hey, some of us pride ourselves on being perfect! 😉 ), there seems to be a perverse need by some to mark up historical landmarks or objects.  Hell, its the reason so many priceless items which are on display are protected with glass/plastic.

Of well.

At least they caught the guy who did it and the thumb was returned.  I suppose its possible to replace it but clearly the next time the Chinese loan out an object like this one, they’ll insist it be well protected.