I swear I keep wondering to myself why I bother to read bOING bOING because they are nothing but a bunch of intellectually small, whiny liberals. Occasionally they post something cool, but most of the time they just whine about the war, the President and/or capitalism. Sometimes simultaneously.

Today they have a story bemoaning the fact that Melbourne, Australia is getting tough on graffiti “artists.” They use code words like “street art” to mask the fact that graffiti is, at its core, vandalism. Yes, that’s right, vandalism. Unless the “artist” in question owns the wall that is being used as the “canvas” it is vandalism, plain and simple. Yet they use phrases like “Melbourne’s graffiti scene killed,” “until now one of the world’s epicentres of street art” and “the government has adopted a Giuliani-esque zero-tolerance policy to sanitise the city” to make you think that something of value is being “lost.” I have to say that if Melbourne has become known as an epicenter of “street art” then the government there has been extremely lax in enforcing vandalism laws, and this “Giuliani-esque” policy is long overdue.

If graffiti “artists” want to express their “talent” let them pay for a building and then paint whatever they feel like on its walls. Until then, they are nothing more than common vandals and should be prosecuted as such. Now that I think of it, a fitting punishment, if the “artist” is caught and convicted should be to remove their own “work” using a sand blaster, whitewash, etc, as appropriate. That would be beautiful.