NOBODY STEPS ON A CHURCH IN MY TOWN: On Monday, I linked to Dave Carter’s lengthy post at Ricochet, which expanded upon Camile Paglia’s recent Wall Street Journal article on the collapse of the art world. Carter used the magnificent 700-year old  Cologne Cathedral as an example of art and architecture at its finest, and a reminder of everything that’s wrong with what passes for art today.

In the comments, Michael Malone of Forbes, ABC and PJM reminded readers of how the church managed to survive World War II:

I hate to burst anybody’s bubble about the ‘miraculous’ survival of Cologne Cathedral in WWII, but it was anything but that.  When my parents were touring the cathedral years ago and the tour guide began describing this miracle, my father, who actually had bombed Cologne, whispered to my mother, “We left it standing because it was perfect for targetting the rest of the city.”  On the same trip, sitting at a cafe enjoying his morning weiss beer and veal sausage, a local struck up a conversation with him, eventually asking, “Have you been to Cologne before, Herr Malone?”  My father casually replied, “No, but I’ve flown over it a couple times. . .”

Heh. As one of the commenters at Ricochet quipped, and now you know the rest of the story…

(For my recent interview with Michael, focusing on his new book on the centennial of the Eagle Scouting program, click here.)