Conservatives Have Cow over Bovine Blasphemy

As you might have noticed, the "CowParade" - that quaint public art spectacle involving lots of customized fiberglass cows - has finally arrived in Budapest. And just like you might suspect, no sooner had all the cows found their temporary homes on the sidewalks and parks of the city than the whole thing was marred by an ugly, and highly politicized, tiff. At issue is one particular cow that ended up in front of the landmark Szent István Bazilika. Yesterday afternoon reader C.D.G. sent in the above picture, accompanied by a copy of a note she had sent to the organizers of the CP reaming them out for the unholy placement of what we guess is one of the raunchier of the cows on parade, a melting "cowsicle" with a popsicle stick jammed up its rump saying "Don't lick!" Oh, dear.

Naturally, our first reaction was to run out and see this monstrosity for ourselves. But by the time we got to the basilica to check it out, the cow was already gone.

So what happened to the cow? First, a church official by the name of Géza Szabó wrote a letter to right-wing Magyar Nemzet, which in turn wrote a scandalized piece about the cow incident. But even before it was published, some unidentified individuals took matters into their own hands, defacing the cow and then, in an obvious but still artistic gesture, dragged it over to the nearby House of Liberals. According to index.hu, the vandals have a name: the Deminem Csoport. (It means "Deminem Team," but who Deminem is, we have no idea.)

One of the artists who worked on the cow, Balázs Magashegyi, said that he didn't know where the thing would end up, as this was left to the organizers. For his part, Gergely Csikós, project manager of CP told the portal that his team hadn't thought the statue would offend anyone, and that the rules of the CP in fact prohibit offensive statues. He then went on to add, somewhat awkwardly, that the cow's ass was strategically placed to minimize whatever offense might be caused. So much for the end of the heatwave.