DENVER (AP) - The nuns say they were exercising their right to free speech when they cut through a fence around a Minuteman III missile silo, used their own blood to paint a cross on the military structure and began swinging at it with hammers.

Prosecutors say those actions interfered with the national defense - a crime, that if a jury finds the women guilty, could put them behind bars for 20 years.

Dominican sisters Ardeth Platte, 66, Carol Gilbert, 55, and Jackie Hudson, 68, head to court on Monday …

--Sacramento Bee

The folks at Right-Wing Thoughts are furious at the nuns:

What the HELL were these idiots thinking?

Well, OK, I understand the dismay of the folks at RWT -- but doesn’t it concern them just a teeny, tiny bit that all it apparently takes for three nuns, average age 63, to gain access to our thermonuclear weapons is some wire cutters?

The RWTers shriek in horror:

Ladies?

TRY NOT TO HIT THE THERMONUCLEAR WEAPON WITH HAMMERS, OK?…

…Can you imagine if they accidentally did the one wacky, one-in-a-billion thing that set off the warhead? How would they feel, post-mortem, of course, about the deaths they caused?

Listen -- if our nuclear weapons are so fragile that their integrity can be compromised by three AARP-eligible nuns with hardware-store hammers, then that doomsday clock needs to be moved a hell of a lot closer to midnight than we realize.