Friday, August 21, 2009

DUMBCON 1, Revisited in Scotland

Most of you will recall that, back on July 24th, I proposed the establishment of a national Stupidity Condition - the DUMBCON - based on the military concept of Defense Conditions, Readiness Conditions, Threat Conditions, Force Protection Conditions, etc, etc, etc. You may want to take a moment to review the concept at the original post before reading on. Go ahead, I'll wait.

You don't have to be Albert Einstein to know that the world is getting stupider by the day. The outrageous hogwash and balderdash trumpeted every day by the extreme right, the extreme left, and the unthinking center make one wonder if brain evolution is working in reverse. Most days I don't know why I thought we needed a DUMBCON structure with a level less than 1.

But we really nailed the need for something beyond DUMBCON 1 yesterday, when Scottish Justice Minister Kenny MacAskill decided to release Abdel Basset Ali al-Megrahi, the only person convicted and sentenced to prison for the bombing of PanAm flight 103 in which 270 people were brutally murdered over and in the Scottish town of Lockerbie.

Mr MacAskill described his action as an act of mercy for al-Megrahi, who is dying of pancreatic cancer. In defending his widely-unpopular decision, he said that "humanity was a defining characteristic of the Scottish people and that 'our belief dictates that justice be served but mercy be shown.'" He went on to say that al-Megrahi "...did not show his victims any comfort or compassion. They were not allowed to return to the bosom of their families to see out their lives, let alone their dying days. No compassion was shown by him to them. But that alone is not a reason for us to deny compassion to him and his family in his final days."

Well, I disagree.

Mercy is indeed a defining characteristic of a moral and compassionate society. But I would argue that this unfortunate and misguided action has not been viewed as merciful in Libya (where this foul, unrepentant mass murderer was welcomed as a hero) and across the Middle East, where moral and compassionate societies are in short supply. The quality of mercy, to misquote Shakespeare, is strained far beyond the breaking point in cultures where it is viewed not as compassion, but as decadent weakness in the face of strength.

It is said that Mr al-Megrahi has only three months to live. This may be so. But he should have spent those last months of his life in prison, knowing that 270 murdered souls are waiting to cheer his arrival in Hell - a far more appropriate welcome than he received from fools in Libya.

The Scottish Ministry of Justice has achieved a DUMBCON rating of 0.5 for this dreadful miscarriage of justice. Its long-term cost in terms of heartening those who would commit such terrible crimes can only be imagined.

Have a good day. Tomorrow is Cartoon Saturday...I think we'll all need it.

Bilbo

8 comments:

The Mistress of the Dark said...

That's so tricky...we just let Squeak Fromme (sp) walk but another Manson follower that is kinda in the same boat as this guy is being made to server her sentence even though she's near death and cost CA almost a million a month to keep her alive when she poses no threat to society, she's bedridden and has shown remorse for her crime as well as done work to help other inmates.

Its a hard hard call, but this one is beyond dumb.

bandit said...

When I heard about this, I thought that this guy is a prime candidate to be a suicide bomber. Hey, he's going to die soon anyway.

I think this guy is biting at the bit to get another chance to take out more infidels before he dies.

Leslie David said...

I can't argue with your logic. Hopefully karma will kick in when this guy kicks off and have something suitable waiting for him.

Melissa B. said...

What were they thinking? Every time I see family members of the Lockerbie victims on TV, I change my mind on gun control. Someone should give the guy his just reward.

jasonbradyut said...

What…are we now giving out FREE Lunches? Since when??? Hey, I’m sorry for his cancer, but one never knows truly how much longer they can live…his last death wish may even be to do another “killing of Americans” deed. These people don’t care, but only to KILL America. They hate us…

Mike said...

I almost posted something on this but I knew you would and do a much better job. I was right.

But, are you sure this isn't some government conspiracy to find a reason to attack Libia? You know the Iraq war is winding done and we need a replacement.

KKTSews said...

Mike-we already have the replacement war, in Afghanistan. But otherwise, I admire your logic.

Anonymous said...

Another nail in the coffin of the British Empire, at one time one of the great civilizing influences upon the world.

Now, just a joke.

Eminence Grise