We are weak and they are strong

It's so ironic. This sad little replay.

It is the exact same line that brought Adolph Hitler to power. It is the very reasoning that has brought and kept most despots in power for most of humanity's history. It's nothing new. Same ol', same ol'. Or, if you believed the Nazis, a whole new path to progress.

Compassion is weakness. Force is strength.

You know what's supremely ironic about using it in this case?

82% Oppose Decision to Release Lockerbie Terrorist

It is exactly the logic of terrorism.

If you want a root cause to terrorism, this is it.

If you observe all of the rhetoric and action of terrorists, and almost all radical political activity and the boldest, most violent criminal activity, not to mention most despots of any serious note, this is the logic and the source of their efforts. Almost without exception.

Which leaves us with really two choices, fundamentally.

One, that if we were really honest with ourselves, we're just not living up to what we know, down deep, is our truest expression of our values.

Or, two, that the terrorists are right. And we are wrong. That we are weak. And they are strong.

That is the logical conclusion of that line of reasoning. Not only that conclusion, but the much more honest conclusion. That Hitler and Stalin embodied strength. Whereas we are only cowards, too afraid to use power how it should be used.

Or perhaps we are just not as bad as them.

That's better, right?

To not be quite as bad as Hitler and Stalin? To not be quite as bad as Al Queda, Hamas, Hezbollah, and all the rest?

Or, perhaps, like many of my radical friends of the left and right, we aim to be exactly as bad as all of those folks. Or at least pretend to be as much as it will intimidate our way into our aims.

That is the direction of progress. Or so every thug who has ever walked the earth would have us believe.

Perhaps they are right. Perhaps we are weak and they are strong. Jesus loves you. But he doesn't pack heat. Might may not make right, but it tells you what the fuck to do. Or maybe it does make right. With enough persuasion, that is. Or maybe compassionate folks like Jesus really were the enemy all along and we were just too blind to know to tell him what the fuck he could do with all that love and bullshit.

Compassion is weakness. Power is strength.

We are weak. They are strong.

Force is the path of progess for the strong and courageous.

Freedom is the path of failure for the weak and compassionate.

Liberalism is weak. Illiberalism is strong.

The strong don't apologize. And they certainly don't forgive.

Manson follower Susan Atkins loses 13th attempt at freedom -- and it may be her last

"Former Manson prosecutor Vincent Bugliosi said it was time for the state to show Atkins mercy. He told The Times last year that it was wrong to say 'just because Susan Atkins showed no mercy to her victims, we therefore are duty-bound to follow her inhumanity and show no mercy to her.'

“She’s already paid substantially for her crime, close to 40 years behind bars. She has terminal cancer. The mercy she was asking for is so minuscule. She’s about to die. It’s not like we’re going to see her down at Disneyland,” said Bugliosi, who wrote the best-selling book 'Helter Skelter.'"

But that's because Vincent Bugliosi is weak. And we are strong.

Perhaps what we have not considered is that these people we are killing have a point. Perhaps Hitler was right all along. Al Queda as well.

We have tried freedom. And it, not us, is responsible for our failures. Freedom made life worse. We were but innocent bystanders. Liberalism is our shameful past. It is time to shackle it.

Or. Perhaps Hitler was a coward. Who would not face honestly his weakness. Perhaps Bin Laden is the same.

And perhaps we are too.

Perhaps we might at least be honest about that direction.

And not confuse it with something more honest.

Or maybe we can just do better.