Osama the Martyr..............

Someone recently said in regards to the bin Laden episode: after the bloodshed, bleeding hearts. The latter are streaming out of the woodwork and in the process are attempting to convert our former public enemy number one into a hero and martyr.

I find this flip flop behavior strange indeed. It indicates a serious lack of personal and national self-confidence inflamed, as always, by a media driven primarily by sensation. 

The more O gloats over bin Laden's assassination, the more the media exposes intimate details about how he was really a good and decent person who was only trying to promote an enhanced adherence to moral laws. The intended conclusion of all this is that if the West had really understood bin Laden, we would not have topped him.

Now that is an interesting philosophical statement credited originally to Pascal and dripping with humanitarian emotions. I once took it to heart, but now I find the older I get, the less tolerant I am of criminals, misanthropes, preachers, liars and politicians.

I cast bin Laden in the same role as multitudes of other religious fanatics claiming a monopoly on the almighty and a single path to salvation while condemning all others who fail to agree. Nor do I have much tolerance for the millions of sheep who comply with their chosen fanatic.

And I am not at all inclined to act on the knowledge that if I try hard enough to understand these people, all will be forgiven. Pascal should have limited himself to the sciences.