Scottish Degeneracy

270 people, 189 Americans, murdered in cold blood on Flight 103, over Lockerbie, Scotland, in 1988. The murderer, convicted by a Jury of his peers - a right he would not have had in his home country - gets life in prison.

As we all know, however, the Scottish Criminal Justice system let him free this week on grounds of "compassion," because he had terminal prostate cancer. The murderer then flew home to Tripoli, Libya, to a hero's welcome.

In one sense, he is getting what he deserves. To be celebrated by a people who would celebrate someone like him is itself a profound condemnation. Think of being roundly applauded for your life's work by the likes of Hitler and the Gas House Gang.

But still, in the real world, what Scotland did is disgusting, and I am not sure I will ever be able to indulge again in the pride of my (admittedly) remote Scotch-Irish heritage. As I shouted the other night at the TV screen, compassion in this circumstance means providing the best medical care and comfort available to this (or any) prisoner when he is facing the ultimate judgment of death, no matter how heinous his crimes might be. It does not mean letting such vermin go back home to die among the cheering crowds of his fellow citizens. To do as Scotland officials did in so elemental a moral situation indicates that the Scottish culture can no longer distinguish between right and wrong in any substantive way, and is irrefutable evidence of irretrievable moral degeneracy.

As usual, a national commentator put it much more succinctly, and better, than me. Charles Krauthammer on Fox News tonight said it thus, "This was not compassion, but decadence."

Decadence, indeed. And amidst my anger, there is also a profound sadness, at the passing of a centuries old Scottish heritage into the hands of squeamish sons who are not fit to swab out the spittoons of their Forefathers.