A post from Spike

In the tradition I have of posting comment from other people's sites, here's one from
http://www.nitenhome.com/Newsletter.html:

Around the Horn or Africa, piracy is far from a "new" phenomenon, having been a scourge in the area for millennia. It is only in the age of "learned helplessness" that the international maritime community interminably agonizes over the prospect of offering even the slightest resistance, the minutest inconvenience, to pirates.

Pirates, no matter where they find employment, are vicious cutthroats, and always have been. Among less confused civilizations in the Nineteenth Century, the brutal truth of pirates and piracy was well known and honestly confronted. When encountered or captured, pirates were executed immediately. They were never afforded clemency nor consideration, nor should they have been.

Today, of course, with confusion and institutionalized stupidity the prevailing philosophy, we, as a civilization, endlessly seek ways to become victims and foist forced-victimization upon our citizens!

In the wake of last week's daring rescue of an American ship's captain by the US Navy, airwaves are predictably brimming with pundits and "study groups," all regurgitating the same sorry dogma:

"Never offer any species of resistance to violent criminals. Never fight back. Freely allow yourself to be maimed, raped, and murdered. Such a fate is surely better by far than being guilty displaying even the slightest personal initiative!"

Their pitiable rationalizations we've all heard before:

(1) "It will escalate violence" ... Well, I sure hope so!

(2) "It will start an arms race" ... There is no "race" when only one
side is racing!

(3) "Sailors are too stupid to use guns effectively" ... Oh, please!

(4) "Pirates are so clever, so superior in every way, that we can never
win. Resistance is futile!" ... For these pathetic losers, everything is
impossible, and therefore nothing, no matter how promising, should ever be
attempted.

If these people are Americans, then I'm ashamed to call myself one!

/John Farnam