What's Wrong with Scotland?

Consider this particular criminal, Martin Hamilton.

Ultra-violent Hamilton was jailed for life in 2000 for a catalogue of offences , including abduction, torture and drug-dealing. ... the most notorious gangland figure in Scotland during a reign of terror which lasted almost 20 years ... Hamilton was found guilty of 14 charges, including several torture offences. Victims were set on fire, scalded with boiling water or stabbed in the face.

In one horrific incident, a young couple were ordered to be stabbed in a bath so they wouldn't bleed all over the carpet of the flat where they were being held hostage.

An attempt was made to gouge a man's eye out with a spoon and Hamilton also tried to cut a man's finger offwith a knife.

Guess what? That's right, Scotland is letting him out after only nine years in prison. Not only is Scotland just too "civilized" to have a death penalty, apparently it is too civilized to actually make a vicious piece of human garbage serve out a life sentence. At the same time it is busy trying to disarm the population. Not content with gun bans, Scotland has enacted bans on swords and certain types of knives, and has passed laws inhibiting citizens from defending themselves.

"What we definitely don’t want to do is to send out a message where you create a situation where people are sleeping with a knife under their bed."

Oh no, they can't have that. A home invader might get killed.  Don't use "excessive" force against an intruder or you'll be prosecuted. But they'll let a vicious killer like Hamilton walk free after only nine years in prison. I guess we shouldn't have been surprised at the release of the Lockerbie bomber. Be glad you don't live in Scotland. And if you do, what's wrong with your country?

Disgracing Scotland

As everyone probably knows by now, the Scottish government released the Lockerbie bomber, who returned home to a hero's welcome from his fellow terrorist-loving Libyans. Al Megrahi should have been executed years ago, and his release makes a travesty of the claim that life in prison is an acceptable substitute for the death penalty. Even many in the UK recognize that releasing such a terrorist is insane. Conservative Party leader David Cameron described the action as"a product of some completely nonsensical thinking."

Here in the U.S. we've seen repeated misuse of the phrase"rule of law," to the point where it has become almost meaningless. Scotland is doing its part to destroy the meaning of "due process." Here's Justice Minister Kenny MacAskill, talking about U.S. opposition to the release,

"But I think they recognise that we followed due process, we listened to their representations and listened to the feelings of their relatives as well as listened to the feelings of relatives here."

Apparently due process means arbitrarily releasing convicted terrorists who are supposed to be serving life sentences.

Clinton Helps Block Terrorist Release

Every once in awhile, in between lying and demonizing the opposition, the Obama administration actually does something right. The Scottish government was actually planning to release Abdul Baset Ali al-Megrahi to Libya. Al-Megrahi is the convicted so-called "Lockerbie Bomber," responsible for blowing up Pan Am flight 103 in 1988, killing 259 people. He has "advanced prostate cancer" and Scotland had made a deal to send him back to Libya as a "compassionate release," an obviously controversial decision.

According to the Times Online, pressure from the Obama administration in the the form of "the intervention of Hillary Clinton" has killed the deal. Al-Megrahi will remain in prison. He should have been executed a long time ago, but of course that would just be too uncivilized. Thanks to Hillary, it looks like he will at least die in captivity.