Wretchard #179

The walls of the West are no longer guarded by the myths of invincibility. They have been shredded by people so heedless, so unthinkingly arrogant and so careless that they have set fire to the very thing that sustains them and in those flames we seem them for what they are: foolish people laughing foolishly.

Another prize pair of fools is now going to jail– the husband for life– for spying for Cuba. Their prepared statement is a prime exercise in self-congratulatory moral preening if ever there were one:

“Kendall Myers’ life sentence does not include the possibility of parole.

In a prepared statement, Myers said he and his wife never wanted to harm Americans.

‘We wish to add at this time that we acted as we did for 30 years because of our ideals and beliefs,’ he said. ‘We did not seek nor receive payment for our work. We did not act out of anger at the United States or from a feeling of anti-Americanism. Nor did we ever intend to hurt any individual Americans. Our overriding objective was to help the Cuban people defend their revolution. We also hoped to forestall conflict between the two countries.’

‘We share the dreams and ideals of the Cuban revolution,’ he added. ‘We are equally committed to helping the struggling people of the world, whether they are here at home or abroad.’

As part of their sentences, the couple also agreed to pay the government more than $1.7 million, a figure matching Kendall Myers’ estimated salary over the years while working for the U.S. government and secretly spying for Cuba.”

http://www.cnn.com/2010/CRIME/07/16/spy.couple.sentenced/index.html

I confess to considerable struggling to understand the mindset of these creatures. Wretchard’s comment about foolish people laughing foolishly reminds me of Ecclesiastes 7:5-6: “It is better to hear the rebuke of the wise than to hear the song of fools. For like the crackling of thorns under a pot, so is the laughter of fools; this also is vanity.”