Robert Fisk has got nothing on Marion

Barry. This Washington Post story shows the

current D.C. Council member and former mayor

taking appeasement to a whole new level.

True, crime in Washington is an intractable

problem that cannot be solved by tough policing

and sentencing alone. There are parts of D.C.

where nearly all of society’s institutions–the

family, the church, schools, businesses–have

begun to lose their hold. The meltdown is so

profound that fixing any one part of the equation

is sabotaged by the problems everywhere

else. This is a serious and tragic situation,

with no easy solution. Yet the impulse to abject

appeasement that seems to have corrupted the

liberal mentality in this country is exactly the

wrong way to move toward a solution. Then again,

maybe we can get Osama bin Laden to turn himself

in if we promise not to prosecute him.