Borders/Walden Books -> Cowards!

One of my favorite authors in the blogosphere, and there are many, many of them, just take a long look at the blogrolls on my sidebar, is Robert Bidinotto. Robert is a major factor in the Individualist movement and is the editor of The New Individualist plus, he is a very nice guy.

I've been following Robert's open letter to the folk at Borders and the increasing number of protests to the policies of Borders that have capitulated to the islamofascists. Let me give you a hint of Robert's excellent open letter:

Not only is your policy ethically disgusting and counter-productive, it is completely nonsensical. With many thousands of book and magazine outlets in this country, there is absolutely no reason for Borders to believe that its stores, staff, and customers would be singled out for harm. Yet despite all of this, Borders does stand out: as the first and most gutless of them all. It is the first American bookstore chain to adopt a policy that I have labeled "anticipatory capitulation": advance surrender in the face of a mere hypothetical threat.

Terrorism and fanaticism are the gravest menaces of our age. Our nation is dispatching thousands of soldiers abroad to meet that threat to our liberty and our modern way of life. But after 9/11, it should be clear that all of us -- not just our soldiers -- are on the front lines of this war.

If we value our rights and freedoms, all of us must stand together and resolute in the face of threats, intimidation, and violence. The worst possible message we can give to terrorists or to anyone else willing to initiate force is that we do not stand united against them -- and that their tactics work

Robert has done an excellent job of nailing the cowards at Borders/Walden Books, you really need to read all of it.

THEN Robert follows up with High Noon At The Borders. A small sample:

Gary Cooper won the Oscar for his stoic portrait of Will Kane, the lonely marshal. It was seen then, and since, as a great allegory of the lone hero in corrupt times.

Not surprising, then, that I was reminded of High Noon while reading the sophistry served up by Borders and some of its online apologists. They, like fine citizens of Will Kane's Hadleyville, offer every lame excuse for failing to stand up to the bullies of our own time:

Look, I run a private business, and I have the right to carry or not carry whatever I want on my shelves.... It's not my business to fight terrorists -- that's what I pay taxes to the government for.... I don't want to OFFEND my customers/employees.... I want to PROTECT my customers/employees.... Why don't we look at things from THEIR point of view; how would YOU like to have your religion insulted?.... After all, it's only one little magazine.... Hey, this is a business decision; don't give me all that abstract principle stuff....

And on and on the excuse-making goes. But everyone knows what it's really all about.

It's about cowardice in the face of bullies. Period. It's no more complicated than that.

I have blogged about the overt cowardice of the MSM here and here and to this list we can add Universities and of course the everpresent sufferors of Bush Derangement Syndrome as noted by Stephen Green Samizdata "Throws Down The Gauntlet" and ends with this quote:

"Cowardice does not make you safe. It makes you a safe target
........... - D.Amon"

UPDATE: From Cox and Forkum

Exactly!