As to why I haven't read Scientific American in years

[or, hmm, actually the Smithsonian Magazine -- my fault for mixing the two up], this kind of liberal bullshit spouting from their pages is a pretty good reminder:

There remains the vexing question of how, or whether, Elser’s life should be celebrated. Can an act of terrorism ever be justified, even when its purpose is to kill a murderous dictator? Might the innocent lives the bomber took in the Löwenbräu have been balanced by those that could have been saved had Hitler died before the war was fully underway?

First of all, I disagree that Elser was a "terrorist". Don't lump this courageous man in with the 19 assholes who took down the Twin Towers.

Second, the collateral damage would have been confined primarily to the Hitler faithful. I really don't see a downside there.

Third, when you consider the millions of people who would die in the following six years, not to mention those who already had perished due to Hitler's policies by 1939, are you really, seriously telling me there is any question that blowing up a biergarten with 3000 people in it would have been such a terrible price to pay for avoiding all that?

Good God.

(H/T.)