Those racist cops were at it again. In New York, after the failed car bombing they were just randomly frisking people down with no rhyme or reason, patrolling for "different looking" people when — miraculously — they were able to apprehend the bomber, 30-year-old Faisal Shahzad, just before he left for Dubai.

It's weird: It's almost like our police know what they are doing and do a good job. Good thing they didn't listen to Mayor Bloomberg's hot tip on the bomber:

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NEW YORK MAYOR MICHAEL BLOOMBERG: Homegrown, maybe a mentally deranged person or somebody with a political agenda that doesn't like the health care bill or something. It could be anything.

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Wow, that's some good detective work, Mayor. "Could be anything" — could be a deranged Tea Party-goer who is against Obamacare. Elementary, Mr. Mayor! You should be our next attorney general.

No, this was the New York cops, the FBI and everyone else involved, doing their job the way it's supposed to be done. This was the system working. And it also makes the case to make sure that people come to America the right way: through the front door — not illegally. Because this whack-job actually came to America through the front door; he is a naturalized citizen, a Pakistani-American. How do you think we knew who he was? Because he came here legally. We knew his name. We had his fingerprints. We knew where he lived. We had a picture of him.

You and I both know that crazies are everywhere, both citizens and non citizens alike. When you first heard that someone had parked a car loaded with explosives near an area where people are enjoying time with their families with their children, you knew that was the mark of an even bigger monster than just a run-of-the-mill nut-job. I mean, who intentionally bombs children?

I was doing an interview on "Fox & Friends" Tuesday morning when and Kilmeade goes all Jack Bauer on me — I swear he's got nipple clips in his pocket. And we were talking about what to do with this monster. The easy thing to say is: Let's call in Jack Bauer (or Brian Kilmeade) and hook him up to some lamps!

Now there are many times that I'm perfectly OK with leaving a terrorist alone in a room for a while for some quality one-on-one time with Bauer. Like the underpants bomber — he's not a citizen, he's a terrorist. If someone happens to have a wet towel and a glass of water next to him, I have no problem with that.

However, this dirt-bag Times Square suspect is a citizen. And as a citizen of this country he's entitled to rights that foreign combatants are not entitled to. Some people are probably screaming at their TVs right now. Here's what I say to those people: Now is when your values count.

Sure, it's easy to follow the Constitution when you benefit from it. But what happens when it goes against what you want to do? When you want to strap this guy to the rack, but don't because it violates the Constitution. That is what makes America different. This is not the time to shred the Constitution. The Constitution is tough when it gets in the way. But that's the time when it makes a difference.

Before our country was a country, there was the Boston Massacre. Two years after the British sent royal troops to help enforce the heavy tax burden, the tension finally culminated in a protest that ended with five colonists being shot and killed by British soldiers. The American government wanted a fair trial, but they couldn't find anyone willing to defend the accused Brits, until John Adams agreed to do it.

If Gallup was polling in 1770, John Adams probably would have had the largest and quickest approval drop in history. But Adams did it not because it was easy or because he sympathized with the plight of British soldiers. He did it because it was right. He defended them on principle — the principle of equal justice.

If social justice would have been applied, the Americans would have won in court because they were oppressed by the man. Adams was unpopular in the short term, but when the emotions of the incident subsided, within mere months, people began siding with Adams and his stand on principle.

Principles matter. Character matters.

Character is like a muscle: If you don't use it, it becomes weak. We haven't been working on our character muscle. Safety nets, coddling, bailouts, political correctness, everyone gets a trophy, purple pens — our national character is limp.

Do you remember what was going on around 2000? The dotcom bubble had just burst; pets.com and forks.net apparently weren't really worth $3 billion. Who knew? Our economy was relatively weak and then we were hit on 9/11.

America in its history has conquered these problems before, but never all at once. Every sector will be attacked in every single way, because we've got enemies on the outside and in who want America either taken down a notch in the world, fundamentally transformed or completely destroyed.

This isn't a theory I made up. I don't know if you've heard of part of Special Ops called CAG — the guys that don't overthrow regimes, they just nudge. You think we are the only ones that would do that? You think the revolutionaries in Colombia haven't sent anyone up here? You think Hugo Chavez hasn't thought of that?

But in order to raise the chance of success, the target country must be on the verge of collapse. Does America meet that requirement?

How strong is America?

> The Economy: Unemployment is at 9.7 percent; our national debt is approaching $13 trillion; our unfunded liabilities are approaching $108 trillion; 65 banks have closed this year — 140 last year

Add to that

> Out-of-control government: They're trying to spend us out of the recession; the deficit this year is $1.5 trillion; the federal government continues to grow while the private sector retracts: 40 percent of the federal government is hiring, expanding, bringing in more people, while the engine of America — the private sector — only 28 percent are hiring and expanding. Government now controls 96.5 percent of all home loans

> Crime Inc.: ACORN, SEIU, radical Marxists and progressives in power and transforming the structure of our country; we're living in the Boss Tweed era — an era in which Al Capone controls politics. If you don't pay the man, you aren't getting anything

> Civil unrest: The Tea Parties are the least of the problems here. What about the G-20 anarchists?

> Military stretched thin in Afghanistan and Iraq. Is there a coherent plan? We've a president who brushes off Fort Hood. He's calling our cops stupid or racist, depending on the day

> The oil spill: No one would try to take advantage of that crisis, would they?

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GOV. ARNOLD SCHWARZENEGGER, R-CALIF.: Before you make a decision like that, you are convinced that this will be safe. But then again, you know, you see that, you turn on television and you see this enormous disaster, you say to yourself, why would we want to take that risk? And you know, so the risk is much greater than the money's worth, so will figure out how to deal with the extra $100-million problem.

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You have all of these stresses on the country — it's a lot bigger than the dotcom bubble.

If you are one of the many who want nothing more than America knocked down a peg, fundamentally transformed or completely destroyed, I'd say now is looking like a pretty good time to send in the operatives.

Why do I tell you this? Because this is the challenge that everyone after 9/11 begged for. After 9/11 folks asked what did the president know and when did he know it? Well, what do you know now and when did you figure it out?

People said you couldn't make people stand in line for security without "the event." Really? I would argue that you could get people to stand in line; all you had to do was explain it and make the case to the American people.

We were asleep before 9/11, we had no clue what was coming. So of course we wouldn't have just accepted extra security for no reason. But if you explained that the same folks who attacked the World Trade Center in 1993 were trying to attack us again, would we have had the same outcome? We'll never know; we never made the case.

America, I'm making the case now: There are enemies within and without.

— Watch Glenn Beck weekdays at 5p & 2a ET on Fox News Channel