At long last, Pam, have you no—Jeez, what am I thinking?

Joseph Welch addresses Senator McCarthy. Via FilmFanatic.

Just learned from Steven D at the Frogpond that the Da'esh has claimed "responsibility" for the bloody stupidity in Garland, Texas, at the Pamela Geller–sponsored, Geert Wilders–consecrated hatefest and "Cartoon Contest", where a couple of gunsels, at least one of them now reportedly well known to the FBI's counterterrorism operations, tried to shoot up the security outside the event and got themselves killed. I'm glad the guard appears not to have been badly hurt.

Whatever goal the Da'esh thinks it may have attained by this waste of time and its own adherents' lives, whether or not they actually had anything to do with it, or why they'd like to have the "credit", is unclear. It may be that for these conservatives as for our own the important thing is just to keep drawing that line between Them and Us.

Geller, of course, is thrilled, because her whole life at this point is drawing that same line and this is making her look like such a Serious person. Things couldn't have gone more according to plan:

This is a war. This is war on free speech. What are we going to do? Are we going to surrender to these monsters?...

The bomb squad has been called to the event site to investigate a backpack left at the event site.

The war is here.

Last time I saw anybody that pleased with unexpected violent death would be when the Munchkins found out where Dorothy's house had landed.

Steven is right to remark,

The only response I can make to any violent attack of this type, regardless of the justification advanced by the perpetrators, is to condemn those responsible.

I'd like to add, though, that Geller's retroactionary justification for holding her stupid and offensive event—this violence, a direct result of our holding this "conference", proves that holding the conference was necessary—is just as wrong. I'm not saying any government authorities should have tried to stop it; I too see the First Amendment in pretty absolute terms. I'm just saying human decency should have stopped it, except she and her friends, like their corresponding numbers in the Syria-Iraq desert borderland, don't have any.

Update: The Rude One agrees with me, I'm proud to say, in some extremely picturesque terms.