Last week’s awful tragedy at Los Angeles International Airport, which by all accounts involved a lone and troubled individual, was notable for the commendable calmness surrounding it. There were no calls for military detention, no cries of “act of war,” no demands that the President intervene to prevent the accused, Paul Ciancia, from “lawyering up” such as were heard in the aftermath of the Boston Marathon bombing. But the act itself is difficult to distinguish from what, in other cases, is described as terrorism that supposedly exceeds the competence or jurisdiction of civilian authorities. It was politically motivated: Ciancia’s writings were laced with anti-government sentiment. It was an explicit attack on government agents in the performance of their duties. It terrorized civilians.
Will on DeMuth
The one and only George Will has a Washington Post column today on the one and only Chris DeMuth’s speech on “Executive Government and Bankrupt Government,” delivered at GMU’s Transatlantic Law Forum this past February. I’ve blogged and linked to the talk here. Go read if you haven’t already. You now have it on Mr. Will’s authority that this is big—the deepest, most sober reflection on the state of our politics you’ll find. In the printed Post, George Will’s column appears underneath a rare E.J. Dionne column that’s not only not inane or infuriating but right on, and moving. The Boston…
