...was instructive. Naturally it was assumed that the culprit was one of, you know, them. The shootings were another salvo in the worldwide jihad, globe-girdling Islamist conspiracy, the whole "clash of civilizations" nine yards. There was also an unhealthy dose of Schadenfreude: See where tolerance and multiculturalism got those norskies? Maybe now they'll wake up and smell the Semtex.

But once the shooter was identified as Timothy McVeighsson, why then, nothing to see here, Olaf, move along. Just a lone wacko. Nuthin' to do with nuthin'. Early response from the ghastly "Gates of Vienna":

Please keep in mind that the left-wing government of Jens Stoltenberg that was just bombed is the most dhimmi appeasing of all Western governments, to the extent that this is humanly possible. They even wanted to fund Hamas openly a while ago.

The most suicidal and cowardly government in a country with no colonial history was just attacked. How do you explain that as a response to Western ‘aggression’?

Alas for GoV, the perp turns out to be someone with a general stance pretty close in most particulars to theirs: They bleat:

This has nothing more to do with us than Jared Loughner had to do with Sarah Palin.

—Probably truer than they realize.

cordially,