Tragedy Business (Asshole Edition)

Holy crap, could the Fates consider giving America a break for a minute or two?  Nothing says a bad week for country like two fatal explosions on opposite sides of the country.  Like Erik Loomis, I have my own views as to what we might be able to deduce from the terrible events in West, Texas, but in the absence of further information I'd suggest now isn't the time to start waxing lyrical about causes - that'd be, you know, when the cause is known. 

Everything he says about zoning issues is obviously and immediately true, of course, but as sympathetic as I am to unions in general, and to Loomis's belief that stronger unions mean stronger safety records, I don't think this is the time to say Texas' hatred of unions is to blame any more than people should be hyperventilating on Twitter about the evil Muslims coming to destroy Boston.

Speaking of which, Kevin Drum passes along security expert Bruce Schneier's advice on what legislators should do in response to Monday's horrific events:

Nothing.

Sign me up for a slice of that, please.  This gets said after every terrorist attack, whether or not it's foiled in time, but then it always needs to be said: sometimes a murderous prick is going to get lucky.  That's a tough line to sell, and it's not remotely hard to understand why.  Still, it has the benefits both of being right, and being roughly thirteen million times less destructive than the standard freak-out of those paid to be sell guns or to push xenophobia, whose response to such hideous events I have summarised for you below.

Every. Single. Time.