Get Used to This

Last night, the worst gun massacre in US history (so far) happened in Las Vegas.  As of this writing, the death toll is 59 people with more than 500 people injured.  The murderer apparently killed himself after shooting people attending a concert with an automatic assault weapon.

This will happen again, and there will be a worse massacre in the near future.  It is inevitable.  As James Fallows points out, the USA has decided to do nothing.   The decision has been made for us.  Random meaningless murder at the hands of a mass killer is the price we must pay for what some people call "freedom."  The United States decided in the wake of the Sandyhook massacre -- that cost the lives of 20 small children and 6 adults -- that the deaths of children are a bearable sacrifice.  The right to own assault weapons is worth the lives of the innocent.  Every American is a potential human sacrifice, a "holocaust for Liberty."

So now, we begin the usual liturgy of "thoughts and prayers," of banal pieties that are supposed to make us feel better about doing nothing.  I prefer to take my cue from David Frum (no liberal) and quote the prophet Isaiah:

Stop bringing meaningless offerings!
Your incense is detestable to me.
New Moons, Sabbaths and convocations—
I cannot bear your worthless assemblies.
Your New Moon feasts and your appointed festivals I hate with all my being.
They have become a burden to me;
I am weary of bearing them.
When you spread out your hands in prayer,
I hide my eyes from you; even when you offer many prayers,
I am not listening.
Your hands are full of blood!

 -- Isaiah 1: 13 - 15, New International Version