In 2004, when I got curious about what blogs were, I started investigating blogs on both the left and the right. I quickly realized that leftists dealt with obscenity, invective, and America hatred, and that I preferred the polite, reasoned debate on the right. One of my favorite sites was Power Line, started by a cadre of four Minneapolis-based attorneys. I still check in with Power Line on a regular basis, which is how I learned that leftists firebombed the offices of the Center of the American Experiment (“CAE”), a conservative think tank. John Hinderaker, one of Power Line’s founders, is president of the CAE. The arsonist(s) also attacked two other conservative businesses in the building.

Writes Hinderaker:

[L]eftists firebombed my office last Saturday night. At around 2 am, they broke into the building that houses Center of the American Experiment and two other conservative organizations with which we often collaborate, along with many other businesses. The arsonists set two fires: one was in the first floor corridor between American Experiment’s office and the space we sublease to Take Charge, Kendall and Sheila Qualls’ organization. A second fire was set on the third floor, immediately outside or perhaps actually inside the office of the Upper Midwest Law Center, on whose board I serve.

He includes with his post a picture of the office hallway, which has been reduced to a burned-out skeleton. The Center of the American Experiment has further information about the fire, along with this video:

One would think that a multi-office firebombing in a Minneapolis suburb would be a newsworthy subject. However, as Scott Johnson, another of the original Power Line guys, wrote early this morning, almost a week after the bombing, Minneapolis’s The Star Tribune, which is the major newspaper in that city, “hasn’t gotten around to covering the story yet. Someday soon, but not yet.”

“Someday soon” finally arrived just a little before noon Central Time today. To its credit, The Star Tribune report is actually straight news, without editorializing. All newspaper writing used to look like that. The paper’s delay in publishing, though, is concerning.

When people commit violence against their political opponents, we should all care. But as we’ve learned when looking at the Democrats’ different responses to the BLM riots, which burned down cities and destroyed historic monuments, and to January 6 or the beheading of a Satan statue, that’s not the case in 2024 America. “All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others”—and that’s certainly how the nation’s power brokers view political violence. The notion of the rule of law no longer applies.

If you want to know just how far it’s sunk in Minnesota, just look at the response to news of the fire from Andy Smith, a member of the Minnesota House of Representatives. Smith has since deleted his entire Twitter account, but his misbegotten gloating was captured for posterity’s sake:

Over the weekend, a building housing three of the most prominent conservative organizations in Minnesota was set on fire.

It’s being investigated by the ATF as arson.

Here’s how Minnesota Democrat State Rep @AndySmithMN reacted to the news. pic.twitter.com/EKngrSUtLR

— Greg Price (@greg_price11) February 1, 2024

The Star Tribune reports that the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms is investigating the fire as arson, along with the FBI, the local fire department, the Minnesota fire marshal, and Hennepin County’s arson investigators. Nevertheless, despite all that investigatory…ahem…firepower, I remain dubious about the malfeasors ever being brought to justice.

My skepticism is because the federal government and local criminal justice in blue environs seem to have a very lopsided track record. They have the tenacity of bloodhounds and the ferocity of honey badgers when they believe conservatives have committed a crime. However, when the crime comes from a leftist constituency, their investigative efforts falter, and they don’t even bother to try for charges and convictions.

Image: CAE hallway after the fire. YouTube screen grab.