Abu Meshuggah is officially grasping at straws. After yesterday’s cold, hard corrective — a reminder that the First Amendment is a limitation on the government, not on the people — he retreats into the penumbras, into the “spirit” of the thing:

Kevin D. Williamson of the National Review is quite right that his editorial board never called for government action. That doesn’t mean the stance offered by the National Review isn’t an affront to the principle of freedom of religion as enshrined in law through the 1st Amendment — which is why I led with that text.

As a rhetorical strategy, conceding the point — “quite right” — after the point has been more or less carved into granite and dropped on your noggin from a modest height, is kind of weak. But never mind that for now. You want to talk First Amendment, let’s talk First Amendment. It protects freedom of religion from government encroachment, and we all celebrate that. (Okay, not all of us.) What else does it protect? Freedom of speech, for one thing. Freedom of the press, for another. Freedom to peaceably assemble. Which is to say: the very things we were advocating that Americans do to mobilize against the Ground Zero Mosque and the dodgy people behind it. You know: democracy and liberalism and all that, demonstrating the difference between can and should for those among us who need an education in the subject.

Abu ends with this: “Also, I don’t the sense [sic] that Mr. Williamson has ever stepped inside a mosque ….” Tired ad hominem. But here’s a picture from my old neighborhood.