We are also dubious of Althouse’s assertion that counter-Trayvonism plays into the hands of the left. That seemed right to us at first, but then we saw some of the reactions from the left–particularly one from Josh Marshall, proprietor of TalkingPointsMemo.com.

Marshall complained last week that “the right-wing racial resentment-o-sphere has been aghast about the horrific murder of Chris Lane, 22, a young Australian.” There are three suspects in that case, “two black, one either mixed race or white.” Actually, Marshall seems aghast too: “The really sociopathic nature of the crime was brought home by the fact that one of the accused assailants allegedly told the police, ‘We were bored and didn’t have anything to do, so we decided to kill somebody.’ ”

What troubles Marshall, of course, is counter-Trayvonism–or, as he puts it, the “jagging about the ‘double standard’ when the same thing happens and the races are reversed.” He observes accurately that the Martin and Lane cases are actually quite different: Whereas Zimmerman was interviewed and released after shooting Martin, the suspects in the Lane murder were promptly arrested and charged with murder. Marshall does not note the other obvious difference: that unlike Zimmerman, Lane’s alleged killers do not appear to have any basis to claim self-defense.