You make a good point about the use of metaphor, and my choice of words was unfortunate at best. Immoderate language used to commend moderation–ironic.

My motivations were not quite so pure as you so kindly suggest, however. I was a bit frustrated that there were already activists out pushing their favorite policy based on the tragedy, and so the phrase was born of annoyance.

Nonetheless, it was not a nice thing to say, and was unnecessary. My apologies.

I do hope, though, that you will reconsider the use of the phrase “crawl out of the woodwork,” a metaphor that compares the subject of the sentence to disease-infested insects like roaches. I’d like to see us all avoid any comparisons that even vaguely imply a de-humanization of other people, suggesting a reduction of people to something nasty that might need to be eliminated.

Though I know you only from your online writing, such a comparison is so far from the view of the world presented on your blog as a whole that I feel certain the phrase was used more as a casual cliche than as any intended actual comparison.

But metaphors do matter. In this case the language, I think, could convey an implication you didn’t mean.