Law of Unintended Consequences has certainly been at work this past week

That was certainly true of the Islamic terrorists who sought to punish the satirists at Charlie Hebdo, the French magazine which featured caricatures of Muhammad.

Killing those 12 people in the magazine’s offices was undoubtedly meant to serve as a stark warning, and keep others from portraying or making fun of the prophet.

Ironically, the now-dead gunmen set off a wave of support for the admittedly often-crude magazine.

A normal printing for Charlie Hebdo is 60,000. The first run of the current edition was 5 million — million! — and it sold out within minutes. The company is planning an additional 2 million copy run.

So instead of shutting down the infidels, the terrorists have increased its circulation, and certainly given the magazine unimaginable publicity.

Instead of cowering in their shoes, leaders of 40 countries (although not ours, I must note) marched in solidarity in Paris in support of free, even when offensive, speech.

Certainly that was the last thing the murderers had in mind when they hatched their evil plan.

I have written before of the efforts of the Virginia Flaggers in defense of Southern Heritage.

More than a year ago, one B.P. Parks, a toadie of professional hater Brooks Simpson, wrote on a blog “ This post will become a motivator as we work to eradicate Connie, M. Lamb and the rest of the VA Flaggers in 2014.

“Thankfully they will eventually hang themselves by their own rope of hate, but we will keep exposing them at every opportunity and hopefully their Internet presence will be all but a bad memory by 2015.

“My New Year’s resolution is to do my part to erase them and their ignorant influence of racism and sexism from the World Wide Web.”

Despite repeated attempts to fulfill this resolution on the part of Prof. Simpson and his minions, the Flaggers continue to go from strength to strength, raising not one, not two, but three large flags of the CSA near major thoroughfares in Virginia.

The latest was outside Lexington, which saw more than 150 representatives displaying the flags outlawed from being displayed by the city by the short-sighted leaders of the City of Lexington during the Jackson-Lee holiday weekend.

Those self-same Flaggers who vowed not to spend any money in the city itself protested the removal of flags from the tomb of Robert E. Lee and the inexplicable reaction of the Virginia Military Institute to the flags under which the venerated Stonewall Jackson, perhaps the most famous VMI professor ever, served.

Every time a blog post seeking to silence the Flaggers, or, as the kids now say “cast shade,” with pernicious lies and half-truths appears, there is an influx of money and support for Susan Hathaway and her organization.

Surely the critics of Flaggers expected that would be the very last thing their actions would result in, but there you have it. From as far away as Illinois and New York, people came to Lexington.

Not content to remain in Virginia, Flaggers have sprung up around the south, from Florida to Texas. (I would love to hear news of one or more in Tennessee!)

And you can expect to see more and more large flags rising not in hate, but in love of the South.

When F&R Auto Sales in Massachusetts posted a video of their staff stiffing a pizza delivery man from Palace Pizza, they did so apparently expecting to get Jarrid Tansey fired.

After giving him $50 for a $42 tab, they called the restaurant and demanded he come back and give them their change.

Not content to merely cost the man additional time, gas and money, they insult him, with one woman threatening him physically.

A man then says he wants him fired, so they post the video, expecting the Internet to rise in fury and accomplish his bidding.

Well, the Internet did indeed rise up, but not in the way F&R Auto Sales expected. Fast and furious, the company found its online ratings crashing, and criticism mounting.

Honestly, reading everything currently being said, I do not know how they will be able to stay in business, and good riddance to bad rubbish.

Violating the first rule of holes (when you are in a hole, stop digging) employees of the company have tried to say that it is Tansey’s fault, as he didn’t specifically ask if the extra money was for a tip.

Um, really? A pizza delivery man, or a waiter, for that matter, can no longer assume money above and beyond the bill is a tip?

Is it like chess, where until you release the piece with your hand, it doesn’t count? Lame.

As for the delivery man? Well, crowd funding has raised more than $30,000 for him as of right now.

Anyone who has ever been at the mercy of a crazed customer can appreciate the injustice of F&R’s actions, and joining with others, many have now made it right, and then some.

The take-away from all this is that life has a way of sorting things out, although not always in the way someone might expect.

Call it karma, call it poetic justice, call it irony at work — the fact is we can all take comfort in the idea that often evil is turned to good, and that hatred and pettiness, violence and fury are still not as strong as love, caring and respect.

CHRISTINE BARR is a school teacher, mother of four and descendent of Watauga settlers who now resides in Katy, Texas. Her email address is belleseyeview@aol.com.