HATE CRIME?

No, this is not the punchline to a bad joke (And the rabbi says, 'It's a hell of a lot better than a ham sandwich, isn't it?'), it is life in PC America.

Dateline: Lewiston, Maine...

One student suspended, with more disciplinary action on tap for putting a bag, with a ham sandwich in it, on a table where Somali students were eating lunch.

Because Muslims consider pork unclean, they took great offence at this possible hate crime.

The Center for Prevention of Hate Violence (?!?) is working with the school to create a response plan.

I've got your response plan, right here.

The response is that you do nothing about it. Don't create a new class of victims. Teach these kids (all of them) that this is a big, mean world, and that people (even of the same race, creed, colour or religion) are different. In other words, ignore it.

Surely, the Somali students are contacting their lawyers, and will sue the Lewiston School District, and the offender, for millions. Lewiston, not wanting to be seen as intolerant, will settle out of court, prosecute the offender, and do a bunch of other stuff to further limit our freedom of expression (and by extension, our freedom to be assholes).

Would this story have made the news if the offended students were Jewish? Doubtful.

Maybe if everyone would just shut their traps and share a ham sandwich, things would be a whole lot better.

This also begs the question: Isn't hate crime a bit strong for a ham sandwich. Now, flying airplanes into buildings, killing nearly 3,000 innocents. That's a hate crime. Blowing up a wedding in Jerusalem. Hate crime. Killing your co-religionists because they believe that Mohammed was...whatever the difference between Sunnis and Shiites is. Hate crime. Sending suicide bombers to kill innocent civilians. Hate crime. Blowing up trains in Spain because Spain was part of the coalition that toppled Saddam. HATE FUCKING CRIME!

It was a fucking ham sandwich. Not hate.