Crime and punishment.

In the US 16 Amish men and women have been charged with hate crime in a court in Ohio. Amish are a sect of people who choose to live a simple life without modern gadgets. Amish women do not cut their hair and men do not shave following marriage. A dispute developed between two groups within this community and one group attacked their opponents by chopping of their beards and taking their denuded photos to shame them. The report does not mention whether the victims were shaved leaving cheeks pink nude or a stubble was left behind as facial underwear but authorities decided to treat this as a heinous crime. By the beard of the prophet! In Britain, Home Secretary, Theresa May is accused of getting her dates wrong when rearresting Abu Qatada for deportation to Jordan. Mrs May was of the opinion that Qatada's 3 month limit to appeal to the European Court of Human Rights expired at midnight on Monday, April 16 so he was arrested on Tuesday morning. His lawyers say that the Court set the limit on January 17 so it was set to expire at midnight on Tuesday, April 17 and filed an appeal late Tuesday night. Court officials agreed with Qatada's lawyers and admitted the appeal leaving Mrs May facing charges of incompetence. She has been mocked for having attended a glitzy celebrity party with X Factor judges including Tulisa Contostavlos whose sex tape has gone viral on the internet. Seems that, in Britain, politics, sex and virus do not mix. Meanwhile, protesters in Bahrain are angry with Formula One supremo, Bernie Ecclestone for going ahead with the Grand Prix in Bahrain tomorrow, Sunday. They say this legitimises the present regime. Protests have become larger and police have reacted with tear gas, baton charges and arrests. Bahrain has a 70% Shia population ruled by a Sunni minority which is exactly the opposite of Syria where an 80% Sunni majority is ruled by minority Alawite Shias. However, there is no Security Council resolution or sanctions on Bahrain because the US Fifth Fleet is based there whereas the Syrian regime has been hammered by sanctions and threatened with trial for human rights abuses in front of the International Criminal Court. The solution is simple. Just switch the regimes between Bahrain and Syria. Thus Bashar Al Assad becomes President of Bahrain and Sheikh Hamad Ibn Isa Al Khalifa becomes the King of Syria. All it needs is a good removals company and several large transport planes. No fighting, no death or injuries and no need to see Hilary Clinton breathing fire, which is really scary. Sadly such an eminently logical solution will not be adopted because then the Security Council will become redundant and Obama will have to find another job for Susan Rice. If only life were simple.