Odd Spot

The recent proliferation in posts can mean only one thing - procrastination and (well, two things then) some neural rewiring taking place. Last week, I heard about an unusual case of a middle-aged Amish man from Ohio. It was alleged that he and his sons carried out hate crimes against other members of the Amish community, as part of an ongoing dispute. The unusual thing about these crimes was that amongst other things, they involved cutting the victims' hair (and in the case of males, their beards), which is normally considered sacrosanct.

The extent of my knowledge about the Amish probably starts and finishes with that old Harrison Ford movie, Witness, but apparently these crimes have had a huge impact on Amish throughout America and really brought into focus how they live and treat one another. There's certainly nothing funny or amusing about forcing any individual to do anything against their will, and it's a good thing that the long arm of the law has gotten involved rather than letting them sort out this dispute amongst themselves. Yet I still couldn't help but chuckle when I read about this case. The main perpetrator's name? Samuel Mullet.