Clearly, this is an overblown situation, but c'mon, "Ushering in sharia law?" The only dhimmwit around here is you.

Super90, my guess is that Abdul and his friends know a bit more about the Islamist agenda and how our willingness to chip away at our own freedoms and our rush to political correctness are used to gradually eat away at our culture and societal norms, than you do. On the other hand, maybe you do attend a local mosque and speak Arabic.

In any event, I'll avoid responding to your exhibition of poor taste and lack of civility, in kind. And we'll leave your comment up instead of deleting it; hopefully you're proud of it and what it says about you.

Years ago, I worked in an office with a bunch of people, one of whom was a muslim. Once in a while I would pick up a bag of pork rinds while on my lunch break and I would jokingly offer some to the muslim guy. He would tell me how insane I was to eat such a filthy animal while I would tell him that he's missing out on a yummy treat. It turned into a kind of game and we'd each end up having a good laugh about it.

Everybody needs to chill out. And have some pork rinds. They're yummy!

Pork rinds, chilling out, and a bottle of beer.

Got it!

Interesting that the evil Jooooooozzzz have been on the American scene from the start; they don't eat pork either, yet until the Islamists started making a big deal out of pork and began using it as one of many other requests for special accomodations for Muslims to use in demanding special treatment, never a damned word has been said about pork in relation to hate.

I love how you initially had the entire story wrong, and upon learning the details, are still trying to spin oh-no-PC-danger! gold from straw

classic

Doesn't look like you know how to read, "Classic"!

It wasn't our story - we're the one's who got it right. No spin here turkey, just the facts as we know them from talking to the sups' office. And if you don't see the PC problem here, nothing can be said to help you "get it". You're likely either blinded by an agenda or you're clueless to the Islamists' agenda. Either way, the day is fast-coming when, unfortunately for all of us secular Muslims and non-Muslims who are really in this together, it will be too late.

ah yes - the outstanding "think we're wrong? you have an AGENDA!" tactic. Double classic!

In calculus we have a term for your logic: circular function, Classic. In any event, you've garnered all the attention you're going to get. Your 15 minutes is up; it's been swell.

Uh, hey guys... this is truly fascinating.
At the top of the Associated Content (and who the heck are they?) story, it says:

EDITOR'S NOTE: THIS IS NOT AN ACTUAL NEWS STORY. IT IS A PARODY.

So this is big news from Fox? No wonder they come across as such morons... They are!

But you being taken in? I'm sorry, but it does seem to say a great deal about the right wing "End of the Republic" hysteria that seems to be driving the country over the edge right now, and into the arms of the waiting Christofascists.

Jack, we do say that it appears "tongue in cheek," but we checked the story out with the school superintendents office and some of it, but of course not all, turned out to be true. The true part was that it was not a ham sandwich - which we posted, the event really did occur, but the "quotes" were indeed parody. In our post we tried to address the issue as it should be addressed while leaving the door open for some of it being a stretch and/or satire. However, we did in fact check the story out with Diane in the superintendent's office first, and posted what she in fact told us.

Here's the updated scoop on what really happened, from SunJournal.com - written today - (http://www.sunjournal.com/story/209231-3/LewistonAuburn/Ham_report_stirs_mess/ ):

According to Lachapelle, a student brought a honey-baked ham to school to share with his friends. While they were in the cafeteria, one or more students dared another student (not the one who brought the ham to school) to put the ham on a table in front of five Somali boys. That student took up the dare, and followed through even though his friends immediately tried to talk him out of it. The student "knew it was wrong," Levesque said, while he was doing it.

Lachappelle said the student regrets the incident and his parents have supported the punishment meted by the school district.

The Sun Journal published a story about the incident on April 19 as the lead article on the front page. After Monday's Associated Content posting, the altered story moved rapidly across personal and news sites and was discussed with outrage.

In the parody, Levesque was quoted as saying "These children have got to learn that ham is not a toy, and that there are consequences for being nonchalant about where you put your sandwich."

Wessler was quoted as saying his agency was working with the school to create an "anti-ham 'response plan.'"

Neither man said those things.

Levesque never made any reference to a need to make students feel safe from attacks from any ham product.

The parody also attributed a quote to the student who was targeted with the ham, equating the experience to being "back in Somalia being shot at all over again."

Plagman never spoke to the student, and the student never made that statement.

The Sun Journal attempted to contact Plagman for comment, but he did not respond.

Wessler, who talked to a Texas CBS affiliate and two Fox affiliates Tuesday and has been scheduled to appear on another Fox broadcast today, said, "This kind of distortion by reputable news outlets is destructive."

"Fox has figured out, from the calls we've gotten, that they've made a big mistake," Wessler said.

"This is a wake-up call that the level of hate and anger, among a small population, is vibrant," he added.

Levesque said he was bothered not only that the parody took aim at a sensitive issue in Lewiston, but also that Fox and others reported the information as fact without checking. The national media, Levesque said, sees information posted online and "uses it as gospel."

In this case, reporting false information is getting in the way of the city and the school's continued work to build community understanding and tolerance for immigrants, said Phil Nadeau, Lewiston's assistant city administrator. The parodied news account cast a false impression of an overwhelmingly tolerant city and its population, Nadeau said, and of the Somali population in particular.

"The last thing they want is to be above the fold" of a front page or featured on the evening news, Nadeau said.

Watching the parody and news reports unfold Tuesday, Levesque said is proof media "is interested in entertaining and playing on people's emotions," which gets in the way of building community relations.

Lachapelle said she won't let it get in the way of the disciplined student's return to school, ensuring steps are being made to make sure he feels safe when he comes back.

Jack, one more thing. I'm neither what you refer to as a "Christofascist" - there is no such thing, nor am I a Christian.

I'm a Muslim. And just so you know, there are many Muslims that eat pork - just like there are many Catholics that sometimes eat meat on Friday, and Jews that eat pork.

I live in the U.S., and I do my best to be like most Americans, while practicing my faith without expecting non-Muslims to make special accommodations for me. I expect other Muslims that live in this country and want to be considered an American to do the same.

Dear Abdul,

I appreciate your responding to my post in a direct and thoughtful manner, and I believe that you and I are not so far apart in important, and fundamental, ways.

My point was that, as so often happens these days, a hard-line political faction will take a small incident, like this rather stupid thing done by an adolescent boy, and will blow it up to a crisis of enormous proportions. It does not matter how small the incident is, or how representative, or even if it is true. Whatever significance it may have is bent to someone's malevolent purpose, with the cooperation of quasi-establishment voices such as Fox News, which is an arm of the Republican Party.

The group that benefits most from these media hysterics are those that promote fear as a way of controlling the meaning, the framing, of the information that the public hears. And the basic motivation of these people, many of whom are the most powerful people in the country, is indistinguishable from those who would impose a "Christian" framework, by force if necessary, to what had been an open and free society.

And then all will suffer, Muslims, Buddhists,and Christians alike.

Regards,

Jack