It's said that when your only tool is a hammer, everything looks like a nail. In that context I offer you this idiotic response to last week's attacks in Monsey:

We need stronger laws, tougher penalties, more stringent prosecution against hate crime.

Senator Richard Blumenthal, as quoted at New12 Connecticut, at 1:04.

The problem here is that Senator Dick is a law-maker. He apparently thinks that's his job. And while it might be a tool of it, and the primary one at that, his job is to represent us in Washington.

A local crime happened, a nasty crime. Was this man motivated by hate? Let's say he was. Mental illness probably also played a part. We have laws to deal with assault. In New York, Mr. Thomas could face up to 25 years for an assault, and he committed at least five here. And judges have plenty of discretion when meting out sentences to fit the penalty to the crime.

Stronger laws will make no difference here. If we want less hate, maybe we should be engineering better relationships and more respect.

A great way to do this would be more recess, but that's not a thing a US Senator should have anything to do with. Maybe another righteous war would work too: there's apparently something about sharing a foxhole that tends to transcend such petty issues as race or religion.

I don't want to be too hard on Dick. He's been a lot of places, and makes a lot of rounds, but he also lives in a secluded home in an exclusive community, and is one of the richest men in the Senate. If he wants to get through the hate, he should start by mixing with those who might hate him, and maybe not just as a politician.