The leader of an Amish sect in Ohio has been jailed for 15 years for orchestrating a series of assaults in which dissenting members of his community had their hair and beards cut off. Samuel Mullet and 15 of his followers (who received lesser terms of between one and seven years) were convicted last year of targeting Amish who were resistant to the 67-year-old’s authoritarian rule. Prosecutors argued that the attacks constituted hate crimes because, according to Amish religious custom, married men are required to grow beards and women to let their hair grow long.

I commented on this case previously. Why can’t these control freaks just leave others alone? There always seems to be someone who devotes himself to telling other people how to live. Epicurus would be shaking his head in disbelief.