I was horrified last week to discover that a gay man had been beaten on the Greenbelt in my hometown of Boise. I'm always sad at mounting evidence of the "big city" problems forcing their way into the small and polite town I grew up in. However, it now turns out that the man made it up, beating himself with a stick and his fists in order to report a hate crime. I'm glad that my town has been vindicated and eagerly await charges being brought against him for filing a false report. I hold out no hope that the truth will be reported as widely across the nation as the lie was. By the way, my favorite part of the lie was a widely reported e-mail that the man's friend sent out:

"This heinous act proves that the good-ole-boy mentality of the back woods small town evangelical Christian community lacks the true Christian kindness they profess."

I'm sure my fellow Boiseans are already aware of this, but those of you outside that burgh can read the article here.