You can bet our troops are not the only ones who will have to endure hours of sensitivity training. A state jury in Alameda County has awarded $61 MILLION in damages to two Americans of Lebanese descent (Edgar Rizkallah and Kamil Issa) after they won their harassment suit against FedEx.

The plaintiffs were FedEx drivers who were called “terrorists,” “camel jockeys,” and worse by their manager, one Stacey Shoun. Somehow the jury decided this was worth not only $11 million in compensatory damages for the plaintiffs’ “emotional distress,” but an additional $50 million in punitive damages because Fed Ex and Shoun had acted with “oppression and malice.”

What did FedEx do to rate this whopping penalty? Not only did it fail to take adequate corrective action after the drivers complained; the company is also reported to have “failed to provide managers with anti-discrimination training.” Without such training, you see, human beings with an IQ of 11 or above would have no idea that it’s inappropriate to call someone a “camel jockey” in the workplace.

This is what rule-by-lawyers gets you. “FedEx,” of course, will not pay a penny of this award (if it holds up on appeal, which, in California, it probably will). All of us who use FedEx (which is pretty much all of us) will have our pockets picked. Does that make ANY sense? And, while not arguing in favor of asinine boorishness, I must say, if Rizkallah and Issa were truly “emotionally distressed” over this, they would not have lasted long in The Bronx.

Beam me up, Scotty.