When is a hate crime not a hate crime? When there's no perpetrator and no victim. Bethany Storro was white and pretty. Her alleged assailant was black and dangerous. Who goes around with a cup of acid and throws it in the face of pretty white girls? Apparently, someone with a severe mental disorder. As it turns out, that person was Storro herself, who apparently splashed acid in her own face and put the finger on an unknown and mysterious black woman.

Storro said she was approached by a stranger outside a Starbucks in Vancouver, Wash., on Aug. 30 and was asked, ''Hey, pretty little girl, want to take a drink of this?'' Storro claimed an African-American woman wearing her hair pulled back in a ponytail splashed her with an acidlike liquid. Apparently, the only thing that saved Storro's eyesight was a pair of sunglasses she had purchased less than an hour before the attack. There's no way to know how many sisters in Vancouver immediately stopped wearing their hair in ponytails after that report.

This particular urban nightmare won Storro national press coverage, outpourings of sympathy from around the world, financial donations for her medical bills and reconstructive facial surgery, and a scheduled appearance on The Oprah Winfrey Show. Storro canceled on Oprah, saying on her now-closed Facebook page, "I was going to be on Oprah, but [that's] not going to happen! From the very beginning, I wanted to inspire people (hope I have) and tell them about Jesus. The show was going to possibly turn into another direction, so my family and I have decided not to go on."

Typically, when you need a go-to scapegoat, you can usually "blame a brother." Storro stepped up her game to "slander a sister." After all, pretty white girls who get acid thrown in their faces by psychotic black women sporting ponytails are instantly sympathetic figures. Who wouldn't feel sorry for Storro? Too bad she's apparently a psychotic liar.