My claim:

"Insofar as the fate of special relativity is concerned, the neutrinos-
faster-than-light hysteria is a red herring par excellence."

was not quite correct. It can be proved, although the proof is
somewhat complicated, that if a signal is faster than light, special
relativity predicts that an event (bomb explosion) occurs according to
one observer and does not occur according to the other:

http://www.people.fas.harvard.edu/~djmorin/chap11.pdf
pp. 41-42: "11.6. Train in a tunnel. A train and a tunnel both have
proper lengths L. The train moves toward the tunnel at speed v. A bomb
is located at the front of the train. The bomb is designed to explode
when the front of the train passes the far end of the tunnel. A
deactivation sensor is located at the back of the train. When the back
of the train passes the near end of the tunnel, the sensor tells the
bomb to disarm itself. Does the bomb explode?"

A much easier and more convincing proof of the contradictory nature of
special relativity is supplied by the so-called bug-rivet paradox:

http://hyperphysics.phy-astr.gsu.edu.../bugrivet.html
"The bug-rivet paradox is a variation on the twin paradox and is
similar to the pole-barn paradox.....The end of the rivet hits the
bottom of the hole before the head of the rivet hits the wall. So it
looks like the bug is squashed.....All this is nonsense from the bug's
point of view. The rivet head hits the wall when the rivet end is just
0.35 cm down in the hole! The rivet doesn't get close to the
bug....The paradox is not resolved."

Pentcho Valev