Accountability. That's what got him where he is today. Matt Heath graduated from Plymouth County's Drug Court Dec. 10 as one of the first from the program that celebrated it's one year anniversary in October. "This is the best I've felt since I was 14 or 15," the 34-year-old said. "Drugs do bad things to your life." Heath entered drug court in February, a decision he didn't really want to make because of the commitment and changes he new were ahead. [continues 550 words]
HAMPTON -- Eighteen months after their son, Bob, died from an overdose of illegal drugs, Philip and Pauline Strand believe his death could have been prevented by Grinnell police. The Strands say their son would be alive today if police in Grinnell, a city of about 9,200 in central Iowa's Poweshiek County, had removed items from a vehicle they had impounded -- including a drug-laced water bottle. The Strands claim the water bottle was left in the vehicle by two people involved in a Grinnell drug arrest. [continues 765 words]
Regarding your thoughtful Nov. 14 editorial, if health outcomes determined drug laws instead of cultural norms, marijuana would be legal. Unlike alcohol, marijuana has never been shown to cause an overdose death, nor does it share the addictive properties of tobacco. Like any drug, marijuana can be harmful if abused, but jail cells are inappropriate as health interventions and ineffective as deterrents. The first marijuana laws were enacted in response to Mexican immigration during the early 1900s, despite opposition from the American Medical Association. Dire warnings that marijuana inspires homicidal rages have been counterproductive at best. [continues 119 words]
The decisions made this past week to lessen the penalties surrounding one certain leafy green plant has left many proponents of medical and recreational marijuana (not horticulturists) swooning. In Massachusetts, voters elected to decriminalize up to an ounce of the substance. Similarly, voters in Michigan voted in favor of Proposal 1, which will now allow the prescription of medical marijuana in the state. This decision will positively affect both states, and other states should follow their lead. Fourteen states across the nation allow the use of medical marijuana, and 12 states have decriminalized it. Even though many opponents of marijuana believe that allowing medical use of the substance will only contribute to the deterioration of society, transforming children into drug-obsessed heathens and generating marijuana dispensaries as plentiful as gas stations on every street corner, there are many benefits that will surface with these new decisions. [continues 368 words]
The last week in October marks a national tradition of Red Ribbon Week. The red ribbon symbolizes a need for action, enforcement and compassion with issues of alcohol, tobacco and other illegal drugs. Action can be done by taking a stand against drugs and alcohol. Talk with kids about making health choices; they need to hear it from several different sources: the school, their parents and community members. Enforcement of the law not only happens through the police, but happens with the help of all individuals. If you know of someone who is struggling with addictions to drugs or alcohol, get them assistance to receive the help they need. Some addicts have said they wouldn't have gotten help themselves, but they were glad to receive treatment after they were turned in. [continues 71 words]
LeClaire, Iowa - Elizabeth Ann Wehrman, 56, of LeClaire, Iowa, died October 14, 2008, at her home as a result of pancreatic cancer. A visitation will be held 4-8 p.m. Friday, October 17, at Weerts Funeral Home, Kimberly at Jersey Ridge, Davenport. Celebration of Life services will be 10:30 a.m. Saturday at the funeral home. Private interment will be in Glendale Cemetery, LeClaire. A memorial fund will be established in Beth's honor. Beth believed life was best spent in a pair of blue jeans, so please join the family in honoring her wish by wearing them to all services. [continues 335 words]
This year's Spirit of Marycrest award will be presented today to Elizabeth Bemenderfer Wehrman of LeClaire, Iowa. A 1986 graduate of Marycrest College, Wehrman was a registered nurse for 35 years. Her resume includes work as a street nurse for the Partnership with the Chicago Recovery Alliance, Needle Exchange Program. Known as the "Needle Lady of Illinois," Wehrman is estimated to have exchanged more than 11,000 needles to help prevent the spread of HIV. She also was the executive director of the AIDS Project Quad-Cities from 1994-1997 and worked with the John Lewis Coffee Shop Homeless/HIV Street Outreach from 1997-1999. [continues 132 words]
Once again I have no organized topic for this week, so here are a couple of random items that will hopefully pass for some semblance of an article. I am back this semester teaching a criminal justice intro class at Iowa Western Community College. I kind of enjoy doing that, as most of the students are pretty good and I like the interaction with them. This year I am trying something new, I am having the students blog on a site I set up on different topics from each chapter of the textbook. They can write whatever they choose to write, as long as it is respectful and civil. [continues 504 words]
When the Democrats and Republicans crown their parties' nominees at national conventions this week and next, they will also adopt party platforms. The principles outlined in those platforms will explain a lot about why there's so much gridlock in Congress. These people don't agree on much. The differences are perhaps even greater in the parties' state platforms, which address national issues but also include a host of Iowa issues where approaches diverge. Both Iowa party platforms are worth a skim for anyone interested in state policy and politics. Sometimes candidates on the stump can start sounding the same. But the Iowa platforms set forth unequivocally the principles each party stakes out as its own. They also shed light on which ideologies are gaining strength or ebbing within each party, and what issues state legislators are likely to push in the next session. [continues 748 words]
In the Aug. 4 article, "Iowans' Tippling Boosts State Coffers," it was reported that the Iowa Alcoholic Beverages Division raked in revenue of $87.6 million from the sales of a very dangerous recreational drug that people can die from if they drink too much of it. At the same time, Iowa will arrest responsible adults and take away their driver's licenses - even if the so-called crime had nothing to do with driving - for simply possessing marijuana, a plant that is impossible to fatally overdose on. [continues 52 words]
I'm absolutely horrified to read that we had or have had such evil, insane, idiotic people living in our town preying on our children and adults to destroy their minds for money. First I want to thank the many officers who have been instrumental in having made drug arrests. Lawyers and judges should put the good of people first. Money should never enter into it. These animals gone mad should be punished severely. Bread and water for food, slave labor, put into cages and never let out. In some cases we have just reasons for death. They have no purpose but to destroy lives. Let the children know how they are punished. [continues 61 words]
The number of inmates in Iowa prisons is down, due in part to a drop in the number of prison terms and fewer offenders returning for parole or probation violations, corrections officials said. As of June 31, which marked the end of Iowa's 2008 fiscal year, the state prisons housed 8,740 inmates. That's down 66 inmates from the year before and marks only the third annual decline in 12 years, said Department of Corrections Director John Baldwin. The 1,800 new commitments to Iowa prisons were down 162 placements from the previous year and was the lowest total since fiscal 1997. Baldwin called it a "significant" decline. [continues 652 words]
On Thursday, top U.S. drug interdiction officials said U.S. authorities seized a record 316 metric tons of cocaine last year. In making the announcement, the officials credited Mexico's increasing cooperation with helping force drug traffickers to raise their prices and try new smuggling methods. John Walters, director of the Office of National Drug Control Policy, said the record seizures have led to a 21 percent jump in the price of cocaine and a drop in the purity of the drug. The price of methamphetamine has jumped even more, he said, thanks to a crackdown on U.S. labs and Mexican authorities doing more to stop importation of precursor material. [continues 344 words]
Sean Bucci got busted in 2003 for trafficking marijuana. A former high school classmate, a confidential informant working for the federal government, led authorities to Bucci's door. So Bucci decided to get even. He created a Web site called whosarat.com before he went to prison for 12 1/2 years. He featured his "snitch" as "Rat of the Week." The federal court system took notice. His Web site launched a debate about how much access the public should have to plea agreements -- documents that can reveal who is cooperating with the federal government. [continues 1144 words]
Normally, people aren't paid to get high, but University of Iowa scientists are coughing up some coin to stoners willing to help them gain insight into the effects of marijuana. Users won't get enough dough to live on -- maybe a month's rent -- but they'll cash in enough to cure a mean case of the munchies. "The hypothesis is that people that use it at an early age have a greater effect, and the longer a person uses it the greater the effect," said Robert Block, an associate professor in the UI Department of Anesthesia and the lead investigator on the project. [continues 492 words]
The war on drugs is prejudiced against minorities, a group of Drake University students and professors concluded Wednesday. "America's war on drugs has really turned into American's war on nonwhite youth," said Eric Johnson, an education professor at Drake. Johnson, three other Drake professors and a representative of Law Enforcement Against Prohibition formed the panel Wednesday evening on the Drake campus at a discussion hosted by Drake Students for Sensible Drug Policy. The group of about 50 students who attended tried to brainstorm a better drug policy, one that doesn't unfairly affect minorities and college-bound students, they said. [continues 230 words]
Rifles, shotguns, pounds of drugs and loads of cash lined a table in the garage of the University of Iowa Department of Public Safety headquarters Monday morning. However, local police warned Congressman Dave Loebsack, D-Iowa, that without federal funding, those dangerous guns and weapons and the people carrying them will remain on the streets. Loebsack hosted a roundtable meeting with members of the Iowa City and Coralville Police, Johnson County Sheriff's Office and the UI Department of Public Safety to discuss how funding cuts to the Edward Byrne Memorial Justice Assistance Grants could affect them. [continues 416 words]
'We Don't Always Boast,' Says Pd Boss The most common question area law enforcement officials hear from the public about drugs is: Why aren't you doing anything? In a Friday presentation, representatives of the Fort Dodge Police Department, the Webster County Sheriff's Department and the Iowa State Patrol responded. They emphasized what has been a recent push to crack down on drugs - especially methamphetamine. "Law enforcement is taking a big hit on not doing enough on drug enforcement," said acting Fort Dodge Police Chief Doug Utley. [continues 690 words]
When two University of Iowa football players were arrested on drug charges in Iowa City early Saturday morning, one of them was charged with a drug tax stamp violation. It's a law Iowa has had since 1990, requiring a tax on something that's already illegal -- possessing certain amounts of controlled substances. "The whole purpose of the statute was to give police another tool in their arsenal to prosecute drug traffickers," Assistant Linn County Attorney Jerry Vander Sanden said. Someone caught with enough of the drug but not the stamp to show the tax is paid may be charged with a crime that carries a fine, plus the standard possession of a controlled substance or possession with intent to deliver. [continues 431 words]
Loebsack Wants To Restore Millions Cut From Drug Enforcement Budget OTTUMWA -- When he started making drug arrests 20 years ago, Ottumwa Police Lt. Tom McAndrew said a $300 meth arrest was a big deal. These days, it's hard to get overworked federal prosecutors to take a $25,000 meth bust seriously. But meth dealers are being taken off the streets. Manufacturing labs have been reduced. And imported drugs are being confiscated. Locally that's because of a sufficiently funded drug task force, McAndrew told his congressional representative Saturday. [continues 840 words]
Coralville, Ia. - Iowa is on the verge of a $256 million prison construction boom, and Nicholas Viola is one of the statistics behind the growth trend. Viola, 19, of Des Moines, arrived at the Oakdale state prison here in December after receiving a five-year sentence for second-degree theft. The young man acknowledged he has a methamphetamine problem. "I'm sad, but I've got to do what I've got to do. I had my fair chances," said Viola, whose girlfriend back home is pregnant with his second child. [continues 828 words]
Iowa has a choice: Undertake its biggest prison-building spree in history, or look for alternatives that reduce the need for more prisons. That choice must be made soon. The Legislature is considering a recommendation from Gov. Chet Culver to build a new state penitentiary and a new women's prison at a cost of $200 million. A legislative committee proposed that, plus a $25 million expansion of the prison at Newton. State corrections officials say the Men's Reformatory in Anamosa is next in line for replacement. And, if the steady growth in prison population continues as projected, the state could face building as many as three more prisons in the next decade. [continues 512 words]
Thanks for publishing Greg Francisco's outstanding letter "Legalize, Regulate, and Tax." (See River Cities' Reader Issue 667, January 16-22, 2008.) It seems to me that in order to properly evaluate our nation's drug policies, we need to compare and contrast our drug policies with those of another nation with substantially different drug policies. I suggest that we use the Czech Republic for our comparison. In the Czech Republic, citizens can legally use, possess, grow, or purchase small quantities of marijuana. [continues 157 words]
A drug-interdiction program devastated by funding cuts could be saved by a group of U.S. senators from both sides of the aisle who announced plans on Wednesday to tack on money to the federal omnibus spending bill. U.S. Sen. Tom Harkin, an Iowa Democrat, along with four other senators, announced plans to replace money cut from the federal Byrne Memorial Justice Assistance Grant program as part of an emergency supplemental funding bill. They would return $660 million to the program, which was cut to $170 million in December by the Bush administration. [continues 432 words]
WATERLOO --- Local police say the federal government has continued to shrink funding that's the backbone for drug trafficking battles. Now the president has included even more cuts for the Byrne Justice Assistance Grant Program in his recent budget, said Sen. Tom Harkin, D-Iowa. The Senate approved $660 million for the program but was forced to reduce the funding due to the threat of a presidential veto, Harkin said Friday during a conference in Waterloo with law enforcement representatives. Current proposals place the Byrne program at only $170 million. This means Iowa agencies, which currently get $4.2 million, would only see $1.5 million. [continues 382 words]
Making a dent in meth is the aim of the Southeast Iowa Inter-Agency Drug Task Force. The drug task force has done its job well. The number of meth labs in the area is way down. Because of that, drug task force officers had more time to pursue bigger culprits -- large drug importers, and that led recently to busts that included a $1.3 million forfeiture. It's a double win. The illegal drugs are off the streets, and the task force gets part of the money. [continues 206 words]
DES MOINES (AP) --- Possible cuts in federal funds could hit drug enforcement programs in Iowa. The U.S. Department of Justice funds drug control programs at local law enforcement agencies through the Byrne Memorial Justice Assistance Grant program. A proposal calls for cutting 70 percent of the $4.22 million that came to Iowa this year. The grants make up a large portion of the Iowa Office of Drug Control Policy's budget, and officials say less money means investigations into narcotic suppliers and dealers would be stalled. [continues 328 words]
Proposed cuts in a key federal drug-enforcement program threaten efforts in Iowa just as the state has shown progress in the fight against methamphetamine, officials say. The U.S. Justice Department, which filters money to local law enforcement through the Byrne Memorial Justice Assistance Grant program, could cut 70 percent from the $4.22 million that came to Iowa this year. Iowa politicians say they will fight the cuts, but all sides agree that the proposed cuts reflect a shift in national priorities toward the war on terrorism. [continues 864 words]
Bravo to op-ed author Garry Reed. (See "Do You Speak Thuggery or Freedom?", River Cities' Reader Issue 666, January 9-15, 2008.) Propaganda is propaganda, regardless whether it is used to prop up a totalitarian regime or a totalitarian policy. Call it a "war on drugs." Tell us it's all about the children. Convince us you're really just doing it for our own good - to protect us from ourselves. Dress failure after failure up as unmitigated success. Say whatever you want. The war on drugs is still prohibition. And prohibition still does not work. Legalize, regulate, and tax drugs, so that we can finally control drugs. Greg Francisco Member, Law Enforcement Against Prohibition Paw Paw, Michigan [end]
DEA Tramples Canada's Sovereignty By Demanding Pot Seller Be Tried In U.S. Attention, concerned citizens of the United States of America: It is now safe to unlock your doors and let your children back out onto the streets to play hopscotch and jump rope. Yes, the long and terrible reign of the Prince of Pot is over. No longer will this menacing merchant of the devil's weed terrorize and addict our innocent youth to his mind-destroying plants. [continues 691 words]
John P. Walters just can't seem to contain himself. Give the career powercrat a job with the imperial appellation of "Drug Czar" and he just instinctively grasps for more. Last summer, for example, the Top Drug Thug made headlines by declaring that simple, nonviolent marijuana gardeners are dangerous terrorists. While you puzzle over that oxymoronic disconnect, consider this further quote from the Redding Record Searchlight: "Marijuana gardens are a terrorist threat to the public's health and safety, as well as to the environment." [continues 587 words]
Iowa historically has been an island of sanity on prisons, especially when compared to states such as Texas and California. Iowa long believed that prison should be the last option. That has changed in recent decades, however, and Iowa has racked up some of the fastest prison-growth rates in the nation. In the past 20 years, the state's prison population has tripled - to 8,727 inmates as of Tuesday. At the same time, the number of convicts in community-based corrections programs has doubled, to more than 30,000. In the past decade alone, those two populations combined increased by nearly 60 percent. [continues 232 words]
Waterloo, Ia. -- Barack Obama said today that he doesn't believe Americans see his teenage drug use as relevant to his candidacy as president. "I can't say how Americans think generally about it. I do think that the average American believes that what somebody does when they were a teenager 30 years ago is probably not relevant to how they are going to be performing as commander in chief and president of the United States," Obama said during a press conference. "I think people have pretty good judgment about that." [continues 337 words]
Democratic presidential contender Chris Dodd said Monday that he thinks children should hear warnings about the dangers of drugs as early as first grade. His comments on expanding drug education came after an Urbandale teen told Dodd she is troubled that she knows a lot of people who use or have used methamphetamine, including her brother. Dodd, a U.S. senator from Connecticut, held a campaign discussion about policies to help women and families at the House of Mercy, which provides drug rehabilitation and other services for women in Des Moines. [continues 341 words]
It seemed like such a sure-fire concept when founded in 1983: Have cops teach kids about the dangers of drugs in hopes they'll never use them. But the facts are that DARE - Drug Abuse Resistance Education - isn't as effective as once thought. That's why we agree with the Mason City School District's decision to end the program after more than 20 years. As is often the case in operating schools, it came down to the best use of available personnel. [continues 314 words]
Grinnell, Ia. - America needs to reconsider its punitive approach to "the so-called war on drugs," presidential candidate John Edwards said here today. "We're not going to build enough prisons to solve this problem," he told a crowd of about 800 at Grinnell College. The former North Carolina senator grinned when a young man sitting behind him on stage asked about drug policy. "Only on college campuses," Edwards joked before answering. He said he's especially concerned about mandatory minimum sentences for first-time drug offenders, which he said should be reconsidered. He added that too few drug offenders get treatment. [continues 210 words]
MASON CITY - After more than 20 years as part of the fifth-grade curriculum, the Drug Abuse Resistance Education (DARE) program is gone from Mason City public schools. The program was suspended five weeks ago when the officer teaching the course was placed on medical leave. The absence left the district with a choice: Use one of its two school resource officers to teach the program or discontinue the program. All of the officers are employees of the Mason City Police Department. [continues 236 words]
Despite what might be perceived as University of Iowa students dotting the police blotter for alcohol-related citations every weekend, the number of students with non-traffic criminal offenses fell to its lowest number in six years last year. Twenty-five percent fewer students were charged in 2006-07 compared with the previous academic year, falling from 1,678 to 1,274. Of those, there were 1,239 alcohol-related charges, including 400 for public intoxication and 621 for underage drinking topping the list. [continues 695 words]
Iowa still ranks in the nation's top 10 for the rate of addiction, and the number of people seeking treatment has gone down only slightly. Iowa's meth problem - once among the worst in the country - hasn't disappeared even as meth lab seizures have plummeted. Since Iowa enacted a pseudoephedrine-control law in 2005, meth lab seizures in the state dropped 77 percent in 2006 compared with two years before, according to the Governor's Office of Drug Control Policy. [continues 738 words]
Troops who are fighting the war on drugs across Iowa gathered Wednesday night for a round-table discussion with the state's drug czar. About 20 people turned out at Ankeny City Hall to talk with Gary Kendall, director of the Governor's Office of Drug-Control Policy. The meeting was billed as the first in a series of sessions for sharing information and comparing strategies in the pursuit of cleansing Iowa of drug and alcohol abuse. "Many of you are in the trenches, dealing with people," said Peter Komendowski, president of the Partnership for a Drug-Free Iowa, a co-sponsor of the event. "It's very important to hear what you have to say." [continues 254 words]
Thank you for your article "Prisons' Racial Disparity Raises New Debate" (Oct. 5). Your article highlights one of the most significant problems with our drug laws: If your drug of choice happens to be out of favor with the current lawmakers, then you are a criminal. But if your drug of choice is in favor, like alcohol or tobacco, then you have no problem. Excessive or addictive drug use may be a problem for many individuals and families, but it should not be considered by society to be a crime unless it affects others in a criminal way. Wrongful acts committed against others, such as assault or theft, should be prosecuted as crimes whether or not a person was under the influence of illicit drugs. Driving while intoxicated, which poses a great risk to others, should be prosecuted as a crime regardless of whether the person was using alcohol, illicit drugs or prescription drugs. [continues 148 words]
Return Federal Courts to Original Purpose. While the U.S. Supreme Court wrestles, again, with the issue of criminal sentencing in federal courts, Congress should revisit the disaster it created in the Sentencing Reform Act of 1984. The law was meant to address perceived sentencing disparities among federal courts. Instead, it flooded federal prisons with inmates serving very long sentences with no hope of early release - most of them caught up in the "War on Drugs." Congress established the U.S. Sentencing Commission to create sentencing "guidelines" that dictate precise sentences in every case (down to months) based on a complex matrix of factors. Early release on parole was abolished, and reductions for good behavior were nearly eliminated, meaning the sentence handed down is the sentence served. At the same time, Congress has gone on a bender passing mandatory-minimum sentences for a growing list of crimes that further restrict judges' discretion. [continues 361 words]
The U.S. Supreme Court begins its 2008 term this week. Tomorrow, the justices will hear arguments in an Iowa case that could affect criminal sentences in every federal courtroom in America. The outcome of Gall v. the United States will have a particularly profound impact on Brian Gall, a native of Eldridge and graduate of the University of Iowa who made what he freely admits was a poor choice in 2000 when, as a 21-year-old student, he got involved with a drug conspiracy as a low-level dealer of so-called "ecstasy" tablets. [continues 692 words]
Q: What is the Combat Meth Act? A: The devastating impact of meth spreads well beyond just drug users. Meth hurts families, particularly the children of meth users, as well as the larger community that gets hit with the damage this terrible drug inflicts on our society. Unlike other drugs, meth can be home cooked from easily accessible ingredients which has lead to meth labs and "super labs" in rural communities. Iowa recognized this problem early andEenacted strict stateElaws controlling the sale of precursor chemicals, reducing the availability of necessary ingredients for meth. Recognizing the early successes of Iowa's law, I co-sponsored the Combat Methamphetamine Act of 2005 at the federal level to bring similar controls to all states across the country. This legislation limited the amount of drugs that can be used to make meth that a customer can buy and mandated that pharmacies keep written or electronic logbooks recording the purchase of these drugs. [continues 384 words]
Vehicle Gained From Forfeiture in Drug Bust by Canine Whoever said that crime doesn't pay hasn't talked to the officers from the Forest City Police Department. OK, it doesn't pay a lot, but the money taken in from drug bust forfeitures has helped the department buy necessary equipment and will definitely add a new car to the fleet. The timing couldn't have been better. Just when the police department needed to replace the 1999 Ford Expedition, used by officer Andrew Klein and his drug dog Ceaser, the department took possession of a 2006 Dodge Charger the dog caught in one of his drug busts. [continues 1024 words]
Who decides the street value of confiscated drugs? In the Quad-Cities 119 kilos is said to have a value of $11.9 million. Yet, in Chicago, at O'Hare International Airport, in the same week, a bust of 20 kilos was valued at $400,0000. That is a difference of $80,000 per kilo. Are we to believe that it costs that much more in the Quad-Cities than in Chicago or is it just because $11.9 million sounds more impressive than $2,325,000? Eugene Jansma Morrison [end]
DAVENPORT -- A verdict of not guilty on money laundering charges Thursday brought a short-lived smile of relief to the former mayor of Wilton, Iowa, who was convicted later in the day on drug conspiracy charges. Outside the U.S. District courtroom in Davenport where his three-day trial was held, Richard "Dick" Summy said he was "a little surprised" by the jury's guilty verdict on conspiracy to manufacture and distribute marijuana. The jury deliberated about two and a half hours before reaching a decision at about 3:30 p.m. [continues 309 words]
Wilton Mayor Richard Summy balked at making a phone call to set up a marijuana supplier and asked for a lawyer during an interview with law enforcement officers shortly before his arrest last September. A video recording of the Sept. 25, 2006, interview was played Wednesday in U.S. District Court in Davenport, where Summy is on trial for conspiracy to manufacture and distribute a controlled substance and conspiracy to commit money laundering. Summy, Wilton's mayor of two years, was arrested three days later in Coralville, Iowa, where he was attending an Iowa League of Cities conference. The case is expected to go to the jury today after defense testimony. [continues 411 words]
The drug manufacturing and distributing conspiracy trial of former Wilton, Iowa, mayor Richard "Dick" Summy began Tuesday with jury selection in U.S. District Court in Davenport. Summy, 56, was indicted on charges of conspiring to manufacture and deliver marijuana. He was arrested in September 2006 on the federal charges at an Iowa League of Cities meeting in Coralville. After two years as mayor of the city, Summy resigned in October 2006, less than a month after he was charged. Law enforcement officers involved in a year-long investigation allege Summy worked with a Keokuk, Iowa, businessman to grow and deliver more than 100 marijuana plants between January 2003 and September 2006. [continues 228 words]
There was once a theory in the social sciences that traditional morality is held by the middle class. The rich could be sexually promiscuous and the poor could be promiscuous, but the middle class would find that unacceptable. If we assume this to be true, and if we assume that the rich are thieves as the left typically affirms, should we not then see the poor as thieves as well? No, because political correctness does not allow that conclusion, irrespective of any findings that it may be true or false. [continues 669 words]
Inside Iowa
