Also note the almost misty-eyed belief that when people turn to crime it’s because they “lack other opportunities.”  This deterministic view of individuals as cogs in society is pure Marx.  It is also stupid.  A lot of our criminals are well-educated and relatively well-to-do.  Think of the killer in the cinema in Aurora, Colorado.  He might have failed a graduate exam (but that can happen to anyone, and it was not lack of education), but he was exceedingly well-educated and well-to-do.  So was the professor who shot faculty colleagues.  The idea that poverty = crime is an insult to all the poor, law-abiding people out there.  It is also, on the face of it, laughable.  And yet our president is not ashamed to say this in front of millions of people.  He’s either completely out of touch with reality and wrapped in an impenetrable cocoon of indoctrination, or he thinks we’re stupid.  Take your pick.  Neither of the hypotheses to explain his statement is good or reflects well on him.

via The PJ Tatler » Big Brother Reads Minority Report.