I did not know I was a communist until I moved to Idaho

The other day Glenn Beck became worked up over social justice. In Beck's world social justice is code for communism, Marxism, totalitarianism, Nazism, and bad acne. Beck advocated that his listeners run from clergy who uttered the phrase social justice. One of his targets, Jim Wallis, responded in today's Huffington Post.

Wallis writes "In countering Beck's misunderstanding of social justice on The Colbert Report, James Martin, an editor of the Jesuit America magazine, quoted a Catholic Archbishop as saying, 'When I feed the poor they call me a saint; but when I ask why people are poor they call me a communist.'"

That's it - an epiphany!  I did not know I was a communist until I moved to Idaho. If I taught that Idaho was embracing good policy by locking up every offender in crowded, dangerous facilities, then I would be greeted with open arms. But in my classes and on this blog, I present evidence about what works, what doesn't, and why. When I point out that white-collar crime results in more money stolen and more people killed and injured than street crime, I am a communist. Pointing out the racial disparities in America's prisons is just one of a long list of heresies. And suggesting that capital punishment is a failed public policy - I must sit at the right hand of Marx himself (actually I have a photo of me at Marx's tomb).

I can't tell you what relief I am experiencing now that I understand that I am a communist. Workers of the world unite!