Like I needed yet another reason to fear poor people. But on Tuesday, I heard President Bush tell a cheering South Carolina crowd that "some people could spend their entire five years on welfare...going to college." He went on to say that this wasn't his idea of helping people become independent, understand the importance of work, or achieve the dignity necessary to live a free life.

It boggles my mind that there are welfare mothers who are so ignorant, they believe that getting an education will help them get better jobs, provide for their familes, become better parents, and break the cycle of despair in their families. Having all that idle time has obviously affected their ability to think soundly.

Never mind that the "education President," the "leave no child behind" President made these remarks, and that he made them at a high school. Perhaps they don't teach irony at the Yale School of Business.

These are anxious times. Terrorist cells are plotting against the United States. Pedophiles are seducing altar boys and kidnapping little girls. The air and water are filled with toxins, and we are all eating genetically engineered food that has been soaked with poison. Drunk drivers continue to murder hundreds of Americans, and employees of drug dealers kill people in their homes.

And now this--welfare mothers seeking college degrees.

You have to be ever vigilant about the poor, for who knows what they are plotting, even as I write this. Rarely is the question asked: Is our poor people learning?