Convicted child rapist runs church at YMCA

This is one of those stories that is so outrageous you can't possibly make any of it up.

A convicted child rapist has been charged with violating Pennsylvania's Megan's Law by failing to notify authorities that he operated a church in rented space at the Pottstown YWCA, according to The Mercury.

At the same time Guy Carlton Jones was acting as a pastor, he was free on $150,000 unsecured bail while awaiting trial in Montgomery County Court on charges of indecent assault, unlawful contact with a minor and child endangerment in connection with an alleged Feb. 16, 2007, incident at his home, the newspaper says.

It shows once again that you can't trust government to perform its most basic duty: protect its citizens.

For those who are smitten with Barack Obama and his flowery promises of "hope" and "change" and free health-care, good-paying job, the capture of Osama bin Laden and the return of U.S. prestige abroad, etc., get a grip. Politicians lie. They'll tell you what you want to hear. And despite your better instincts, you believe the politicians. The Iraq War. Katrina. One-sided trade agreements that export U.S. jobs. Our health care system. Closer to home, remember the Interstate 78 fiasco when 1,000 motorists were left stranded overnight on a highway while Ed Rendell was warm and cozy in the governor's mansion watching a basketball game? Government can't do anything right.

"Many Americans have too much faith in government and in laws," says columnist Charley Reese. "Government is like a retarded giant — very powerful but stupid."

More from one of my favorite Charley Reese columns:

Almost nothing government tries to do succeeds. Just looking back at the past few decades, it has — despite enormous expenditures — failed to find a cure for cancer, failed to stop illegal drugs, failed to stop illegal immigrants, failed to protect the American people from terrorists, failed to improve public education, failed to keep up with repairing the infrastructure, failed to eliminate the deficit, failed to eliminate the trade deficits, failed to curb inflation, etc., etc., and so forth.

I could go on and on, because virtually every program started by government has failed in its objectives or sputtered along in the most ineffective and expensive manner.

There is a simple explanation. Men do not become gods when they are elected to public office. To use the vernacular, "there ain't nobody here but us humans." All humans are fallible. They don't change just because their paycheck comes from the government. People on government payrolls are no more or no less honest, smart, stupid, vain, ambitious, etc., than people in the private sector.

We don't expect either perfection or miracles from the private sector, and we shouldn't expect them from the public sector.

The way to handle a retarded giant is exactly the way our Founding Fathers intended. Keep it simple. Give the government simple tasks, and not many of those. The way to keep it from usurping its legitimate powers is to maintain a divided government.

Read the story from today's edition of The Mercury about the convicted sex offender who set up a "church" at a YWCA building.

He didn't bother to notify authorities that he is a registered sex offender under Megan's Law and should not have been hanging around a facility where young people would congregate such as a YWCA.

Once again, the government can't protect you.

Read the full story by reporter Carl Hessler at www.pottsmerc.com