Readers Digest <\/em>published my article on “The Federal Job Training Fiasco.” <\/p>\n**** from the book:<\/p>\n
\tAs a result of the uproar over the Reader\u2019s Digest<\/em> article, I was invited to speak on a panel at a conference run by the Iowa Economic Development Fund, which ladled out JTPA funds throughout the state. The organizer wanted to expose Iowa job trainers to the controversies swirling around JTPA. Though I expected much of the audience would be hostile, I figured I might learn something from the attendees. Besides, the gig was in Iowa – and I had barely set foot in my birth-state since hastening through on my way to the Idaho Jamboree in 1969. <\/p>\n\tOn a gloomy November day in a semi-upscale yet drab Des Moines hotel, I led off the \u201cnational issues\u201d panel. I pointed out that the feds were exercising no oversight, the summer program corrupted kids\u2019 work ethics, and that JTPA success claims were a sham. <\/p>\n
\tI thought at first that the audience was in shock at my comments but then I realized that their mouths never closed. My attempts at humor worked about as well as they had with Romanian border guards.<\/p>\n
\t Ray from Department of Labor headquarters spoke next. Ray was the prototype angry white bureaucrat, with thick glasses and an even thicker scowl. Ray looked upon me as a lowlife who\u2019d crawled out of the sewer and who deserved pulverizing once and for all. He vehemently disagreed with everything I said. He quoted from my early writings to prove I was a nut case who wanted to abolish federal job training programs. <\/p>\n
\tPshaw, I never claimed to be a moderate.<\/p>\n
\tI was surprised that the audience remained comatose during Ray\u2019s presentation, despite the castigation he lathered upon my work. <\/p>\n
\tThe final speaker on the panel was from one of the national business organizations fattening off JTPA. He was fiftyish with a puffy face, empty eyes, a sloppy comb-over, and a paunch-stressed shirt. But when he was handed the microphone, he leaped out of his chair, started rotating his shoulders and roared, \u201cWell, now I am going to liven this up!\u201d He stomped his foot and bellowed that my writings \u201cwere so unbalanced, so biased, and so inaccurate that no Iowa high school teacher would have given them a passing grade!\u201d The crowd finally came alive, emitting a cheer that would have done any nursing home proud.<\/p>\n
\tThe lobbyist insisted that paying teenagers for playing basketball and talking about sex was a good program because it \u201crestored their respect for the system.\u201d He swore that JTPA was doing fine – except for a few crooks who had exploited the system. When he proclaimed that the main problem with JTPA was that the Inspector General was biased, the crowd roared.<\/p>\n
I began to suspect that I had mis-gauged the audience\u2019s cognitive level.<\/p>\n
\tHe kept telling the trainers that they were all good people doing a wonderful job, and the crowd went wild. He thrashed the air with his fists and got redder in the face as his eyes vacuumed up the audience\u2019s adulation. It was like a giant group therapy meeting – \u201cYes – we are the most caring of them all!\u201d It was morally inconceivable that anything done by such fine people could ever harm the downtrodden.<\/p>\n
\tThe conference wrapped up with an orgy of awards. The plaques and honorifics probably impressed small town newspapers and lured more sacrificial lambs into the programs. But all the accolades failed to prevent job training corruption from spawning one of the biggest political scandals in Iowa history the following decade. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Okay, that headline is a bit of an overstatement. They were too lethargic to be a lynch mob. But much of that audience would been happy to see a liberal dose of tar and feathers applied to my hide. Following is an excerpt from the “Lambasting the Labor Department” chapter of Public Policy Hooligan. The […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4247","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\n
How I Dodged an Iowa Job Trainers Lynch Mob - James Bovard<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/2013\/02\/19\/how-i-dodged-an-iowa-job-trainers-lynch-mob\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"How I Dodged an Iowa Job Trainers Lynch Mob - James Bovard\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Okay, that headline is a bit of an overstatement. They were too lethargic to be a lynch mob. But much of that audience would been happy to see a liberal dose of tar and feathers applied to my hide. Following is an excerpt from the “Lambasting the Labor Department” chapter of Public Policy Hooligan. The […]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/2013\/02\/19\/how-i-dodged-an-iowa-job-trainers-lynch-mob\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"James Bovard\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:author\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/jim.bovard\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2013-02-19T17:17:24+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Jim\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@jimbovard\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Jim\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/jimbovard.com\\\/blog\\\/2013\\\/02\\\/19\\\/how-i-dodged-an-iowa-job-trainers-lynch-mob\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/jimbovard.com\\\/blog\\\/2013\\\/02\\\/19\\\/how-i-dodged-an-iowa-job-trainers-lynch-mob\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Jim\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/jimbovard.com\\\/blog\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/79550830ad81c14be529a2c37469974f\"},\"headline\":\"How I Dodged an Iowa Job Trainers Lynch Mob\",\"datePublished\":\"2013-02-19T17:17:24+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/jimbovard.com\\\/blog\\\/2013\\\/02\\\/19\\\/how-i-dodged-an-iowa-job-trainers-lynch-mob\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":674,\"commentCount\":2,\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/jimbovard.com\\\/blog\\\/2013\\\/02\\\/19\\\/how-i-dodged-an-iowa-job-trainers-lynch-mob\\\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/jimbovard.com\\\/blog\\\/2013\\\/02\\\/19\\\/how-i-dodged-an-iowa-job-trainers-lynch-mob\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/jimbovard.com\\\/blog\\\/2013\\\/02\\\/19\\\/how-i-dodged-an-iowa-job-trainers-lynch-mob\\\/\",\"name\":\"How I Dodged an Iowa Job Trainers Lynch Mob - James Bovard\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/jimbovard.com\\\/blog\\\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2013-02-19T17:17:24+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/jimbovard.com\\\/blog\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/79550830ad81c14be529a2c37469974f\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/jimbovard.com\\\/blog\\\/2013\\\/02\\\/19\\\/how-i-dodged-an-iowa-job-trainers-lynch-mob\\\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/jimbovard.com\\\/blog\\\/2013\\\/02\\\/19\\\/how-i-dodged-an-iowa-job-trainers-lynch-mob\\\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/jimbovard.com\\\/blog\\\/2013\\\/02\\\/19\\\/how-i-dodged-an-iowa-job-trainers-lynch-mob\\\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\\\/\\\/jimbovard.com\\\/blog\\\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"How I Dodged an Iowa Job Trainers Lynch Mob\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/jimbovard.com\\\/blog\\\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/jimbovard.com\\\/blog\\\/\",\"name\":\"James Bovard\",\"description\":\"\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\\\/\\\/jimbovard.com\\\/blog\\\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/jimbovard.com\\\/blog\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/79550830ad81c14be529a2c37469974f\",\"name\":\"Jim\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/d95466cfd0934e38803c5035629df727ae4ec1f3f96c6883c05b5c52e2044505?s=96&d=mm&r=r\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/d95466cfd0934e38803c5035629df727ae4ec1f3f96c6883c05b5c52e2044505?s=96&d=mm&r=r\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/d95466cfd0934e38803c5035629df727ae4ec1f3f96c6883c05b5c52e2044505?s=96&d=mm&r=r\",\"caption\":\"Jim\"},\"description\":\"Bovard's homepage is at http:\\\/\\\/www.jimbovard.com He can be contacted at jim@jimbovard.com James Bovard is the author of ten books. The Wall Street Journal called Bovard \\\"the roving inspector general of the modern state\\\" and Washington Post columnist George Will called him a \\\"one-man truth squad.\\\" His 1994 book, Lost Rights: The Destruction of American Liberty, received the Free Press Association\u2019s Mencken Award as Book of the Year. His Terrorism & Tyranny won the Lysander Spooner \\\"Best Book on Liberty in 2003\\\" award. He received the Thomas Szasz Award for Civil Liberties work, awarded by the Center for Independent Thought and the Freedom Fund Award from the Firearms Civil Rights Defense Fund of the National Rifle Association. 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The Wall Street Journal called Bovard \"the roving inspector general of the modern state\" and Washington Post columnist George Will called him a \"one-man truth squad.\" His 1994 book, Lost Rights: The Destruction of American Liberty, received the Free Press Association\u2019s Mencken Award as Book of the Year. His Terrorism & Tyranny won the Lysander Spooner \"Best Book on Liberty in 2003\" award. He received the Thomas Szasz Award for Civil Liberties work, awarded by the Center for Independent Thought and the Freedom Fund Award from the Firearms Civil Rights Defense Fund of the National Rifle Association. 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