I think I'm safe when I say that Glen Wheeler of Winchendon, Massachusetts is not a good man.

• Wheeler was arrested in 1999 after a car chase and tried on numerous charges of sexually abusing numerous children -- friends of his young daughters -- and eventually pleads guilty to 2 charges of taking nude photos of children and 22 charges of child-rape. For these minor indiscretions, he is sent to jail for the horrific sentence of 3 to 5 years.
• He is actually FORCED to serve pretty much his entire sentence, and is released in the summer of 2004. He immediately changes his name to Shareef Qadeer (somehow, I don't think he converted to Lutheranism in jail) and tries to go on with his life. He moves into a mosque in Roxbury, MA, where his probation officers discover he's living with children. To escape this horrible miscarriage of justice and misinterpretation of a perfectly innocent situation, Wheeler -- I'm sorry, Qadeer -- does the only sensible thing: he flees.
• He was recently caught in a mosque in Tampa, Florida, as a fugitive and unregistered sex offender, and sent back to Massachusetts. Judge John McCann takes a long look at the circumstances that brought Wheeler/Qadeer before him, weighs the facts, and decides on the appropriate punishment: 10 years MORE probation, but this time they're really going to throw the book at him: they're going to make him wear an electronic monitoring bracelet. That oughta teach him to go on the run for a year.

Recently, a friend of mine invited to apply for a job with his employer. The pay, the benefits, everything sounded great. But there was just one catch: the job was in Massachusetts. I told my friend thanks, but there is NO sum of money or other enticements that could EVER persuade me to live in Massachusetts. I'm violently allergic to the sheer insanity that dominates that state.

(Accounts of the Wheeler/Qadeer case here and here. Predictably, the Boston Globe either doesn't know about this story, or doesn't think it worthy of attention.)