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Health & Fitness

The State of Iowa Fires All the Wrong People & Keeps All the Wrong People

The State of Iowa has not elected a woman to the governor's mansion, to the U.S. Senate, or to the U.S. House of Representatives. No state in the nation other than Mississippi can claim that dubious honor, and I think I'm beginning to see why. A picture of what is ugly and mean-spirited about this state is beginning to emerge.

We've had two very recent examples. The Iowa Supreme Court ruled, not once but twice, that a dental assistant could lose her job and be fired for being too attractive and an alleged threat to a dentist's marriage because he was simply unable to control himself. Disgusting. A national joke.

More recently, the second in command at the Iowa Law Enforcement Academy asked three female cadets if penis size mattered:

"Michael Quinn, 70, asked three female students whether 'penis size matters' during a sex abuse investigation class in June 2012, according to a complaint filed by Dubuque County sheriff's deputy Jessalyn McKeon. She said she was 'so appalled I could not give an answer' after Quinn put her on the spot."

He's keeping his job.

Larry Hedlund, a Department of Criminal Investigation supervisor and employee of good standing for 25 years with a clean disciplinary record, was fired for reporting Gov.-for-Life Terry Branstad for speeding in his black SUV, but the second in command at the Iowa Law Enforcement Academy who thinks that penis size is an appropriate subject for discussion with female law enforcement cadets is keeping his job.

Really, Iowa? Really? 

It's not just the Republicans, either. It's also the Democrats. The Republicans are more overt in their War on Women nationwide, but when Democratic men in Iowa were bashing Hillary Clinton in 2008, they sounded just like the right-wing Republicans who started the Hillary-bashing in the first place. Johnson County Democrats were the worst among them.

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