Lexicon of Stupidity

On the front page of this mornings paper was an image with one of the more thought provoking captions I had ever read.

"ON THE STREET: As many as 3,000 people, mostly high school students, marched through downtown Santa Ana on Monday, protesting immigration legislation in Congress. Many are worried about attempts to make it a crime to be in the U.S. illegally."

At first glance, it makes sense. The headline might as well have read, "Teens protesting flavor of the month political issue" (read "found an excuse to get out of school"). Hey, it must be time for another election. Enough said, right?

The part that screamed "I'm the editor cuz my dad owns the company" was this, "Many are worried about attempts to make it a crime to be in the U.S. illegally". I'm not talking about a blurb between Dear Abby and Little Orphan Annie on page 11 of the entertainment section, this was the front friggin page.

Maybe this is just a problem of semantics. Is "illegal" a new hip complement and I just haven't been told. "Dude that is so popin' fresh it is illegal, yo. It's off the wiggity wack, bling bling, synergy, mission critical!" Or is there a new tiered value system that distinguishes something that is illegal from a crime? Does it go, Annoying, Frowned Upon, Illegal, Occasionally Enforced and then Crime. Does anything come after "Crime" like "Super Crime" or "Offending a Rich Person Who Can Afford 'More Equal' Justice"?