We live in a rural area, where meth and sex with minors are rampant. Yesterday's paper carried an interesting article on six child sex defendants claiming entrapment--they corresponded online with police officers posing as underage girls. The sting was that they were contact on a site that claims that everyone is over 18. Then the "girl" invited them to contact "her" on a different url or e-mail id, where "she" claimed to be only 13. They were arrested when they showed up to meet the "girl"--or at home if they continued to contact "the girl" online after learning "she" was underage. One guy got a judge to throw out a charge of "impairing the morals of a minor" because he never met a minor--he just was chatting with the cop.

In another case: a young guy pleaded guilty to three felonies involving sex with a minor, but got probation. Reason: the state's "Romeo Law" says that consensual sex between a minor and someone who's only 18 months older is a mitigating factor. A letter writer to the local paper protested against the guy being convicted. "I lost my virginity to a 19-year-old when I was 15," he revealed. "I practically wore out a 10-speed bike riding to her home whenever I could. Should she have been convicted as a felon?"