Oh, the news......

According to today's newspaper, Mitt Romney is "exploring" another candidacy for President.  Just great--now we have a field loaded with Establishment Republicans.  There are Romney, J Bush,  Christie, even Huckabee.  Well, none of them will get my vote, if nominated.  We don't need more of these Big Government Republicans.

And, we've seen how well the Establishment Republicans have kept their campaign promises from last summer's primaries and November's elections.  They've been far more critical of their own party's members who actually tried to follow through on those promises than they have been on Reid, Pelosi, Obama, et al.  So now we are supposed to trust these guys, along with McConnell, Boehner, etc.?  Not this guy.

By the way, "exploring" a run for the Presidency is another way candidates are sneaky, if not dishonest.  "Exploring" doesn't require full disclosure of, say, donors.  And if and when they finally decide to make a formal declaration of candidacy, it provides another opportunity for free publicity.

Again, and I know I'm beating a dead horse, is there any day we can't pick up a newspaper and not read about another murder in the city or suburbs for that matter?  No, we're more worried about whether gays can be legally married.

The President is going to push for free community college tuition.  Hmmm......  I guess I should disqualify myself from this, but I won't.  I think it's a lousy idea for several reasons.  College isn't for everyone and, in fact, might not even be for most people.  "Free" might encourage folks who might do far better for themselves in some sort of training or apprenticeship programs.  And, of course, who will pay for this?  Some preliminary talk is mostly the federal government, but requiring states to also chip in some.  All in all, although I think a college education is a great thing--for some people--the President's idea is bad and, methinks, merely another campaign (Yep, he's still campaigning, always campaigning.  I know he can't run for another term, but he can try to improve how history views him and his Presidency.) stunt to energize one of his bases, younger folks.

BTW, speaking of college tuition......  I don't remember where I read this, but apparently the national teachers' union (I don't remember which of the two) expressed concern over the rising cost of a college education.  I certainly agree the cost is outlandish (and, again, we're more concerned over gay marriage than this).  But I wonder if the union(s), which certainly represent a good number of college teachers, have considered their own members.  Oh, I think good teachers are worth every penny they get, even more.  Bad ones...well, just think the opposite; they get far too much.  But how many of those college teachers, esp the tenured ones, teach only one or two classes a term--or even a year?  And, how many of them only teach a full-load of 12 or 15 hours a week?  K-12 teachers are with students 30 hours or more a week.  Oh, all of those papers to grade?  Well, more and more college teachers use, not essays, but Scan-trons.  The don't grade papers; machines do.  And at a lot of the bigger schools, as one of my college classmates who teaches at one noted, there are graduate assistants to grade papers and, in some instances, run seminars or even lectures on occasion.  So, teachers's unions, how do you address that in terms of skyrocketing costs?

The new U of M president wants his deans to focus on "diversifying" their departments.  I guess that means staff and students?  I don't know for certain.  Oh, he came up with all of the right phrases and catchwords.  I just wonder, though, if he should put his money where his mouth is.  What doesn't he resign and let some minority take his place in the interests of "diversifying?"  I suppose this is like paying one's fair share of taxes--let the other guy do it, not me.

With Congress, some folks want to fix "the most unproductive" Congress in history.  Why were the recent Congressional terms "unproductive?"  Can anyone, with a straight face at least, claim that ObamaCare is productive?  One article addressed the number of absentees in the Michigan state legislature, in effect, saying the legislators should be at work doing the state's business.  Well, in both DC and Lansing, maybe we should take a step back and say, "Whoa!"  Maybe it's good, very good, when Congress and the state legislature don't pass so many laws, laws that get in our way, laws that intrude on our lives and privacy.  No, "maybe" isn't right.  It is good if they don't pass so much junk. I'm still fond of, not "Don't just stand there, do something," but "Just stand there, don't do anything."

How much pain must an individual be in to commit suicide?  How tormented must one be?  Several recent posts on one of my college list serves have been about one of our professors who was later a president of Amherst.  He committed suicide a few years after being forced to resign by an opposing faculty.  I'm not at all blaming the faculty; after all, people have differences, big ones.  Not every difference leads to suicide.  But something did here.  He was a terrific teacher and a very friendly and helpful man.  (In fact, his son was one of the professors' kids who were bat boys for our baseball team.)  Still, it's hard to contemplate the pain, torment, torture......