Of the last few schools I have been associated with, two of them are pressing something that is truly troubling me. See like high schools and the like, they want big numbers because: 1. it looks good to have big numbers and 2. more people equals more paying customers. Because of this, these two schools are trying their best to improve retention. One school is looking at eliminating so called "killer classes", also known as strainer classes. These are classes that everyone in a major has to take, but few pass. It separates the haves from the have nots, the dreamers from the determined. The other school has asked teachers not to give exams, especially in the tough classes, until after the date to drop class. The key is that they want to make sure that they get paid before the student can bail out.

This is not what a college is supposed to be. It shouldn't be a place that just takes in everyone, takes their money, and makes classes easy for them. I want to make sure that engineers know how to build bridges. I want teachers who are certified. I want doctors who know where my ulna is. I don't want people who have just attended class and received a grade. I think these schools have lost focus. They are no longer institutions of higher learning, they are now corporations. What a sad state we live in.

For the past few weeks I have been very lacking in the internet department. Since we moved into the new house, we do not have internet. This means that the only internet access I get is at work. I have also felt somewhat uninspired to write, but now inspiration has arrived.

The New Yorker Magazine did what it was supposed to do as a magazine. It sold copies and got people talking. See, the New Yorker published a cover in which Barak Obama was caricatured as a man in full Muslim regalia in the Oval Office. In the picture, Barak is giving his militant-looking “pseudo-Foxy Brown” wife some dap (a fist pound). In the background the Constitution is burning and there is a portrait of Osama bin Laden on the wall. When it was published, some media outlets howled in outrage at the content of the cartoon, saying that it was mean, cruel, and wrong. Both major presidential candidates stood up to say that they were highly opposed to the cartoon; that it played on false stereotypes.

Now I’m not going to get on a soapbox about Republicans or Democrats or who is right or wrong, but over something that most people missed. It’s not that fact that the word “lampoon” has been revived in the current vernacular for the first time since Chevy Chase took his family to Wally World. It’s the fact that we as Americans can’t get a joke. We have been so spoon fed by media that we suffer the inability to think for ourselves. When I saw the cartoon, I got it. I thought it was funny because there are so many rumors that have swirled around about Obama that people actually believed some of them. This magazine has proven a very deep point, deeper than I believe it intended to prove: the fact that we have lost to ability to understand a political cartoon. Cartoons are supposed to make fun of people (with actual traits or presuppositions.) Impersonators for years have done this with great efficiency. Dana Carvey was one of the greatest Bush impersonators and created little funny vignettes with Bush #41 stating words like “nagonna doit, wouldn’t be prudent.” Bush 41 didn’t really get that sloppy with his words and even appeared on an episode of Saturday Night Live to set the record straight. Comedians and cartoonist have for a long time made fun of famous people, sadly we as Americans have lost the ability to “get it” with the comedic genius of what the New Yorker did.  

The truth is that we as Americans have several things going against us.

1. We are so spoon fed what is supposed to be funny or hip or trendy, that we lose to ability to act as an individual. We do whatever businesses, advertising, and entertainment say we need to do.
2. We have lost interest in who is going to be the next leader of the free world. Voter apathy is very high. We just don’t care because we know that the little guy doesn’t matter to anybody in government.
3. We have media overkill. At any point in time there are at least 4 major all-news channels on cable. There should be no need for that much news. Unless these news channels are covering the local fire department’s rescue of Fluffy out of Mrs. Johnson’s apple tree, I don’t care.
4. We will believe anything for a minute. We love a rumor better than anything. There are dozens of shows and websites dedicated to just rumors. Chat rooms and message boards are just full of fluff.