The rating of a college or university would be the sum of its departmental point scores at each degree level. That would provide a clear indication of the value of a degree from a particular school. It would trigger a weeding out of boondoggle programs, since a weak program is as expensive to maintain as a strong one. The cost savings would be significant at many schools.

Free college education shouldn't be the goal, for the reasons articulated below. What students and parents need a way to know that they are getting value for their tuition and fees. I would like to see the college ratings systems in use by U.S. News and World Report and NewsWeek replaced by systems that score each department within each college or university. The departmental score would be based upon factors such as the number of students who complete batchelor's degrees within five years of initial enrollment, and the number of students who obtain employment in their field of study within six months of graduation or go on to earn advanced degrees in the same field.

The bottom line here is that nothing of value can be free unless everyone involved in producing the good or service worked for free. To keep those people viable, everyone supplying the goods and services they need would need to work for free. That would mean all of us would work for free. In that kind of system, everyone would be incented to do the minimum needed to get through each day.. It is reminiscent of the factory worker in the Soviet Union who told a Western reporter, "They pretend to pay us and we pretend to work." Seriously, the Pilgrims attempted to construct such a society. Half of them starved.

People forget what college admissions were life before the standardized tests came into being. If the admissions office didn't know your high school, you were likely to be rejected. At some colleges you were reqwuired to attend their on-campus prep school before entering the Freshman class. At the Ivy league schools, you needed to attend the right prep school. To get into that your family had to have the necessary connections and be able to afford the equivalent of an extra four years of college expenses. Does anyone seriously want to return to that?

How about a show of good faith from the Saudi's: 1. Repeal your laws against preaching of false religion and posessing non-Islamic religious literature and symbols; 2. Abolish your religious police. After that, we might think about building a mosque near Ground Zero. I won't hold my beath waiting for 1 and 2 to happen.

BHO campaigned on his theme of "Change We Can Believe In", carrying the impression that he represented youth, dynamism and fresh thinking. If we look carefully at his ideas and policy proposals, we have to conclude that his newest idea was at least fifty years old when he was born!

Why are we conceding Obama's point by buying into his use of the word "reform" in regard to his health care legislation?

Reform presupposes an improvement over current conditions. The bills being pushed by the Democrat leadership in Congress--with Obama's passive aquiescence--are clearly a step backwards and cannot honestly claim the mantle of "reform".

The original form of the President's address--most likely crafted by David Axelrod and Rahm Emanuel--reminds me of something told to me by one of my high school history teachers. For a number of years in the 1930s, she attended a Catholic elementary school in Italy. The school house had solid walls at the front and back and windows on the sides. On the back wall was displayed a portrait of the King and on the front wall a portrait of the Pope. One day a Facist Party functinary showed up at the school with a large portrait of IL Duce, Benito Mussolini, and demanded that it be hung on the wall. The nun pointed out to him that she had only two places to hang a portrait of that size and both were taken. She then asked whether the...

Have you ever wondered why Barack was so deferential toward Hugo Chavez? Could it be that he would like to be a President-for-Life and have the same kind of power?

Just like we used to be able to buy official Joe DiMaggio, Willy Mays and Yogi Berra baseball bats, maybe we could have official Barak Obama, Rahm Emmanuel and David Axelrod brass knuckles.