Technical explanations of the cost of a college education are well beyond my expertise but I am sure I understand at least a part of the story.

There are 371,164 persons on college campuses across the land. They are well paid because 31.7% of them are professors, 27.4% are associate professors, 25.1% are assistant professors and only 6.6% fill the low rank of instructor. 7.4% are lecturers and something called “No rank” make up the remaining 1.8%.

At so-called Category I colleges, average salary is $96,686 and the benefit package another $27,936. The latter refers to retirement contribution, medical insurance, disability income protection, social security, unemployment insurance, group life insurance, workers’ compensation premiums, tuition waivers for faculty dependents and, wherever required, moving expenses, housing, parking privileges, and cafeteria plans. Of course not all universities provide all of these and some provide very few of them. Still, we are concerned with averages. The total average compensation equals $124,924.

Dropping all the way down to Category IV, faculty in the above mentioned “no rank”, have salaries that average $62,523 and the benefit packages are, on average, $21,283. This is not bad at all, especially when you consider that professors make up 31.7% of all the faculty and Category IV “no rankers” comprise a mere 1.8% of the whole shebang. Associate professors across the categories (average compensation equals $93,105) are 29.2% of all faculty. So I believe they, along with their Big Brothers, the professors, (also called “full professors”), make a substantial impact on the cost of education. Thank goodness that each college has only one president or the economy would be bankrupt. (The distinction between “college” and “university” shrinks each year simply because more and more colleges prefer the prestigious label.) At Category I public colleges/universities, median salary for presidents is $400,000 and some of them top out over $1,100,000. Oddly, top salaries at Category IIA colleges where students earn only Master’s degrees, not Ph.D. degrees, some presidents reach ionospheric $1,680,000, challenging the football and basketball coaches as Big Guy On Campus.

What do presidents do to earn this kind of paycheck? The question has a built-in bias because it uses the word “earn” rather than “receive.” From the way the question is actually framed, the answer is obvious – NOT MUCH. The Peter Principle applies: “Employees tend to rise to their level of incompetence.” No place exemplifies this idea better than our “institutions of higher learning.”

The federal sequester, (the across-the-board cuts in federal spending) that took effect March 1, is an assault on the Sixth Amendment right to counsel. The sequester is financially squeezing federal defenders. Consider what is happening in the Southern and Eastern Districts of New York, which comprise the federal trial courts for New York City and some surrounding counties.

There are 280 prosecutors against 38 Federal Defender lawyers, who represent approximately 40 percent of the New York metropolitan area’s federal criminal defendants. The sequester will slash the budget of the defenders for the next six months by 20 percent by forcing these 38 defense lawyers to take an average of six weeks of furlough, more than one day a week. The alternative was laying off one third of the lawyers. As of now, the prosecutors will take no furlough…. In the landmark case of Gideon vs. Wainwright in 1963, the U.S. Supreme Court unanimously overturned a notorious decision that proclaimed that only in capital cases do defendants have a right to state-appointed counsel. But now, what we assumed to be a Sixth Amendment right is subordinate to good old-fashioned MONEY. Are you really surprised?

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A GOOD DOSE OF DEATH

Amnesty International has released its annual compilation of capital punishment trends. Only 21 countries were recorded as having carried out executions in 2012, the same as in 2011, but down from 28 countries a decade earlier. It said at least 682 executions were known to have been carried out worldwide in 2012, two more than 2011, and at least 1,722 death sentences were imposed in 58 countries, compared with 1,923 imposed in 63 countries the year before….[Don't ask me how 58 countries carried out executions when only 21 are recorded as carrying out executions. Mathematics is a mysterious thing.]

The big slayers, as per usual, were China, whose total was not released, Iran 314, Iraq 129, Saudi Arabia 79. The United States trailed badly with 43. People were zapped, hanged, bludgeoned and poisoned for a range of crimes including non-violent drug-related and economic offences, but also for “apostasy”, “blasphemy”, and “adultery.” [Hell, nothing wrong with making these capital offenses.] India, Japan, Pakistan and Gambia, all of which had seemed to aboard the anti-death penalty bandwagon have now reversed course. An Amnesty official in Singapore said, “Every human life is precious”. This is downright WRONG but you get the idea which, in general, is that killing is bad business and we can get along just fine without it. It doesn’t do much good for the anti-death penalty crowd to exaggerate and wander into stupidity. Of course the case against killing is made easy by the insanity of the countries that rely on it. In Iran, four people were executed last June for “enmity against God.” This should make atheists of us all.

It’s mostly Islamic states that are committed to butchering but please don’t let that influence your good opinion of Muslim people. Do you want a scorecard? Sure. You can’t tell your butchers without them: In addition to the above champions of death, we have Afghanistan, Bangladesh, N. Korea, Indonesia, Ghana, Palestine (those sweethearts who would restrict the penalty to Jews, if they had the power to do so), Somalia, Sudan and South Sudan. Small fry trying to make names for themselves.

The USA is fiendishly trying to maintain its status as a big leaguer with its 43 executions: Texas (15) and Mississippi (6) lead the way but don’t count a few others out as mere pretenders to the throne. Awaiting their moments to die are 77 others in such hotbeds of common sense as Florida (22), California (13) and Pennsylvania (7).

Cuba, that godawful bastion of communism, does not have even one person under sentence of death. Don’t you just hate Fidel Castro?

[Or is dat "nohow."]

Back in the 1990s, the Supreme Court said that while prisoners have the right to pursue a legal claim, they don’t have “an abstract, freestanding right to a law library.”

For years after the ruling, even though it no longer had to, New York required its county jails to maintain a supply of legal reference materials, such as various chapters of New York State Consolidated Laws and case law digests.

But as times of plenty have faded, New York has decided that the law library is an unaffordable luxury. After finding that the mandate imposed a “significant cost upon each county,” New York’s prison commission is proposing to relax the regulation and allow county-run prisons to shutter their libraries.

The prisons would still be required to provide access to law materials — such as electronic or photocopying services — but they wouldn’t have to keep actual books on hand inside the facility, according to the regulatory notice posted in New York’s weekly register this week.

The state also wants to dispense with prison typewriters. The state notice states that “eliminating the requirement that facilities obtain and maintain typewriters will save the counties the costs associated therewith.”

Cyprus is a chunk of junk, a piece of garbage that stinks to high heaven and yet is being treated with tender mercies, love, and undeserved concern. Newspapers are squandering a lot of good ink on the most trivial plot of earth on the planet.

The International Monetary Fund is making demands of one sort or another in exchange for a bailout of $12.8 BILLION. That’s “billion,” not “million.” Why bother? The country is small enough to bomb to smithereeens. We need to make sure none of the inhabitants escape. Once upon a time, Cyprus grew red grapes but now it mainly produces sour grapes. The people in the Euro Zone who voted to let Cyprus join them in 2008 are morons. The country produces nothing of value and young people who have legs and brains are fleeing in numbers that defy the counting skills of anybody left who is over age 40. I have a proposal for the IMF. Give me $3 billion, a saving for the IMF of $9.8 billion. Then, as the saying goes: TRUST ME. I will put the money to good use. TRUST ME. I will take a lousy $30 million off the top for my fee – 1% – and use the rest to bomb the island, gas the survivors, and transplant the prettiest of their copious prostitute trade to places like Ann Arbor, Michigan, where they are desperately needed. TRUST ME. I know what I am doing.

On average, female nurses earned $51,100 in 2011 while male nurses collected $60,700. But the females are lazy louts. They prefer working part-time. By “part time” I mean they stay home to have the easy life: wash their husbands’ clothing, clean the house, make the beds, do the cooking and shopping and attend to the crying babies. In short, they don’t deserve big bucks.

Men are concentrated in the exotic corners of the profession. They make up 41% of the nurse anesthetists and bring home $148,000 whereas the gals are 92% of licensed practical nurses and they make just $35,000. Good! Down on your knees, ladies and scrub the floors. To further enhance their natural superiority, male nurses are likely to have doctoral degrees and the female of the species doesn’t even know what that is. The bean counters tell us female registered nurses who work full-time still earn 7% less than their male counterparts.

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Doz5w2W-jAY

Eva Longoria is calling for a hefty increase in taxes on the rich which, she doesn’t mind admitting, includes her. Why does she want that? You don’t have to be as brainy as she is to see why. It is all gain and no loss i.e. a so-called win-win situation: In a world where income and burdens are more equitable WE ALL end up winners. Eva knows that; Pul Ryan doesn’t.

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Eva won no prizes at last night’s Awards In Celebration Of Themselves and for that she should be grateful. Naturally, I did not watch but I expected that the son of C. Day-Lewis would win “Best Actor” because, after all, what else and who else? He’s the best since Boris Thomashefsky, who, if you don’t know, is the grandfather of Michael Tilson Thomas.

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Here’s Mike conducting the final movement of a Pete Tchaikovsky symphony. Hey, don’t get me wrong. Just because I memorized the music of this symphony in only 200 listenings in the interval from 1951 to 1956, you shouldn’t think it means much to me.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mctpTyIBt_I
Note, please, Mike has inherited a lot of histrionic skills from Grandpa. Indeed, he performed in a TV special about THE GREAT MAN. Sorry, you must come up with $2.99 if you want to view it.

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At long last, after a reign of only 2000 years, Neville Marriner is stepping down from his post at that symphony orchestra whose name cannot be remembered. He is being replaced by the King of Subway music, Joshua Bell. Here is Josh, picking up a dollar an hour for his troubles.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z0KdAXLSO0Y

YOU KNOW NICK. A few of you don’t. His website, American Tribune, is one of the best. Pop over to the right side of this page and click on it for much more.

Here’s an abridged excerpt from Dr. Nick.
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I believe personally and professionally (PsyD) that there’s a basic nexus between the pathological individualism of those who commit mass-murder and those who impoverish millions of families in pursuit of personal profit and power.

There can be no excuse or rationale for such inhumanity. So much tragedy, so much grief, so many answers that will never come…

Less diagnostically apparent to many are those who project their self-hate upon society as ideological conservatism in the personal quest of wealth, privilege and property.

While some are recognized as criminals, convicted and imprisoned, studies show that four times as many corporate executives have the pathological dysfunctions of psychopaths: histrionic, narcissistic, and compulsive personality disorders.

Humanity has dealt with them throughout history in one form or another. Prior to the advent of GE’s Ronald Reagan to the White House, many of these pathological types were recognized and treated in mental facilities.

Gradually, these institutions were shut down and such individuals were ignored until they became criminalized or, far more often, rose in positions of the law and political/corporate authority and control.

From the 1960s to the present, cadre such as Paul Weyrich and Lewis Powell have sought dictatorial power from the bottom-up by stacking governors, legislatures and the courts. Not having enough masses to rule in a democracy, they rely upon the money of ultra-right billionaires.

Republican governors rule in 30 states along with 26 state legislatures, the US House of Representatives and the US Supreme Court. Sooner or later they’ll also control the executive branch and the Senate. Aside from a democratic revolution, what’s left for the masses?

In a number of these states, such as Michigan, they rule thru the governorship, legislature, state Attorney General, Secretary of State, and the state Supreme Court…despite the fact that Michigan voted for Obama by 16 points.

The Michigan Republican legislature rammed some 300 bills in the lame duck rush. Most of them are yet to be signed into law by Governor Rick Snyder, but only due to the fact that the Clerk was so swamped they are not yet written. Virtually all of them are corporate-written “model bills.”

The ultra-right cadre’s Order of Battle comes down from billionaire corporateers such as the Waltons, DeVos, Kochs, Murdoch and Adelson to their senior operational cadre ruling thru faux-patriotic organizations such as the Alliance Defense Fund, Karl Rove’s American Crossroads, Paul Ryan, Grover Norquist, Jim DeMint (soon to resign from the US Senate to head the Heritage Foundation for a $multi-million annual salary), and of course the Americans for Prosperity (AFP) and the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC).

Unlike the Democratic Party, whose membership and goals are rather eclectic, Republicans are quickly becoming a wholly centralized body under a form of (state capitalism) much as Stalin once ruled.

There is nothing they won’t sanction toward those goals. In fact, the Republican Party is already a disciplined cadre of a corporatist criminal conspiracy………….For more, much more, get thee to another website —Nick’s.

I have often walked down L’avenida Aventura in Mexico City and observed the parade of chiclets. Boys from age 10 to about 13 stand in the middle of this gigantic thoroughfare and sell small packs of Chiclets. Mainly they are each other’s best customers. The new boys take the Chiclets and sell them on another street. Their best customers are the first set of boys who, by now, are on their way home. The first gang then turns around the next day and sells them – once again to the second set. And so it goes, round in a circle.

We have here an instance of a perfectly balanced budget. No deficits, no surpluses. If boys this age can work out perfect economies, why can’t we?

Among the tickers that most interest me, (even if neither is in the top two), are my heart and the U.S. Debt clock.
So far as the first goes, I’ll say just this – I’m okay and hope all of you are, too.

http://www.usdebtclock.org/

Crazy to try to put these in any order but these are the ones that most impressed me. Again, NOT in any order.

1. The continued parade of massacres by insane persons, usually on children.
2. The never-ending salute to the “legitimate” hunting activities of deer, squirrel and other animals by demagogues from Obama on down in their efforts to mollify and curry favor with rabid-dog riflemen.
3. The extraordinary willingness of the American public to accept the trivial tax increases proposed by Obama on persons making more than $250,000/year and his fear and trembling at the idea of a 45% tax on that portion of income exceeding $1 million.
4. The unthinking acceptance of the American public and their brainwashed “liberal” dupes of the notion that gun violence is mainly a matter of much better gun control: elimination of the right to carry or own so-called automatic assault weapons, stricter regulation of who can obtain licenses plus a variety of other foolish measures.
5. The bold, hot, OPEN pursuit by congressional Republicans to preserve their ill-begotten gains.
6. The continued mind boggling indifference on the part of Congress and the Administration of animal welfare laws including the Marine Mammal Protection Act, and the ignoring of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (to which the USA has been a party since 1973).
7. The unjustified condemnation of Israel for its allegedly genocidal treatment of Palestinians, combined with the dogmatic refusal of Hamas, Hezbollah, and other Islamist terrorist groups to publicly admit Israel has a right to exist.
8. America’s paltry efforts to supply humanitarian aid to starving, diseased people throughout most of Africa, combined with the abominably miserable level of charitable giving by the American public [well under 2% of income of those with $100/000 per year].
9. The astonishing attack on medicare and social security from people who would be President and Vice President.
10. The blind fury of millions of Americans and their sense of outrage and indignation directed at a certain man because he may have lied about how he was able to make the wheels of his bicycle turn over so quickly while riding in races in France.

I’m sure I am forgetting much else. Chip in with your thoughts. [But not on my failed grammar.]