The Pomp, The Circumstance...The Collateral Damage

While watching the CBS coverage of the inauguration...the puff pieces on the Oscar de la Renta gowns worn by the faithful at the (count 'em) 10 balls... the parade...the $40 million spent on this...thinking back to FDR's 1945 inauguration, wartime too, a $10,000 budget slashed to $2000 out of respect to fighting soldiers and bereaved families...FDR's brief speech, a plain swearing in at the White House (first and only time), and a lunch of chicken salad and unfrosted pound cake...

and then this...http://billmon.org/archives/001652.html...

What does this have to do with higher education, dear reader? Well, I am a professor, home now, time away from the office, the work, or the fighting for "freedom" that men and women half my age are engaged in...I have the time to do this, to watch this spectacle, to dip into the blogosphere...to think about where the heck our country is going.

Dan Rather blathering on about the Presidential Cadillac limo, with a concealed desktop and 10 disk CD changer and the protective glass...pretty pimped out...God help us.