Of course I don't look busy... I did it right the first time.

If we read about a country where a member of an ethnic minority not only can't vote, they aren't allowed to hold a job, get a driver's license or get health insurance, all only because of their ethnicity, we'd think it was a third world dictatorship.
Israel.
Those prohibitions apply to anyone of Arab descent, even the large number who are married to Israeli citizens. And those laws were just upheld by their Supreme Court.

Turns out the grout on the kitchen floor really is white. But even with the oxygen bleach I wore out two brushes.

Long day. For no particular reason I was wide awake at 2 a.m. and by 3 a.m. decided my brain wasn't going to shut back down. Might as well get some work done, so I spent the next few hours doing all the tasks for Sunday's worship service - picking songs, creating the lyric sheet, and putting together the slide presentation. As soon as Pam was out the door for work at 6:30 I went to work on the floors. At lunch I drove to Scottsdale to visit Carl, then to Sun City West to see Shirley H. who's in the hospital. Reid was there, too, and we had a nice visit.

One of the littlest kids at Pathway has a tentative diagnosis of Juvenile Arthritis. It's especially sad when a child gets sick, and never more so that when it's a chronic condition.

Some misc. observations to wrap it up and put it to bed:

I wish we'd never called them Junior Colleges. I don't know why so many students go straight to the University and pay WAY too much so professors can write and do research instead of teach. They could live at home, attend their Community College, get the same quality education for the first two years' of general ed courses, and then transfer to the U. for their career specific courses. They'd save a bundle!

I wonder if students and parents realize how much money colleges and universities make on room and board. Dorms are considered "free" buildings; the administration figures they don't cost anything to build because the students who live there pay the mortgage. Once the dorm is paid for it's all gravy. Meal plans are trickier, but the with the advent of private food service companies the college or university turns a profit there, too. And that's after they've paid the provider.

Textbooks are the biggest rip-off on campus. The publishers put out a new edition every year or two just so they can make more money. They send a free copy of that new edition to the prof teaching the course it fits, hoping he'll choose it as a required text. On the syllabus the prof has to list the edition of the book (it's the standard bibliographic format), thus discouraging students from buying used copies of older editions. The publisher has only made very minor changes, sometimes little more than page numbers. But when the prof assigns "pages 56-93" for next Tuesday's class and quiz, they need the new (and higher priced) edition to be prepared.
Once the book is on the syllabus as a required text the publisher has the market cornered, and thus textbooks are more expensive than any other type of book they put out. I saw very ordinary books in terms of their content and format sold for $70 and higher just because they were textbooks. And that was 10 years ago.
The college bookstore adds their markup, too. I once protested that an atlas I had on my syllabus for a freshmen course was too expensive and that if we were going to require it we should make it available to the students at the lowest possible price. The business manager told me that they could forego the markup for textbooks but they'd have to add the same amount somewhere else - tuition, meal plan, etc.
The bottom line is determinative.

Too many colleges add degree programs because they'll increase FTE. One more degree in the product line will appeal to a few more consumers (aka students), and that's good for the bottom line. They have to get the accrediting agency to approve the new degree and that requires some hoops you might not suspect. For example, the agency says that the college needs X number of books specific to that degree in the library to support student research and paper writing. Depending on the specific degree, the agency may require the college purchase the appropriate equipment and provide dedicated classroom space, or even hire additional faculty. With each of those requirements the margin at the bottom line gets narrower, so the efforts at recruiting students for the program get more vigorous. It will all work out if the new degree meets a need and does so effectively. If there's no need in the market place for plaid widget makers, or if the college can't compete with other institutions training plaid widget makers they have to eat their initial investment (including recruiting costs) or ramp up their sales pitch.
Check post-graduation job placement stats! The placement office should be as effective as the recruiting office.

OK, now I'm going to bed. 2:00 a.m. comes quickly.