Obama Bags Bin Laden; Life Goes on in South Dakota

President Obama, Navy Seals, and U.S. spies have killed Osama bin Laden. They have also killed every other news story for at least a couple days.

So amidst the jubilation—and let's think about this a moment: when we have killed a person, and when many of our people have been killed over the decade, to protect our national security, is jubilation really an appropriate response?—I may as well clear the news queue. Here's my first potpourri post in the post-bin Laden world... which I have a pessimistic feeling will still feel very much like the world before it.

University Quality? What Quality? SDSU graduate journalism student Keith Brumley doesn't share Regents exec Jack Warner's happy-face approach to the budget cuts at SDSU... but he also argues that our push for size and research status is hurting our core education mission:

The budget cuts (so far estimated at $4.7 million) represent the first public consequence of SDSU's current policy to go for quantity rather than quality. The rush toward "big school" status with the emphasis on research rather than teaching is apt to become one of the boondoggles South Dakota's educational system is known for. Faculty payrolls at last report are frozen. This, along with the emerging expectation that faculty members should put more time into research (a.k.a. university funding and income), I wonder how it happens that our state educates anyone [Keith Brumley, "Budget Cuts Are Consequence of Going for Quantity of Quality," SDSU Collegian, 2011.04.20].

Rave SDSU-SHS Rant Getting No Traction: Journalists Seth Tupper and Kevin Woster have joined Bob Mercer in knocking SD-GOP chair Rep. Tim Rave's criticism of SDSU's appointment of Stephanie Herseth Sandlin as an adjunct professor. Tupper calls the manufactured issue "cringeworthy," a "misstep," and "just plain wrong." He also says criticizing the biggest university with lots of alumni and donors among the South Dakota electorate is dumb. Woster sees "few positives and many negatives" to Rave's attack and says it only shows the Republicans are deathly afraid of the former Congresswoman. Of course, Tupper and Woster are both SDSU grads, so the failure of Rave's attack to get traction is clearly a product of a vast conspiracy of liberal journalists and higher education... same way that Atlas Shrugged flopped at the box office because gatekeeping movie critics conspired to kill it, not because the movie sucks.

The Lord Taketh Away... But Not Too Much: The feds are in South Dakota to assess flood damage. Governor Daugaard's emergency management director Kristi Turman is warning homeowners not to get too optimistic about qualifying for individual assistance from Uncle Sam:

...to qualify for a similar declaration for individual assistance to homeowners, a large number of homes &ndash generally in a concentrated area &ndash must be destroyed or damaged so badly they are uninhabitable. They must be primary residences with losses that aren't covered by insurance.

"We know flooding has caused damage to many homes this spring, but we don't want people to get their hopes up about federal assistance for those losses," Turman said. "South Dakota has experienced damage to private homes in past disasters and been turned down for individual assistance. It takes quite a significant amount of uninsured damage to qualify. We certainly will be reviewing it closely" [official state press release, 2011.04.29].

More proof that the Lord will never give you more than you can handle, right?