Doonesbury by Garry Trudeau for August 06, 2012

There actually is a for-profit school called Walden University.

Yes, they advertise on television. At first I thought it was a Trudeau joke but no, it’s real. Imagine how proud you’d be to introduce your son or daughter as a Walden grad ? Sort of like getting a B.S. degree from Slaggard U.

NASA rocks.

Funny, I was under the impression that most colleges are in it for the dough.

Amount of federal money in 2010 that went to….

Jerry Falwell’s Liberty University: $446 million……..http://themoderatevoice.com/111406/student-loans-private-universities-and-npr/

Out of curiosity, what kind of degrees are offered at Liberty U? A B of S seems unlikely, as they deny most science. Are they just turning out ultra-conservative ministers?And how is it that they are getting ahold of almost 1/2 a billion dollars annually? That’s almost what the failed solar energy company here in CA cost the gopvernment, but that was just a one-time loss.

Er, sorry, can you help a Brit understand that? We always thought your universities weren’t subsidised like ours, and that’s why the fees were so high (a policy our government is now desperately trying to emulate…). How does Liberty Univiersity get close on half a billion dollars in a year, and is that what it gets every year?

Well, more people attend Falwell’s university than listen to NPR.

the Right funnels government money to the schools that push their version of “God”. called “Faith Based initiatives” started under Bush. University’s versions of Home schooling. Got to get God in there somehow.

Facts do get in the way. that’s the culture wars in America. God must be in everything America does or else we are Communist/Socialist Surrender Monkeys or Muslim Usurpers. the only separation of Church and State is where they spend the public’s money. separate our money from the State to spend it on the Church of their “choice”. which is the only Choice allowed in America today. Which God is The Better God. aka home schooling, dumbing down kids to keep America voting for our Owners. the ignorant stay in perpetual bliss. Does well the Religious people in America..

Education is a form of Socialism. and we all know socialism is bad. those funky Europeans have that and we Americans don’t go there. American Exceptionalism is the way.

I worked for an agency that provided rehabilitation and training for people with disabilities, if they appeared to be able to work and if the rehab and training were needed. I saw instances in which individuals who scored at, or nearly at, the developmentally-delayed range (formerly known as “retarded”), would be recruited by these for-profits and trained to operate semi trucks. No WAY could they get a job in this field. Wait! There’s more! The schools required that students sign contracts to pay for all of the schooling, not just the first semester or whatever. Sometimes the students would come to our agency, expecting us to pay for the whole concern after the fact. The for-profits appeared to spend more money on recruiting students than on training them.

Well, there are those associate Walden more with Walden Pond and Thoreau than with Doonesbury, but never mind. I guess Walden University is actually an “online university,” there does not appear to be a brick and mortar type of Walden University…

Just saw the comment above mine. Didn’t mean to repeat, but right on, TimeWeaver!

The website viewers alone of NPR.org is 13.7 million per month. It is tough to measure how many tune in to NPR, but that is the number for those who check out the website. Thank God, way more than those who attend Liberty University…

Does Bernie have an Afro-American relative?

As a conservative, fiscal more than religious, I have no objection to cutting student loans (88%) or grants (12%).

As a liberal, I have a great objection to cutting student loans. But also, I live with a conservative who had to work his way through med school and he too has a great objection to cutting student loans. Too many super talented people would never be able to make it through college without student loans. College is not inexpensive.

For profits tend to have a much higher grad rate since they are actually held accountable for it. Along with grad rate, defaut rate and actual employment rate in the field. Non profits and publics on the other hand are indeed subsidized by the federal and state governments and $0 gets paid back whereas for-profits actually have to pay taxes.

Heidi, if you hadn’t gone to a religious school you wouldn’t be so quick to tell a lie. And we all know who Jesus said is the FATHER of lies and the Original Liar, don’t we? All GOOD Christians do know, and act accordingly. Hallellujah, cistern.And brethren.

I think that in my life I may have met two, or three Christians.I read the book a couple of times and the standards are rather higher than many seem to think.

Naa, they’re accredited. How they can remain accredited and “teach” young-Earth Creationism alongside Evolution is more of a mystery. I wonder what the Biology tests are like….

1) Evolution is defined as… a) survival of the fittest. b) a change in the frequency of alleles within a gene pool from one generation to the next. c) evil.

2) Evolution is impossible because… a) thinking about the implications makes me feel uncomfortable. b) the Earth is only about 6,000 years old and evolutionary processes would take millions of years to have created the diversity of plan and animal life. c) all of the above.

3) Do you reject the Scientific Method and all worldly knowledge that imperils your immortal soul? a) yes. b) no, I worship Satan.

Trudeau started drawing Doonebury at Yale in 1968 and it went national in 1970. I believe the name Walden was a nod to Thoreau.

The for-profit Walden University also started in 1970, but I believe (hope) that was a coincidence.

Has English become the dumbest language on earth? With insults doubling as compliments, it sure looks like it!

“. . . websites that present the “fundamentals” . . .”πSharuniboy, check out www.educatetruth.com

I pulled my grandson out of an otherwise, extremely good private Christian School, after 7th Grade, when it was apparent that their fundamentalist/creationist approach to teaching science was contrary to common sense and good science.He’d been at that school since pre-school daycare. I was worried about the transition to a Public Middle School ( albeit, an excellent one ). I shouldn’t have. He not only adjusted well but found many of his friends had transferred to Public school for the same reasons, even though the Christian school was K – 12. He’ll be entering his Senior year in a couple of weeks, at a very good public high school.

Yes, NASA rocks! LIberty university, and the Office of Faith based idiocy, er excuse me, “initiatives”, do not. Both should be totally cut off from federal funding, as said funding is totally unconstitutional.

For less than the cost of a movie ticket, Americans now “own” part of a tremendous opportunity for science to satisfy some of our curiosity, well for those who have any.

The rage in “for-profit” on-line universities is becoming as big a joke as Liberty, and other hypo-Christian diploma mills. It’s part of why Americans deride “education”? Folks still come here from around the world to attend our REAL universities, while Americans settle for “Farcebook U.”, and we wonder how Rush and the “conservatives” get their followers, and “facts”?

“. . . Get a clue.”πSorry, but your post failed to bitch, Tacopielvr.

Good. The nation could use a spotlight on this subject for a week.

I think Liberty cranks out a bunch of third-rate lawyers who seek to tunnel into the federal government and destroy it from within. At least, when Dubya was “President”.

Obama seems to be just starting to eat Romney’s lunch. Check out:πhttp://www.examiner.com/article/updated-obama-versus-romney-polls-10-key-battleground-states-3πOh wait, that shouldn’t be lunch. That should be Romney’s $999.99-per-plate din-din at the Ritz.

“. . . being a conservative bigot racist pig.”πDo you also enjoy French-kissing a rattlesnake, bhinkle?

“. . . I dislike slang so much.”πCuz slang bitches?

The problem with the science courses is that you CAN’T graduate in 4 years. The only reason my hubby compleated his areospace degree in 4 years and not the 5 they PLAN for it to take you was because he had over 12 hours AP credit.

Evolutionists deny most of science? Oh really? Wow. What a statement considering basically all of modern biology is based on evolution and what was learned by Charles Darwin all those many years ago…

It seems incredible as to what one can encounter in the comment section here!

When one sees such comments as those who deny evolution, it is tempting to ignore them. However, we ignore them at our peril. We learned that in Kansas a few years ago. Ignoring those folks is how you get state school boards who deny evolution and want creationism taught in public schools.

Medical science especially would suffer if we were to turn back the hands of time and deny what we learned in the 19th century. There are some who believe that we are on the brink of huge breakthroughs in terms of conquering disease and living longer, but we won’t get there if wallow in such ignorance.

MBA = More Bumbling Asses?

“You can only make up false information about conservative, family-oriented schools”The point is: not a day goes by without someone on the right coming on these forums and ranting against “big government socialist hand-outs”. And now we learn that Liberty U – paragon of Christian conservatism – gets $500 million in ‘socialist redistribution’ from the taxpayers. Adding to the deficit.Pulls the whole rug out from unda.

If your God is truly omnipotent, then surely it shouldn’t matter what we do, say or think as (S)He determines all that hanppens and all that will occur in any case.

This like clairvoyants and soothsayers – if they already know what is going to happen, then why are they not all billionaires already? And – if they know everything that is going to occur, then how come they expect us to pay BEFORE we come into money when they already know we will pay them once we get the windfall.

NASA Rocks! We used to have trouble landing craft on Mars, now we do it easily, now that we’ve taken out their air defenses…..

Just remember that you’re standing on a planet that’s evolvingAnd revolving at nine hundred miles an hour,That’s orbiting at nineteen miles a second, so it’s reckoned,A sun that is the source of all our power.The sun and you and me and all the stars that we can seeAre moving at a million miles a dayIn an outer spiral arm, at forty thousand miles an hour,Of the galaxy we call the ‘Milky Way’.Our galaxy itself contains a hundred billion stars.It’s a hundred thousand light years side to side.It bulges in the middle, sixteen thousand light years thick,But out by us, it’s just three thousand light years wide.We’re thirty thousand light years from galactic central point.We go ’round every two hundred million years,And our galaxy is only one of millions of billionsIn this amazing and expanding universe.

The universe itself keeps on expanding and expandingIn all of the directions it can whizzAs fast as it can go, at the speed of light, you know,Twelve million miles a minute, and that’s the fastest speed there is.So remember, when you’re feeling very small and insecure,How amazingly unlikely is your birth,And pray that there’s intelligent life somewhere up in space,‘Cause there’s bugger all down here on Earth.

“Creation science” = “I thinked it up, therefor I are.”

“my daughter finished her BS in . . . .”πBerkeley is a damn tough school. Grats, Mom!

“… It not proves there is life beyond our atmosphere but also takes another step towards confirming the theory of evolution . . . .”πIn 1859 Charles Darwin published Origin of SPECIES by Means of Natural Selection, not Origin of LIFE by Means of Natural Selection. The YECs are staring at the freckle the ends of their own noses when they claim that Darwinism FAILS to prove that life began from non-living materials.

“Um, did you look at the blog? If not, check out that and review your Mendellian genetics and try Signature in the Cell. Only five hundred pages, if you don’t count notes. I dare you to refute it.”We don’t need this thread hijacked by an “Evolution vs. Creationism” debate. I was on a forum that focused on just that topic and it went on for more than a week.A few points:a) the evidence for evolution is massive, in paleontology, morphology, geology, microbiology, zoology, botany, medicine, genetics, epigenetics, etc. etc. b) It has stood the test of, time, scrutiny, evidence and legal challenge again and again. Creationism has not. c) I am a Christian. d) I briefly looked at the blog you mentioned. I does not appear that he permits dissenting comments. I will look again. But what I saw so far is a fairly standard Creationist ‘attack’ – “this is all too amazing to just have arisen on its own!”It is amazing. But since YECs are forced to compress everything into a tiny timescale, they can’t seem to grasp the immensity of time within which evolution operates.

@miepR re your comment of yesterday:My comment had nothing to do with religion. It had to do with a promise made to stop potty mouthing in his comments. The rest of us use words that are fit for general consumption.. He may learn to increase his vocabulary, in a good way.

Can’t wait until GT starts talking about Myth Romney again.

Trudeau’s real talent show through when he is totally NON-political. Anyone can be a pundit, but few can be real humorists—-and he’s capable of hitting that mark from time to time.

“Cuz slang is counter to what language is to convey”πSlang IS language. Slang, along with every other element of language (such as satire, irony, figures of speech, etc.), IS “what language is to convey”. Slang in English often works its way into the language and becomes “standard”. The greatest of American writers, such as Mark Twain (S.Clemmons), often use slang to tremendous effect in a way that would make “standard” English (of the time) sound ridiculous. Example: Huckleberry Finn, perhaps the greatest American novel ever.

Great fun to come home to this last quarter. Thanks, all.

As a current student at a for profit school. I applaud this strip.

Sorry to be late back, blame the time difference, but thanks to those who explained the US system of government backed student loans. We have a single government-sponsored loan company, and very few for-profit colleges, but the push to get 50% into post-18 education means we’re getting similar levels of drop out in poor colleges. The loan company gets repayments through taxes, but only when the graduate’s income goes above a certain level – this strip can probably be rerun in the UK in about ten years time…

As for the origin of life debate, I have a question for creationists.If you believe in an omnipotent God, do you doubt his ability to use evolution as His tool? Could he not be the designer of DNA? The source of the spark in that slime pool where chemistry became biology? Would an all-powerful being micro-manage the creation of each plant, animal, microbe, mountain, stream, planet, star, and law of physics? Or would he metaphorically clap his hands, creating a God-sized bang, and let it all unfold from there?

How droll.