Ben Stein’s advice to the college-bound

Ben Stein’s got some advice to those headed to college. Among the list, “Be well-rounded.”:

You probably won’t call upon these subjects in your daily life when you enter the workforce, but they’re vitally important in teaching you how to think. And learning how to think is, above all, the main challenge you face in school. It’s true that you have to know certain basic facts, but you should also know how to approach a problem, break it down, solve it, and write about it. That’s why it’s important to take English composition, and take it seriously.

As they say, read the whole thing.

Dem Rep facing charges in assault at Dulles Airport

Representative Bob Filner (D-CA) is now facing charges following his alleged assault at Dulles Airport Sunday night. The charges were filed by the United Airlines employee who claiming he was assaulted.

According to the MWAA, Filner attempted to access an employees-only area and pushed aside an employee’s arm in the attempt. He would not leave the area when asked. Filner’s office calls that description “factually incorrect” and has said that Filner will have a full statement later – after he returns from Iraq to… visit the troops.

First, let’s just say that if he assaulted the employee then he should charged. (Based on past performances, I can’t say I’m confident that he’d be convicted of it, even if there were a dozen witnesses, a full videotape, and a newscast of Filner repeated yelling, “the bitch set me up!”) And if this is a case of a United employee getting his knickers in a twist over a casual brushed contact, then that employee ought to be exposed as the whiner he’d be in that situation. (I don’t believe the employee is lying, however. Call it an educated hunch.) I’m more curious about something else.

If the average Joe were to make a scene at an airport and then push his way past a credentialed airport employee into an area designated as off-limits to the traveling public, I daresay there’d be a bigger reaction than what’s happened here. It would be more along the lines of closing off part of the airport while a security sweep was performed, as called for in a perimeter penetration scenario. The individual in question would be immediately held by the MWAA police for questioning and there’d be some serious charges filed by the government, not by some lone airline baggage handler.

Of course, the average Joe wouldn’t be able to blow things off to go make a trip to “support the troops” now would he?

More to come as more comes up.