Strangest thing I have seen this political season

I would like to say that the strangest thing that I have seen this political season is the political ad of Ken Buck (talking about why he is better than Jane Norton) saying that he does not wear high heels, and instead wears cowboy boots with bull-droppings on them. (I think that Buck was trying to make a joke---not a very good joke---and if that is the worst that they can find, well...)

But I can't.

The strangest thing actually occurred in May (yes, I am a little behind in updating my blog). I was reading the Denver Daily News, a little local freebie newspaper that I occasionally read while waiting for the lightrail. And there was this ad.

The ad was from Kathleen Rosewater Cunningham (a candidate for the Governor of Colorado), and she was advertising for a Lieutenant Governor running mate and campaign manager (I am not sure if the person was supposed to function as both or not).

I just found it strange placing an ad in the classified section for a running mate. I am sure that it will not be the strangest thing we see this season, but it is currently my first runner for that prize.

(I do wonder if she actually was sucessful with her ad. Does anyone know? I have attempted to find information about her on the web without any success.)

Shooting people over lack of tenure

I will admit that I am a little shocked over the fact that a professor, Amy Bishop, decided to shot several of her fellow teachers in Alabama. And over tenure, to boot.

I am not shocked that another shooting has happened at a college. Shootings at universities, colleges, and high schools, just seem to be part of our modern life. I am not sure whether to blame the easy availability of guns, the lack of medication (or theraphy), or our society's overwhelming exposure to violence (video games and movies) for most of it.

But tenure? Ok, this worries me. Sort of.

I live in Colorado, a state that has abandoned the concept of funding for higher education.

(I jest---we are either 49th or 50th in higher education funding depending upon who you ask. That is not an abandonment of college funding; this is merely voters, tax payers, and politicans deciding that anyone standing outside of Starbucks with a tin can is capable of paying for their own education.)

Now I am not too worried about the campus where I go to school. I have heard several professors joke about the possibility of their checks shrinking. I figure as long as they can joke about having to sell pencils to the passerbys on Colfax that none of them are going to go postal.

Besides, we do not have any importance tied to our campus. Auraria Campus may serve forty percent of the college population of Colorado; but let's be honest, we are not known for anything else.

And most of the professors are adjunct professors, part timers, as far as I can determine.

It is the other colleges in Colorado that I worry about. But not too much. C'mon, can you think of any college that anyone would want the respect that goes along with being tenured at them?

And it was the respect that Amy Bishop wanted if I am reading the news reports correctly. Then again, she did shoot her own brother...decide for yourself what that might mean.