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Wednesday, January 19, 2005

School of Hard Knocks

Joking about a hypothetical home-schooled graduate degree barely rates a chuckle compared to true educational fraud. The mail-in diploma mills ("Since there's little, if any, coursework required, call it education by osmosis.") offer the best route to a pathetic downfall. This story is worth 100 Dilbert cartoons plus one bonus Office Space movie for comeuppenance.
("Dr." Laura) Callahan later warned him in a memo not to question her qualifications again. "Please be advised I will not tolerate any further derogatory comments from you about my knowledge, qualifications and/or professional competence," she snapped in the March 3, 1997, memo.
The whistleblower in this case is in a league with Sen. Boxer of the Barb on how to provoke defensiveness:
RICE: "And I would hope that we can have this conversation and discuss what happened before and what went on before and what I said, without impugning my credibility or my integrity.
...
Senator, we can have this discussion in any way that you would like. But I really hope that you will reframe from impugning my integrity. Thank you very much."

Can anyone tell me the difference between the defensive posture exhibited by a beltway tool who bought her "PhD" for $3500 and a beltway tool who was just plain bought, hook, line, and sinker?
Sen. "Numb" COLEMAN: Can you reflect a little bit on the oil-for-food impact on U.N. credibility and how do we move forward?

RICE: Yes, absolutely. I would agree with you that it is -- I'll use the word scandal. I think it is a scandal what happened with oil-for-food.
simply Shocking. Shocking. Shocking (what? U.S. a willing participant?)

But this is the actual truth -- Boxer quoting Peter Bergen:
We invaded an oil-rich Muslim nation in the heart of the Middle East, the very type of imperial adventure bin Laden has long predicted was the U.S. long-term goal in the region

4 Comments:

Professor Blogger JMS said...

Good heavens. Apparently, with a dollop of chutzpah, a swirl of incompetence, and perhaps a bulletin board chock-a-block with tear-off web addresses, I could be enjoying a six figure salary!

I'll have to tell my sister, who is actually just now finishing her MS in IS (from a school that isn't a converted motel 6) that there is government cheese to be had. The herd is being thinned! The cream is being clotted. Blah.

Sadly, the position of Secretary of State looks to be locked up...

11:46 PM  
Professor Anonymous Anonymous said...

Are you saying that Rice got her PhD from a diploma mill?

8:34 PM  
Professor Anonymous Anonymous said...

University of Denver

If you read carefully, I said she is a "beltway tool who was just plain bought", not a beltway tool that bought her degree.

9:13 PM  
Professor Blogger @whut said...

me above

9:14 PM  

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