California to England: “No! Don’t Do What We Did!!!”

We’ve all heard stories about reformed drug addicts who go on the lecture circuit, warning high school students “don’t let this happen to you.” “Don’t make the same mistakes I made! Do you want to end up like me?? Do you want to look like me??? I’m twenty-five years old and you probably thought I was fifty-eight. Stay off drugs or this will happen to YOU!”

The British government is planning to ease its budget crisis by slashing a huge amount of funding for England’s top universities. What a neat idea.

Now imagine seeing the Before and After pictures of a meth addict. “This is me when I was a strapping 16-year-old high school linebacker.” “And here I am now. I’m 25, I look like somebody’s grandfather, I don’t have any teeth, I weigh 130 pounds and my back screams if I even try to pick up a grocery bag.”

Now here’s a Before picture of California in the 1970s. It had an education system that was the envy of the country; of the world. From several top universities on down to their public school system — everything was thriving. Booming.

Now, after thirty-odd years of “taxpayer revolts” — probably about as genuine as last summer’s “demonstrations” against health care reform — and several disastrous Republican governors, California’s education system is a wreck. It’s crumbling. Shattered.

England: Your little experiment has already been tried. It doesn’t work.

Scientists have discovered a mysterious new species: a sea slug that’s half plant, half animal. I didn’t think there was anything mysterious about this. Put it this way: find a TV set that’s tuned to Fox News, and you’re probably in a whole room full of these sedentary creatures.

And they vote.