Two ideas that may or may not be related. You decide.

Since Bush is so disliked, there is a tendency to forget history, especially when it deals with anything related to war. During Bush's presidency, there has been an average of 1,465 deaths in the military per year (through 2006). Clinton had an average of 954 military deaths per year.

Since Bush has been president, 160 military members have committed suicide per year. During Clinton's administration, the suicide rate was 190 per year. During Bush's time, an average of nine service people a year died in non-war related terrorist attacks (attacks on embassies, ships in a non-war zone, etc.). The average under Clinton was 16 deaths per year.

In the military, 84 percent of American fatalities have not been Hispanic or black. If all groups were dying equally, it would be about

72 percent. America, according the U.S. Census, is about 15 percent Hispanic, while deaths of Hispanics in the military are reported to be 5 percent.

The same is true for African-Americans. They constitute about 13 percent of population and 5 percent of military deaths.

So Bush is fighting a war in two countries with only 54 percent higher military death rates than Clinton had being diplomatic; or whatever he was doing when not behind closed doors in the Oval Office.

The weight of Bush's policies has not been on the backs of minorities.

In fact, if anything, minorities are being shielded.

Since perspectives very seldom appear in our society to be balanced, it is difficult at times to find an alternative voice. This, of course, is no defense of Bush's policies, and it certainly is no defense for the billions of dollars being spent on questionable foreign policy while the United States slips into bankruptcy.

Another perspective: America's schools are quite good at teaching bright students how to pass tests without learning any material. Consequently, we graduate huge numbers of students in both high schools and college who know next to nothing.

No action will be taken to correct this because everyone except the students and society as a whole benefits from the current arrangement, including, in the short term, both the students and their parents.

Educators live in their isolated cultural bubbles and observe Dewey's assertion that only educators can evaluate educators. The high priests of the profession are now totally agnostic, and their efforts are directed towards maintaining and enriching the socialized monopoly instead of advancing "education," which they no longer believe in.

It would be bad enough if our graduates were just ignorant, but the problem extends beyond that. Most of the students have never been taught to think. They have not even been taught to think incorrectly, let alone to think well.

The majority of people in almost all societies have been poorly educated, so what is the problem? There are two.

First, the system is unbelievably expensive. In Washington DC, the cost per student now exceeds $13,000/year/student. Private schools are cheaper. Less than half of all U.S. public school employees are teachers, and spending per student is increasing much faster than inflation.

We are throwing lots of money, which could be used for all sorts of productive things, down a black hole with very little to show for it.

Second, students grow up to be the citizens of tomorrow.

In the future, our society will legalize and sanction all types of marriage. Why? Because our future voters and leaders can no longer marshal any argument against it. This doesn't mean that one argument is superior. It simply means that future voters will be unable to think in terms that would allow any counter argument.

Last week, the ACLU stated that people who have sex in public bathrooms have an expectation of privacy.

To create any argument against this wide-stanced position, a person would need to know something about the Constitution, history, the rational balance between free expression and "common decency," the nature of rights, the limits of law, the relationship between law and freedom, and even if there is such a thing as "decency."

The best most of our students could do is to assert along with the ACLU that sex is some kind of "right" that we don't want the government to interfere with, unless it is giving out free birth control.