This is the first step down the road to the Libertarian paradise where government services are paid for only when used. We are on the way to having a class-based society where those who can afford the basics get them and those that can't will have to survive the best way they can.

What ever happened to "promote the GENERAL welfare"???

No, the oil companies may not be doing anything illegal, but that's the shame of our system. When the Vice President can invite the CEOs of the largest oil companies in to formulate our national energy policy and then refuse to tell the public what was discussed at these meetings we have a serious problem. A very serious problem.

It's not just the oil companies that are doing this. It's the insurance industry, the AMA, big pharma, and on and on. The amount of money they spend buying public policy is insane. And, boy, do they get what they pay for.

"Supply while alternatives are developed is the answer..."

I fully agree, but how much time and energy (pun intended) has the Bush Administration spent on development of alternative energy sources? I'll answer that one myself: almost none. Why? Because it's not in the best interests of those who set our energy policy. Namely, the oil companies.

The total focus of our energy policy the past eight years has been to increase the supply of oil, from opening up Alaskan wilderness for drilling to invading Iraq. And please don't tell me that the invasion of Iraq was about something other than oil. We all know better than that. If we didn't know it five years ago we certainly know it today.

The faster we rid ourselves of our oil addiction the more secure our nation will be. We've wasted the last eight years when it comes to developing alternatives. Let's get started.

Environmental regulations were stricter during the Clinton administration than they are now. President Bush has relaxed pretty much every rule on the books (when he chooses to enforce them at all), including opening up Bristol Bay (in Alaska) for exploration and drilling. Dick Cheney invited the oil companies in to formulate our national energy policy and somehow it's the fault of the Democrats that oil prices are skyrocketing. Yeah, I can believe that.

The situation in Carson City makes it very unlikely this will happen any time soon. One department in a major school just had to fire pretty much its entire adjunct faculty and full-time faculty have had to take on full-time teaching loads*. If the University can no longer provide faculty with the opportunity to do research, how can it provide graduate students with the opportunity to do research?

The cuts to the University budget have been very damaging, but apparently there are more to come. What will happen then is that full-time faculty will have to be let go. UNLV is already suffering on the research front as professors no longer have the time to conduct any meaningful research, but teaching will suffer dramatically as well. Class sizes will necessarily grow as offerings will shrink.

The destruction of higher education in this state will have serious long-term consequences for all of us, but thank goodness the businesses that rely on the University to provide them with an educated work force won't have to pay any additional taxes (or any taxes)!

*For those of you who will scream about faculty not already teaching full time, let me explain. Faculty are paid not only to teach, but to produce research. A university's reputation rests not so much on the quality of its academics, but the quality of its research. When faculty no longer have the time to produce research the University's academic reputation suffers. Further, many, if not most, of the top ptofessors in this country base their careers on their research. If UNLV can no longer offer professors the opportunity to do research the professors won't come here any longer.

The advantage to having the top researchers on your faculty is that the people who are on the cutting edge of a given field are the ones teaching the classes as well. If those people stop coming here the quality of education offered at UNLV will suffer greatly.