The downside to the San Diego Police Department’s decision to disband their horse unit is that there will be no more pictures like this one, and my fantasy of someday seeing one of those horses trample the Westboro Baptist crowd will never come to pass.

The San Diego Superior Court will close all courtrooms and business offices on Wednesday, September 16, 2009 as well as the third Wednesday of each subsequent month through June 2010.

The California Judicial Council approved the unprecedented one-day-a-month closures for all state courts due to the ongoing statewide financial crisis and the Legislature’s reduced state funding to the courts.

Because, yes, this state is that messed up.   This is on top of San Diego already closing the clerk’s office to the public at 3:30 every afternoon.  Anyone care to remind me of any states where the California Bar has reciprocity for practice?  It would be nice if they coincided with states that recognized my marriage.

I’m a huge fan of the University of California, and particularly proud of my alma mater, the Berkeley campus. Poor management and budget cuts are certainly taking their toll on the system, but I still believe it is one of the world’s best university systems, and includes what is probably the best public university in the world.  Budget cuts are painful for everyone, and there’s been plenty of pain spread around for nearly all the students and staff. I’d certainly argue the Regents themselves haven’t borne much of the pain, but that’s for another day.

I was very disappointed today to see an article in the Union-Trib on a proposed response by some of the UC San Diego faculty.  Basically the proposal boils down to ‘not us, them.’  Them being campuses that are not like theirs.  Some campuses are more equal than others, in the proposal’s author’s minds.  I suppose that in a better job market they’d be the rats on the sinking ship.  Stuck on the ship though, they’re looking for higher ground.  Research is clearly their priority, so they’re scurrying to the top of their ivory towers and looking down on what they call the “teaching institutions.” 

Let’s get something straight: teaching the next generation of California’s leaders in the most important thing the UC does.  If it’s supported by excellent in-house research and taught by excellent researchers with practical experience, so much the better, but any member of the faculty that thinks they’re above teaching needs to move on.

A couple of months ago I was at a retirement party for a local teacher who made an excellent point when it came time to respond to the accolades.  The teaching goal of a public academic institution is not the traditional three Rs, but the three As of academics, athletics and the arts.  The three Rs together are merely one-third of a complete program.  They should be producing well-rounded citizens fit to excel in all aspects of their lives.  Maybe Dean (the retiring teacher mentioned above and a Cal alum) could go over to UCSD now that he has some time free and show them how a complete program works.