The Decline of the West:

In case you needed more evidence that we're on our way to hell in a hand-basket, Richard Arum and Josipa Roksa point out the miserable state of college undergraduate education in the U.S. in today's New York Times.

For years, Americans have bragged and taken solace in the belief that at least college education in this country was the best in the world. Those on the inside, however, have realized that "the best" moniker actually referred to graduate school, not the undergraduate departments at state and private schools of higher education around the country.

While grade inflation is rampant and the work an undergrad is required to do in order to receive a B+ grade in all courses is about half in terms of time alone, ignoring quality, the two most important words in a college administrator's vocabulary are "recruitment" and "retention."

Employee growth, by the way, at nearly all colleges and universities, has been in staff and part-time teachers, not in full-time faculty.

Most college presidents, who are often paid like CEOs of Fortune Five Hundred companies, will tell you that the increased cost of education is a result primarily of increased benefit costs for faculty.

But consider that, while faculty numbers have remained at best stable at colleges around the country, the number of staff employees, who are both well paid and receive the same benefits as faculty, have tripled in number. In the meantime, the challenge of teaching the increasing enrollment at colleges has been met with more and more part-time teachers, who are poorly paid and receive no benefits.

You might remember the days when undergraduates lived in dorms that resembled a cell block and ate in cafeterias where the food was tasteless and served on metal trays. Today colleges offer amenities that more closely resemble those of Club Med, with the harshest environmental component being a disagreeable roommate.

And on the Other Side of the Pond: A Gun for Hire

Erik Prince, the Bush administration's pet toy and billionaire private army organizer, is reportedly organizing a private army for the United Arab Emirates, a country ruled by autocrats and awash in oil money. The rulers of the country are afraid that the Arab Spring might invade their little nation and their military force is too small to handle such an uprising, especially if backed by arch nemesis Iran.

Prince and his employees have been facing increasing scrutiny by the justice department in this country. Maybe Prince has found his way out of these troubles and a way to make another billion or so.