Daily Show's Jason Jones explores ASU's pristine academic environment
There's no other word than "dumbass" that adequately describes Arizona State University's decision not to award President Obama an honorary degree when he addresses the school's commencement today.
Sure, you can cook up lame excuses, such as that the school instead decided to name a scholarship program after him. That's nice. It's still an insult. A dumbass insult.
The Daily Show's Jason Jones visited Tempe to get some of the flavor of local sentiments. That same word kept coming to mind as we watched ASU students try to explain why Obama didn't deserve an honorary degree. My favorite:
"We're trying to be like the Cambridges, where they don't give out any, uh, honorary degrees. Make them so, uh, prestigious. To give them to, like, important people. Heads of state and stuff like that."
Runner-up:
"Wull, I've been at ASU for three or four years, and I don't have a degree yet. Why does he deserve one for being in office for 100 days?"
Nobody now can have any doubt at all that Reslugs are wasting their time and the schools trying to educate themselves. It's just damn impossible.
I stood outside the full-to-overflowing LSU football stadium (the justly famed "Deaf Valley") in my academic regalia, handing out phony "honorary degrees" that I'd printed up (illicitly, on the office computer/printer) to mock the "great man."
It earned me a couple of my 15 minutes of fame, when the local TV interviewed me for the evening news. I told 'em I figgered anyone who'd sit through that cascade of crap spewing from the senescent old bastard DESERVED some momento of their experience...And since they're cheap enough to have awarded Raygun one, I figgered everybody should be so honored...
Wish I coulda been there for that.
are in the same league as Cambridge. ASU may have a couple of decent programs, but overall... academically they are pretty mediocre.
Alas, having experienced ASU's student body via PAC-10 games... I am not surprised.
If the students responding to the question are any indication they're a damned site worse than pretty mediocre.
Ah, they made their parents so proud, I'm sure.
Yeah, I mean like what the hell did the first black president of the United States ever accomplish? Okay, he was the first black man to ever head the Harvard Law Review but that is peanuts compared to .....well, something. Fer sure and such as!
Say what you mean. Mean what you say. But don't say it mean.
Oh right, like the apple doesn't fall far from the tree? Dumbasses have parents and learn this kind of [*siiighh* lack of a better word] thinking from somewhere! They are out there! Breeding! Making more! And these kids will, too! Gleeeargh!
I'm just superstitious enough to hedge my bets.
THe first black president accomplished more and more death of innocents in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Pakistan that's what we know for fact. So yeah he doesn't deserve any respect at all.
justly earned her honorary degree for becoming a very brief footnote and trivia fact in Canadian politics. Black US presidents clearly don't qualify.
Hasa Diga Eebowai
But hey white white white!
me-oww!
Arizona didn't want to honor Dr. Martin Luther King.
Apparently the narrow mindedness has invade higher education.
Don't worry Arizona we don't think all of you are racists.
I'm sure the NATIVE Americans, whose ancestors were forced to live upon reservations, are like: WTF!??!
"When are we going to stop trying to tell elected officials what to do. Our job is to spend the taxpayers' money the best way we can." -- Tommy Watkins, Justice of the Peace, Crawford County, Arkansas
All the kids Jones interviewed are racists, some of them are too stupid or drunk to even know it...
What else would one expect from Arizona?
After all, this is the state and a senator - John McCain - which for a decade voted against recognizing Martin Luther King Jr. Day as a national holiday.
How can you even say that without mentioning that:
ASU is THE Party School of the PAC 10.
Our last two Republican Govs were convicted.
Maricopa County has the Patriotic Sherriff Joe.
Jon Kyl is our other senator and scores 100% from Focus on the Family
Our Minutemen are working hard to kill Mexicans
AZs public schools are #50 out of fifty!
i don't feel so well
Wow, with that much to brag about, it's gotta be difficult for you. ;)
Say what you mean. Mean what you say. But don't say it mean.
we're overrun with Mor(m)ons?
there, don't you?
me-oww!
they're up north in the north rim strip.
Even though they are hundreds of miles away, my city of Glendale is gerrymandered into that bunch.
Makes it easier for the Pigs to win elections!
Are you sure...? I'm in South Carolina and we don't take kindly to anyone stepping on our territory. I might give you Mississippi, but never SC. "Stupidity now, stupidity forevah!"
At least the Depts of education do.
me-oww!
I am sorry. That is quite a list. What else can I say, but:
Heck of job, McCainy!
I'm just superstitious enough to hedge my bets.
The pres would try to talk to these idiots.
Wow breath taking and ignorant!
myself that everything from the Daily Show clip was just a joke. How sad that that is the level of college students. Well, this is why so many politicians can get away with so much. Ahhh...NCLB sure worked, didn't it. Boy, I'm so glad we've raised our educational standards with all that
test preppingquality education we've initiated in the past eight years. Sure made a lot of people rich - now that's "uniquely American."Perhaps President Obama should tell ASU and other institutions like it where to go.
Did Jones have to sift through a lot of students to come up with these morons or did he strike gold at the first fraternity and sorority he entered? I'm guessing the latter.
Did these kids have to give their permission for these clips to be used? If they did and they did, that makes them double stupid.
Say what you mean. Mean what you say. But don't say it mean.
ASU was a running joke..."You're going where!!?" It was probably just East Coast elitism.
Plus ca change, plus c'est la meme chose, I guess. I doubt Obama cares. Who'd want an honorary degree from Arizona State?
Why the heck is Obama even speaking there in the first place?
Subquestion:
If AZ State thinks so effin' little of our newly minted POTUS, then why fuck did they ask him to speak? What assholes!
I'm just superstitious enough to hedge my bets.
College kids at ASU .. went in dumb came out dumb too
Garbage in, garbage out.
I know I'm gonna scroll on through and find out someone already had used that line. , If so, my apologies. If not, consider it an example of profound wisdom.
...and he said, "No thanks!"
I mean, really what good is an honorary degree from ASU? I honestly believe in my heart of hearts that Obama could care less.
And, indeed, Arizona famously refused to honor one of America's greatest citizens, Martin Luther King, so perhaps this is not that surprising.
Radix Omnium Malorum Avaritia
...this is another "reaching across the aisle" moment in which he shows them who he is and lets them get to know him a bit? Laudable, since he can't win over the residents of Arizona by avoiding the MLKjr hating state, but ultimately he can prolly only count on having another of a growing collection of "R" embossed knives driven into his back for his efforts.
I'm just superstitious enough to hedge my bets.
Besides, he already has a few real degrees, which appear to be more than any of the students they talked to will probably ever have.
Say what you mean. Mean what you say. But don't say it mean.
mainly for two reasons:
1) to have their prejudices ratified.
2) to get their "tickets" to the Middle-class stamped.
They don't want to work, study, read, write, think, anything...
Just get their prejudices ratified, and get their tickets stamped...
Anyway that's how it was at the two (flagship) universities at which I taught...
Why is he speaking at that college anyway? Seems that with the exemplars to which we were treated are a bit slow. Charitable gig, eh?
I assume the bar is set pretty low for matriculating students, so even an honorary degree would be really not worth anything. I've never heard "Oh ASU? Great school!" ever in my life.
me-oww!
threesome says what?
I saw this show and love this segment. My question is why did they ask Obama to speak, and then, why did Obama accept? It will be an interesting spectacle. I hope we get to see the reaction when he does give that commencement address.
..when [sic] they don't give out any honorary degrees. Uhhhhm to make them so uhhh like prestigious. To give em to like important people."
Like the Cambridges, eh, Mr Rhodes Scholar/Fulbright Fellow
http://www.admin.cam.ac.uk/news/dp/2009021004
And looking around the webs, apparently ASU has realised it caught its dick in its own zipper, and will probably give him 'something.' Keep on with the classy, ASU
me-oww!
You mean, the guy who bought the operating system from a fellow student at MIT that became MS-DOS for 10K -- or something like that - and who got the contract to provide IBM the OS for their first PC because the mainframe nerds couldn't come up with one in time AND who snagged the contract because his mother sat on IBM's California's executive board -- or something like that. You mean, that guy who benefited in what is called nepotism in non-politically correct circles? Yeah, he deserves an honorary doctorate in law.
"Secular humanism -- a fearless, realistic world view replete with doubt and scepticism that attempts to attain an unachievable state of equilibrium between and among the human qualities of reason, intuition, imagination, memory, ethics and common sense.
can spend a bit, study, take silk and argue at the Old Bailey.
If you watched the vid, I transcribed what a member of the Speak, Hear and See No Evil trio that Jones interviewed had said as to why ASU should not give the pres a piece of ephemera. Around 1:11. He was under the impression that Cambridge, in England, did not give out honourary degrees, except to really important people, like heads of state. See, I think Mr Allan Brigham, Local historian and guide (and street sweeper), is NOT a head of State, but a local tour guide and janitorial type of person in Cambridge.
I was ragging on the frat house rejects lack of knowledge about Cambridge (or 'the Cambridges' as the idiot kept saying) in the vid, not saying someone deserved (or doesn't deserve) a degree from Cambridge.
me-oww!
..doesn't appear to have much value to the average partier who goes there. Yep, talk about getting your ticket stamped. I would bet the University of Phoenix requires more effort than ASU. If you know anyone in Human Resources, remind them the online degree trumps the beer soaked one.
Radix Omnium Malorum Avaritia
A good friend of mine moved to Arizona. After a couple months. he called and told me "You know, I never realized that Raising Arizona was actually a documentary. They're really like that."
but we've been getting a steady influx of people moving in from CA fleeing the high cost of living
And people from OR & WA who are sick of rain.
Republicans still win in AZ but the margins are getting narrower.
Unfortunately the Repukes have gerrymandered the shit out of the place and divided sections of PHX into large rural areas.
It seems that the Repukes just can't win anymore without trickery.
Oh. My. Gawd. These are *university* students???
while tramping around Europe, I ran into a prof from somewhere in New England on one of those "tours of London" walks. After the walk, we all ended up at a pub near the Strand and he and I struck up a conversation. When I asked him about his stay in the UK, he said that he was on sabbatical and ecstatic about not having to deal with American undergraduate students for a year. As a fellow academic, I recall saying to myself something along the lines of "Whew, this guy has issues!" but, having viewed the clip, I can see his point. These bimbos don't appear to be curious students who have spent time reflecting on this petty response by ASU and who have tried to grapple with the complexity of what is taking place but rather manifest those casual, dumbed-down, "college is a fun place where you get a ticket for a job" anti-intellectual individuals who have little or no sense of the role of a citizen in a democracy. Pathetic.
"Secular humanism -- a fearless, realistic world view replete with doubt and scepticism that attempts to attain an unachievable state of equilibrium between and among the human qualities of reason, intuition, imagination, memory, ethics and common sense.
They're the Florida State of Arizona.
I
tore out a bunch of tile today and ripped out a aluminum door frame. Some friend of tne home owner stopped by and took all the aluminum I was hoping to scrap for a few extra pennies. This idiot had a bush cheney 04 sticker on his beat up POPS and I commented about it. This fool started ranting about President Obama never having produced a birth certificate. Total BS as we all know so I said to this fool stop drinking thr Kool-Aid and did no good at all. There is no known antidote for stuoid and misinformedf but hopefully a cure can be found.
peace
The love you take is equal to the love you make. John Lennon Paul Mc Cartney
Now I know where McCain recruited all his campaign people! "I've been in college 3 or 4 years now....." Fucking priceless!
If you have selfish, ignorant citizens, you're gonna get selfish, ignorant leaders.
George Carlin
...number 121, about where Cambridge would rank if it were in the US.
I take the US News ratings with a grain of salt, but it's safe to say that ASU isn't ranked number 121 because it is just as good as Harvard, but its excellence is a well-kept secret.
oh college kids
I expect this was a set up. "Hey, buddy, I'm gonna go over to the pool and act like a jerk for the guy with the microphone, and you come over there and knock me in the pool! We'll get on the TV!!"
That's what I thought too.
Jason Jones actually went pretty easy on Kim - not only was she prime minister of Canada for less than 5 months, she was never even elected to the office.
She became PM because she replaced the leader of the Progressive Conservative Party while it still had a majority in parliament. The 1993 election a few months later resulted in the loss of all but 2 seats, including Kim's - her career instantly ended, and the party she led was destroyed by the loss and never recovered. Today's Conservative Party is a union of the PCs and Reform, merged 10 years after Kim's humiliating defeat.
To give Kim Campbell, and not Obama, an honorary degree is beyond hypocritical. It's absurd and moronic.
University of Arizona in Tucson is a different place, a very good university... nothing to do with ASU which is a University for dolts.
Why is Obama even speaking at this school? They're nobody, and their true colors will show as we monitor who they choose to bestow honorary degrees upon in the future. Other than this PM, has anyone researched who have been given honorary degrees in the past? I don't think this does a whole lot for their reputation.
"Like why are you bothering us with silly questions while
we are enjoying our time away from the Library?
After this brief escape, I'm heading back to pick up
my reserved copy of "My Pet Goat."
"The Harvard of Date Rape".
excellent
Seven years of college down the drain!
"Let's talk dirty to the animals"
So much so that they slashed their library employees by almost half. This didn't just include staff members, but also adjunct prof.'s and Reference librarians.
To think that by denying Obama an honorary degree somehow elevates you to the status of being a fine, academically minded institution is delusional, especially when as a lower rated institution you get rid of people in your states only research library.
Looked a little high or hung over, and those two girls and the drunk... well... I see a shiny pole, a dark room, loud music, an obnoxious DJ, and teens and middle aged guys leering at them, in their future.
Place seems like your typical party school from that vid. Obama is too good for a degree from this... "institution".
Thes morons can be proud that they at least barely graduated High School because these Dick-Head and bimbos are going nowhere.
Our President graduated from Columbia University with a degree in political science where he specialized in international relations.
He went on to attend Harvard Law School where he graduated magna cum laude .
He was elected Editor of the Harvard Law Review.
In Chicago, he worked as the director of the Developing Communities project where he helped set up a job training program, a college preparatory tutoring program, and a tenants' rights organization in a dirt poor district on the city's south side.
He has written two New York Times bestselling books.
For twelve years, he served as a professor of constitutional law at the prestigious University of Chicago Law School.
He was elected and served as a senator for the state of Illinois from 1997 – 2004.
He was elected and served as a senator in Congress from 2005 – 2008.
He was elected the first black president in 2008.
And for all of this, he has not accomplished enough to merit an honorary degree from the University of Arizona.
This was a disgraceful slight. Pure and simple. If a white man had possessed this resume, he would have received the degree and there wouldn't have been a soul at Arizona or in Arizona who would have objected.
eom
This man is a killer just like bush! He's about to bring even more death to afghanistan and pakistan- and you people are complaining that its an insult that he didn't get an honorary degree? Godamn right he doesn't deserve it or the seat of president itself.
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