Stone U.

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Waiting in an office yesterday, my mind wandered over to a report being broadcast on MSNBC about the honorary degrees to be bestowed upon the victims of the Virginia Tech Shootings. Here's a Ranger thought:

All military personnel should be awarded honorary degrees after they are killed in action. This saves money on actual college expenses for the military, while at the same time fulfilling the promise of college assistance to enlistees. Two birds with one stone.

Meanwhile. McClatchy news ran this comparison on what stateside aid might be given with the U.S. money we're draining away in someone else's desert:

''The combined spending requests would push the total for Iraq to $564 billion, according to the nonpartisan Congressional Research Service (''Price tag for war in Iraq on track to top $500 billion.)

What could that kind of money buy?

A college education - tuition, fees, room and board at a public university - for about half of the nation's 17 million high-school-age teenagers.

Pre-school for every 3- and 4-year-old in the country for the next eight years.

A year's stay in an assisted-living facility for about half of the 35 million Americans age 65 or older.''

Anyway, my proposal should help up recruitment. You will not die merely a grunt, but a grunt with a degree to his name. Seems only right.