If you're like me, every year you bop along thinking "I ought to get a flu shot" until it's too late. Usually happens to me in February, but last week I got hit with both barrels.

Take it from me, the flu bug is a harsh one this year, so do yourself a favor and do everything you can to prevent it.

Dumbing down

Wait until the Kansas Legislature hears about this, they'll probably think it's the greatest idea they've ever heard.

Colorado State University is considering a plan to go "partially private." In effect, CSU would charge more for degrees based on how much the degrees cost.

On paper, it makes sense that English majors would pay just more than $10,000 for a degree while a technology-intensive degree like engineering would cost more than $20,000. However, people vote with their checkbooks.

The problem

Once you start charging more for some degrees, you're going to price people out of the market. State governments across the country already are doing their best to prevent access to higher education for all but their wealthiest citizens. If we start making it harder to get necessary degrees like medicine and engineering, we'll find ourselves with a shortage of people in those fields quickly.

By popular demand

My Twitter and Facebook followers suggested -- no, demanded! -- that I talk about Falcon Heene, the infamous Balloon Boy. And I'm all about giving the people what they want.

If you want to get a sense of how far the traditional electronic media have fallen, look no further than the possible hoax perpetrated on us all by the Heene family. One mischievous son and one reality-TV obsessed father combined to provide the most worthless diversion to news broadcasters since a certain white Bronco sped down the streets of L.A.

Apparently modern-day telejournalism consists of picking the lowest-hanging, least-informative fruit possible and forcing it down our throats for hours at a time.

A colleague of mine in Detroit says there's no bigger time waster than a half hour of TV news, and Balloon Boy proves him right.

Chapman Rackaway is an associate professor of political science at Fort Hays State University.