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Wisdom from the Web

Compiled by Daily staff

On the Vail Daily Web site, you can comment on each story or editorial you read there.Here, in old fashioned print, we print excerpts of those comments:Re: Developer joins garden directorsNoxious weeds: The appointment of Magnus Lindholm to the Betty Ford Garden Board of Directors was a surprise. They passed over Adam Aron, Dennis Koslowski, Ken Lay, Mark Mogul and Alberto Vilar to fill the seat. Congratulations to Lindholm and to the Betty Ford. Separately (of course), could the garden consider offering a seminar for local gardeners on the management of non-native noxious weeds?Re: Letters to the editorRoger Brown on G-8: Consumerism is not a four-letter word. Consumerism just happens to be part of the machinery of the system of capitalism that makes our economies work. The myopic view expressed by Anne Norberg-Hodge and echoed by you ignores reality, all of history, seemingly everything! Such utopian perspectives have often been expressed in one way or another, but none offer a way to pay the tab. Those that have tried resulted in onerous taxation to support inefficient government programs, social oppression and worse. Our liberties are inextricably tied to our economy. Liberty, freedom, happiness and prosperity are not the government’s to bestow. We the people must be free to pursue them as each individual sees fit.Re: Letters to the editorTavius Sims: All a plot? More like conspiracy theories run amok! I suppose you also believe we never landed on the moon, fluoride in our drinking water is a sinister plot, ad infinitem.You spend all of two years researching one Web site and conclude that you now have all the answers? That the USA and Fox News are evil?Reality check: Which news organizations have been publicly busted for publishing lies? New York Times, CBS, Newsweek, CNN, LA Times – all left-leaning. Of course, other publishers too lazy and/or naive to bother confirming what they publish have re-printed many of the lies originated by those above, and many people like you choose to ignore any buried retractions. …Re: ‘The whole school just goes berserk’In Colorado, the basic reading skills of public school elementary students look good as measured by the the state CSAP exam. However, in a study done recently by the Rand Corp., a leading think tank in New York City, researchers compared state reading scores in 2003 with those on the latest National Assessment of Educational Progress and found that in many states, pass rates for fourth- and fifth-graders have little correlation with national standards. The bad news is that in 2003 the state of Colorado had a passing rate on the CSAP for fourth graders in reading, of 87 percent. The Rand study showed that on the NAEP exam, only 37 percent of Colorado fourth-graders were proficient or above. The state is not being honest with us, and I wonder if the ECSD is being dishonest as well. How rigorous is this NWEA test? … Why are our children not tested on a nationally normed and respected test such as the Iowa Test of Basic Skills? Is it because the district is afraid of the results?Vail, Colorado


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