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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 are excerpts of those comments:Re: Editors Blog, Eye for an eye?Consider another perspective: How do we deal with Iraqi insurgents who hide behind Iraqi civilians; using their own women and children as shields and weapons-delivery systems? How do we combat the those who snipe at our troops from behind the safe haven of mosque walls? These cowardly insurgents regularly violate the concept of Sanctuary, yet our coalition forces are supposed to protect those civilians and mosques. And when a lone voice of reason points out the flaw in such a strategy and suggests bombing the mosques, people in our own country want to crucify him! Do some Americans need yet another wake-up call?Read Bill Whittles essay, Sanctuary at http://www.EjectEjectEject.comRe: Do you like the new Traer Creek Plaza building Silverthorne? Frisco? They all have more architectural style than the new retail and office complex at Traer Creek? Gimme a break! This building is being designed by Arthur Erickson, one of the most renowned architects in the world. The domed roof will be enveloped by sedum sod instead of asphalt or cedar shakes. The effect will be to have a building that is environmentally sensitive aesthetically and practically providing better insulation and preventing runoff of heated water into the Eagle River. Please, show me something in Avon that is this aesthetically and environmentally appropriate. You cant!Re: Just a little hike up Beaver Creek … seven timesDid you not notice the females at this event? Katie Mazzia won the female division and completed six laps. The same as the second place male that you interviewed. Your coverage of this event was very poor. As it was for all the events during the Beaver Creek Adventure Weekend. I waited three days to see if possible you would have additional coverage, but no! Once again the Vail Daily lives up to its poor reputation.Re: Testings part of educationGreat column, John Brendza! Wonderful timing, as well, since this was posted the day before CSAP scores were released. Im glad students are showing gains on the NWEA. However, is this test correlated to CSAP? If our kids are showing such gains on NWEA, why are the just-released CSAP scores so poor for so many kids? It seems that we can pat ourselves on the back for NWEA scores, but that will not help us when NCLB releases the Adequate Yearly Progress ratings, now will it?Re: Digging for good news Please correct me if I am wrong, but isnt the intent of No Child Left Behind is to ensure that school districts are educating every student well regardless of race, income, or learning differences? Isnt it also true that before NCLB, many districts hid the poor progress of many students behind the progress of the white middle-class kids? No Child Left Behind forces school districts to publicly post the scores of the following categories: white, black, Hispanic, English language learners, economically disadvantaged, and students with disabilities. Yes, our white students are doing well. What about the 47 percent of Hispanic children in this district? Are we to turn our backs to the fact they are failing miserably? I did not notice any scores for economically disadvantaged students or students with disabilities. How are these groups performing? Our gifted students are doing well according to the data in the articles Web extra. Unfortunately gifted students are not measured under NCLB, so isolating them seems a bit unfair. Better data for gifted students would be from the NWEA test. Are our gifted students making one years academic progress in one years time? I dont think this article would be tolerated in a community with a large, active, vocal Hispanic population. I dont see Los Angeles, Chicago, Miami or any other cities citing excuse after excuse why they are failing so many students. Eagle County must change its ways if it is to follow its mission: Educating EVERY Student for Success.Re: Pit bull debate re-ignites on Front RangeMy family has owned pit bulls my entire life and has never had a problem with any of them. I currently have one, and she is the funniest dog I have ever had. She is scared of the doorbell, grasshoppers, cars and planes. She runs and hides. How could you even look at a dog doing something like that and say that she was dangerous? My two nieces would climb all over her, pulling her tail, sticking fingers in her ear and shoving their hands in her mouth. But she never reacted badly, when she was tired of it she would just get up and walk away.We have, however, had countless problems with dogs that I will refer to as ankle biters, aka miniature poodles, chihuahuas, and pomeranians. One time on vacation my mother was attacked by a chihuahua and it almost severed her achilles tendon. I do not believe that they should be banned because of that incident. I just think that that dog should have been trained better, socialized more or possibly been the product of a better, more controlled breeding. On a note about pit bulls: If you research pit fighting history, you will not find a single pit bull that weighs over 45 pounds. They were never meant to be the big dogs you find now, and I personally believe that most of the ones you find are not true pits. Also, you will find that if any dog in a pit fighting ring were to even hint that it wanted to attack a human, it and everything related to that dog was put down. Pit bulls were never bred to be harmful in any way to humans. They were bred for their tenacity, and small size, to fight against other dogs, bears and other wild animals. They have been my best friends and companions my whole life. I would never give up my dog just because someone was close-minded enough to believe a lie. Now granted, if by some chance she did do something wrong, I would have to put her down. But one dog doing something bad does not mean every dog will do the same thing. I thank everyone for taking the time to read this and only ask that we all try to stay open-minded.Thank you! SarahRe: Editors Blog, Completing an open space thoughtRight on Rogers! Keep on hammering this point that Ed Abbey and others have pointed out: Develop the developed places to save the wild ones, dont save the gravel pit at the expense of the real wilderness! Why we are blowing so much cash on the gravel pit and not focusing on the real treasures is easy to see: people are only interested in what they can see from their cars on I-70. Is this really the kind of environmentalism we should be supporting?J. Alfred BirdsongRe: A goal of zero wasteMy Name is Chris Fornander and I am currently working in Germany for the United States Air Force. I am incredibly excited to read about this goal in my home state. I would like to know more about how this is done and see if there are ideas I could pass along from where I currently live. In 1997, Germany passed a law the country may not build any more landfills. Since that time an elaborate system of recycling and re-use is in place. Who may I contact to learn more about this process in Colorado? Chris Fornander PSC 1 BOX 3285 APO AE 09009Re: Its the end that mattersRogers is digging deep to accuse Stone of an ethics violation. I guess that Rogers doesnt have the right to earn a living. Menconi is easy, as his conflicts of interest are many. Runyon continues to be a poodle. Has anyone else noticed the two against one playing out at the county? Stone seems to be holding his own even when outnumbered. The Daily must have supported Runyon and Menconi just to have stupid things to write about for four years. God bless Eagle County.Re: Town must follow its rulesIf, in fact, the future of Vail holds true, and the off-seasons become more popular Vail is a year-round destination Vail will need as much parking as possible. Why turn down any opportunity to build it, especially when it is new, and available to build underground. What about the Crossroads development? Is it worth it to cut the size of the building, and in turn reduce the number of parking spaces, when that is one of the highest commodities in Vail? How much did the Vail Resorts spaces sell for across from the Christiana? If the conference center does end up being built, and it does fail, the more parking spaces, the better. They could be used when needed to get cars off the Frontage Road and into a parking space.Re: Open space limits Eaton Ranch plansYes, its more than a gravel pit, there is a mosquito swamp too. Thats why it costs $12 million. Let me spell it out for all who care to read this. Its not about nature, open space, park or the river. The location of Eaton Ranch is such that there is no reason for anyone to drive their car to it so they can supposedly stroll along the river. Eaton Ranch is mostly not even visible from Highway 6, so people will not even know its there and will not use it.The path in Riverwalk is used because its in Riverwalk and people go there because of the stores. The park in Avon is used because its in Avon and people have where to go walking around town. Eaton Ranch is in the middle of nowhere, and nobody has a reason to be there really. There are many much more beautiful larger parks people can drive to, so why would they go to Eaton Ranch?The true reason is that someone does not want stores that will compete with Riverwalk or Avon there. Wake up, people.Editors note: There are no wetlands on the Eaton parcel. The wetlands are on the B&B property to the west of Eaton.Re: Letters to the editorGlobal warming my arse! How do otherwise intelligent people jump to such absurd conclusions without substantiating anything? A couple weeks of hot weather is no proof of global warming. Just a few days before the July heat wave we were experiencing temperatures that were well BELOW NORMAL. http://www.vaildaily.comVail Colorado


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