falk
Joined 13 years ago
Karma
1,119
Submissions
177
Member since
Jul 8
Recent submissions
Comment · 13 years ago
I will always remember watching the first moon landing on TV as a young boy. Very special.
Comment · 13 years ago
Yes, but you claimed that it was easy to shut down crappy charter schools. My point is it's not when they lie and they will lie to make money.
Comment · 13 years ago
Finland has the best school system in the world and they aren't driven by the free market.
Comment · 13 years ago
Are you claiming that teacher's don't have copays? Because that's patently false. How about before Obamacare when you could be kicked off your insurance roles for having a "pre-existing" condition and then you couldn't find healthcare anywhere? Do you think that didn't effect teachers? People in the U.S. pay more for healthcare than people in Finland do when you take into account the amount of taxes they pay. When the costs of programs are spread among the public, things tend to be cheaper.
Let's take a look at the Finland school system. They have strong unions that are allowed to take an active role in helping decide what's taught. They have seniority. They don't care about standardized tests, which differs dramatically from the U.S. They don't have any No Child Left Behind bullshit.
The students defer drastically, as well. All the students in Finland have healthcare. When they are sick they can go to the doctor and not have to worry about a gigantic bill. They have a poverty rate of 5.3% compared to the U.S. which has a rate of 23.1%. I'm also willing to wager that a significantly larger chunk of their population believes in evolution and global warming compared to the U.S. It's hard to learn when your hungry and sick.
http://www.theatlantic.com/national/archive/2011/12/what-ame...
http://www.smithsonianmag.com/people-places/Why-Are-Finlands...
Comment · 13 years ago
Your argument is borderline dishonest. Teachers in Finland don't have to worry about a lot of things U.S. teachers do because they're taken care of by the government via taxes, which results in said utilities and services being cheaper. For example: health care. I also bet that Finland teachers don't have to spend their own money on buying supplies for their students, which is sadly really common here.
Comment · 13 years ago
Unless they cook the books. Which happens.
Comment · 13 years ago
It's worth pointing out that the author of that New York Times article, Mike Soraghan, has in his Twitter bio "Frac(k)ing is my life" and that he links to the same articles you linked to.
Comment · 13 years ago
There's obviously something nefarious going on. Why else would all of these natural gas companies be paying people off and making them sign confidentially agreements?
Side-note: Before today I didn't realize how lax the laws on natural gas companies are. The New York Times has a great graphic on the subject.
"The natural gas industry has exemptions or exclusions from key parts of at least 7 of the 15 major federal environmental laws designed to protect air and water from radioactive and hazardous chemicals. Below are the seven laws listed in the order they were passed."
http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2011/03/03/us/20110303-na...
Comment · 13 years ago
Read these for more information on the six months rule. It's rather ridiculous and I didn't believe it when I first heard about it.
http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2011/10/ecpa-turns-twenty-f... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stored_Communications_Act
Comment · 13 years ago
Bullshit. Their political leanings that stem from their religion. You could say the same thing about Islamic terrorists.
Comment · 13 years ago
Funny enough, they actually edited that article. I believe the quote was originally something along the administration losing all credibility without the specification on the issues of transparency and accountability.
http://gawker.com/the-new-york-times-quietly-softened-its-sc...
Comment · 13 years ago
I hate Intuit. They have a huge lobbying arm and are viciously against making taxes easier to file.
For more information see: http://www.slate.com/articles/business/moneybox/2013/04/auto...