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(04/20/10 12:05am)
Alligator reader Ann Sanchez is an idiot. First, the health care bill does not provide blanket health care for illegal immigrants, as they are treated much as before. Yes, some people will pay more in taxes, but we will pay less in health care costs as a whole due to more preventative care. Malpractice reform would save about $54 billion over 10 years, which is significant but not huge considering we spend more than $2 trillion on health care each year. There is nothing in the bill stating that all specialties have to be paid the same. This is not even true in the U.K., where they have real socialized medicine. Unlike Sanchez claims, it is not common knowledge that doctors leave medical school with half a million dollars in debt because they leave with an average of $156,000, which is still a big number, but there are few professions where you are guaranteed to make six figures for the rest of your life. And finally, medical residents do not make $30,000 per year; they usually make upwards of $45,000 per year — 50 percent more than $30,000, according to my rough math. They’re not living the high life, but it’s not bad considering the significant pay raise at the end of their 3- to 7-year residency. It’s OK to have opinions and to print those opinions, but it’s just a waste of ink if the people expressing those views refuse to read books or use the Internet, and instead they base their elementary opinions on e-mails forwarded by grandma.
(04/08/09 12:00am)
Health insurance companies are scared shitless.
(03/27/09 12:00am)
Johnathan Lott's column on the need to increase the quality of education at UF is well-intentioned but terribly misguided. First, Florida Opportunity Scholars are held to the same admission standards as other UF students. So to suggest that there is a "lack of any notable academic qualifications" is to suggest that not only are the scholarship recipients underqualified, but that the rest of UF students are undeserving of admissions as well. Immediately after, he suggested that this program is risky because some of the money will be wasted on students who "can't handle UF."
(02/24/09 12:00am)
UF President Bernie Machen's recent statements concerning a desire to focus mostly on graduate education is troubling. In itself, setting a goal to become the best research university in the nation isn't a bad thing, but only focusing on the programs that attract the most grant money forecasts a dire picture of UF's future.
(02/13/09 12:00am)
The recent debacle in Congress over the economic stimulus bill has finally dashed the faint light of optimism and faith I had in our elected officials.
(11/24/08 12:00am)
While reading Kevin Reilly's Monday guest column supporting a tuition increase, I couldn't help but notice a striking lack of independent thought and analysis.
(08/18/08 12:00am)
Oh, to be young again, when I thought homework was for pansies, a fake ID was golden, withdrawing from a class would never come back to haunt me and hangovers only lasted an hour, if at all. Just as I did, all you incoming freshmen will have ample opportunities to make mistakes (and hopefully learn from them). And as someone who has been at UF for six years, at the very least I can pass on a little wisdom to all you whippersnappers to help you get the most out of your undergraduate experience.
(08/07/08 12:00am)
Given their Nixon-esque polling numbers, it's safe to say that President George W. Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney are not exactly the most popular pair to grace 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. In fact, only about 25 percent of people think our feckless leader is doing a good job. Incidentally, the same percentage of people predicted that the second coming of Jesus would occur in 2007. I've got a hunch that there's a lot of overlap in those two groups.
(07/31/08 12:00am)
There are 3.7 million Floridians without health insurance. That means if you are under the age of 65, there's about a 1 in 4 chance that a serious illness would drive you into bankruptcy. But fear not - Gov. Charlie Crist has a plan. He calls it Cover Florida, and with it, he hopes to reduce the number of uninsured by offering them affordable premiums.
(07/24/08 12:00am)
The fact that most of us don't hold a mortgage, work a full-time job or have kids to support makes it pretty easy to ignore the current economic crisis. It doesn't help that for all but a few of us, economics is more boring than an episode of "Book TV" on C-SPAN 3 featuring an interview with Alan Greenspan.
(07/17/08 12:00am)
If you're a UF student, there's a good chance you support the formation of a committee to advise Bernie and Co. on how to invest our $1.2 billion endowment in a socially responsible manner.
(07/10/08 12:00am)
Late last week, The Guardian newspaper of London reported a leaked study from the World Bank that concluded that biofuels are responsible for driving up worldwide food costs by 75 percent â€" just a smidgen higher than the Bush administration's figure of 2 percent to 3 percent.
(07/03/08 12:00am)
For the past two weeks, I was down in Argentina on vacation. This has kept me far away from my usual regimen of American politics and news. But while there, I found that Argentina's national political scene is almost as hard to stay away from as the red wine and grilled beef.
(06/19/08 12:00am)
Last week, the Supreme Court turned its back on the American people. In a 5-4 ruling, the court held that prisoners at Guantanamo Bay have the right to habeas corpus. In English, this means that prisoners are allowed to hear the evidence against them, and President Bush is prohibited from declaring anyone an "enemy combatant" and detaining them indefinitely without charge.
(06/05/08 12:00am)
Last week, over 100 countries met in Dublin, Ireland, to sign an agreement banning the use of cluster bombs, weapons invented by the Soviet Union during World War II. Cluster bombs are large single bombs that release a number of "bomblets" over a vast area and are usually intended for anti-personnel use.
(04/18/08 12:00am)
The editorial from Thursday's paper is disappointing at best. First, we have tried every outlet of support starting with the administration. After our first meeting with President Bernie Machen, we heard his concerns and took them to heart.
(04/08/08 12:00am)
If it is indeed true, the story of the College of Medicine's dean allegedly admitting a student based not on his academic merit but on his connections is dangerous and offensive to College of Medicine students and faculty.
(02/27/08 12:00am)
As a UF alumnus and current graduate student, I was angered at the news of the hiring of state Sen. Mike Haridopolos. That anger turned to rage as I read the "Inside UF" section with a little epithet from our friend Bernie about the looming budget crisis and $47 million shortfall expected next year. His plan for everyone else is to ask every college to make 6 percent "general" cuts to its departments, not "across-the-board reductions." However, he is personally taking action by drawing a $300,000 bonus for himself and overpaying an under-qualified professor to teach political science while he works on his Ph.D. part time.