Dell'Utri, an italian Senator accused to be linked to the Mafia and ex-collaborator of Silvio Berlusconi before both entered in politics, defined "heroic" not Mangano but what he did.

The episode is this: mangano refused to testimony against Dell'Utri, when the prosecutors of the process against Dell'Utri asked him to tell them something, anything, against Dell'Utri. True or false would not be really important, but if he said something, they would let him out of jail and return to his family home. Mangano was in jail for many years and at the time and he was very ill; pratically he had to choose to die in jail or die at home with his family.

Dell'Utri, when informed of the episode, told that if he was in the place of Mangano he would had a very difficult time to refuse the same offer, so he considered the act "heroic". He always were clear that he don't consider Mangano a hero or an example for other to follow. Only his decision, near the end of his life. Mangano, for a man of the Mafia, had a twisted sense of honor.

Many others Mafia components, after the arrest, have "collaborated" with the prosecutors and testimonied in before the judges. But the quality of their testimonies is very low. For example, the last boss heard in front of the judges (after an year of "collaborations" and "revelations" to the prosecutors) was so embarassing that not even the leftist tried to spin his accuses against Berlusconi and Dell'Utri. Another example is the trial against Andreotti. They accused him of many things. Unfortunately for them, Andreotti (a major politicians in the history of Italy) kept a detailed log of all his movements, appointments, holidays, name it. He destroyed them completely.

If you think all these "collaborators" were found guilty of perjury and sentenced, you are wrong.
If you think all of them losen their advantages, you are wrong.

In Italy, too many prosecutors are from the same law school of mr. Nifong.
They are political activists in the judicial.

The real motive to have more days of schools is to have a reason to hire more teachers.

Here the Italian Ministerial Program for the Lower Middle School (kids 11-13 years old) http://www.aetnanet.org/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=118#SCIENZE%20MATEMATICHE,%20CHIMICHE,%20FISICHE%20E%20NATURALI Here what they teach at "Liceo Scientifico" If you translate this from Italian with Google, you could find what the teachers are required to teach and the pupils to learn. If you look further, you could find the actual problems given as tests to the pupils at the final exams for graduation: http://www.liceocastiglione.it/esami_di_stato.htm (here the problems for the pupils from the "Liceo Scientifico" of all Italy in 2009 -2008 -2007 (pupils 19 years old) Here the problems for the final graduation exams from Technical Schools (Electronics and Systems) and proposed solutions http://web.tiscali.it/i2viu/esami/svolti.htm The final exams in Italy are called "Esame di MaturitÃ", the problems are the same for all Italy classes, for all schools. They are different only for different specializations. The texts of the exams are delivered in the same day, at the same hour, to all the school of Italy by the Police (depending directly from the Government) just before the exam. And if the student cheat they seriously risk to repeat all the exams the next year. Not exactly bubble-box exams.

This feature is not unique of English. Italian, too, is able to incorporate foreign words with ease. The main problem with English is that how you read a word is not always as it is wroten. Italian, for his complexity, have the advantage to be written exactly as is spoken.

The abused car methaphor would be: "Have I the right to build spare parts for my car if the builder(s) of the cars refuse to build and sell spare parts for my car?"

College education could be less costly in Europe or free. But free is not costless. Take Italy. Universities are payed in little part by student fees, they are subsided by the state (they are public universities). What did happen? Slowly, in a few decades, the tenures were taken by the friends of the most powerful professors, the family members and their paramours. People becoming tenured with ZERO citations, publications, books, etc. People winning because other 25 candidates retire themselves. http://informazionesenzafiltro.blogspot.com/2008/10/universit-malata-la-denuncia-di-roberto.html In italian sorry. I translate a part for you: "The data of Bankitalia [Italy Central Bank] show that in the South (where the phenomenon is more visible) from the richier 20% of the society come the 28% of the students and from the poorer 20% only the 4%. One seventh. In America, where the university is paid by the students, the poor that go to the university are 13%. Why? Because, over the demagogery, show the author, the italian university is Âa reversed Robin Hood, where the taxes of all, poors included, finance the free courses of the richer".