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Subject: Re: The problem with the "fear monger" defense the liberals use is that it distorts the truth.
The trouble with the right neo's that they go crying "unfair" every time someone points out they are not telling the truth.
Until the right neo's and the Tea party supporters start being honest then their claims the left are lying all the time is about as valid as a nine bob note.
Subject: Re: this must be a case of not reading things properly....
Bernice: No.. I'm not nit picking.. I'm trying to fair and reasonably accurate.
As to $420k .. no, the ones getting the jobs will not get that much. You having done bookkeeping should have a basic idea of the in's and out's of how a business works.. If you've done business accounts that is.
DPW has received $70.65 million and created or retained 45.46 jobs, though they are expected to create 238 jobs overall (the fraction of a job created or retained correlates to the number of actual hours works). LADOT has been awarded $40.8 million and created or retained 9 jobs, though they are expected to create 26 jobs overall. Overall, the Departments have received $111 million in federal stimulus funds out of the $594 million the City has been awarded so far and created or retained 54.46 jobs.
“I’m disappointed that we’ve only created or retained 55 jobs after receiving $111 million in ARRA funds. With our local unemployment rate over 12% we need to do a better job cutting the red tape and putting Angelenos back to work,” said City Controller Greuel. “While it doesn’t appear that any of the ARRA funds were misspent, the City needs to do a better job expediting the process and creating jobs. We’re going to continue to audit how these funds are spent, to ensure that they are expended quickly and correctly. I’m pleased that since our auditors completed their field work, the Departments have begun to implement the changes we identified to help get this money out the door faster.”
Artful Dodger: Have you ever thought there might be other factors involved besides taxes... I mean.. anyone who's got half a brain and enters into business KNOWS that THEY WILL HAVE to pay tax before they start. If they don't they deserve to fail.
California is in dire straights .. some more detail would be fair rather than spin!!
Artful Dodger: Ok.. cut the USA military budget, cut the tax cuts, change the law on tort, set limits on how much the health industry can raise prices to match costs/inflation realistically.
But I keep hearing from you that's SoCiaLiSt and LiBeRaL and wrong.
Subject: Re: sadly many Americans are not willing to invest in themselves.
The Col: When I studied business at college, they use to talk about how capital purchase items were only expected to last so long. The need to replace/upgrade in a good business plan was included in budget calculations. When an item becomes too old, generally it becomes inefficient and costs more in direct or indirect costs to use/run.
Sure like Art says.. small admin is good.. but only to a certain point, then again efficiency becomes impaired and costs go up. In one instance I was doing the payments for a firm to it's contractors.. the software was old and required 3 times the effort to a comparable system I used at another company. Needless to say.. it was a nightmare for the company and contractors wanting payment as the process of raising a payment was about 15 minutes for one invoice compared to a couple of minutes.
In the UK benefit fraud costs £5.2 billion.. unclaimed benefit nets £16 billion.
Income tax and Company tax fraud costs £17 billion.
Tax fraud accounts for 3% of tax liabilities.. benefit fraud accounts for just 0.8% of benefit expenditure, yet this is way outweighed by what people could claim if they knew they were eligible or.. could be bothered.
Subject: Re: suggesting that more taxes will help the economy is lunacy.
Artful Dodger: No it isn't. a few percent is not going to hurt the rich cats lifestyle. If someone is earning a million plus dollars.. what's a few $K to them... nothing. If the likes of Bill Gates and other billionaires can donate half their savings .. then the rich can afford it.
We in the UK are having 2.5% added to VAT to pay off the debt occured through the banks screw up's, which... we will do gladly.. we might moan a little, but we know it is needed.
It would also help if the rich stopped using offshore banks (ie tax havens) to defraud the USA.... quite frankly I'd be more into getting that sorted in some means.
Subject: Re: You don't even come to faith on your own. God does all the work.
Artful Dodger: I think the scripture on the seed and the sower says nay to that. God may give the option, but as to whether you take up on that has to be a matter of free will. Any lack of free will and we are not Children.. just robots.
Mousetrap: When it came to Moses seeing the ten plagues and such.. It could be said he was seeing the future. Or, he was connecting unconsciously to some gland that animals have still got the sense to have regarding feeling certain vibrations when it comes to EM and other such natural vibrations that occur.
Subject: Re: When you think about it it is hard to take anything the Bible says literally it is all one great big jigsaw puzzle.
Mousetrap: That's because when it comes to the Bible it's best to remember the PaRDeS rule of interpretation.
* Peshat (פְּשָׁט) — "plain" ("simple") or the direct meaning[1]. * Remez (רֶמֶז) — "hints" or the deep (allegoric: hidden or symbolic) meaning beyond just the literal sense. * Derash (דְּרַשׁ) — from Hebrew darash: "inquire" ("seek") — the comparative (midrashic) meaning, as given through similar occurrences. * Sod (סוֹד) (pronounced with a long O as in 'bone') — "secret" ("mystery") or the mystical meaning, as given through inspiration or revelation.
..... As to who gets the best cut.. some was.. some was things like cleanliness.
These are the secret sayings that the living Jesus spoke and Didymos Judas Thomas recorded.
1. And he said, "Whoever discovers the interpretation of these sayings will not taste death."
2. Jesus said, "Those who seek should not stop seeking until they find. When they find, they will be disturbed. When they are disturbed, they will marvel, and will reign over all. [And after they have reigned they will rest.]"
3. Jesus said, "If your leaders say to you, 'Look, the (Father's) kingdom is in the sky,' then the birds of the sky will precede you. If they say to you, 'It is in the sea,' then the fish will precede you. Rather, the (Father's) kingdom is within you and it is outside you.
37. His disciples said, "When will you appear to us, and when will we see you?"
Jesus said, "When you strip without being ashamed, and you take your clothes and put them under your feet like little children and trample then, then [you] will see the son of the living one and you will not be afraid."
77. Jesus said, "I am the light that is over all things. I am all: from me all came forth, and to me all attained.
Split a piece of wood; I am there. Lift up the stone, and you will find me there."
Subject: Re: human beings are born tainted with Adam and Eve's original sin.
Übergeek 바둑이: Adam and Eve were given choice.. freewill. If you read what God says after the event.. Now they can be like me. Which, implies before Adam and Eve ate of the tree they were not fully 'alive'.
Christ is a 'way' the stories told of him are to help folks learn serenity and to open/awaken that 'Christ' spirit in us all. He is the personification of the Godhead. Baptism is such a sign you accept the way.
Circumcision I read is a sign that us men have to control our animal side firstly and identity secondly.
As to theological interpretation.... Pope John Paul II finally declared that the Jews did not kill Jesus.
Subject: Re: .. And what about the fact that Judaism rejects the idea Christ is the Messiah??
Übergeek 바둑이:
"Mary is virgin because in that way there can be no doubt about the parentage of Jesus. If Mary were not a virgin, somebody could say that Jesus was the son of a man and not the son of God...."
Nope. Some could say that a virgin birth has more to do about spirit than genetics.
"Jews did not pursue conversion of others because of a sense of uniqueness and heredity, "
I heard it was because conversion was a major learning curve.. more to do with current thought from various Rabbi's. Same as Ghandi on his thoughts of conversion from religion to another... such conversion is not to be taken likely due to having to learn the language of the religion you are thinking of converting to.
"The conversion of others into Christianity comes from Jesus being the savior of humanity. Only those who accept Jesus as their savior can enter His kingdom (i.e. Heaven), thus conversion is necessary in order to be saved."
Is it? Is that straight out of Roman Catholicism after those who disagreed with the church at the time of formation were put to the sword, burnt, hung, crucified, etc by the early Roman church? Many fellowships of Christians were killed, their books burnt by fellow Christians in order for a formal doctrine on who and what Christ said/is to be put into a standardised text.
.. again as I mentioned before on this board.. what religion is God?
The Messiah must be descended on his father's side from King David (see Genesis 49:10 and Isaiah 11:1). According to the Christian claim that Jesus was the product of a virgin birth, he had no father -- and thus could not have possibly fulfilled the messianic requirement of being descended on his father's side from King David!
The Christian idea of a virgin birth is derived from the verse in Isaiah 7:14 describing an "alma" as giving birth. The word "alma" has always meant a young woman, but Christian theologians came centuries later and translated it as "virgin." This accords Jesus' birth with the first century pagan idea of mortals being impregnated by gods.
***********************************
The Catholic idea of Trinity breaks God into three separate beings: The Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost (Matthew 28:19).
Contrast this to the Shema, the basis of Jewish belief: "Hear O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is ONE" (Deut. 6:4). Jews declare the Shema every day, while writing it on doorposts (Mezuzah), and binding it to the hand and head (Tefillin). This statement of God's One-ness is the first words a Jewish child is taught to say, and the last words uttered before a Jew dies.
In Jewish law, worship of a three-part god is considered idolatry -- one of the three cardinal sins that a Jew should rather give up his life than transgress. This explains why during the Inquisitions and throughout history, Jews gave up their lives rather than convert.
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Judaism does not demand that everyone convert to the religion. The Torah of Moses is a truth for all humanity, whether Jewish or not. King Solomon asked God to heed the prayers of non-Jews who come to the Holy Temple (Kings I 8:41-43). The prophet Isaiah refers to the Temple as a "House for all nations."
The Temple service during Sukkot featured 70 bull offerings, corresponding to the 70 nations of the world. The Talmud says that if the Romans would have realized how much benefit they were getting from the Temple, they'd never have destroyed it.
Jews have never actively sought converts to Judaism because the Torah prescribes a righteous path for gentiles to follow, known as the "Seven Laws of Noah." Maimonides explains that any human being who faithfully observes these basic moral laws earns a proper place in heaven.
Subject: Re: If you're Christian, you can forget the powerful elites coming to your aid when your church is trashed or your crucifixes are covered up.
Artful Dodger: I thought the old law of "eye for an eye" was ... 'old'.. That being pre occupied with the value of a material thing... which in the end will turn to dust is not really of value in the 'Kingdom of God'.
.. After all.. what is of God cannot be destroyed!!
Subject: Re: So, everyone, please shut up about the Quran-burning religious nuts at that ridiculous church (who at least don't behead or imprison people of other faiths for not being of their own)
Artful Dodger: Actually we do in the west.. or at least get others to do it for us. So it has been throughout the cold war that was, and now.. even today in the name of Capitalism and defence of our realms we still torture and kill or supply to those through arms deals the means to which people can and will be killed.
"The freedom to be insensitive to others is part and parcel of freedom of speech."
But is it the responsible Christian thing to do? Justifying that others are doing it so we might as well is stupid. That in that act of burning the Qur'an soldiers and other lives will be more at risk through those using religion as a means to recruit angry people to fight and kill?
"Cuz they are a peaceful religion."
And since when has Christians not engaged in war, or used the Christian faith as a way of justifying a war, mass murder or genocide??
Bernice: There is in the telling of history and of current events, something called being satirical .. from "satire"
Satire is primarily a literary genre or form, although in practice it can also be found in the graphic and performing arts. In satire, vices, follies, abuses, and shortcomings are held up to ridicule, ideally with the intent of shaming individuals, and society itself, into improvement.[1] Although satire is usually meant to be funny, its greater purpose is constructive social criticism, using wit as a weapon.
Blame the BBC and their wonderful programs such as "QI" and "Have I got news for you".. I'd like to also thank C4, ITV.
Bwild: A new system of generating green power has just been announced in the UK. It's a form of wave where salt water is pumped into a reservoir which allows it to be used in a hydro electric means.
.. A new type of nanotec for solar which makes them self repairing. Also that soon we might be able to top up batteries with a sugary liquid.
Subject: American church plans will kill soldiers ....
.. but the pastor does not care.
A small minority church in the USA plans to burn 200 Qur'ans on the anniversary of 9/11 in a stand against Islam. The top US commander in Afghanistan warned troops' lives would be in danger if the Dove World Outreach Center in Florida went ahead.
... I think the church with only an attendance of about 50 wants to boost it's congregation through this action...... sad.
The Col: Same over here in the UK.. It's usual that the party (or parties) voted in lose popularity after the election. After all.. no-one really likes politicians.. just we haven't got a better system at the moment.
Subject: Re: "We have managed to acquire $13 trillion of debt on our balance sheet," he fumed to a roomful of voters. "In my view, we have nothing to show for it."
Artful Dodger: I guess your blog sources really are desperate to make try and make out the current US administration has on it's own run up so much debt. They must be pretty desperate in order to lie so much!!
BBC Director General Mark Thompson has admitted the corporation was guilty of a 'massive' Left-wing bias in the past. The TV chief also admitted there had been a 'struggle' to achieve impartiality and that staff were ' mystified' by the early years of Margaret Thatcher's government.
But he claimed there was now 'much less overt tribalism' among the current crop of young journalists, and said in recent times the corporation was a 'broader church'.
He claimed there was now an 'honourable tradition of journalists from the right' working for the corporation.
.........Speaking of the time when he joined the BBC, Mr Thompson told the magazine: 'In the BBC I joined 30 years ago [as a production trainee, in 1979] there was, in much of current affairs, in terms of people's personal politics, which were quite vocal, a massive bias to the Left.
'The organisation did struggle then with impartiality. And journalistically, staff were quite mystified by the early years of Thatcher.
'Now it is a completely different generation. *********************************************************
Good to see the raw report rather than some right wing extortion.