Sorry, but muni's are not meant for retirement accounts. Why would anyone put a tax sheltered investment into a tax sheltered account?

MR deserves his bonus for not laying off us. we should say a prayer for him.

Now that would be the best Christmas ever!
Holding back six months of merit raises while
MR still gets his bonus...Scrooge that!
Horrible company to work for.

Yes, Happy Holidays Everyone!
May Siemens finally "package" us all off very soon.
We all need a new beginning from this deadwood of a company.

Everyone;

We all survived the great Dec 21, 2012 Mayan Omen.
Now is not the time for all the bickering, we can start again in the new year. Lets celebrate by forgetting politics and buy a new car (my Buick is really getting tired).

I wish you all, including our liberal friend (I know you really believe in liberal politics because you truly belive it is best for America) a very Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!!

Just came back from stone mountain Christmas parade. It's so cold that I wish I had fur. Happy holidays everyone!

"Take 5 million dollars. Invest it all in a ladder of municipal bonds in your state of residence. Average interest rate of 4 %. That's $200,000 income with zero taxes."

While it is true that munies, zero coupon bonds (at least those purchsed from fed/municipal governments) and investments held in Roth IRA accts are tax free, these are investment vehicles designed with tax exempt status for retirement investment or are slow accruing investments intended as hedges for portfolios needing conservative diversification. Nothing to get rich from quickly, and as you noted it takes a huge amount of capita to just get a rather middling return. Great for those who already have $5+ million net worth but useless if you are trying to build wealth rapidly. What I was refering to is the single tax code that allows one to invest, say, $25-40K and in a few years make as much as $500,000 gain in investment completely tax free, legally. I have done this and made nearly $400,000 in only a 4 year period, sold the investment and pocketed nearly $400,000 in cash with nothing owed to the federal or state governments! Actually I did this twice, the second time netting only $250,000 or so but still I paid no taxes on this gain. It is the biggest free ride in the tax code if you can work out the right deal in the right market conditions. And the best thing is, it may be getting to the point where it will be quite simple to use this tax code in the near future, before they change the code.

http://www.creditwritedowns.com/2012/07/us-federal-spending-by-president...

I know the troll won't like this for two reasons. Number one, it's data and facts, and number two, it belies his myth of who is responible for spending. It matches well with the increase in our national debt under past presidents as well.

Well boys and girls, the world didn't end yesterday. Another dire prediction from the prophets of doom has gone unfulfilled.

Thank goodness for optimists and those who ignore the doom-sayers of all kinds. On the other hand, what would life be like without all of the extremists and crazies around to entertain us with their paranoia? From little minds come big laughs (and a bit of head-shaking, too).

So when is the next great disaster supposed to take place? I want a front row seat to miss it.

Take 5 million dollars. Invest it all in a ladder of municipal bonds in your state of residence. Average interest rate of 4 %. That's $200,000 income with zero taxes. That just a single example of a way to keep one's tax rates low. There are many others in our tax system of endless preferences. Romney paid a bit under 15 % for the two years he was willing to show us. There is no reason that he could not have paid under 10 % of earlier years. He would have had to do nothing illegal. All he would need would be to understand the tax laws and he had a team of accoutants to do that. No one rational ever said Romney cheated or broke the law. The point was that he lived in a world that was out of touch with the vast majority of the American people.

What do you call it when a majority of the people vote for a government to do certain things and then a few people stand up and say: the people are wrong, we know better, the people the majority voted for a vitually criminals, so we have every right to impose our minority view on the nation?

Surely the word democracy seems to fit the above situation. Don't talk to us about democracy and freedom and liberty when the when Republicans are hijacking the very democracy they profess to be defending. Have you watching the Republican cannibalism in Washington the past few weeks? Total chaos. A battle between those who still believe in practicality and reality and those who seem completely detached from reality and living in some la-la land of dogma. And I can always tell when you see things going downhill for the Repubican Party or their candidates. Each time it happens you become more belligerent and absurd in your efforts to link something bad to 'liberals'.

It is kind of fun hand you as a barometer of how well the Republican Party is doing both internally or in the eyes of the public. It is the only thing that keeps you from being 100 % boring.

Elections have consequences if we are to have a democracy. When elections have no consequences we should suspect that our democracy in is trouble. This is equally true whether you win or lose. You just can't understand that basic concept.

I gave you the answer with out spelling it out in black and white. Just wanted to know how much you knew.

Never miss an opportunity to link it back to your chosen scapegoat. Never rise to a real challenge. What a guy you are. Bascially a one trick pony which fits in well since you say neigh so often.

Actually we on the West coast only have 4 hours left before the world comes to an end, so if indeed this comes to pass I'll have to admit all the irresponsible, entitlement minded, debt ridden citizens of this great country will have won a huge victory. Their irresponsibility will have given them the exact same end-of-times scenario as the most conservative and responsible of us. Oh well, if it doesn't happen then maybe I'll have a party.

There is only one tax code that allows a huge gain with zero taxes for state, federal, or any other taxes. Up to $250,000 per individual or $500,000 for a married couple filing jointly, for capitol gains in a single year can be fully exempt of any taxes. This can be repeated every other year. I know what it is, but I am wondering if you can manage to Google it and tell me what it is. By the way this is a very, very good way to make income because it is indeed fully tax free and legal. I have exercised this several times so I know precisely the rules.

The NRA suggested armed guards at schools as there response to the recent school shooting. I wonder if anyone told them that there was an armed guard at Columbine High School in Colorado.

More misguided right wing thinking without checking facts first. They might also try reading the entire Constitution before focusing in on a single, somewhat confusing amendment. They might also want to take a look at the Militia Acts of 1792.

How many more people have to die to satisfy the undue influence this group has on our country? When our representatives takes oaths to the NRA (or Grover Norquist, or even unions for that matter or any other group), they are violating their oaths to represent the American people and have no other allegiances. Shouldn't that constitute an impeachable offense?

(Watch how the old troll fails to see that I called out unions as well as the NRA). It is not possible for him to accept the possibility of someone being being neither from his left wing extremist viewpoint nor a boilerplate liberal (whatever that is in his mind. I could very sarcastic and ask whether someone who can only read half of a statement means that they only have half a mind, but I don't want to bring the level down any more.)

If you say so. Yes, I am exceptional. Or I know more about tax laws that you do.

Next:

I have an offer for you that would result in your paying zero taxes. No Federal, no State, no local, no property, no sales, no taxes at all. Are you interested in hearing the details of the deal?

"keep my tax rate under 10 % (yeah, I'm better at it than Romney and his accountants)"

Well first of all its not possible to get the tax rate below 15% for investment income, with some very rare exceptions not availble to typical investors. And no, these exceptions are not even availible to most of the wealthy. So your comments were pure fiction.

However, your description of making an income off of paper investments are right up my alley. Not currently though as I am small timming puts and calls, dividends, etc. because I still generate my income from business ventures. But when retirement comes, I figure it will be best to plan for something I can do by pounding the keyboards so when the bad back goes I can still work! I've thought of precious metals but Gold confuses me because it does not have intrinsic value....it is simply hoarded. And for a pragmatic guy like me it doesn't work. I like pure function, like my old Buick, and hoarding something with very little commercial use would be scary. So dividends, puts and calls and futures trading seems like the way to go, but it will be risky and I'll have to be very cagey. At least I will only need living expense income to prevent loss of net worth. I do not plan to spend my net worth, it will go to the young ones and some to charity. You see we conservatives do not spend our wealth but invest or leave it to heirs and charity. And my bet is that conservatives leave more after death than do liberals.

No kidding.
That was also just a play on words.

Ummmm, it was a joke. For anyone who is worrying, just remember that this is the end of the 4th age or period of the Mayan calendar. This means that whatever happens on the date will just be the beginning of the 5th age. Certainly no evidence that I know of that suggests that the astronimical events that are about to occur will be the end of the world. This happens every 25000 years or so and involves some galactic alignments and cycles which I don't understand at all.

Still, any excuse to sit on the beach and throw down a few beers and a barbeque or clam bake is worth it. With or without the Mayan calendar, life is too short not to take advantage of such opportunities.

Enjoy !

not 'unheard of riches', but unheard of niches.
You're giving yourself too much credit.

I'm going to figure out how to survive tomorrow and what to do next. The few of us that do will have a lot of work ahead of us and unheard of riches.

Cheers

He is Magic Mike

21 December has Arrived in Australia

I'm gunna get a front row seat in sunny Queensland seaside, have a BBQ with mates and family, drinking beer at the beach watching black bikini babes walk past .... what are you going to do on your last day ?

Are you really suggesting that the small DX group is taking over 25 % off the value of Siemens' stock?

Thank you siemens for giving me bonus and make the stock go over $110. please take a dump on dx, then it's 150 again.

Some of us have plenty of time on our hands. When you don't have to work for a living, but can make sufficient amounts of money simply through good investing, why would anyone work? The only ones who have to work are those that generate the profits for companies in which I invest, leaving me free to spend a little time on researching various investment opportunities, designing portfolios that keep my tax rate under 10 % (yeah, I'm better at it than Romney and his accountants), and annoying the extremists who post here. After all, why work when I can make money off of people like the old reactionary troll?

How do you like that? A rich, non-working, fully-invested-in-capitalism and living off my investments, modersate. I wonder if you have a label for me !!!

"The Ultimate Fighter reality TV series competitor Ray "Magical" Elbe....."

I squeese in my posts from when I want a 5 min escape from the daily druggery. But you must have more time than all of us. Have you ever tried applying all that energy into starting something of your own on the side? I did, even as a 15 year old. Hand waxed cars for $5.00 until my arms nearly fell off. It was enough to get me thinking about easier ways to make money......valuable lesson though. You should try it. Having a lot of energy is half the fight. Even if it doesn't make much the first couple times out, the effort will teach you about practical decision making, and you may even start seeing things a little more my way believe it or not.

The Ultimate Fighter reality TV series competitor Ray "Magical" Elbe tried one trick too many during a lovemaking session while holidaying in Malaysia.

What should have been a passionate, enjoyable moment quickly became every bloke's worst nightmare, with Elbe suffering catastophic injuries downstairs and earning himself a five-day hospital stay with a severely mangled manhood.

The MMA fighter claimed to have accidentally launched his girlfriend more than eight inches into the air but had no defence against the landing, which caused a "fracture and slight tear in the urinary tube", according to Elbe's blog from his hospital bed.

But he wasn't done there.

Bleeding badly and shocked by the potential ramifications of what he'd just done, Elbe passed out and fell, hitting his mouth and chipping teeth in the process.

Elbe then spent almost a week in hospital after surgery to repair the damage, which cost him more than $6000.

To make matters worse, Elbe said everyone in the hospital was so fascinated by his injury that he had a constant stream of visitors stopping by for a look.

"The worst part of this has been the fact that literally everyone who works in the hospital has come in asking to see my shaft out of curiosity. Guess in a muslim country this type of accident isn't as frequent as you would suspect," Elbe wrote.

Elbe also chronicled what may well be the most awkward phone conversation in history - an emergency call to his parents, explaining why he needed them to wire him an emergency cash stash in the middle of his holiday.

Doctors expect Elbe to make a full recovery.

Happy Holiday Everyone

One wonders how the old troll would react if the situation were reversed. Go join your left-wing extremist counterparts in a big hate-in. Leave the rest of us in the middle alone already. We have no use for your type (LEFT or right). Neither of you contribute a thing to society other than division. I don't mean all conservatives; I don't mean all liberals. I mean small minded, hate filled, individuals like you, regardless of philosophy.

Look at it this way. If you stop spewing your anger and hatred here, you can spend more of your time making money from your company. Money that your grand-children deserve for some unknown reason and money to pay your higher taxes. Your presence here won't affect your new, higher taxes one iota, so you are far better off doing your day job and running your company. I'm sure the extra effort can produce more money than you could ever make from whining here.

btw: your last post was pure idiotic babble. It really makes you sound like a dope.

"The point here is that there are many ways to slice and dice the population in order to define a majortiy"

You see folks, this is what happens when liberals take control of our universities. If you wonder how in the hell we produce so many worthless "thinkers" like this fella, you can thank the universities. Lawyers, politicians, artists, professors, psychologists, etc., etc. you know the type; they deal with endless streams of minutia. They will talk ad neauseum about any subject and twist and spin soooo much hoopla into it that people get dazzled. The trouble is, it is mostly like a Rube Goldberg contraption.......endlessly facinating, complicated and totally senseless, useless. You ever been to one of those pitches that sell time shares? These guys can talk for hrs about a totally useless investment and get thousands of people to buy them. Same thing here, it can actually sound good until you analyze the details carefully and what do you end up with?............donuts.

" I missed that part where the minority rules."

You must not have heard of something called Congress, where on one side, a majority is equal to 60 % and on the other side, the party that has more seats also had the fewer total votes for them in the past election. That's right folks. Due to gerrymandering, more people voted for Democratic Congressional candidates and more Republicans got elected.

Then there is the issue of which majority you mean.

White people?
Women?
People whose parents or grandparents were immigrants (not 100 % sure of this one)
People who live in cities?

The point here is that there are many ways to slice and dice the population in order to define a majortiy. I do it the easy way. I just refuse to be politically correct. This makes me the epitome of democracy since I do not discriminate among any group when it comes to politically incorrect ccomments. I insult them all equally. The rationale is that I am basically against groups and labels which I find usually only to divide us and rarely do a thing to unite us.

Are you in a group? If so, I probably hate you !!

"Do you prefer ketchup or mustard with your foot?"

Definitely ketchup. It is sweet and mustard is sour. I used to chew and chew, until it dawned on me that it hurt everytime I bit down. So now I just lick the ketchup off because my toes were starting to hurt too much. Oh well, seems like everything I like to eat is bad for me, and the doctor keeps telling me the older I get the less chewing I should do to my toes.

Maybe in my lifetime we will see our country return to its roots and shed this fear of being Politically Correct , where does it say one person does not like something and the rest of the MAJORITY have to change , I missed that part where the minority rules.

Merry Christmas and Happy Hanukkah ( a little late).

Are you cereal? Are you actually trying to say that the discussion here is affecting peace on earth? Whoever you are, you give us far too much credit. I never imagined that things posted at the Rumour Mill influenced world peace.

If we quit, will you promise to present our name to the nominating committee in Oslo? I think I'm ENTITLED to a Nobel prize for my contribution if I quit posting here.

You guys have "too much time on my hands", sung to the tune of the popular song. Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays, and may you both find something more interesting to do in 2013 so the rest of us can have some Peace on Earth!

You once again missed the point. I didn't call conservatives rabid dogs. I called YOU and others like on BOTH the right AND left a class of people with certain characteristics. You can't even see how blind you have become. You either can't read or you don't read and/or you don't process information. You just like pull things out of thin air, don't you?

Why should I believe you? I'm the one who knows hold old I am and you don't. You don't know; you just believe or assume. The pity is you can't tell the difference between knowing and believing, much like you have problems distinguishing fact from fiction. And somehow I suspect that you manage all of that without the assistance of 'medication'.

btw: Do you prefer ketchup or mustard with your foot? (I'm conducting a scientific survey on this one).

gottcha!

By the way I do indeed assume you are a young man no matter what you profess to be. My flip flopping was to try and trip yuo up to make one of those "gottha" arguments. And by young I mean younger than me, which believe me you are.

Well, I can see your point, it's an easy one for you to use to qualify the conservative as the rabid dog. After all, we all know that you can't teach an old dog new tricks, right?

Ruff, ruff.

Oh, and I see that you are back to calling me a young man. But when I posted a few references to the '60s you assumed I was as old as you. Then I told you it was a joke and you went back to assuming I'm a young man. Truth is, you don't have a clue about my age or my gender either, for that matter. I hope you don't run your business by jumping to conclusions all the time.

What if I were to tell you that I work for the Democrats or some liberal organization? What if I told you I was working for a new organization dedicated to finding the middle path by taking the best ideas from both sides? What if I told you I was just prodding you so I could understand the mentality of the other side? What if I'm just playing head games with you?

You are lucky that your life is so simple. All you need to see is one idea with which you disagree and you immediately classify me as the dangerous opposition. Once that idea is fixed in your mind, you are open to nothing else. That's why you reject facts and data so much when they don't support your position. You can't allow anything to interfere with fixed notions.

Obviously, you missed the entire point. I made it clear that the type of person I was talking about exists on both the right and the left. And just to make sure that no one was unclear about you, you went right back to 'it's all the liberals' fault theme. If you think I learned about a worldwide economy you are sadly wrong. That is not the issue that is being debated when it comes to the economy. Given your tendencies, there is no need to say anything more about any specific issue. If you need a foil to provide you with fodder to attack, ridicule, and blame liberals for everything, while denying any responsibility that conservatives have, search elsewhere.

I am sure this post will unleash another one of your tirades, and I could really care less anymore about anything you have to say. I will try to leave you to your club of left wing and right wing scapegoating extremists. You both deserve each other. You can feed on each other and hopefully all devour one another so that reasonable people may prevail.

"These people are not sophicated enough to recognize that many of problems are not really political at all, but they are the result of rapidly increasing technology and the increased unification of a worldwide economy in contrast to individual national economies"

I am laughing so hard my old sides can't take it. If you are going to kill me with laughter, then OK, you are winning because I am dying! But the silver lining is that at least I have instilled some realization into you as to what is really going on in the world economy. The next step is to realize, young man, that just demanding, striking or boycotting for higher wages/ benefits will not work in the long haul. Look, your comment above is spot on correct........congratulations on getting financially educated. I only take exception to the " These people are not sophisticated enough to recognize...." (meaning the conservatives) comment. Come on now, everyone who has read these posts knows I've been hammering away at you for this very fact, that the WW economy has changed! That technology and cheaper wages have turned the US labor market on its head, with the reality that US workers still have not excepted the realities. Sorry, but this is typical liberal-know-it-all spin........when caught with real facts and easily grasped fresh views that are counter to the left's mantra's the spin game goes into full swing. This is not your original position on the changes in the world economy, you were warring for wages that Americans deserve, and should get, never mind what the Indian, Chinese guy gets paid..... "those are slave wages you screamed!". The reality is it does not matter much what Americans want or believe they deserve (in the long run), it will be what businesses can get for the most competitive situation in the world wide marketplace.

Please don't steal my insights and then complain that I do not get these facts!

By the way Stalin and Lenin killed millions in their search for the "opposition". Hitler killed 6-8 million Jews, a drop in the bucket compared to what these two killed right before and after the Bohlshevik revolution. Yeah, I know, my spelling is third grade level.

There is a difference between Judging others and Blaming others for what happened at Sandy Hook Elementary. But that difference has been blurred by the Horrificness of the Crimes that took place.

The Objective, of course, is to try to Prevent their Recurrence. But that's kind'a too late. Mass killings/murders of innocent people has already taken place in our country again and again and again
-- leading most of us to, rightly, assume that it will happen yet again, our Judging and Blaming notwithstanding.

December 11, 2012. 22-year-old Jacob T. Roberts killed 2 people and himself with a stolen rifle in Clackamas Town Center, Oregon. Motive unknown.

September 27, 2012. Five shot to death by 36-year-old Andrew Engeldinger at Accent Signage Systems in Minneapolis, MN. Three others wounded. Engeldinger went on a rampage after losing his job, ultimately killing himself.

August 5, 2012. Six Sikh temple members killed when 40-year-old US Army veteran Wade Michael Page opened fire in Oak Creek, Wisconsin. Four others injured, and Page killed himself.

July 20, 2012. During midnight premiere of The Dark Knight Rises in Aurora, CO, 24-year-old James Holmes killed 12 people and wounded 58. Holmes was arrested outside the theater.

May 29, 2012. Ian Stawicki opened fire on Cafe Racer Espresso in Seattle, WA, killing 5 and himself after a citywide manhunt.

April 6, 2012. Jake England, 19, and Alvin Watts, 32, shot 5 black men in Tulsa, Oklahoma, in racially motivated shooting spree. Three died.

April 2, 2012. A former student, 43-year-old One L. Goh killed 7 people at Oikos University, a Korean Christian college in Oakland, CA.

February 27, 2012. Three students were killed by Thomas “TJ” Lane, another student, in a rampage at Chardon High School in Chardon, OH. Three others wounded.

That's just in 2012. But, hey, these Murders, and Thousands more EVERY YEAR, just keep coming. It's part of the price that We/They pay for the Right to own Guns, the "Price of Freedom".

Every parent that was lucky to have not had there child killed, has the same stupid attitude about Adam Lanza, "oh who cares about him" one parent said. But you know what? that is exactly the kind of attitude that caused Lanza to collaspe in his fears and depression and anger. Maybe if people cared more about what goes on in the mind of a young man who feels akward,and who doesnt look at you with his eyes, rarely, or roams the school grounds by himself with his head down, afraid of being bullied or humliated. Nobody cared enough to be his friend. He was shunned by his peers,shunned by his mother.The key to his explosive angry and rage falls on his mother. Her attitude and negative demeanor, as well as any negative comments made directly or indirectly lead her son Adam to kill her and go into a blind rage. Adam was a loner through grade school and jr high school until he was removed to home schooling instead. That alone isolated him furthur then he already was. There needs to be a system in place to acknowledge these type of students from early on and short circuit the negative social spiral that draws them into fear and depression. Adam needed a part-time mentor, one that can be like an older brother(his real brother like the rest of his family just shunned him) Someone to talk to,play games with,and just plain hangout with. Now none of this excuses his horrible actions. But there must be understanding of this and the circumstances that lead to this horrible killing of children. So this type of individual in the future when in our schools or community can be helped and not ignored. Mental illness cannot be ignored,there are many of us who live with this or wont admit to it. My heart goes out to everyone that perished. But we must understand, and like the priest said himself about this, we must forgive.

I think I've finally figured out the old troll. He is a representative of that portion of the population that believes in the simple concept that everything they perceive as being wrong with society or America is the direct result of a single entity, in this case, liberals or Democrats. This is a very convenient way to look at things. Just get rid of the offending group, and all the problems will disappear. The fascinating thing is that this same mentality exists on both the extreme right and extreme left which I why I tend to reject both.

History shows many examples of such thinking:

In France, in the late 17th century, this same thinking translated as 'get rid of the Bourbons' and everything will be just fine. The result of doing so brought upon a bloody French Revolution that ended up with Napoleon who wound up killing a large percentage of the male population of France during his attempt to conquer Europe. France suffered for decades as a result of Napoleon.

In Russia, in the early 20th century, the Bolsheviks and their allies, said that getting rid of the Romanov Czars and quitting World War I would solve all their problems. We all know how that one ended.

In Germany, during the 1920's the Nazis said that all of the German problems were caused by Jews. That one didn't work out too well for Germany either.

In the US, in 2003, we were told that all we needed to do was to remove Saddam Hussein from power and things would be far better in Iraq and the rest of the middle East. Wrong again.

It is not sufficient to simply talk about various scapegoats and say that simply removing them will fix all problems. What is also neeeded is the plan for what happens afterwards. Simply blaming one group for all the evils in the world and not having a real alternative just doesn't work. And blaming only one group, while convenient, has never been historically justified.

What we have here now is a few people who take the simplistic view of things. Just get rid of the liberals and America will be fine. These people are not sophicated enough to recognize that many of problems are not really political at all, but they are the result of rapidly increasing technology and the increased unification of a worldwide economy in contrast to individual national economies. A few examples may serve to illustrate this point:

Up until the early part of the 20th century, families lived together and stayed together as multi-generational units. Partents took care of young children; adult children took care of their parents in their old age. For the most part, kids lived with or near their parents and grandparents and were able to take the responsibility of providing care of the older generation. With the advent of the automobile and more effective rail transportation, families started to break apart geographically. Older generations were 'abandoned' by the younger ones who moved away. So what did we do about it? We set up a fund (or two) to which everyone contributes and the money in the funds is used to take care of the older generation. We call this social security and medicare. It serves a real purpose, and one which was not necessary prior to the days of unlimited mobility. There is no rationale to blame these programs on liberals or Democrats; these programs became necesssary due to increased technology.

Many seem to like to blame cultural changes on liberals as well ... the decline in our 'values'. I take issue with this as well and believe that our values are changing due to the changes in communications technology. In the old days, there were face-to-face interactions and mail (you know, the kind with postage stamps). Most children were primarily exposed to only the values of their parents and, perhaps, religious leaders. People with whom one interacted generally lived close by and tended to have similar values. Starting with the advent of the telephone and running all the way up to today's internet and other modern communication devices, we now have a stiuation in which people are now exposed to far more in the way of ideas. Anyone today can visit any number of conservative or liberal web sites to learn differing points of views and different values. Anyone can visit a site that incites violence or even tells one how to commit violent acts. Once again, this change is not due to any specific group, be it liberals or conservatives. It is due to advances in science and technology.

Even religion in general has become a victim of scientific and technological advances. Religion, in general, evolved as a mechanism to explain the unknown. However, as science evolves and starts to explain much of the unknown, religions beocmes less relevant. The story of creation is interesting in that it pretty much follows the sequence of Darwinian evolution. Howwever, the scientific explanation just plays better in the modern world. The increased availability of information about all religions that is available on the internet and other places, makes the unique features of each specific religious sect more easy to challenge and makes the claims of religious leaders less easy to accept. Many, if not most, of the stories in the Bible are being found to have a basis in historical fact that can be explained scientifically and without the necessity of calling upon the intervention of God. All of these things tend to weaken the hold that religion has had on people for several millenia. Whether is is a good thing or bad isn't the point. The point is that the decline of religion simply cannot be blamed on any particular group. It is a consquence of 'progress'.

I would submit that many of our problems are the result of a world that is changing so rapidly that mankind has not been able to adapt quickly enough. We see this with our personal health and the amount of obesity in America. We have changed from a society where most work was physical and used up calories to one in which most people sit all day in an office or cubicle and get virtually no exercise at all. Our wealth has changed our diets so that we overeat and eat unhealthful foods because they fit into our lifestyles and we have not had enough time to 'evolve' to deal with these changes. Once again, this can't be blamed on any particular group.

So if you want to continue in your simplistic world of having a single scapegoat for everything, and limit your intellectual thinking to finding ways to link that scapegoat to everything you don't like, be my guest. Knowing how your mind works, you are pretty much locked into that kind of thinking. On the other hand, the limitations and rigidity of your thinking means that any discussion of issues is useless since you will take any issue or fact or piece of data and spend your time trying to blame it on the liberals. For whatever it is worth, I have this same problem with some of my more extreme liberal friends as well who can find a way to blame everything bad on conservatives, Republicans, and George W. Bush (their whipping boy-du-jour). Quite frankly, if I were King, I would take the 2-5 % of the scapegoat crowd on the right and the same amount on the left, round them all up, put them all into a cage, and let them fight it out and, if necessary, kill each other off. Maybe then the other 90 % of the people can calm down and work together to deal with issues. Every poll shows that that is what the America people want now. No philosophy, no dogma, no agendas, no scapegoating ... just work together to get it done.

Now that I understand your mentality and that of extremists in general, I feel alot better. I no longer have to criticize you on the basis of your views (right or left). I can simply lump both the right and left extremists as a single group of small minded individuals that are far more about finding the 'villians' than fixing things. And the best part is that I just know how much it will annoy all of you when I call out both groups of extremists of being simple minded ideologues who's views are irrelevant when compared to their focus on their own 'evil villian'. You guys deserve each other; please just get out of the way so the remaining 90 % can move along and get things done.

Sorry, but I have seen some businesses run into the ground by totally clueless Jews. Just the title of Jew means very little if you are not wise.

A German company controlled by Zionists? In what rubber room are you living? Your idiotic claim is roughly the equivalent of saying that David Duke (former Klansman) is the head of the NAACP or that Vladimir Putin will be the new head of the Heritage Foundation.

Another way to look at it is that Zionists are Jews and no Jew would ever run a company as poorly as Siemens is being run (reverse bigotry?).

Siemens was controlled also by Zionists