Posts Made By: Paul Kammueller

February 15, 2009 03:37 AM Forum: Politics

Change you can believe in?

Posted By Paul Kammueller

Jack Day said:
Instead of giving us a lump sum that we could use to help with remodeling our home, we will get $15.00 every two weeks for a year.

It's better to have the incremental than the lump sum if the goal is to get some sustaining 'rolling start' to the stimulus. You get a lump sum, the party is over in one day and then you're back to where you started. Remember last year's rebate? It was here, then it was gone, that was it, thanks for playing.

But if you get an increase in cash flow, however small, you've got something that keeps going -- the bottom line is, the money has to go somewhere. It's to get money slowly moving again, it's not to make everyone suddenly rich.

A little dose of realistic expectations is in order here.

February 15, 2009 03:43 AM Forum: Politics

Change you can believe in?

Posted By Paul Kammueller

Jack Day said:
Strangely enough I don't see this making ANY difference in the long run, short run or any other run what so ever...

Looks like change is all this is, as in pocket change. Have fun spending that whoppin' $7.50 a week guys & gals!

If you don't want yours please send it to me. grin We can set up an automatic weekly transfer. Hey, I'll even start a list for anyone else who wants to sign up! I mean, if it'll make NO difference whatsoever, then you won't miss it, right? grin

February 21, 2009 05:12 AM Forum: Politics

Stock Market needs to update grading system

Posted By Paul Kammueller

Michael Koons said:
It gave the prior 8 years of deceit, easy credit, *&^% up derivitives, ponzi schemes, cooked public business's books, huge valuations an A! smile
No it didn't. It gave those 8 years an F minus. Compare the market indices from start to finish. The Bush administration was not a happy time for investors.

February 26, 2009 06:00 AM Forum: Investment Discussions

Contrarian signs in mutual funds?

Posted By Paul Kammueller

And a net cash outflow year could also be looked upon as a general contrarian indicator just by itself. 2002 saw $27 billion fleeing stock funds, while 2008 saw net outflows of over $200 billion.

February 28, 2009 04:19 AM Forum: Politics

Crushing new taxes

Posted By Paul Kammueller

I remember certain radio talk show hosts making equally confident predictions of an imminent depression and total doom, in 1993 when Clinton's first budget was released... wink

March 17, 2009 03:47 AM Forum: Religion

Islamic Violence vs Judeo-Christian Violence

Posted By Paul Kammueller

To dead or tortured victims of either variety, the difference is as academic as this article.

The author seems rather fixated on his take on the difference between intent of religious authors vs. what religious followers actually do with their writings, as if the all pagans, heretics, and other victims cared about this subtle legalistic distinction of intent, assuming you even accept the author's basic thesis (which is another whole conversation, being part of an emerging cottage industry of non-muslims becoming self-proclaimed Islam experts, telling muslims that they need to be more violent to be good muslims -- paradoxically trying, supposedly, to fight Islamic fundamentalism while inexplicably exhibiting and promoting a fundamentalist mindset).

From what I have seen, it matters very little what holy texts actually say. You can find a verse in this or that to justify almost any heinous course of action if you look hard enough. What matters is how certain powerful individuals respond to the writings, and how many followers they can muster in the process.

March 17, 2009 03:58 AM Forum: Religion

Capital Punishment

Posted By Paul Kammueller

Mark Norby said:
"If executing a rightly convicted murderer would bring the victim back to life, would you still be against capital punishment?" Hmmmm.

And if executing a wrongly convicted person DIDN'T bring the victim back to life, would you still be for capital punishment? :S

Anybody can play these silly games. The cold hard truth is that judges, juries and lawyers are collections of fallible humans and occasionally errors occur. No one has convinced me yet that human judgment is that perfect.

March 19, 2009 11:07 AM Forum: Politics

Duly Noting AIG Campaign Contributions

Posted By Paul Kammueller

It looks like they're also counting all donations from individuals who happen to be employees of AIG. So, let's say I work for Company X and give money to Obama personally because I want him to win: even if Company X and its owners hate Obama and never give him one thin dime, the media is going to report it like all these contributions came from Company X. So there's more to this than just comparing totals.

March 19, 2009 11:31 AM Forum: Global Warming - REAL or NOT

Global Warming Expedition Stranded

Posted By Paul Kammueller

Ouch. Yeah the North Pole in winter's gotta be pretty harsh, global warming or no. How many expeditions up there have been done this time of year? It would seem a fairly high-risk venture, not that any polar expedition would necessarily be a picnic.

March 23, 2009 12:35 AM Forum: Equipment Talk

equipment investment ratios

Posted By Paul Kammueller

Also for visual use only... and these figs are pretty rough because it's actually been a few years since building:

Mirrors, cells and spiders: 50%
Eyepieces, barlows, filters: 35%
Plywood, paint, nuts/bolts, sonotubes, bearings, handles, etc.: 15%?