Astromart

May 30, 2003 05:50 PM Forum: Investment Discussions

Other things going on

Weekly Fed #'s tell a very liquid story. M1 is blazing away at a 7-8% annualized growth rate last 3 months.

Looks like things are startin' to cook.

May 30, 2003 05:52 PM Forum: Investment Discussions

It has been suggested that the S&P has been forming a supermassive 'head and shoulders' top formation, first shoulder in 1998, the "head" occuring in 2000, the 2nd shoulder in late 2001-early 2002. If that is so then the "neckline" zone (long red line connecting 1998 and 2001 lows, and approx. where the market is now) is supposed to be a zone of some pretty stiff resistance.

May 30, 2003 06:51 PM Forum: Religion

Why have corporate+individual income tax?

Posted By Paul Kammueller

I'm curious. Why do we have a corporate income tax? I mean really, we pay it all anyway, right? To pay taxes, a company has to:

1) pay its workers less
2) charge more for its product
3) have less earnings for its shareholders

In all of these cases, it still comes out of the pocket of regular taxpayers. Since all taxes ultimately come from the same place anyway, why not simplify and either make everything individual, or, conversely, make all taxes corporate (so I don't all have to do stinking tax forms every year)? The end financial result is the same, and I think either way a fair amount of time, effort and money could be saved.

June 5, 2003 02:59 AM Forum: Religion

Your Immortal Soul

Posted By Paul Kammueller

Okay I know we've touched on this before but it's been a long time and neither Bill nor I can remember much about it and we've gotten more participants since then, so let's explore this whole business of the 'Immortal Soul'. Primitive man as far back as 100,000 years ago believed in this apparently from some burial rituals and arrangements that have been discovered by anthropologists. We are here, alive and self-aware, and aware that we're self-aware, and our very conscious existence astounds and confounds us to the point that there seems something 'magical' about it. This seems worth discussing.

In a nutshell:
1) Do you believe that there is something apart from mind and body that, for lack of any scientific designation, would be called the 'soul'? Why or why not?

2) If you do believe in a 'soul', what would it consist of? What would it preserve? Earthly memories? Personality? Or just the purest kernel of self-awareness? What is the root 'you' that you identify a 'soul' with?

3) If you don't believe in a soul, what do you consider to be your most fundamental, bedrock notion of 'self' or identity?

June 7, 2003 04:04 PM Forum: Religion

Re: Verrry interesting

Posted By Paul Kammueller

Let us just say that all this business about computers increasing worker productivity is wayyyyyyy overblown!

;-D

June 9, 2003 04:41 PM Forum: Religion

Re: What would we be like,

Posted By Paul Kammueller

'If it wasn't for society, we would just be a bunch of animals if you ask me.'

A bunch of dead animals at that. Without any society we'd have no technology and without technology most of us would be dead. We also have no fangs, talons or horns for natural defense. We have precious little hair. I may survive by eating bugs all summer but I wouldn't survive next winter without any heat or clothes.

'Society' is an integral part of our species at this point. It is part of our identity. Someone who has been raised 'outside' of society, like an ant separated from the colony or a bee separated from its hive, is lacking in some pretty fundamental characteristics that define them as a member of their species.

June 9, 2003 06:17 PM Forum: Religion

Re: What would we be like,

Posted By Paul Kammueller

"We are not born with an innate desire to nurture our children."

Almost every other mammal is. All sorts of animals nurther their children, even though they have no learned system of morals.

Why do you think humans would be an exception to this? Humans do still have certain instinctual drives. We like to eat and mate, we have a healthy fear of death. Why would we stop caring for our offspring just because we evolved intelligence?

June 11, 2003 05:04 PM Forum: Religion

Religion: so where are we headed?

Posted By Paul Kammueller

I'm curious as to everyone's thoughts on eventual results of the major religions that exist today. Seems over the centuries there's been a lot of conflict due to differences in beliefs. Also over the centuries there has been coalescing of religions into geographically larger and larger blocs (i.e. Christianity in the West, Islam in the Middle East and South Asia, etc.).

A lot of religious conflict, wars and feuding, continues all over the world today. After all, people feel strongly about their beliefs. What do you think is the likely result?

1) War without end
2) Eventual triumph of _________ (insert your religion here)
3) Eventual elimination of religion entirely
4) Eventual 'averaging' of religions into something like deism or unitarianism (possibly part of a larger global cultural homogenization)

June 16, 2003 12:27 AM Forum: Religion

Re: SHHHHHHHH!

Posted By Paul Kammueller

How about waking somebody up over HERE? Apparently all the participants on this forum are strict observers of the sabbath, even the A/A's.

June 16, 2003 11:24 AM Forum: Religion

Speaking of death... (death clock) :-O

Posted By Paul Kammueller

Try this, it's pretty cool -- asks you a bunch of questions about your age and lifestyle and tells you (down to the second) how much time you have left:

http://www.findyourfate.com/deathmeter/deathmtr.html

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Posts Made By: Paul Kammueller

Other things going on

S&P500 -- decade-long chart

Why have corporate+individual income tax?

Your Immortal Soul

Re: Verrry interesting

Re: What would we be like,

Re: What would we be like,

Religion: so where are we headed?

Re: SHHHHHHHH!

Speaking of death... (death clock) :-O

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