Here is a good interp: http://www.angelfire.com/wy/Franklin4YAHWEH/camelthroughneedle.html

Nonetheless, the meaning of the passage is clear, it is impossible for man to enter into the kingdom without God.

The sad thing about the average US citizen is they have no clue what it costs to protect their bodies. Take away the law enforcement and the military, then any regulation of cash, legal system, postal system, roads, and you are pretty much SOL. Companie's shoulder the tax burden here. At $35K a year you are a beneficiary of many many people's hard work tax dollars (myself included). As We are the ones paying for Your security.

http://www.usgovernmentspending.com/US_per_capita_spending.html would suggest otherwise.

"Money crisis"; Lets spend $50Billion dollars to create $5billion dollrs worth of new technology that is applicable to earth. I would rather spend $10Billion and get twice as much usable technology.

And while you are wishing in your weird idyllic world why not wish that we could spend $1 and get 10 Biillion in return? Good lord, no one could have predicted the trillions in advancement we got from the Apollo missions but everyone agrees we would not even be close to where we are today without it. For all we know spending the $50 Billion to create a moon base may result in a Utopian society. That is the great thing about research, you don't know what you are going to get out of it. We don't have famine, incurable disease, and wars because we don't throw enough money into research...it isn't as simple as saying "Hey if we only had 3 trillion dollars we could have a cure for cancer."

This is a basic understanding of research projects. The advantages to a moon base far outweigh almost any other project there is. because as of this moment, our species CANNOT survive a zombie apocalypse. A moon base would give us a fighting chance in the ability to survive elsewhere while we wait for the planet to rebuild. This one reason alone would make a moon base worth a trifling 50 billion dollars.

You forget about the american shiny thing syndrome. Things abhorrent today are commonplace tomorrow due to the shades of grey. Corporations have a longer memory than american citizens. We have a hard enough time remembering what happened last year or thinking of what we are going to do in 5. The only entity that has a longer memory than corporations are Religious institutions, particularly Buddhism, Christianity, and Islam. So unless we catch their radar, we will be fighting a losing battle. We may be able to enact some legislation that protects Freedom of information but how long is that going to last?

Yes this is one of the more discouraging parts of our Gov't. If something doesn't pass the first time just try it again in a few years when no one is looking.

You are speaking in two different sums. You talk about how much the trees sequester but not about how much they take in, if the tree takes in 140lbs of CO2 per year the OP's point stands.

Im not disagreeing with your post, just that it is a poor argument against the OP.

!Fail, I have been using my Fire since I received it after pre-ordering. The browser is fast, navigation is intuitive, I like the apps but am not a big fan of the flip book or whatever the hell it is called. It is a cool effect but pretty useless. General tablet usage, using the imdb app while watching movies with my wife, playing games, checking mail, all of which it excels at. I do admit the button on the bottom is a poor design choice. I dont need an SD card though, almost everywhere I go has a wi-fi connection.

I will say this though, the fire kicks the crap out of the Galaxy Tab. It is not as good as the iPad by a long shot but I do like the smaller screen as I can fit the sucker in my coat pocket.

All in all it has gotten me thinking, I wouldn't need a smart phone anymore, if the fire had a 4G connection.

Yes because none of the other animals use tools and our tools have never been used to improve the earth :) I maintain it is our jobs to be stewards of the earth, and we are to use the power that we have to establish a livable planet regardless of what nature does to try to destroy itself every few millenia :)

because of the paradox. If someone truly believed that to be true then they would loathe their very own existence. As it is it usually is more of a political statement or a way to stir up social conversation as it is un-provable.

In all seriousness, as far as I am aware, outside of feeding the purple martin, I dont think the mosquito really has a useful purpose in nature other than population control.

Exactly, I will admit, 10 years ago I thought, wow those guys are charging $125 an hour, I can do that for $100 and make a killing. Then reality hit, I filed my taxes, had to hire a couple employees to help with projects, then there is the time I spend working the books, and generating business. After calculating in all that...I just couldnt make ends meet, I think I figured up one time, to pull a decent salary I needed at least 5 good employees.

Figure up that the tax is around 40%, advertizing, insurance is about 400-800 a month per employee, plus bonuses, incentives, paying the accountants...I know I was shocked too. Go into business yourself and have a few employees, you will find out soon enough that is is borderline insane.

No one over my head, I am able to pay myself almost $40 an hour. Consider I have to pay liability for each employee, and at around 40% tax I am making $10 an hour per employee. Err I should say was making. I got out because people around here were not willing to pay the rates I needed to pull a decent profit.There was always some noob contractor willing to come in for a loss.

SBS gets screwed in this market, seriously.

Only 2x? that is actually pretty good (cheap). The margins there have to be pretty tight. I am a pretty well paid IT worker at around $37 an hour (80K a year). When I contract it is for $125 an hour, $100 on the low end. The overhead on taxes and administrative costs is so friggin high that we break even on the $100/hr jobs.

What you get with contractors is freedom from salaries, benefits, leave, and liability. Depends on what you are wanting. As someone who has worked for the state, I can say the contractors we hired were worth 3-4 internal employees. The contractors have incentive, the in-house never did, they got paid the same no matter how hard they worked, just as long as they kept that seat warm between 8-5.