On 1/30/2018 9:59 AM, U.S. Janet B. wrote:
> On Tue, 30 Jan 2018 12:36:05 -0400, wrote:
>
>> On Tue, 30 Jan 2018 09:11:42 -0700, graham > wrote:
>>
>>> On 2018-01-30 9:00 AM, Dave Smith wrote:
>>>> On 2018-01-30 10:12 AM, Ed Pawlowski wrote:
>>>>> On 1/30/2018 9:54 AM, wrote:
>>>>
>>>>>> Very interesting - so that made her good enough to have baby Jesus
>>>>>> without actually having sex with a man?
>>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>> Never was taught that in 12 years of Catholic school.
>>>>> I'm too skeptical to be a good follower of any religion anyway.
>>>>
>>>> Churches have a way of indoctrinating people into believing a lot of
>>>> their rhetoric.* Repeating it over and over helps. While they may say
>>>> that reciting prayers remind us of our faith and believes, it also acts
>>>> to make us believe it is actually true. The Bible is quite clear about
>>>> Mary being a Virgin. Granted, most of us get that from modern English
>>>> versions of the Bible, and some will argue that the term meant something
>>>> else at the time, like that they weren't yet married but were engaged...
>>>>
>>>> Another common on is about Eve getting sucked into eating that apple.
>>>> There is no apple in the Genesis story.* There is no apple tree. It was
>>>> the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.
>>>
>>> What it boils down to is that it is all squit, twaddle and bunkum!
>>> And just look at all the conflicts and human misery caused by religion.
>>
>> It's far harder to name wars that were not about religion 
>
> In the 'name of religion' -- with some guy at the top stirring the
> peasants up so as to help him win the land or power he wants.
https://www.huffingtonpost.com/rabbi...b_1400766.html
In their recently published book, Encyclopedia of Wars, authors
Charles Phillips and Alan Axelrod document the history of recorded
warfare, and from their list of 1763 wars only 123 have been classified
to involve a religious cause, accounting for less than 7 percent of all
wars and less than 2 percent of all people killed in warfare. While, for
example, it is estimated that approximately one to three million people
were tragically killed in the Crusades, and perhaps 3,000 in the
Inquisition, nearly 35 million soldiers and civilians died in the
senseless, and secular, slaughter of World War 1 alone.
History simply does not support the hypothesis that religion is the
major cause of conflict. The wars of the ancient world were rarely, if
ever, based on religion. These wars were for territorial conquest, to
control borders, secure trade routes, or respond to an internal
challenge to political authority. In fact, the ancient conquerors,
whether Egyptian, Babylonian, Persian, Greek, or Roman, openly welcomed
the religious beliefs of those they conquered, and often added the new
gods to their own pantheon.
Medieval and Renaissance wars were also typically about control and
wealth as city-states vied for power, often with the support, but rarely
instigation, of the Church. And the Mongol Asian rampage, which is
thought to have killed nearly 30 million people, had no religious
component whatsoever.
Most modern wars, including the Napoleonic Campaign, the American
Revolution, the French Revolution, the American Civil War, World War I,
the Russia Revolution, World War II, and the conflicts in Korea and
Vietnam, were not religious in nature or cause. While religious groups
have been specifically targeted (most notably in World War II), to claim
that religion was the cause is to blame the victim and to misunderstand
the perpetrators motives, which were nationalistic and ethnic, not
religious.
Similarly, the vast numbers of genocides (those killed in ethic
cleanses, purges, etc. that are not connected to a declared war) are not
based on religion. Its estimated that over 160 million civilians were
killed in genocides in the 20th century alone, with nearly 100 million
killed by the Communist states of USSR and China. While some claim that
Communism itself is a state religion because it has an absolute
dictator whose word is law and a holy book of unchallenged rules
such a claim simply equates religion with the human desire for power,
conformance, and control, making any distinctions with other human
institutions meaningless.
> A rallying cry always works 'Make America Great Again.'
> Janet US
Seems to be working rather well too, doesn't it?
http://www.breitbart.com/big-governm...ng-tax-reform/
The oil giant Exxon Mobil has announced it will invest an extra $50
billion in the American economy, citing Republicans recently passed tax
reform.
In a blog post, Exxon CEO Darren Woods cited tax reform as well as
sound tax and regulatory policies as well as a pro-growth business
climate as major factors behind the investment.
These investments are underpinned by the unique strengths of our
company and enhanced by the historic tax reform recently signed into
law, Woods wrote. These positive developments will mean more jobs and
economic expansion across the United States in a myriad of industries.
These are quality investments for our shareholders that are made even
better by tax reform, Woods continued. These are all possible because
of the resource base developed by our industry along with sound tax and
regulatory policies that create a pro-growth business climate here in
the U.S.
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The move will see Exxon increase its production of shale oil in the
Permian Basin in western Texas and eastern New Mexico, where drilling
costs are relatively low. It will also involve the company improving its
existing infrastructure and constructing new manufacturing sites,
creating as many as 12,000 new jobs.
As a result of last years historic tax reform package, companies have
seen the corporate tax rate reduced from 35 to 21 percent. Dozens of
companies including Apple, Comcast, and J.P Morgan have since announced
additional investment in the U.S. economy, while over a hundred
companies have offered their employees bonuses or salary increases.
According to the International Monetary Fund, the reforms will reform
will help accelerate both U.S. and global economic growth to 3.9 percent
over 2018.