Back in R0.0, I disliked most of Christianity, but somehow still liked Jesus and the Solomonic book of Ecclesiastes. Ecclesiastes describes 21st century modern life quite accurately despite its age. It's a very honest description of our lives on earth; I think it's a book that should be appreciated...

With Religion 2.0, you separate out the functions of explaining the world and explaining ourselves and our feelings. Science explains the world better, so you use science for that. I very much agree with the quote above. A religious text is not necessarily meant to also be a scientific text. I read...

Greg, 1. You said you were going with 5% down and a 30 year mortgage. Most mortgage lenders require private mortgage insurance if you put down less than 20%. Did you account for that ? 2. I second Desert's view on the importance of liquidity, especially for a first time homeowner. I did factor in P...

A soft consideration: Early in my career, I crunched numbers to make the decision and made the assumption (which turned out to be correct) that my salary would continue to increase throughout my working years. After I retired (which usually means relatively fixed income) my main consideration was n...

Good to hear from you Greg! Congrats on buying a house. Some mortgage advice. If you anticipate a very simple situation and you've got a local bank offering a good deal, go directly to the bank. Otherwise, there are advantages to going with a mortgage broker, as they have some leverage with the ban...

Good stuff, Greg! And welcome back, I've always liked your posts. Glad to be back. I've just been a lurker for a little whiles due to other things I've been paying attention to instead. In my experience, the one factor in house purchases that overwhelms all others is appreciation. I know your post ...

Greetings all. I've buying a house in the next few weeks and being an analytical person to a fault I've been trying to answer a lot of questions: 1.) Opportunity Cost, how much is worthwhile to put down for a down-payment? 2.) Is it better to get a 15 year or a 30 year mortgage? 3.) Who to get for a...

I've been using these for tracking silver and gold prices.

=IF(1, ImportXml("http://services.packetizer.com/spotprices/?f=xml", "/SpotPrices/silver"), 18)

=IF(1, ImportXml("http://services.packetizer.com/spotprices/?f=xml", "/SpotPrices/gold"), 1300)

Hey Greg, welcome back ... haven't seen you in a while. I was thinking about you earlier this week, when I was looking at your PowerPoint you put together, to find some links on Mormonism and Jehovahs Witnesses. Thanks Desert. I like this forum a lot, however it does become a distraction though ver...

Critical rebuttal by a teacher of the author who wrote the article below. http://www.abc.net.au/religion/articles/2014/12/24/4154120.htm Did a man called Jesus of Nazareth walk the earth? Discussions over whether the figure known as the “Historical Jesus” actually existed primarily reflect disagreem...

MachineGhost wrote:Start at 1:37 until 8:15.

http://watchcartoonsonline.eu/watch/ani ... oneyhands/

It's been a whiles since I've watched the Animaniacs. I enjoyed it. Thanks for the post.

I think I'm around 65% savings rate with me working fulltime and my wife working part-time. There's more I could cut out eventually and currently am renting an apartment so if that money could go towards equity in a home that'd be nice someday.

I'd rather have Jon Stewart or Steven Colbert as Trump's vp. An entertainer with another entertainer to balance him out. Certainly would make me more interested in voting.

The elder Cruz is widely regarded as a Dominionist (see... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dominion_Theology ). Most orthodox (and Orthodox) Christians consider that to be a pretty weird heresy. Christianity is about freely coming to God/Jesus. If you have it being a political movement and using forc...

Yikes... Need a gdp per hour worked chart https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_GDP_%28PPP%29_per_hour_worked Top 10: Rank   Country         GDP (PPP) per hour 2013 1         Norway           75.18 2         Luxembourg   73.22 3         United States 67.32 4         Belgium           6...

If you end up buying the universal SIM, please report back how it worked for you.  It sounds pretty useful. I might buy this but from the website it looks like it talks about seamlessly transitioning from one country's cell towers to the next country. I'll have to keep digging. https://www.mobal.co...

Thanks for your response Mark. My reasoning for getting a universal SIM card (like the link I posted which I believe covers ALL of those countries, not just you picking one from the list), is that I'm only going to be in each country for a few days and I'm moving through 9 countries. If I can get a ...

Greetings all. My wife and I are going to be headed to western Europe soon for about a month and wanted to source the forum regarding cell phones and GPS navigation there. I'll be using a car in a few countries and was wondering what the best options are in terms of cost and hassle, etc. For instanc...

I'm pretty sure this is why Elon Musk wants to get to Mars. He wants to colonize it and turn it into a libertarian paradise. At least for a little whiles you don't have to worry about a big army coming to you and trying to take it over/take it away from you.

MangoMan wrote: Because otherwise, none of this makes any sense other than to waste travelers' time and create more gov't bureaucracy.

Good video on this subject of "Security Theater" from Adam Ruins Everything

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QKEdKdgi2hg

Yes, but that is more of a curse from being an intellectual than anything else.  I don't quite think people with diminished mental capacities quite feel "hopelessness and despair" as we can.  You're almost 30, so its around time for you to hit your "intellectual mid-life crisis"...

I was also thinking about this the other day about the loss of identity. How many people here drive to work, and you could have a person that worked 15 feet above you on another floor and you have no idea who they are. Or someone who lives 1000 feet from your house and you have no idea who they are....

Some more good quotes from that movie (Fight Club).

http://www.quotesforbros.com/24-fight-c ... gs-images/

Seems relevant (book): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Growth_Fetish Hamilton proposes that where a society has developed to the point at which the majority of people live reasonably comfortably, the pursuit of growth is pointless and should be curtailed. The surplus wealth could then be diverted into...

I'm liking where this thread is going. I very much agree to PS's standpoint, see Fight Club quote below: "an entire generation pumping gas, waiting tables – slaves with white collars. Advertising has us chasing cars and clothes, working jobs we hate so we can buy shit we don't need." Or th...