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Politics : Formerly About Advanced Micro Devices -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: RetiredNow who wrote (269626)	1/22/2006 9:28:21 AM
From: combjelly	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 1571200

"When was the last terrorist act committed by a non-Muslim." en.wikipedia.org

To: RetiredNow who wrote (269626)	1/22/2006 9:35:41 AM
From: Taro	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 1571200

MM, maybe the correct figure is 97 or maybe it is "only" 95%. It is obvious to anybody following any news daily, and who is not blinded by his own ideology like left or pacifism, that the vast majority of those flash points worldwide are initiated and kept on fire by radical Muslims. You don't get anywhere discussing that with leftists like John. He will have none of it, period. Osama and his gangsters no doubt are aware of this great proverb: "War doesn't determine who is right, war determines who is left." Taro

To: RetiredNow who wrote (269626)	1/22/2006 9:41:51 AM
From: RetiredNow	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 1571200

Congress' pension: Nice and secure Amid the coming pension debate, keep in mind the folks doing the talking have a nice one. January 20, 2006: 12:11 PM EST Sign up for the Eyeopener e-mail newsletter NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) - In the coming months, you are going to read a lot of stories on our site about pensions and attempts by Congress to "reform" the system. No doubt there will be a lot of sound bites from various Congress folk ... some "outraged" by the loss of pensions and others pointing to "economic reality" while professing sympathy for the working American. Amid all the hubbub, keep this in mind: Congress has a pension plan ... and it's not at risk. It's a fairly nice one, too. Not extravagant, but nice. Members are eligible to start collecting at age 62 if they have at least five years of service. If they have 20 years of service under their belt, they can retire at 50. With 25 years of service, they can retire any time. What they get depends on a formula based on years of service and average pay(natch, right?). So a congressman with 22 years of service and whose average salary for the top three years was $153,900 gets $84,645. A current congressman ending up with six years of service (it's two-year terms, after all) would get at least $16,503 (at age 62, of course). In actuality, the average congressional pension payment ranges between $41,000 and $55,000, based on 2002 data from the Congressional Research Service. Now, a retiring congressman isn't allowed to get more than 80 percent of their salary upon retirement. But after retiring, cost of living adjustments kick in, which can add substantially to the payment. Add it all together and the Congressional pension program is about two-to-three times more generous than the average corporate executive pension plan, according to the National Taxpayers Union. What did they pay in for this benefit? It's a little complicated, of course, because one kind of pension program applies to senators and representatives elected before 1984 and another applies to those elected after. The Congressional Research Service has a nice little explainer here, if you are a glutton for detail punishment. Basically, the politicians chip in 8 percent of their salary split between the pension program (about 1.3-1.8 percent) and Social Security (contrary to various Internet rumors, Congress does pay Social Security taxes.) These payments cover about one-fifth of the actual cost of their pension, according to the Taxpayers Union. So Congress folk get a better pension and don't have to pay for all of it. They also have the equivalent of a 401k program (complete with a 5 percent employer match). In some cases Social Security kicks in. And given their medical, dental and travel benefits, plus expenses paid by the office, members of Congress have plenty of opportunity to save for retirement. (And if they get into trouble, as they sometimes do, the pension often isn't up for grabs). At $165,200 a year (after their raise this month), seems like they have some money to do it with too. Now don't get me wrong. Plenty of senators and representatives work hard. Very hard. But in the coming months, when you hear various elected officials bemoan the state of pensions and the need for reform keep this in mind: They got theirs and it isn't going away ... that would take an act of Congress.

To: RetiredNow who wrote (269626)	1/22/2006 1:07:28 PM
From: Road Walker	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 1571200

re: I can't back up the 95% of flashpoints being Muslim conflicts number with news articles. However, I have two friends who are majors in the military and they both tell me the same thing. They said the military routinely monitors worldwide flashpoints, who's on what side, and what US interests might be in it. Logical, right? So the source is military, which I consider to be a good source. I don't have the time to do the research, but I bet you are wrong. re: As far as the 99% of terrorist acts being committed by Muslims, that can easily be proven with a quick scan of news articles in Google. When was the last terrorist act committed by a non-Muslim. Can you name one? And if you come back with one, I bet I can come back with 9 Muslim terrorist acts that occurred around that same timeframe. Let's face it, Muslim terrorism is part of their culture and ideals in the Middle East. Terrorists are heros to those people and that is no exageration. A lot depends on your definition of a terrorist event. Yours seems to be any violent act by a Muslim. There is violence all over the world... people terrorized right in your own city and my own city or in Uzbekistan (our partner) boiling people alive. What percent of Muslims do you think participate in terrorist attacks?