Absent For A Week

I will be unable to post until the start of the next month. Don't give up on me, I just had to deal with some family stuff. Have a good week everyone.

Is More Money Really More Money?

Attempting to ease the pressure on the poor by increasing the minimum wage is a fallacy. Raising the minimum wage makes poor people poorer. On the surface, this seems incorrect. After all, they have more money. Or do they? One must recall that one dollar today is worth far less than one dollar was worth a hundred years ago.

But, but, you’re talking inflation! This would be immediate!

I know, I know. Let me break down for you why you have less money if companies are forced to pay you more. Companies are not going to eat the cost of paying their minimum wage employees more. They are going to pass that extra cost into their product’s purchase price.

AHHA! I got you now! The price would just go up by the same amount they are paying out! You’re dumb!

Nice try, my imaginary alter ego. Unfortunately, business doesn’t run this way. Every business functions within the rules of their business projection, which is edited every year. These projections do not state that the business must make $x.xx in profit. Instead, they say that the business must make x% in profit. This number is typically somewhere between 3% and 8% depending on the business. I’m going to use very small numbers to illustrate my point. What would happen is exactly the same, only the numbers are typically in the millions or billions.

Let’s say that a company spends $92 to produce their product and pay their employees. From this expense, they generate $100. Their profit goal is 8%. Have they made their goal in this situation? The profit is $8. 8/100 = .08. Move the decimal and you have 8%. They are dead on their profit margin.

Now, Congress just initiated a minimum wage increase that resulted in this company’s expense being $92.10. Logic would say they just need to increase the price by ten cents and generate $100.10 to make up the difference. Let’s do the math. We still have an $8 profit, so it should work out the same, right? Wrong. 8/100.10 = .0799. Move the decimal and you have a 7.99% profit, which means the company did not meet its goal and somebody is likely getting fired. Management, who would like to stay employed, will instead increase the price by a number that will still result in an 8% profit. This means that the overall price will have to increase. Another penny will do the trick, which will increase profit to $8.01. 8.01/100.10 = .8.

So what does all of this mean? It means that you overall have less money. You gained 10 cents in wages but now pay 11 cents more than previously. You have a bigger number of dollars in the bank, but you have less monetary value. The poor get poorer.

Instant Replay

I’m a sports fan. During every playoff series of every sport, a bad call is made and people start demanding the use of instant replay. The average baseball game already lasts three hours. I can only imagine how much longer they would be if questionable calls of a strike or a ball were reviewed. Every close play at first base would result in a review. Watching football, I dread the red flag. It stalls the game. It can kill momentum. So I’m proposing the out and out banning of instant replay as an officiating tool.

Next, I’ll push my opinion to the edge and make you all roll your eyes. I personally enjoy sports because I feel that a game/series/season parallels life. First, you are not going to win all of your battles. Sometimes you lose. This doesn’t mean your life is over. You have to get back up and keep fighting another day. It also teaches you never to underestimate anyone. How many times during any season does the worst team in the league beat the best team?

Now, all of this leads to why I hate Instant Replay. In life, many of our advancements or victories are determined by other people. Usually these people are supervisors, management, and owners. How many of us have done something that was misinterpreted by said individual? If your boss thinks you’ve messed up, do you just quit? If a co-worker cheats and gets credit where it isn’t due, do you just quit? Hopefully your answer is “Hell no!” What is sweeter in life than ultimately coming out on top over an opponent that was succeeding because of cheating or dishonesty? Using Instant Replay takes this away. It turns athletes into cry-babies rather than giants that overcame something that wasn’t fair.

Embrace officiating errors. They create drama. Sports are nothing without drama.

420: The Question Behind The Day

Should marijuana be legal? Before I answer that question, I’d like to examine the argument for legalization. The main reason given for why the US should legalize marijuana is that it has medical properties.

Yawn. I have one word for this argument: Pretense. 95% of people that make this argument do not really give a crap about marijuana for medical use. They use this in the hopes that if it becomes legal for medical purposes, it will eventually just get legalized because they like to get high. Drop the pretension and be honest about it. You like to get high and would like to do so without the threat of arrest.

Now, I do not use drugs. I do not like drugs. However, I do not care if other people want to do drugs. If you want to destroy your brain, and hopefully eventually remove yourself from the gene pool, feel free! The government should legalize it. Any person in prison for a drug related crime should stay right where they are. It is illegal now and they broke the law. However, it will free up police to patrol for crimes that have direct, obvious victims. Eventually the prison population will decrease. Less money on enforcement and holding plus more money in taxes is an overall good thing.

Finally, all drugs should be regulated just as alcohol is regulated. If you get high and then drive, you have a DUI. Loss of license and fines. Multiple violations would result in greater punishments. Drugs are not going away. Control it and regulate it. Just drop the pretension that you give a crap about cancer victims.

The Lesson In Death

As most are probably aware, an ungodly long list of contaminated dog food can be found all over the internet. It has become theorized that this was most likely an intentional contamination by some sick individual. Before I move on to my point, I would like to say that I find no humor in this situation. Anything said that may come across that way is unintentional.

There is a major lesson to be learned from this. How many of you are even aware of what is in the dog food you feed your dogs? Alternatively, replace the word "dog" with "cat" or any other pet. When you decide to take on the responsibility of a pet, you are promising a living creature that you are going to take care of that animal. If you do not research what you are feeding them, you have violated that promise and their trust. Many moons ago, I found a book called Food Pets Die For by Ann Martin that showed some shocking practices of the pet food industry. I discovered a diet known as the Raw Diet that follows a more natural diet for my dogs and is actually cheaper than dog food.

There is always a threat that this could be done to our food. Do you know where your food comes from? I'm not proclaiming that you need to turn into a hippie that goes "all natural". Sometimes "all natural" can actually be more harmful to the environment. I'm just saying you need to be careful. Doing something to yourself is your business. Being willie-nillie with your pets or, god forbid, your children can lead to terrible situations. Research is your friend and doesn't take that much time.

The Scientific Method Is Not Welcome Here!

Oh sweet environmental science. When did scientists stop using the scientific method to determine scientific facts?

Sadly, the answer lies with Congress. When did they stop? They stopped when Congress started handing out money for scientists to study the impending catastrophic collapse of Earth’s environment. They didn’t offer money for scientists to create ways to help us reduce our effects on polluting the environment. They didn’t offer money for scientific development. They offered money to prove that there is a problem.

The scientific method does not allow for this. It does not state that one is supposed to draw a conclusion and prove it. You are supposed to test it. Test it some more. Test it again. If it seems to hold true, call it a theory. Let others test it. Test it some more. Look for other possible reasons. Test it again. Retest it. Hesitantly claim it is a fact, but requires more testing. Keep testing it until there is almost no reasonable doubt as to its accuracy. For a refresher on scientific method, visit this website: http://physics.ucr.edu/~wudka/Physics7/Notes_www/node6.html#SECTION02121000000000000000.

Historically, Congress and science do not mix well. Need I remind everyone of the debacle where scientists “proved” that there were four shots fired at Kennedy’s assassination? They took audio that obviously indicated four shots. Except it didn’t. Science needs to be kept out of politics. Government funding is fine, but must come without strings. Otherwise, it needs to remain exclusively the science of the free market.

But Al Gore says the Earth is crumbling and we’re all gonna die! I know. I know. We also have to avoid stray killer asteroids and the ever present danger of bird flu. Or we can keep our wits about us. The temperatures of other planets are experiencing similar fluctuations without the assistance of humanity. Couldn’t it just be that there is a less dramatic reason for “global warming”? Study it. Come up with reasonable solution that would not lead to the total collapse of every major economic power in the world. If you believe that this is impossible, then go live like a hippie in the woods while scientists with some tenacity create solutions that function within the confines of reality.

Virginia Tech As Iraq

Consider how you feel about the Virginia Tech massacre. Just ponder it for a minute. As a country we are deeply affected by these events. We want to get to know the victims. We want to understand why someone would do this monstrous deed. We slowly heal, accepting that these things happen and we need to appreciate what we have. In other words, we take a negative situation and learn something positive from it through a grieving process.

Now, put that image of the massacre back in your mind. Image it happens at least once a week, on a good week. Sadly, 150 Iraqis were killed in a series of four bombings recently. That is five times the number of deaths in the Virginia Tech tragedy. There is little to no time between tragedies. No healing.

So what is my point?

Many feel that we went into Iraq unjustly. Did Bush lie? The answer is obvious. No. But! But! We never found weapons of mass destruction!

Exactly. If Bush did not believe that Saddam had WMDs, we would have found them. Allow me to explain. When you lie, you act to cover that lie. Had Bush been knowingly wrong about WMDs, the military would have brought WMDs with them into Iraq. They would have buried them in the sand and a month later “discovered” them. No WMDs means that Bush is still honest.

We did the right thing to invade.

However, there is a huge problem. Iraq has turned into something unhealthy and dangerous. If we want to stabilize Iraq, we need to do something extreme. The last thing we need to do is leave. We need to up the ante. We need to leave the green zone and control the violence. This will lead to troop loss. This will lead to increased attacks. This will ultimately lead to victory.

We need to stop abandoning reason out of fear of sounding unsympathetic. Iraq celebrated when the invasion was over. We dropped the ball. It is time to pick the ball back up and take the country back for the Iraqis.

Imus, Racism, And The Positive Side Of Negativity

Is the media overreacting to Imus? The man said "nappy headed hos". He didn't drop the N-bomb. He didn't call for the extermination of any race. He just made a tasteless comment. This, at worst, deserved a behind-closed-doors scolding.

So here is what I truly don't understand. If you want to rage against Imus, please feel free to do so. But riddle me this: Why all this rage over Imus and very little mention of Kamau Kambon's televised rant about how whites are out to get blacks and can only be met by the total extermination of the entire white race? Here is a complete quote of what he said:

“We are at war. Every white person on earth is a plantation master. You’re either supporting white people in their process of death, or you're for African liberation.

And then finally I want to say that we need one idea, and we're not thinking about a solution to the problem. We're dealing with all these other things, but these are diversions from a solution to the problem. And we have to start to think about a solution to the problem so that these young brothers and sisters who are here now, who are 15, 16 or 17, are not here 25 years later talking about these same problems.

Now how do I know that the white people know that we are going to come up with a solution to the problem. I know it because they have retina scans, they have what they call racial profiling, DNA banks, and they’re monitoring our people to try to prevent the one person from coming up with the one idea. And the one idea is, how we are going to exterminate white people because that in my estimation is the only conclusion I have come to. We have to exterminate white people off the face of the planet to solve this problem. Now I don’t care whether you clap or not, but I’m saying to you that we need to solve this problem because they are going to kill us. And I will leave on that. So we just have to just set up our own system and stop playing and get very serious and not be diverted from coming up with a solution to the problem and the problem on the planet is white people."

Oddly, the only internet sources I can find about this are his MySpace page and "White Nationalist" websites.

So is there a positive side to all of this? Yes. We live in a country where you are free to say something stupid and shoot yourself in the foot. (Though I would be willing to bet that Imus' listenership will double upon his return) Let's be honest. Imus is boring. A snore-fest. This will pump life into a dying career. Conversely, we live in a country where one can express any rage that they may feel, even if that rage is somewhat irrational. So the next time somebody says something racist, sexist, or classist, be thankful. Their ability to make idiotic statements also means that you have the ability to make rational judgements and question your leaders with little fear of retribution. Instead of meeting these statements with rage, be happy that you don't live in a country where questioning the status quo is met with death. Thank goodness for freedom of speech.

Ismail-Ax, World Politics, And The Art Of Handgun Making

Virginia Tech. What a clusterfuck of a tragedy. The school doesn't shut down for the day after a double homicide. The e-mail goes out minutes after the second round of murders begins. The school fails to use its intercom system to warn students. After the lawsuits are done, will there even be a Virginia Tech?

So this kid scribed Ismail Ax on his arm before he starts taking people out. Theories abound that it is an Islamic reference. Not that my first thought wasn't, "Crap. Is this a terrorist thing?" as soon as I found out it was a North Korean. I'm still shocked it wasn't a white male with a crew cut. So what was it? It was his X-Box Live handle. The question is, why did he pick it as his X-Box Live handle?

So how will the world react to this? Sympathy? Nah. They're going to wag their fingers at the US for allowing citizens to own guns. Now, I'm not going to claim that every student should have been armed and they could have stopped this guy, but I'm also not going to allow a knee-jerk reaction to a tragedy dictate how I feel about US policy. Mexico, ever classy, even printed a story that compared their gun deaths for the day to the massacre, titling the article "US 33, Mexico 20". I know we're the big kid on the block right now and you all have to take pot shots at us. I get it. Could you just give us a day to get over this first? Just 24 hours. I mean, it's not like you've got all of your problems solved either. Mexico, you have rampant drug trafficking problems. Solve that before you judge us. England, your suicide rate is incredible. Handle that, then get back to us about guns. Australia, you can't even keep your cane toads under control. Let us deal with our own problems. Stop wagging your fingers at us.

Finally, the concept of gun control in general. Does anyone realize how incredibly easy it is to make a gun for someone who wants to do something like this? I mean, seriously. $500 and you can have your own homemade special friend. Of course, for much cheaper, you could just make a dozen bombs and bring the school down around everyone. Violence can not be controlled. It will happen. We can legislate until we are blue in the face and there will still be bad and evil. We need to move on. We need to teach people how to react when problems are spotted. We need to be thankful for the time we have because it could all be over tomorrow.