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Is a Massive Increase in the US Minimum Wage Warranted?
Following Hillary Clinton's win in the final 2016 Democrat primary, that in Washington, DC, one of the issues enumerated as points of agreement between her and Bernie Sanders was raising the minimum wage. It is probably a good time for me, therefore, to write up my thoughts on the whole subject of minimum wages and especially the call for the ( Read more... ) -
Questions and Observations Concerning Guns & the Second Amendment
I have opined previously on my Facebook page that the problem with the whole issue of gun control in the US is that both sides of the question are too prone to knee-jerk reactions, and also prone to feedback loops, like a howling microphone. Individual A (pro-control), seeing the proliferation of mass shootings, calls for greater restrictions on ( Read more... ) -
M.L. King's Dream and the Zimmerman Case
By both upbringing and personal inclination, I am a firm believer in the core thought of MLK's "Dream" speech. Namely, we should aspire to and work for a future in which people (ALL people) are judged not by the colors of their skins, but by the nature of their characters. After all, this is nothing if not biblical. God is "no respecter of persons ( Read more... ) -
People like to hear their own name-or do they?
Sociologists tell us that it is a common human trait to respond more favorably when addressed by name than when just being talked at. There is some validity to this, but, speaking for myself, some of the people who try to utilize this technique are cutting their own throats. I don't know whether I am alone in reacting this way, and I would be ( Read more... ) -
One thing I don't understand about the Japan nuclear crisis
Maybe someone out there has the expertise to explain this to me. The cooling systems of the Japanese nuclear reactors were compromised by power failures during the 1-2 punch of the earthquake and tsunami. What I fail to understand is why the cooling systems were reliant on power coming in from the grid, when the whole purpose of the nuclear plants ( Read more... ) -
Turning Older
Another subject that came up on GMA this morning that I think is worthy of comment, is the issue of "turning fifty." A few of the public faces of this morning news magazine are facing this milestone, and this morning's coverage was only a part of a thread they are following at present. Today, they had interviews with several celebrities who have ( Read more... ) -
Politics on the dance floor?
It came up in one of the post-dance interviews during last night's semi-finals on Dancing with the Stars, and again this morning on Good Morning America. Is Bristol Palin being kept in the race by "The Republicans and Tea Partiers"? After all, she has been repeatedly at the bottom of the judges' leader board, yet couples that have consistently been ( Read more... ) -
Be discerning before condemning--it cuts both ways
From the Harry Potter fansite, The Leaky Cauldron, comes a news story (Book Rumor: Bush administration denied J.K. Rowling medal because Harry Potter books "encouraged witchcraft") that a recent book claims Jo Rowling was considered, but rejected, for the Presidential Medal of Freedom because individuals in the White House condemned her books sight ( Read more... ) -
Its National Punctuation Day, again!
And, yes, I did intentionally make the error in the subject line above. Rather than take time now to write in detail on this subject, I will point the inquiring reader to my journal entries the past two years:
http://lametiger.livejournal.com/35158.htmlHealth care reform debate
IMO, both sides of the issue are guilty of simplistic arguments. On the conservative/Republican side, those who state "The US has the best health-care system in the world" are indulging in the worst kind of political chauvinism. Undoubtedly, you can point to Canadians who come south of the border when they want procedures that are not readily ( Read more... )