- Immune-system drug combo “melts” tumors. Yeah, I know there are always reports like this that eventually come to nothing. But this is pretty dramatic.
- Are you nuts, Mr. Cop??? Officer shoots (at) dog in a crowd. Fortunately misses. Dog just looked as if it was being rambunctiously friendly, too. (Here’s the video if you can’t see it on that page.)
- If you’re going to have anti-abortion laws, you’re going to have to be prepared not only to prosecute every doctor, nurse, and med-tech for murder, but to investigate every miscarriage as a potential homicide. Some countries do. Results aren’t pretty. (Via Rational Review News)
- Hm. Study seems a bit sketchy. But the result is believable: the sweat of happy people can induce happiness.
- Today is 4/20 — cannabis day. Colorado held its official celebration over the weekend. Police remind cannabis consumers not to get too cocky. Oh well.
- But I love this. The maker of Miracle-Gro, who has long seen his product in the background of pot-bust videos, knows a good opportunity when he sees one. (Last three links all H/T jed.)
- Matt Walsh to burger flippers: You don’t deserve $15/hour — and that’s okay.
Turd World police aren’t known for either their good sense or good marksmanship, and there’s the proof.
it really concerns me when people over react to approaching dogs.
with regards to shooting dogs, the element of jeopardy is very loose. any POS harold fish wanna-be can claim the dog was aggressively charging without having any real training in dog behavior, and get away with a justified shooting.
that dog just looked excited; somewhat impolite. it probably was inside all day and just ecstatic to get out and say hi to every body. i imagine being a pit bull was a major factor in that idiot’s decision to use lethal force. lots of people, dog owners included, have size & breed bias.
Well, I know I’ve gotten happy while sharing sweat with someone else who was happy…
While I agree with Matt Walsh view points, he doesn’t touch on an issue that is siginificant in my location (yes I know it wasn’t the point of his article). That issue is the problem that the only jobs being created in my area, (and very few at that) are those fast food and similar service jobs that only pay minimum wage. If the fast food owners could get away with it, they would pay less than miimum wage. Those jobs are generally going to people in the community that have several years experience in the food service industry, they really aren’t entry level jobs any more. People would like to move up from them but that requires mid level jobs to transition into and those don’t exist anymore. The vaunted small business in my community that generally pay more than minimum wage are slowly closing their doors. They can’t compete with ever intrusive government regulation and national chains that can out bid them by paying employees minimum wage, gettin tax breaks etc. If the corporations running the country have thier way there will soon be only minimum wage jobs and very few of those as they automate or off shore everything they can.
The unintended consequences of anti-abortion laws were addressed beautifully in L. Neil Smith’s book, /Hope/, wherein his protagonist covered every possible eventuality that might occur as a result of such laws. http://www.amazon.com/Hope-Aaron-Zelman/dp/1604502932
Frankly, I think women were better off taking their chances before Roe vs Wade. If abortion hadn’t been made “legal,” it wouldn’t be the issue it has become. The fight to keep it legal, or make it illegal, and the effort to define “life” at every stage of the fetus has destroyed all concern for the woman — and even concern for abortion itself. (I’m talking about the U.S., I can’t speak to El Salvador’s laws.)
Also in Denver, this weekend: Holocaust survivors remember the death camps at Denver memorial.
If the corporations running the country have their way there will soon be only minimum wage jobs and very few of those as they automate or off shore everything they can.
I would quibble that it isn’t corporations that are “having their way,” but the government. You hit on it earlier when you mentioned regulation.
In a lot of fields, particularly insurance and finance, almost all of the business decisions are made on the basis of “the government requires it.” Add to that programs like “Operation Choke Point,” where the DOJ is pressuring banks to close the accounts of gun stores and other businesses the Administration doesn’t like.
Yes, there are corporations that have sold their souls to Congress, but the source of the evil is found in bureaucracies, not board rooms.
“We’d prefer not to be buzzkills this 4/20 weekend.”
Liars.
On the minimum wage thing, it’s getting to the point where Matt’s strategy of trying to educate people about economics no longer makes sense. Instead, we should suggest the minimum wage go to $100/hr. If we’re going to have an economic crash soon, we might as well make it a memorable one. The idiots with signs will die off and we will start over again, with survivors who understand economics in their bones.
[If the fast food owners could get away with it, they would pay less than miimum wage.]
That is a strange way of putting it. “Get away with it,” implies it is a bad thing to get the most bang for your buck; it’s also an implicit sanction of government sticking their noses in the employment process. Unfortunately, that does not help employees in the long run; instead, a robust free market does that – one in which everybody is “getting away with it”.
Here is my own rant about work:
http://strike-the-root.com/how-to-get-job
I’m not a huge fan of Ayn Rand generally, but she was right on target with the notion that employers should at some point stop putting up with government interference and looting. The more employers continue to tolerate it, the more they will be taken advantage of, and they DESERVE to be taken advantage of. The whole point of being an employer, is that you have choices. Why choose slavery? It makes no sense to me. Let the system fall.
“If the fast food owners could get away with it, they would pay less than miimum wage.”
Such breathtaking ignorance. Of course they would pay less; that’s precisely how a free market works. Any business seeks to minimize its costs. That way it can provide its goods/services at the lowest price to the customer and still make a decent profit. If the fast food owner could find cheaper buns or plastic forks or ketchup packs or any other component of the product he would do so. Employees’ wages are no different; they’re merely another cost.
Jobs are “worth” precisely what the market will pay for them, neither more nor less. The employer is competing against all other similar employers, and the employee is competing against all other job applicants. That’s how a market price is determined, and misguided notions of “fairness” do not enter into it. As a business owner, if the cost of any input (such as wages) gets too high, you either find a substitute (automation) or you go out of business. As an employee, if you don’t like the wage the market offers for your services, make yourself more valuable by getting training or experience.
Having men with guns force a higher wage is theft even if those men wear government uniforms. And make no mistake: the minimum wage is theft. If you really believe that the market value of certain people’s labor is too low to provide them a “fair” living, that’s a societal issue to be addressed (and paid for) by society at large. Forcing the entire cost of what is the functional equivalent of welfare onto one small segment of society (employers) is morally offensive.
Women in prison isn’t the only ugly result of making abortion illegal. Anyone old enough to have been reading newspapers in the days prior to Roe v Wade will recall photos of women of all ages ( but mostly ‘underage’) who died in an alley or motel bleeding out from illegal or even DIY abortion attempts. Lots of young teen girls killed themselves with coat-hanger abortion attempts.