Sometimes I cried my heart to sleep, Shuffling days and lonesome nights, Sometimes my courage fell to my feet
Another tough song lyric. No peeking at Google.
Busy day today. Work until 1. Doctor's appointment. Two issues to deal with at this visit. Ask about tests involving kidney function. Ask about this pain in my foot. Sometimes I feel like my old Mercedes 190E that slowly fell apart after I bought it used. I only paid $2,000 for it but by the time it died, I'd spent almost $9,000 more on repairs. Hell, when it was sold to me the passenger side windows wouldn't roll down. So now I'm thinking my foot is as old and broken-down as that lemon of a car was.
The South African 400 meter competitor at last year's Olympic Games who was referred to by some as the "blade-runner" because he is a double-amputee and ran on some high tech composite blades, is a national hero. Now he's under arrest for the murder of a woman at his home and from what police are saying, it looks like he doesn't have a leg to stand on. http://instantrimshot.com/ Someone was going to say it eventually, I just thought I'd be first.
Apparently most people just don't grasp economics well. President Obama proposed raising the minimum wage to $9.00. Right now, the national minimum wage stands at $7.25. This would be an increase of roughly 24%. Now let's look at McDonalds (do some other business if you prefer). Their labor cost in delivering their menu items at their current prices is roughly 16%. If you raise the minimum wages, you have to give the supervisors and managers raises as well, otherwise there is no incentive to take on the additional responsibility. So if a Big Mac value meal is $5, labor represents $0.80. Minimum wage goes up and that cost is now 24% higher. Now we're talking $0.99.
Where is that extra 19 cents in cost on every single Big Mac meal going to come from, given that these stores work on volume and not a large profit margin per item? The franchisee has three choices. Make less money/lose money. Cut costs elsewhere (very difficult). Raise the price. So the wages of workers go up and the prices go up and the net effect is NOTHING. The minimum wage worker's buying power is not increased.
Other things I'm pondering on a Thursday morning:
There's something wrong with the prison system when a 73 year old man who has spent most of his life behind bars robs a bank simply so he can live out the rest of his life where he's most comfortable.
Will Anaheim Angels fans get nervous when they hear that the team's newest star, Josh Hamilton, has been juicing it up over the summer? They shouldn't. He wasn't taking drugs, he became one of the latest convert to the craze for juicing veggies and going gluten-free and lost weight over the winter.
How did I manage to remain ignorant that February 13th is Mistress Day? When it's a woman who is cheating, does that make the man she's cheating with a mistress?
Why in the world is the publisher of the Harry Potter books changing the covers as they print new copies? Did the old covers not sell well enough?
What was the rationale behind the decision to take wrestling out of the Summer Games? Whoever came up with it was never a wrestler.
Syracuse men's basketball coach Jim Boeheim went off on a reporter after a tough loss. He called him "idiot" and "disloyal". Newsflash Jim, reporters have no requirement for loyalty. You need to go to Heid's of Liverpool, have a double-dog and STFU.
What difference does it make to William Shatner if J.J. Abrams is at the helm of both Star Trek and Star Wars? Shatner called him a pig. Easy Bill. Watch that blood pressure.
A homeless man was the recipient of some unintended generosity. A woman trying to give him all the change in her coin purse also gave him her diamond engagement ring. When she came back the next day, he'd kept the ring. He was sure she'd be back for it. This time he got all the bills in her wallet.
Okay, the San Bernardino Sheriff is saying they didn't intentionally burn down the cabin that Dorner was in. But they fired a pyrotechnic device commonly referred to as a "burner" into the cabin. So you didn't intend to set it ablaze, but you shot something that burns into it.
This Date in History:
On this date in 1778, the U.S. flag, being flown on a naval vessel, was formally recognized by a foreign nation for the first time.
On this date in 1779, James Cook is killed by native Hawaiians.
On this date in 1849, President James K. Polk became the first sitting U.S. president to have his photograph taken.
On this date in 1859, Oregon becomes the 33rd state.
On this date in 1876, Alexander Graham Bell applies for a patent on the telephone.
On this date in 1912, Arizona is admitted as the 48th state.
On this date in 1945, FDR meets with King Saud of Saudi Arabia, formally beginning diplomatic relations between the two nations.
On this date in 1949, the Knesset, parliament of Israel meets for the first time.
On this date in 1989, Union Carbide agrees to pay nearly one-half billion dollars to the government of India for damages from the Bhopal disaster.
Famous folk born on this date:
Frederick Douglass
Jack Benny
Mel Allen (baseball broadcaster extraordinaire)
Woody Hayes (how many people did he really punch?)
Jimmy Hoffa (buried beneath Giants Stadium, or under the Jersey Turnpike)
Edward Platt (Max, the cone of silence is not working)
Hugh Downs
Murray the K
Lois Maxwell
Vic Morrow
Florence Henderson
Paul Tsongas
Carl Bernstein
Gregory Hines
Pat O'Brien
Alan Hunter (one of the five original VJs on MTV)
Meg Tilly
Simon Pegg
Drew Bledsoe
Tyus Edney
Busy day today. Work until 1. Doctor's appointment. Two issues to deal with at this visit. Ask about tests involving kidney function. Ask about this pain in my foot. Sometimes I feel like my old Mercedes 190E that slowly fell apart after I bought it used. I only paid $2,000 for it but by the time it died, I'd spent almost $9,000 more on repairs. Hell, when it was sold to me the passenger side windows wouldn't roll down. So now I'm thinking my foot is as old and broken-down as that lemon of a car was.
The South African 400 meter competitor at last year's Olympic Games who was referred to by some as the "blade-runner" because he is a double-amputee and ran on some high tech composite blades, is a national hero. Now he's under arrest for the murder of a woman at his home and from what police are saying, it looks like he doesn't have a leg to stand on. http://instantrimshot.com/ Someone was going to say it eventually, I just thought I'd be first.
Apparently most people just don't grasp economics well. President Obama proposed raising the minimum wage to $9.00. Right now, the national minimum wage stands at $7.25. This would be an increase of roughly 24%. Now let's look at McDonalds (do some other business if you prefer). Their labor cost in delivering their menu items at their current prices is roughly 16%. If you raise the minimum wages, you have to give the supervisors and managers raises as well, otherwise there is no incentive to take on the additional responsibility. So if a Big Mac value meal is $5, labor represents $0.80. Minimum wage goes up and that cost is now 24% higher. Now we're talking $0.99.
Where is that extra 19 cents in cost on every single Big Mac meal going to come from, given that these stores work on volume and not a large profit margin per item? The franchisee has three choices. Make less money/lose money. Cut costs elsewhere (very difficult). Raise the price. So the wages of workers go up and the prices go up and the net effect is NOTHING. The minimum wage worker's buying power is not increased.
Other things I'm pondering on a Thursday morning:
There's something wrong with the prison system when a 73 year old man who has spent most of his life behind bars robs a bank simply so he can live out the rest of his life where he's most comfortable.
Will Anaheim Angels fans get nervous when they hear that the team's newest star, Josh Hamilton, has been juicing it up over the summer? They shouldn't. He wasn't taking drugs, he became one of the latest convert to the craze for juicing veggies and going gluten-free and lost weight over the winter.
How did I manage to remain ignorant that February 13th is Mistress Day? When it's a woman who is cheating, does that make the man she's cheating with a mistress?
Why in the world is the publisher of the Harry Potter books changing the covers as they print new copies? Did the old covers not sell well enough?
What was the rationale behind the decision to take wrestling out of the Summer Games? Whoever came up with it was never a wrestler.
Syracuse men's basketball coach Jim Boeheim went off on a reporter after a tough loss. He called him "idiot" and "disloyal". Newsflash Jim, reporters have no requirement for loyalty. You need to go to Heid's of Liverpool, have a double-dog and STFU.
What difference does it make to William Shatner if J.J. Abrams is at the helm of both Star Trek and Star Wars? Shatner called him a pig. Easy Bill. Watch that blood pressure.
A homeless man was the recipient of some unintended generosity. A woman trying to give him all the change in her coin purse also gave him her diamond engagement ring. When she came back the next day, he'd kept the ring. He was sure she'd be back for it. This time he got all the bills in her wallet.
Okay, the San Bernardino Sheriff is saying they didn't intentionally burn down the cabin that Dorner was in. But they fired a pyrotechnic device commonly referred to as a "burner" into the cabin. So you didn't intend to set it ablaze, but you shot something that burns into it.
This Date in History:
On this date in 1778, the U.S. flag, being flown on a naval vessel, was formally recognized by a foreign nation for the first time.
On this date in 1779, James Cook is killed by native Hawaiians.
On this date in 1849, President James K. Polk became the first sitting U.S. president to have his photograph taken.
On this date in 1859, Oregon becomes the 33rd state.
On this date in 1876, Alexander Graham Bell applies for a patent on the telephone.
On this date in 1912, Arizona is admitted as the 48th state.
On this date in 1945, FDR meets with King Saud of Saudi Arabia, formally beginning diplomatic relations between the two nations.
On this date in 1949, the Knesset, parliament of Israel meets for the first time.
On this date in 1989, Union Carbide agrees to pay nearly one-half billion dollars to the government of India for damages from the Bhopal disaster.
Famous folk born on this date:
Frederick Douglass
Jack Benny
Mel Allen (baseball broadcaster extraordinaire)
Woody Hayes (how many people did he really punch?)
Jimmy Hoffa (buried beneath Giants Stadium, or under the Jersey Turnpike)
Edward Platt (Max, the cone of silence is not working)
Hugh Downs
Murray the K
Lois Maxwell
Vic Morrow
Florence Henderson
Paul Tsongas
Carl Bernstein
Gregory Hines
Pat O'Brien
Alan Hunter (one of the five original VJs on MTV)
Meg Tilly
Simon Pegg
Drew Bledsoe
Tyus Edney
posted by me at 8:19 AM
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