Opuscula It is, or isn't On the ballot

 

THE HEADLINE IN THE BOISTON HERALD READS Poll: 62 percent of Mass. firms oppose marijuana legalization ballot measure.

The article's first (leed) paragraph reads:

Employers are sounding the alarm about a proposed November state ballot question that calls for legalization and regulation of recreational marijuana in Massachusetts, coming out heavily against it in a newly released survey.

That READS as if Associated Industries of Massachusetts (AIM) members are against putting the question on the November ballot.

But the way the article is written leaves that in doubt.

The article goes on that The Campaign to Regulate Marijuana Like Alcohol’s referendum will be on the Nov. 1 statewide ballot..

"Will be on the Nov. 1 ballot."

So, IS the question already on the ballot as AIM seems to believe, or is it PROPOSED for the ballot as the leed paragraph suggests?

Aside from the fact that the writer, Donna Goodison, can't seem to decide if the question is, or is not, on the ballot, she also fails to follow basic rules of abbreviation. Maybe the Boston Herald tossed out all the AP Stylebooks - the 2015 version is a bit pricy: $14.29 for a hard copy and $11.99 for Kindle on Amazon. Surely the Herald can afford ONE copy and pass it around or keep it at the copy editor's desk. (The AP's Guide for News Writing is only $12.05 on Amazon.) I never worked at a newspaper - large or small - that lacked at lest one copy of the AP guidebook.

The "basic rule rules of abbreviation" include spelling out the word(s) to be abbreviated and follow this, in parentheses, with the abbreviation, e.g., Associated Industries of Massachusetts (AIM)

If I failed to find Associated Industries of Massachusetts near the top of her story, I might have thought "AIM" stood for any one of the 165 definitions listed at the Acronyms & Abbreviations web site.. My first thought was American Indian Movement, but I'm sure others would instantly think of AOL Instant Message.

I know I'm a curmudgeon who dates back at least to Gutenberg and movable type, but I still remember my first lessons on how to be a reporter from a great rewrite man: "Spell the person's name correctly, keep the leed to 10 words or less, and cite your sources." Aside from restricting editorial opinions to the editorial page, everything else is commentary.

With writer's such as Ms. Goodison, it is no wonder the good voters of Massachusetts are confused.

Opuscula Blind in one eye, Can't see with other

 

A wall to separate U.S. & Mexico

MEXICANS ARE JUMPING on the "I hate Trump" bandwagon for Trump's daring to state he'd put up a wall between Mexico and the U.S.

Surprise, Mexico. The U.S. ALREADY has a fence - albeit a largely ineffective one - on the border.

A wall is not Trump's idea.

The US and Mexico share a common border of about 2,000-miles (3,200-km). As of February 10, 2012, the Department of Homeland Security had completed 651 miles of fencing out of nearly 652 miles mandated by Congress, including 299 miles of vehicle barriers and 352 miles of pedestrian fence.

The Secure Fence act of 2006 A/K/A Public Law 109-367, was, as the title states, passed in 2006, when Geo. W. was president. In the House of Representatives, the Fence Act passed 283 -138 on September 14, 2006. On September 29, 2006 – the Fence Act passed in the Senate 80 -19.

Ancient wall at Rhodes

Lest anyone think a barrier fence is a new idea, a little history lesson is in order.

The most famous - at least in modern times- barrier is the Great Wall of China . It took the Chinese longer to build the wall than it takes Congress to make a decision; construction started between 770 and 476 BCE, and lasted until the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644 CE). The wall's purpose, according to the Travel China Guide, was to protect people and territory from invasion.

Jerusalem's walls date back to the Patriarchs period; a city named Jebos was built in the location of today’s Jerusalem, which was relatively small (50,000 square meters) but was fortified. Remains from this wall are located above Hezekiah’s Tunnel. The most eminent of early biblical archaeologists was William F. Albright, who believed that he had identified the Patriarchal age in the period 2100–1800 BCE, the Intermediate Bronze Age, the interval between two periods of highly developed urban culture in ancient Canaan

Rome got into the wall-building business fairly early on. The Servian Wall around Rome was an ambitious project of the early 4th century BCE. The Romans were so enamored with walls that they surrounded captured cities in Spain (Córdoba, 2nd century BCE), and England (Chester -earth and wood in the 70s AD, stone from c. 100, and York, from 70s CE.)

Wikipedia provides a formidable list of cities with ancient surrounding walls. The same site also lists modern walls and walls in use today.

Walls were built throughout the centuries mostly to keep people OUT, but a few, notably the Berlin Wall, were built to keep people IN.

BOTTOM LINE: Trump's proposal to finish the barrier between the US and Mexico is nothing new - not the reasoning nor the wall itself.

BUT, Trump bashing is the mode of the day and "facts be damned." Besides, with his hair, he's an easy caricature.

Internment camps: the American way

The Left is aghast that anyone, even The Donald, could suggest placing Muslims, be they citizens or not, into internment camps.

But it's the American way, if only Americans knew their history.

How about confining the American Indians to reservations, and killing them if they left without permission. (Shades of a nazi or Soviet ghetto.) Think about the Cherokee Trail of Tears when Federal troops forced the young and the elderly and all ages in between to walk from their homes in the East to a reservation in the West. (The Cherokee had to be relocated; gold was found on their land in Georgia.)

An estimated 4,000 died from hunger, exposure and disease. The journey became a cultural memory as the "trail where they cried" for the Cherokees and other removed tribes.

In case you equate Indians with savages out to murder whites, the Cherokees were highly civilized and better educated than many, perhaps most, of the whites who coveted their land.

Then there was - is - segregation, if not now legal, still de facto. Push the blacks into one area of town where they can be controlled; if they leave their area at night, the penalty was death.

And then there are the Japanese.

FDR ordered them herded into "internment" camps because they looked different. That HAD to be the reason because he allowed the Germans, including nazi sympathizers such as Jos. Kennedy, to remain free. In 1938, Joe - the father of Joe Jr., John F., Robert, and Ted - had a plan for "Hitler's Jews," a solution to “the Jewish problem.” The New York Times reported that he had worked out with prime minister Chamberlain a plan to ship all German Jews to Africa and other places in the Western Hemisphere under the joint administration of Britain and the United States. In effect, corralling the Jews into a huge internment camp.

Finally, although it wasn't called "internment," we had something called "quarantine." If a person was sick with a communicable disease - even something as simple as chickenpox - a huge QUARANTINE sign was placed on the door of the house or apartment where the sick person resided.

Opuscula Don't trust The headlines

 

A HEADLINE ON THE ISRAEL HAYOM teaser page reads Don't let non-Jews live in Israel.

The person cited for the statement, R. Yitzhak Yosef, the Sefardi chief rabbi of Israel, has some political power in the Israeli parliament (Knesset) so his statement deserves attention.

HOWEVR

     What was written BENEATH the inflammatory headline belied the headline writer's words.

ONCE PAST THE HEADLINE we learn that Yitzhak Yosef said:

"According to Jewish religious law, gentiles are forbidden from living in the Land of Israel, unless they have accepted the Seven Noahide Laws," Yosef said. "If they refuse, they are sent to Saudi Arabia."

The article continued: According to the Talmud, the Noahide Laws are precepts that must be obeyed even by non-Jews. They include prohibitions on blasphemy, murder, illicit relations, and eating from live animals.

Just what ARE those seven laws? From The Seven Laws of Noah the laws are:

1. Sexual transgression
2. Murder
3. Theft
4. Idolatry
5. Cursing the Name
6. Eating the limb of a living animal
7. System of justice

The cited site (ibid.) provides an explanation for each of the seven laws.

As far as sending non-believers to Saudi Arabia, I'm not certain where the rabbi got his information, but to the best of my limited knowledge, the kingdom didn't exist until 1932 (see The Founder of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia published o0n the kingdom's Tokyo embassy web site).

In other words, the rabbi didn't pull his "send them to Saudia" from a Biblical or Talmudic source. In any event, given the kingdom's religious stance, it is unlikely a person who rejected the seven laws would live for long there.

The so-called Noahide Laws mostly are laws of civilized society. Well, mostly. There are a great many people who devour live animals (mostly fish and crustaceans) and jails are full of thieves and murderers, but the IDEA of the seven laws seems sound. At least non-Jews were exempt from the 613 laws Jews - in Israel and elsewhere - are obligated, at least in part. (No Jew, no matter how pious, can fulfill all 613 laws.)

I worked for many years as a newspaper reporter and editor; I wrote more than a few headlines, but I cannot recall even one that was so inflammatory that it stretched the truth quite as far as the headline writer's effort on this article.

We expect as much from the supermarket tabloids and the network (and local) talking heads (news writers and "anchors" - news readers). It's unfortunate when a publication that gives the impression of being all about "real" news gives its head writers license to inflame.

Bottom line: Don't stop reading (listening) at the headline; get the whole story before making a decision or taking an action.

Opuscula Talking heads & the "M" word

 

THE BRUSSELS SLAUGHTER at the airport and the subway took up most of the news' allotted time on the day of the attack, and on the day after the murders were still the top story.

I listened to the network talking heads in the morning and in the evening.

For all the millions of words spoken, I failed to hear - EVEN ONE TIME - the word Muslim" mentioned in relation to the attacks.

That's "Political Correctness" rampant on a field of bloody feces.

UNLESS YOU ARE ALICE IN WONDERLAND, you HAVE to know the murderers were Muslim.

While "Muslim" does not necessarily equate to "terrorist," the word "terrorists" DOES most frequently equate to "Muslim," at least in today's world.

You won't hear it from the White House, but according to Newsweek (!),

The suicide bombers behind the Brussels attacks may have attempted to target Americans, the top lawmaker on the intelligence committee in the U.S. House of Representatives said on Wednesday.

Representative Devin Nunes of California said the explosion at Brussels airport on Tuesday was close to U.S. airline counters and the metro station targeted was close to the U.S. embassy.

"From my vantage point it does look like an attack on Americans. It looks like it was targeted toward Americans to some degree," Nunes told reporters.

Nunes is a Republican so the White House easily can dismiss his remarks as racist or xenophobic even though his remarks did NOT use the "M" word.

A number of media outlets (1) reported that Deash (ISIL/ISIS) claimed responsibility for the attacks.

A CBS report included a Fash ^cq statement that

An ISIS posting in the group's Amaq news agency said its extremists claimed the attack was in response to Belgium's support of the international coalition arrayed against it. Another ISIS statement posted online threatened more attacks against countries taking part in the coalition in Syria and Iraq.

"We promise the countries taking part in the coalition against the Islamic State that they will see black days in response to their aggression against the Islamic State," the statement said. "What's yet to come is worse and more bitter."

At the same time, CBS this morning is hedging its bets that perhaps it was NOT an attack by Deash.

The CBS article failed to mention the word "Muslim." Likewise the UK's Independent, the Wall Street Journal, and the Washington Post.

On the other hand, the New York Times did use the "M" word, but only as an aside.

---

1: Media outlets reporting Deash brags about Brussels' attacks:

Independent (UK)
New York Times
USA Today
Wall Street Journal
Washington Post

Opuscula Price of being "PC" Or maybe Trump is right

 

THE HEADINE READS

At least 28 dead as explosions rock Brussels airport, subway

And the toll continues to climb.

What did Belgium do to deserve this?

It gave asylum to thousands of Muslim refugees, of which an unknown percentage are dedicated to creating a new worldwide caliphate under shiria law.

Of course, everyone knows it's all the fault of Israel and the Jews.

President Obama wants to allow 10,000? 20,000 Muslim refugees to enter the U.S. He promises they will be fully vetted. By whom? What percentage will be terrorists who managed to fool the Americans. After all, how many Americans - other than Muslims - speak any Arabic variation? (The State Department could ask Jews kicked out of Muslim-dominated countries to interrogate the refugees, but that would not be "politically correct.")

Maybe Donald Trump is correct: place a moratorium on Muslim "visitors" to the U.S. Trump did not, contrary to liberal media reports, suggest banning all Muslims from entering the U.S.. For a moment consider Obama's plan that would, in effect - if vetting is indeed thorough - defer Muslim entry for some time, thereby putting a (gasp) moratorium on Muslim entry.

Will the Muslim refugees be like the Cuban refugees who came to the U.S. just until they could over-throw the Cuban government and return to Cuba? They no longer talk about going back. Will the Muslim refugees be like the Cuban refugees who refuse to be resettled anyplace but South Florida - they won a court case to prevent relocation to the plains states. "Too cold."

How will the U.S. track the refugees once on U.S. soil? The INS can't keep track of the illegal immigrants supposedly in its custody now. Add another 10,000 or 20,000 Muslims - a percentage of whom will be terrorists and the majority of the others will keep their secret, the proof is in Belgium and France and… - how can anyone expect the INS to keep track of the refugees?

Put them into camps.

That's not "PC." That's not humane.

Never mind that Franklin Roosevelt's liberal Democratic government "interned" thousands of Americans of Japanese descent for the crime of being different. If the U.S. was afraid they would be loyal to Imperial Japan, why didn't it "intern" Americans of German and Austrian descent who might be loyal to the nazi murderers?

As asides:

The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services may have processed as many as 30,000 citizenship applications in 2005 without reviewing critical background files, thousands of which have been lost, according to a new report from the Government Accountability Office.

A February 2013 release of ICE detainees with criminal records notes that DHS disclosed that as part of a larger release, it freed 622 detainees with criminal records (including 32 with multiple felony convictions). Upon realizing the offenses DHS apprehended 24 of the 32 detainees with felony convictions. However, eight remain unaccounted for.

Perhaps the refugees could be housed on a former military base, one closed by the BRAC. The bases have all the facilities necessary for temporary housing of singles and couples, with schools, medical facilities, dining halls - all certainly at least as good as the refugee had in the refugee's home country. Perhaps the best place for the refugees is Midway Island Naval Air Station. Other good options include Chanute Air Force Base, US Army Fort Sheridan, and US Navy Glenview Naval Air Station, all in Obama's home state of Illinois.

Since Detroit already has the largest Muslim population in the U.S., perhaps refugees could be resettled in other Michigan towns where bases were shuttered: Oscoda (Wurtsmith Air Force Base) and Gwinn (K I Sawyer AFB). By the way, Washington D.C. has the nation's second largest Muslim concentration.

Stockton CA once housed a German POW camp; the locals made the prisoners feel at home. When the movie Tora! Tora! Tora! played there, cheers went up when the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor. (I was in the theater at the time.) Maybe Stockton's good citizens would be willing to welcome Muslim refugees.

Opuscula Really stupid Commercials

 

SOME COMMERCIALS ARE WORTH WATCHING. Some commercials simply ruffle my feathers.

I'm told that in Germany, tv is "mostly" commercial free. "Mostly" because during certain evening hours there are nothing BUT commercials.

Because of this, and this is only second hand information, German commercials are said to be worth watching.

FREE TV in the Several States is commercial tv. Actually, pay tv - History Channel, HBO, etc. - also carry commercials. Even so called "public television" that was SUPPOSED to be commercial free now has blatant commercials. Life goes on.

I like come commercials. A local supermarket chain has great, touching, commercials similar to Coca-Cola's winter commercials. I like the Publix commercials, but then I grew up with Publix supermarkets,

Some of my least favorite commercials are from Liberty Mutual Insurance

Turns out I'm not the only one who thinks Liberty could do better. Tom Partland, writing on the Garage Blog, has an entry called Liberty Mutual's Commercials Have Reached Peak Stupid

Liberty complains that if the insured has special insurance, it won't raise the insured's rate after the first accident.

MOST insurance companies save the rate hikes until the second accident; GEICO simply passes the client to its high risk group.

There's one insurance commercial where the guy complains that he can't negotiate terms of the contract. Nonsense. All auto insurance companies - and home insurers as well - allow negotiation. Want a lower rate? Decrease coverage or increase deductibles. Simple. Insurance companies are in business to make money for their stockholders (and to pay mega-bonuses to the Top Brass at the end of the fiscal years). And you thought they were on your side.

There is one insurance company with commercials I enjoy: Farmers.

For many years risk management was what I did. Farmers Insurance focuses on risk management, as do many companies; Farmers just happens to have really good ads. I always watch Farmers commercials.

Screen capture

Another insurance company that had - I haven't seen any recently - good commercials was Aflac and its saucy duck.

Progressive's Flo (Stephanie Courtney) and GEICO's gecko are OK in small doses, but although there are many commercials for each, they are run and rerun until they annoy.

Ooma, a VoIP (internet) telephone product has a commercial I found tasteless; a sexy female voice tells a man to dial a number; as he presses the digits the female voice sounds as if she is about to have an orgasm. A commercial best left for late night tv.

Anytime someone offers me a "free gift" I'm ready to hit the mute button. By definition, a "gift" is "free" making "free gift" redundant.

Then there are the pitchmen (and women) who tell me their product is the "most" unique - or any other modifier for the unmodifiable word. I also take umbrage to "over" used when "more than" is meant. I'm a grammar pedant - a nice way of saying "pain in the posterior" to those who abuse the language. I'll always remember the Winston cigarette commercial: "Winston tastes good AS a cigarette should." Correcting an in-house adman's grammar led to my being escorted out the door by HR many years ago.

Now in the silly season of politics I confess to cringing at negative ads from any candidate, even the one I favor.

I like memorable ads; memorable for their class or comedy rather than for the level of insult to the tv viewer.

I guess I DO like watching tv ads - if only to complain about the quality of the "creative" people. Make that "absence" of quality.

Opuscula Easy to win Popular vote & Lose election

 

IT MAY SEEM "CRAZY," but if The Donald wins the popular vote in most primary elections plus the votes that put him #2 in other states, he should clearly be the GOP candidate in November.

But GOP big wigs - the do-nothing and obstructionist congressmen and he people who control them - don't want Trump on the ticket. He's too radical; he's not "PC." He might insult one or two of our "allies" who have been abusing the U.S. for decades; heaven forbid he should insist that Iran, North Korea, and others actually honor their commitments.

He might take umbrage that the UN keeps bashing the U.S. and its sole ally in the middle east so much so that he - through an executive order a la Obama - halts its funding by the U.S. treasury (read taxpayer).

The U.S. is not now and it never has been a "democracy."

We TALK about "one man, one vote" but that's all it is - talk.

Perhaps the Founding Fathers, mostly rich white men, were concerned that John Q. wasn't bright enough to select the people who would govern him. Forget about women who were little more than chattel and non-whites (Indians and blacks) who had even less sanctioned-by-white-men education than white males.They couldn't vote anyway.

To paraphrase an old Virginia Slims ad, "We've come a long way, baby" since the Founding Fathers gathered to decide our future.

Today most men and women of all races can read and make a mark next to a candidate's name. (The days of a "party lever" a/k/a "straight ticket voting" are - fortunately - history. (That's to say that only a very few people, mostly Democrats, still vote by party, and never mind how the candidate thinks - IF the candidate thinks at all.

The bottom line is that, for the majority of America's LEGAL voters we are smart enough to cast direct ballots; it's time the U.S. became a true democracy.

We elect all officials EXCEPT the president and vice-president by direct vote; each person's vote is counted and the candidate with the most votes wins. No middle men (and women) who can be bought, and when an election - party nomination and electoral college - goes to convention, votes often are bought.

Electors to the electoral college are the elected senators and representatives to the U.S. congress from each state. All save for two states, "winner takes all" states even when electors are from different parties.

There has been more than one presidential election won by a candidate with less than the popular vote - the candidates won when states' delegates were counted. No hanging chad needed.

Electors are NOT obliged to represent their state's voters, particularly after the first round of voting.

With state of the art electronics and beefed up cyber security is there any reason why citizens of the U.S. are prevented from electing the candidate of their choice without going through any middlemen who might - for one reason or another - cast their electoral college vote for a candidate the voter did not select?

Is there any reason to continue the electrical college? Isn't it time for America to truly become a democracy where every citizen's vote is counted.

If Trump - who Is leading in the GOP delegate count - is denied the nomination because the old guard wants to keep their positions of (perceived) power, then Americans - Democrats, Republicans, and Independents alike, need to demand direct elections both in the primaries and in the general.

Opuscula Whatever became of …

 

THE OTHER DAY I wrote about inflation and reminisced about Royal Castle's 15-cent burgers, quarter bowls of chili, and birch (root) beer. People from the north can think about White Castle.

As of 2014, there was one lone Royal Castle and it was in the same town in which the chain was founded: Miami FL, also once the home of Burger King.

It got me thinking, whatever happened to . . .

"Reasonable and prudent" speed limits

Some states in the Intermountain West substituted "reasonable and prudent" for maximum highway speed limits. This came to an end when then-President Richard Nixon set 55 mph as the maximum speed limit on any road receiving Federal highway funds. Nixon's object was to lower America's dependence on Arab oil which, at the time, had a stranglehold on the U.S. economy.

20-mule team Boroxo for laundry and dirty hands

Boroxo still is around, but now "Goop" and other hand cleaners have pushed Boroxo out of garages. The tv program it sponsored, Death Valley Days also is just a memory.

A&W walk-up counters

Billboards that bothered Lady Bird Johnson

I think that I shall never see
a billboard lovely as a tree.
Perhaps, unless the billboards fall,
I'll never see a tree at all.
Ogden Nash

Burma Shave road signs

Heaven's
Latest
Neophyte
Signalled left
Then turned right
Burma Shave

Most signs were cute
There's no denyin'
Some gave advice
To keep from dyin'
Not Burma Shave

Signs from the beginning (1927) to the end (1963) can be read at http://burma-shave.org/jingles/1952/heavens

Cars that could fly

When I was in Civil Air Patrol (Miami Composite Squadron #2), the cadets recorded the comings and goings at Tamiami Airport. One of the rare birds we recorded was a Taylor Autocar (shown on the linked web site).

Crosley, Desoto, Hudson, Nash, Oldsmobile, Packard, Plymouth, Studebaker

From super-compact cars such as the Crosley, to the Packards and Hudson Hornets. The Packard name still is around, but the last "real" Packard came off the line in 1956. I've had the dubious honor of riding in the back seat of a Crosley and rode "up front" (there was no rear seat) in a Nash Metropolitan. My first car was a 1950 Oldsmobile 76 on which I painted "Spirit of '76."

Drive-in movies

Drive-in "theaters" were just the thing for young people with romance on their minds and for young families who could let the small fry fall asleep in the back seat of the family flivver. Phoenix AZ used to have a drive-in that cost $1 for a car, no limit on the number of people inside, or 50 cents for walk-ins. Those of us with empty pockets used to "thumb" our way in and watch the movie from hard bench seats near the front of the lot.

Drive in restaurants with "car hops"

Almost everybody who watched early Happy Days episodes knows about Al's Diner. In Orlando in the mid-to-late 1900s we had a drive in called "Steak and Shake." At one time there were "car hops" - waitresses - who brought meals to the cars on trays that hooked onto a rolled down window. Unlike the Happy Days car hops who got around on roller skates, the Stakes & Shake car hops kept their feet on the ground.

News reels before the feature movie - rather than commercials; it was enough we paid admission

I don't know when movie news reels disappeared but the cause of death was tv. When you could get your fill of all the murder and mayhem while sitting in your own home in front of a 9 or 12 inch (diagonal) screen, there was no reason to watch the news at the movie theater. The microwave and popcorn in a package came later and almost put theaters out of business.

Placing a hand over the heart when the flag is raised/lowered and when the impossible-to-sing National Anthem is played

Next time, watch your favorite professional sports team while the national anthem is played/sung. When I was a kid we learned to to stand place our right hand over where our heart was alleged to be - actually a little above and to the left of the organ's actual location - while the flag was raised and while the national anthem was heard. We also learned that was the proper thing to do when the flag passed by in a parade.

Saturday matinees which, for 25 cents (or less) kids could watch cartoons, a serial, and a feature film, usually a "boy kisses horse" western

Veterans' Day paper poppies

In Flanders fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row,
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.
John McCrae, May 1915

Once paper poppies were passed out on the sidewalks of America (and elsewhere). Now, in many places, people go from house-to-car and car-to-destination building with minimal footsteps. Maybe the men and women who hand out poppies ought to take a lesson from the Salvation Army and set up outside busy malls. Maybe if we had more paper poppies we'd be more likely take a moment to remember those folks who died to preserve our freedoms.

---

My list was longer and included Trailways and both Brylcreem and Vitalis until I discovered they still very much exist.

Opuscula Minimum wage Domino effect: Expensive benefit

 

THERE SEEMS ALWAYS A MOVE TO RAISE THE MINIMUM WAGE.

When I started my first job after a stint in the Air Force (c 1962), the minimum wage was $1-an-hour, which is exactly what I was paid working at an Orlando (FL) area hospital. (I'm not certain if the hospital still exists.)

My room rent was $10-a-week - shared bath - and I traveled by city bus (25 cents-a-ride).

Today the minimum wage in Florida is $8.22, up 17 cents from 2015. The cost of a room is "slightly" higher than what I paid back in the 60s. The least expensive room I found in Orlando was $100-a-month; $25-a-week. The then-private Orlando transit was "absorbed" by the government and a quarter today won't even get the bus' door open.

By comparison, my monthly pay in the Air Force ranged from $85.80 to $108 per month before taxes; today the same grade is paid is a flat $1,758.80.

ALL THE ABOVE can be blamed on "inflation."

But what CREATES inflation?

According to Economics Help, the main culprits include:

1. Demand pull inflation
   If the economy is at or close to full employment then an increase in AD leads to an increase in the price level.
2. Cost Push Inflation
   If there is an increase in the costs of firms, then firms will pass this on to consumers. There will be a shift to the left in the AS, including
   
   • Rising wages
   • Import prices
   • Raw Material Prices
   • Profit Push Inflation
   • Declining productivity
   • Higher taxes

Other causes of inflation, according to Economics Help, are rising house prices and printing more money.

Increasing the minimum wage is "rising wages," one of the causes of inflation cited above.

A hamburger at the Miami-based Royal Castle store near the courthouse in Orlando cost 15 cents - a bowl of chili was 25 cents - c 1965. The last Royal Castle in Miami sold the same burger or more than $1 in 2014.

I am all for a person having a living wage, but raising the minimum only drives up wholesale and retail costs that eat up any increase the minimum wage generated.

Catch 22.

Opuscula What's makes Murder terrorism?

 

DADE COUNTY FLORIDA has more seemingly unprovoked murders than the entire State of Israel during the worst days of the on-going invasion from the PA.

Almost everyday television talking heads read about yet another drive by shooting that takes one, two, or three lives.

Most of the murders are black-on-black so they don't get Al Sharpton, Jesse Jackson, and others who want tv face time and a sound bite; they only appear when a white attacks a black and never mind the cause of the incident.

NO ONE CALLS the murders in Dade County "terrorism," but if random attacks against children playing in their own yards isn't terrorism, what is? If car jackings, often associated with killing or wounding the high jacked car's occupants, is not terrorism, what is?

It may not be the intent of the shooters to terrorize a neighborhood - unlike the Islamists who terrorize the world - but intent or not, that is what is happening.

To the best of my knowledge, most of the attackers in Dade County Florida are NOT Muslim extremists. Certainly the Dade County terrorists have all the freedoms of their victims; Dade County is not an "apartheid" county - there any many blacks and latinos in power, probably more so than WASPs.

It's one thing to target a group of people - tourists on South Beach for example - but Dade County is plagued with "random acts of violence." It is ungovernable.

For all that, Dade County Florida may not be the most dangerous county in the country; it may just "seem" like it.

The county school superintendant is seen on tv more than a politician, bemoaning the murder of one more student; a student who, in the majority of cases, was truly an innocent victim.

The only difference I see between the terrorism in Dade County Florida and the terrorism in Israel is that in Israel the terrorism is motivated by the religion of the attackers against people who live in or visit Israel - the targets are Jews, Christians, and fellow Arabs. Terrorists from the Palestinian Authority (PA) also aren't limited to guns; they are handy with knives, cars, and explosives which, so far, apparently have not come to Dade County.

To this scrivener's Edward Bear mind, there is no basic difference between the terrorism that Israelis encounter from their attackers from the PA and those in Dade County who commit random murders, seemingly just for the sake of killing.

Have illegal automatic rifle
Will shoot at random targets

Someone convince me that what is happening in Dade County Florida is anything other than pure and simple terrorism.

---

WASPs: White, Anglo-Saxon protestants

Opuscula Don Quixotes tilt At Trump windmill Over salute that isn't

 

THIS EFFORT MOSTLY IS A PHOTO "ESSAY."

Presidential candidate Donald Trump has been accused of using a nazi salute to enthuse his supporters.

I saw the "salute" on tv and heard his words when he asked his fans to vow to support him.

Was it a nazi salute? Look at the following photos and decide for yourself.

Trump asks fans to pledge their support

The original nazi, Adolph Hitler, reviewing his troops

Democrats' choice Obama waves to fans; looks a lot like Trump's pledge position

Obama and Supreme Court Chief Justice John Rogers give each other nazi salute? (Roberts' swearing in photo)

Wm. Clinton gives nazi salute with candidate Hillary & daughter, at swearing in

LBJ swearing in using nazi salute with Jackie watching

Geo. W. and Laura Bush giving nazi salute to crowd

Tell me again how Trump is giving a nazi salute.

IF TRUMP IS GIVING A NAZI SALUTE, THEN ALL THE OTHERS ABOVE ALSO ARE GIVING A NAZI SALUTE and we know that it simply isn't so.

Opuscula Blame it On Israel

 

Apparently due to the number of tunnel collapses, Hamas "volunteers" are reusing to dig. The headlines, admittedly from Israeli publications, tell the story.

From the Jerusalem Post:

Exclusive: Hamas operatives fear entering tunnels, believe Israel behind collapses

Hamas operative killed in fourth Gaza tunnel collapse in recent weeks

From Israel HaYom, a freely distributed newspaper:

As another tunnel collapses, Hamas members refuse to dig

Of course, as everyone knows, the tunnel collapses are Israel's fault.

MUIST BE BAD BUILDING MATERIALS that Hamas acquired via Israel.

Israel HaYom reports that "The Zionists are nervous. They're afraid the tunnels are underneath their homes, and because of their fear they are using very advanced tools to locate and collapse the tunnels," the source said. "I know of those who have been sentenced to harsh punishments for refusing to take part in the [tunnel-digging] effort. This is a serious offense, and the punishment for it is extremely severe."

A Post article supports this:The leadership of Hamas apparently cannot prevent the collapse of the tunnels and recently, leader Ismail Haniyeh claimed Israeli technology had been discovered underground..

The most recent collapse occurred on Thursday afternoon when a tunnel collapsed in Khan Yunis, killing one operative. The collapse marked the sixth such collapse in recent months – the highest number of collapses to have occurred since 2014’s Operation Protective Edge.

Official reports, both in Israel and Gaza, describe collapses caused by recent storms and heavy rains. However, among Hamas and others, there are many who believe Israel is responsible.

Hamas is certain that Israel is to blame from preventing Hamas terrorists from entering Israel to kill its citizens.

One operative claimed Israel is using liquid explosives, while another operative expressed fears of Israel’s ability to cause localized earthquakes, which could also collapse the tunnels.

Hamas has mentioned the IDF’s elite combat engineering corps, which has special anti-tunnel measures, and the Oketz canine unit, which sends trained dogs into the tunnels.

(Will PETA complain? It took issue with a Muslim who loaded a donkey with explosives to kill Israelis. PITA was upset NOT because Israelis would be murdered, but because the donkey also would die. See Hamas terror donkey draws PETA attack)

According to the New York Times, while some diggers were reluctant to go into the tunnels, Abu Hassan al-Shobaki, a cousin of one of the men killed, said by telephone that the family was “happy and proud and welcomed the news of his death” because he “was martyred defending Islam and Palestine.”

Definitely Israel is is to blame for the tunnels collapse on those poor terrorists who simply want to kill Israelis.