Tuesday, August 30, 2005

FOR THE VICTIMS OF KATRINA, PLEASE JOIN ME IN PRAYER & ACTION

PRAY FOR OUR FELLOW AMERICANS ... AS KATRINA's DEVASTATING IMPACT CONTINUES TO BE SO DRASTICALLY AND DEVASTATINGLY SEVERE. TRULY BEYOND WORDS -- A HUMAN CATASTROPHE.

DO WHAT YOU CAN. NOTHING BUT TIME, IS TOO LITTLE.

AMEN ...

And I also want to encourage you to help out in what I to0 believe is clearly the biggest disaster in US history, and will probably be the biggest disaster we will see in our lifetimes.

If you live in SB County and/or want to Volunteer ...

Call Julie Jeakle at SB County headquarters.

Her number is: (805) 687-1331 ext. 15.


BELOW: CONTRIBUTE, AND PROTECT YOUR MILEAGE WALLET.

http://www.fema.gov/

http://www.redcross.org/
1(800) HELP-NOW

WWW.salvationarmy.org

The Lompoc City website: http://www.ci.lompoc.ca.us/ also has several honest charities listed.


http://gaswatch.energy.gov/


AND ...
Gary Ray said...
Dr. Don
To My fellow Bloggers at News Mission
I am posting a comment to your blog today to ask that you do something positive in helping the victims of the Katrina disaster. The one group in this disaster that has had more disruption and death is people with disabilities. People are calling for help with the pets that were left and that is a good thing. But…

I am calling for help for people with disabilities. I have been posting a number of articles in my blog http://ccaccessibility.blogspot.com/that deal directly with Katrina and people with disabilities. I ask that you go to the site and have a look. I also ask that you give money, time, what ever you can to help people with disabilities that have been affected by this disaster.

I also ask that you do your own disaster preparation for your own family.

Your Fellow News Mission Blogger
Gary Ray Rogers
http://ccaccessibility.blogspot.com/

11:08 AM

Please Stay the Course

Less we forget ... It took us some initial twenty years to hewn out our very own constitution, our federation, our representational democracy, and our governance.

Our In God We Trust.

We did it with very much loss of life, and many tears from within and without of our embryonic and then growing infant Country.

During those formidable climactic times, how many a mother, father, wives, brothers, sisters, aunts and uncles -- from Europe, Boston, New York, Virginia, and elsewhere, must have thought with deeply painful emotion, the same, as we are now so indelibly feeling and thinking.

Please give the Iraqi's the continuing support; the time, and the understanding that they so very much need, in order that the sacrifices here at home, at our hearths, and in our beds, are worth the death, injury, broken hearts, dreams and tears of all the families, Iraqi, and American, who have sacrificed all, and invested all for the birth of this now newest of nations.

We are, for better or for worse, well into it; and deeply and intimately involved; and the responsible agent of change; and as such we can not, and must not leave their sides now.

It is good and necessary work, but not easy, nor nice or neat, that we stay this current course. It is therefore imperative that we, as Americans clearly understand the course we are on. Clarity is not unpatriotic, nor is a desire for peace. But peace has never come without enduring sacrifice, eternal vigilance, and clarity of purpose.

History has shown that this course to Liberty and Peace can not be achieved by a hidden strategy of serendipity and surprise, yet at the same time we obviously can not give the enemy due dates to make their sustaining counter-productive dispassionate plans. While we can therefore not ask for days and dates yet, we can ask for, and must insist on clear goals, and transparent measures of what success is.

When they stand up, we will stand down”… is indeed a good sound bite, but it is not a meal. While we must, and do, and will, continue to fully support our troops winning in Iraq, and elsewhere, as they too, stand and die for liberty, we owe them a true measure of accountability, and a common picture of understanding of what it is we are now seeking. In this way we will all recognize it when we see it, and cheer it in unison and relief, when we have achieved it.

There is seemingly this current ever permeating and pervasive, yet quietly held suspicion by the citizens, that our leaders may be less that of admirable prophets and strategists of success on any issue, but rather suffering from, as Ralph Waldo Emerson so succinctly stated, way back in 1841, that: "A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds, adored by little statesmen and philosophers and divines.”

This burdensome ubiquitous social sense of impending doom, while increasing our anxiety, and permeating every aspect of the new millennium, is sadly never addressed by our current leaders, who have appropriated it, while simultaneously it is intentionally, destructively and unhesitantly used, or at minimum implied, by their philosphical oppositions, at every convenient or inconvenient opportunity.

Both sides appearing to care more about their Puckish personal winning and positioning, at any cost, rather than they do, about our winning and sacred unity and progress as a nation.

Their mutual illusory personal mistakes of not respectfully speaking to/with us, nor therefore contributing to our necessary sense of social confidence, and moral purpose, is what makes them increasingly less believable, less trustworthy, and more outside of us, as everyday folks, just trying to get by.

This is not a time to destructively divide on blood red emotions and suspicious motivations, but rather to unify our hearts, as a country of citizens, who support both their troops, and ourselves, as a nation, here at home.

Both in battle and in unifying plan, the glue of our American society, and our most intimate well being as individuals, is clearly at stake.

Together we can, we must, help a nation of people up another hard scrabble path to democracy and destiny. A well hewn path, we feel that we well know, and believe in with every bone in our constitutional bodies.

In so doing they, again, like so many before them, will teach us ... their teachers, the atmospheric importance of the gift of voting for one's personal and national destinies, that we have so sacrificed to give them, and ourselves, yet again.

For this is also about us, and not just about them. We are all brothers/sisters here in will. We will all be better for this -- there is little other choice -- we must insist, and be constant to achieve that promise of betterment, both here and abroad.

Then perhaps after this, for at least awhile, perhaps forever – we will not need to again draw guns, bullets and blood of our children for peace? It seems unlikely, but a worthy prayer. The prayer of a soldier, a citizen.

This struggle is not new to history, nor is the need for clear goals, and measures of success, and finality.

In God We Trust.

Sunday, August 28, 2005

ADOPTION A PERSONAL GIFT

NOTHING MORE GRACIOUS AND GIVING THAN ADOPTIVE PARENTS.

AND NOTHING MORE SPECIAL THAN AN ADOPTIVE CHILD.

OFF OF THE FRONT PAGE, AND OUT OF THE EDITORIAL SECTION, THE TRUTH IS …

That adoption for me, in my blessed life has been the second most miraculous gift, following that of birth.

Affirming first that of my own birth, of course, followed then in some mandatory naturally occurring expected chronological order, by my wife, and then of course my blessed children, and now their gift to me and we again, our grandchildren – their children.

This ride called life, and its start as an adoptive child, is so spectacularly special to me, I can not truly find the words, to express to the reader in words, feelings, or thoughts, just how magical and essential it is to this child’s life’s -- very journey.

Without my adoption, and life commitment by both my amazing blood and mutually nurturing parent pairs, I would not only … not be here, but would not have the gift of the wondrous quality of life, that I so now cherish, daily.

I realize, this divine gift, which at least two parents typically give, or possibly more, and a loving family sustains, in order that a child, such as I, could not only be given life, but be given a life time of living, is a gift beyond words, such as sacrifice, investment, or parenting.

It is a very special gift, that we who are lucky enough to be well adopted children know well. Yes, sadly, as is true in all things, sometimes bad things happen to good people. A circumstance for which I wish I had a magic wand, so that I could erase all such unfortunate happenstances, for everyone, always.

Life does not promise happiness, but … if one is lucky enough to have joy in one’s heart, bliss in one’s soul, and periodic laughter ringing from one’s tummy to and out of your lips, then it is indeed a very good day, and possibly in context, a very good and hopeful life.

The reality of adoption comes up in those unexpected serendipitous counter pointed moments in time, such as when you are feeling down, being disciplined, or disciplining, and a fleeting
nano-thought of only being adopted, and not really a part of this family, inexplicably pops up.

Different yet related to that same feeling of that oft childhood adventurous, perhaps necessary imperative -- of wanting to run away from home -- but with the added threat/promise of running to your fantasy of your real home.

All parenting, all births, all families, are of course incomparably essential, and authentic. My point here is only to say, without any sense of diminishment anywhere, or to anyone, that adoptive parents are quite extra special, and sing to a different siren’s verse within that same nurturing parental song. A theme once sung … resonating throughout one’s life, and that of your child, and their children, in a most positive, unexpected and unique way.

In my mind such a unique way, that in a time of today filled with the usual dribble and drab of this and that, similar to that, as is grandly familiar across all time in perpetuity, that adoption is indeed a preeminent celestial gift to the adoptee, and the family of adopters.

So, please … well away from the rhetorical flourish and the spiritually immobilizing moral blather of the charge and counter charge, from the polarized rights and lefts, it is good to remember, that out there, and in here, there are actual children, growing and now grown, who without the investment of self sacrificing adoptive parents, would not have our life, or the lives of our children.

I’m just trying to say: Thank YouThank You Marion; Thank You Johnny; Thank You Ernest; Thank You Rita, as well as, my dearest Jeni, and Justin, and of course my resultant and now deeply extended families, whether deceased or alive ... I Love You

THANK YOU!

Tuesday, August 23, 2005

Who Said It, And When??

Coulda / shoulda been said today...and should be said every day, by every elected public servant and fourth estaters.
Meeting in you a new congress, I deem it proper to present this view of public affairs in greater detail than might otherwise be necessary.

The people being with us exclusively the sovereign, it is indispensable that full information be laid before them on all important subjects, to enable them to exercise that high power with complete effect.

If kept in the dark, they must be incompetent to it.

We are liable to error, and those who are engaged in the management of public affairs are more subject to excitement, and to be led astray by their particular interests and passions, than the great body of our constituents, who living at home in the pursuit of their ordinary avocations, are calm but deeply interested of events, and of the conduct of those who are parties to them.

To the people, every Department of Government, and every individual in each, are responsible, and the more full their information, the better they can judge of the wisdom of the policy pursued, and of the conduct of each in regard to it.

From their dispassionate judgment, much aid may always be obtained, while their approbation will form the greatest incentive, and most gratifying reward for virtuous actions, and the dread of their censure the best security against the abuse of their confidence.

Their interests, in all vital questions, are the same, and the bond by sentiment, as well as by interest, will be proportionably strengthened as they are better informed of real state of public affairs, especially in difficult conjectures.

It is by such knowledge that local prejudices and jealousies are surmounted, and that a national policy, extending its fostering care and protection to all the great interests of our Union, is formed and steadily adhered to.
Don't hesitate to offer names of the individual responsible for these words.

On Any Given Day

... It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to Heaven, we were all going direct the other way—in short, the period was so far like the present period, that some of its noisiest authorities insisted on its being received, for good or for evil, in the superlative degree of comparison only. --the opening sentence of A Tale of Two Cities, by Charles Dickens (1859)

There is so much one might comment on, daily.

Given all of that there is to choose from, I thought the following article on “Fetal Skin Cells, Healing Burns”
might be of the greatest interest? At least today for me, it caught my eye.

Wondering if this area of study will generate the same "heat" that the furor over Embryonic Stem Cell research fostered, and continues to do so, today?

These grafted fetal skin cells seem to confer restorative powers to the burnt skin, allowing the damaged tissue to heal itself. Eight child and infant patients underwent this grafting process. They have not apparently yet tested this healing process in older patients, but there is no reason to think otherwise, they say.

The treated wounds took an average of 15 days to heal, as opposed to other forms of treating similar burns frequently taking up to six times as long.

The remarkable flexibility of the skin mended with the fetal cells meant that the patients recovered full movement of their hands and fingers, the authors said.

Furthermore, the result not only gave the patients nearly perfect skin, but also spared them the trauma of having a graft taken from elsewhere on their body.

Tis a Brave New World

Sunday, August 21, 2005

Screwed Blue And Tattooed

How many of us would be teachers, or for that matter could even aspire to be teachers?

How is it that good people, dedicated people, talented, educated people have become our favorite institutional punching bag?

Our favorite professionals to pick on.

Who else has done so much and gotten so little public respect?

Who else takes care of our children, our grandchildren, not for just an hour, but 4 to 6 to 8 hours, 5 days a week, and then keeps them motivated and enthused in many an afternoon, and after-school program, sports, recreation, art or music? Taking their personal weekends to be a mentor to your son, your daughter.

Who but the teacher is the savior of the classic "7" Liberal arts?

Who else strives and struggles to defend and teach the equally endowed 3 R's?

Since long before Jane and Dick, to now "Whole English," one thing never changes and that is the forthright, honest sacrifices and dedication, daily put up in front of all us, on behalf of our single greatest and enduring resource--Our Children.

You can talk about your firemen, with their image of selfless sacrifice, danger, and full on commitment, but so too our teachers. These teachers too, no less strong, present, and productive, and all-the-while with safe and nurturing care, as they (sometimes, if lucky, with parental help and guidance) move our precious ones, into a future of promise and optimism, as we all so intend.

It is in the hands of the teacher that our Nation's tomorrow is cradled.

Is it any wonder then, that in an environment of persistent public criticism, and lowest of earned living wages, combined and hallmarked by a vacuous lack of respect, that they feel like they must always defend themselves, against the belittling "us."

What is it, that in our society we feel like those we expect the most from, we can disrespect and pay the least to? Our teachers, doctors, nurses, and public safety personnel--all those that we depend on when it truly becomes a matter of acute and personal life or death issues. The first, and always truly there, responders.

I say stop beating on them and pay your teachers well, for what they truly do, because more likely than not, they are doing more for your child today and their future, than you are.

And even if you feel a need to be inappropriately defensive about that, and indefensibly argue that point--then I ask, when was the last time a stranger did so much for so many, and you and yours in particular?

Be nice to a teacher. We can’t do it without them. Our future depends upon it.

Friday, August 19, 2005

A Great Article On Judging

Please consider reading this, and then any observations or comments will be answered. Imprimus, the magazine of Hilldale College, Michigan.

Tuesday, August 16, 2005

Prop 77 Is Back On!!!

As of August 12th, the Court of Appeal, 3rd Appelate District, re-instated Prop. 77 on the Special Election Ballot, this November 8th, 2005.

There is seemingly judicial sanity out there, after all, at least for the time being.

Now it is up to us, to do what we think is right.

I enthusiastically encourage everyone to vote YES, on this November Ballot Proposal,

Please!!

It is the last hope we have of keeping the sanctity and meaning of our treasured vote.

But, of course, as we well know from prior experiences, with other Propositions, we the people may well vote for it, only to find out that the Court nullifies it, by the actions of one judge overruling it, thereby again disenfranchising 1+ million fellow California voters.

We can only do, what we can do, and in this, that means ... WE VOTE!

If the results are overwhelming, then perhaps, more probably than not, the Courts will not defeat us.

I live in hope and optimism.

Monday, August 15, 2005

Fix It And We Can All Become More Safe

"This country has lost control of its borders. And no country can sustain that kind of position." --Ronald Reagan

In an epic and critical time of ongoing runaway immigration, of both legal and illegal migration, the tumultuous waves of undocumented people/workers are exploding and blowing off the charts. We soar upward to 1.1 million immigrant people per year, and growing exponentially.

Legal immigration is so oppressive, costly, and personally threatening, it is a wonderment to me that more émigrés don’t just give up, and become "overstayers," and "absconders." It makes a bad immigration situation even worse.

Our obviously deeply flawed immigration policy has consequential overwhelming destructive impacts on our National Security, healthcare, education, crime, jobs and wages. That's not all: it has a deeply personal enveloping history of misfortune and abject murderous loss of life, most particularly within the very ranks of the undocumented coming here, as well as to our loyal sworn officers unsupportedly poised to stop them.

All of these unfortunately well known, unchecked persistent and sobering problems, in and directly resulting from our callous immigration system, and more, were devastatingly and well exposed again as a result of 9-11. The inconceivable systemic overload, bureaucratic negligence, and dangerous loopholes -- still, even now, have inexplicably not been addressed. Bandaids, where reconstructive life saving surgery is desperately needed. We the patient, our very democracy is dying.

In the absence of any constructive change, combined with nature’s oft ill perceived abhorrence of a vacuum, we are left with -- in the place of an: orderly; organized; safe; secure; efficient, and humanistic Immigration System -- a befuddled, confused, complicitous, dangerous and utterly indefensible antiquated, unfair system. Persisting inexplicably, in the face of societal common sense.

… And make no mistake, we are all involved.

Sadly filling this vacuum of beaurocratic unwillingness and ineptness, are the not so unfamiliar corrosive, self serving, strident misguided xenophobic voices further driving this already self destructive anarchistic fury, further into useless and dangerous ruin.

So … We have to begin somewhere.

Why then, not adopt ideas that are already working elsewhere?

What is the matter with beginning with and instituting a National law, similar to that which was passed by voters in Arizona, and upheld recently by our very own San Francisco based activist 9th Circuit Court of Appeals?

Why can’t we have a National Arizona Proposition 200, as a cornerstone of rebuilding a rational fair, and secure immigration policy, and a just and equitable derivative system?

Why not also put expansive and enforceable teeth into our already existing and proven US-VISITBorder-Screening Program . So that we can actually Authenticate, Screen and Record immigrants coming into this country.

It is clear that we have needed legitimate controls that work, and that are enforcibly and economically workable for our Country, now for decades.

There is no longer, nor has there ever been, an excuse for this abysmal absence of permanently remedying this destructive and most inhumane condition, and National embarrassment.

This is about sanctifying everything we supposedly stand for: Human rights; Property rights; Voting rights; Economic rights; Civil rights, and more, the very foundations of our Country, our Constitution, and moral human judgment.

What’s wrong here? Can we keep putting this off? What must we do to fix this NOW?

Sunday, August 14, 2005

Just a Citizen, Aka J.A.C.

HOWDY ...

Just sitting here staring out into the not unusual foggy blanket of a Central Coast day, minding my own business, when my grandson runs up, and in his 3 year old voice, says: Granpa ... What are doing?

And being the good Grandpa ... thinking long and deeply about my answer, I say: "Huhh"??

Before I can regain my focus, he's gone like the wind, invisibly darting around the corner to play with his cousin (the true Princess of the family), my equally beloved younger granddaughter.

As I think about his fleeting curiousness, and the innocent audacity of such a question ... so what am I doing?

On a lazy snugly bug Sunday afternoon here I sit, entranced with the sheer pleasure of the nothingness of my mind, except for the oft familiar, intentional walls and electrified mental fences erected momentarily to keep reality out.

His question, for no good reason blasting through this momentarily self induced Ozone protective mental sheath. I find it wickedly difficult to return to my previous luxurious pastime of nothing sitting.

Perhaps it isn't the question, but the messenger? After all I would stop all things to share a minute of life with he or the magnetic granddaughter.

But he was gone, and the question was left like the sweet perfume of Jasmine wafting through my mind like a drunken brass bell staggering persistently from side to side echoing between my ears.

What are I doing? Hmmm ... I guess just considering how a life of service to people matters? How it reverberates through my life and into that of my family, and now into my ever growing extended family.

Such purity, such innocence at his age. Such hope at my youngest granddaughter's age. A prayerful joy shared by all of us lucky enough to enjoy the love of our families, and wonder at the miracle of life. Our legacy lies with the cherished them.

I think, what a special life to have had, and then after all that to have been given them too. It gives one grand pause, and then you find yourself sitting on a quiet fogged soaked day companioned only by the random and wondrous ponderings of such questions. As opposed to the more rude questions and daily mindless turmoils of how to pay the bills, buy the food, and just get thru the day.

Allowing one's mind therefore to thread aimlessly in the pleasure of such questions is a gift in itself. A worthy escape one must give to oneself, as often as one can legitimately get away with it. Sundays are good for this type of thing.

Returning to thoughts of Service ... If that is accurate? Service To, For, and On Behalf of the people, who for no apparent reason seemingly come to you for help/assistance. Believing and trusting that you can and will provide such support for them as your objective primary motivation. The intention of helping, giving unconditionally.

After all that's what you told your mother you were doing? For no other reason, other than by giving so, you make their lives better.

But as is true with all paradoxical conundrums, there is the persistent influence of misdirection, as there can be no giving without getting. Ahh yes, there it is the inevitable Ying and Yang of it ... the Pushme -- Pullme ... that magical seesaw of moral balance.

What does one get for giving? The unintentional, but warmly received natural reciprocation of the reflective joy of their success. In their success comes the very light by which you might see your own, and thus guide yourself to your next step in the mysterious darkness of life's twist and turns. Seemingly this circle just keeps spiraling up into greater self investment and personal growth in happiness; healthfulness; fulfillment, and light.

Of course no one, sadly these days, seems to believe as much, in the long term benefits of this innate struggle. If we ever really did? So we are wantonly left with the sadder and more vacuous skepticism, social disbelief and societal disappointment. Eroding our cultural group self esteem.

What we have become more use to seeing plastered and clanging across our print, radio, T.V., and computer media is the seeming inevitable dizzying nauseating spiraling down of officious self-celebratory destruction, taking a bit of all of us, with each one of them, as they hit us -- left and right -- front and back. They and their media savvy agents remaining incorrigibly and blythefully unaware of their intemperate effects.

At times it seems as if our society doesn't believe in giving, virtue, and integrity. Then by contrast, daily we live for it and by it in our own families. Our interpersonal rule of life. Our lifegiving, life affirming glue holding our families together. It's here within me and it is what I protect. But where is it out there?

Our very cultural life's blood? When we don't get this same sense of judicious selfless giving, in our elected and corporate institutions we are left with the tarnished reality of what we can only conclude to be the more egregious sin of perceived selfishness. We feel that uncomfortable, yet familiar sick sense of societal and personal betrayal.

We worry, see and think it will infect our friends, our families, and our children corrupting and erode our interpersonal relationships. We start questioning what does matter? What do we live for and by? Are there no rules? What happened to the Ten Commandments?

Are there no rules for the elected? Lately even the process of selection seems contaminated. Another big bite of trust. Like all resources you can't keep eating, taking and consuming trust without losing it too, altogether. Fortunately it can be a renewable resource for some. Hopefully for us, our envisioned democratic selves.

Perhaps there is a sadder new rule for our modern millennium? "What's good for me Shall forcibly be good for thee." Not a very warm fuzzy.

This may explain why we all feel so let down by our politicians... and perhaps others as well, who appear as a whole, to have determined that it is better to have the light shine on them, rather than to shine it ahead of them for others.

Sadly their naive destructive gift to us is darkness, often enveloping all of us like a heavy wet rag. Suffocating the very air out of our struggling hearts.

So here I are on a rainy Sunday, and that is what I am doing. Waxing poetically on such things? Such that perhaps by envisioning understanding it, I might then help hold a light with my neighbors, friends, and family. So that together we can all find our way to the benefits of service to and for the Bigger Good of helping each other.

Rather than the road we seem to be going down, if we are to believe what we see out there? There must be a road we can go up. Where what is best for Thee, is best for Me.

We ride the same track in the same boxcar, only denial keeps us from seeing ourselves in our neighbors, friends, and family. We rise and fall on the same tide.

Never-the-less, thru our children and with our Grandchildren, there is always hope! Our legacies of hope and promise to future generations.

That is the intention and promise of service ... To give back ... not to monopolize the light, but rather, to help light our way together to a better tomorrow.

That is: what I are doing

Con Carinos ...

Tuesday, August 09, 2005

If You So Disagree With The Minimum Wage View, Then?

As some of you have, both here and privately …

What then would you directly suggest/offer to Business in order that such unfortunate mandated disincentive wage proposals might be a bit more palatable and viable?

Practical and Workable Ideas that might create a Win-Win for both employers and employees?

What are the incentives to make it viable for both sides of the economic formula.

Given that the major concerns for such proposals are generally: the very real morbid financial drag on Business; the subsequent fear of disemployment of Workers, and the apparent resultant drain on our Economy, what then do YOU suggest to make Work, work, and be economically invigorating?

Friday, August 05, 2005

Increases in Minimum Wage Hurt Small Business and Employees

The growing concentration of wealth in America and the deterioration of living standards for most people are emerging as a most important part of the political debate in our cities, States, and nationally.

It's a topic with plenty to debate, and consider. But certainly the solutions for improving one’s quality of life is not to be found in partisan political bickering, nor the language of the self serving, whose nauseating conflicting sounds only serve to lock us into the perpetual nothingness that continues to disgust us about Washington and Sacramento.

It seems from a fair reading of the many opposing views relative to Minimal wage and Living wage that opposition to any increase in, or institution of these wage formulas, is not only reasonable, but the more prudent of public policy.

As a “Safety Net” a minimum might be a reasonable protection for all of us? At the most, perhaps a place to begin, from which to earn a self generated market driven living earned income.

Mandatory wage increases hurt not only small businesses, but their employees as well. The pervasive and destructive effect of minimum-wage legislation on employment has been continually sorely misrepresented, and underestimated.

Big corporations do not have to absorb the cost because most minimum-wage jobs are offered by small businesses.

Government manipulation of the starting wage has consistently failed as a tool of social and/or economic justice. It has repeatedly been shown to be a job killer, and a universal disincentive to small business, as just one more onerous unfunded mandate and irrational regulatory tax burden further suffocating small business.

The proponents argue for a "fair" minimum wage, as if government could actually legislate wealth into existence. Laws don’t make jobs, people make their jobs.

Minimum wage laws discriminate against the less productive (Those who can still profitably be employed at a lower wages.), such as: teenagers, the retired, minorities, the disabled, and the less skilled.

The very job growth desired by such dangerous Pollyanna entitlement thinking is prohibitive in its ability to create any real personal financial incentive or help.

Such laws succeed only in redistributing the existing wealth of a society. The distortions caused by fixing the price of labor produce definite losers and winners; it is the least employable, the truly needy, who are the losers -- who lose their jobs. The winners either earn above the new fixed price or have protected jobs.

Furthermore, some people don't need a "living wage", as they are simply supplementing retirement income, and may prefer a mix of money income and other kinds of compensation.

Such unfunded mandated formulations have not been proven to reduce poverty nor narrow the income gap and puts a stranglehold on America's top job creators: small businesses.

It seems to make good press and photo OP’s, but not good public policy.

Interestingly most of the people who support such efforts, don’t live on, and never have lived on minimal wages, fixed wages, or living wage limitations themselves. But they want you to.

The overwhelming majority of economists and social scientists continue to affirm the job-killing nature and societal immobility of such mandatory wage increases.

Mandatory minimum or living wage increases end up reducing employment levels and their intended resultant life style for those people with the lowest skills, who need the work and increased income the most. There is no arguing that sad fact.

The question then seemingly is, in the face of that truth, what can be done to improve the real job opportunities, income levels and lifestyles of our fellow citizens and neighbors?

Tuesday, August 02, 2005

LNG Why? Or Why Not?

WHAT IS IT WITH LNG PRO AND CON?