Hiking Minimum Wage

The Dems are all in favor.  They think all the people making minimum wage will enjoy a pay hike and vote democratic in return.  But what about all those people thrown out of work 'cause the business loses money when it pays it's unskilled labor $15 an hour?  Well, they probably don't vote.  In fact they are less likely to vote after loosing their jobs.
  What is a just and equitable wage? And how, and by whom,should it be set?  A business has a lot of claims upon it's money.  It has to pay it's suppliers, the rent, the utilities, plant maintenance, advertising, the investors, wages, taxes, new product development, pensions, and lots of other things.  How much should go to wages, as opposed to all those other things?
   Free market thinking is that the business bids for workers against all the other businesses around.  Workers, finding a business willing to pay more than their current employer, change jobs.  This way the business that needs the labor the most gets it, 'cause they are willing to pay more for it.  This works better than the now discredited Soviet communist idea of the state allocating workers to industries as it saw fit.  And setting their wages too. 
   This can be hard on the workers, especially the unskilled workers, when there are plenty of workers and not enough jobs.  In this case, companies don't have to offer much in the way of wages to get all the labor they can use.  There are plenty more workers out there, all needing a job, and willing to work for less. 
   In America, labor unions solved this problem.  Organize the plant, lead the workers out on strike, and management will cave.  This takes some doing on the part of the workers, but it has been done, repeatedly, and it works.  Management has been so terrorized by unions that it will do anything to keep their workers happy enough that they won't unionize.  Non union companies pay pretty much the same as union companies, in order to stay non-union. 
  So, American wages are set by a combination of free market supply and demand, and union activism.  Due to the long long Great Depression 2.0 that set in with the Obama election in 2008, wages have been flat since then.  Companies lack customers, and everyone understands that a wage hike means a price hike which means fewer sales and hence layoffs.  Nobody is very happy about the situation,  but everyone figures it's better than unemployment or going out of business.  So wages stay flat, and except for crazies like Boeing's machinist's union, nobody goes on strike.  Everybody is waiting for the economy to get better.
   So, with things sorta balanced out, but sorta shaky, is it smart, or ethical, to pass a $15 an hour minimum wage that will throw a lot of people out of work?  This kinda boat rocking can tip the boat clean over and put us all in the drink.

How do I get photos OFF the tracfone?

Let's see, I got the Tracfone (LG model 305c) to dial, keep a phone list, speak to the new router via WIFI, and snap a picture.  It's still flaky on answering an incoming call.  But I haven't found out how to get the photo OFF the cell phone.  My two computers won't talk to the phone on USB.  They don't see the phone in network neighborhood.  The phone offered to send the photos but all it offered for destination was telephone numbers.  My real telephone number is a plain old wired phone, which will not do anything with pictures except make funny noises in the earpiece. 
   The secret of connecting to the router is two fold.  Learning how to input an alpha password using the telephone keypad, and replacing the router with a new one to which I was sure I knew the password.  I might had changed the password on the old router and forgotten what it was.  Old router went belly up and refused to connect to the Internet, so I bought a new one and now two computers and one cell phone are talking on it, I think.
  Any suggestions are welcome. 

The two wings of the Republican Party

On one side we have the Regular Republicans, present office holders, older voters, conservatives.  These guys are not crusaders, they don't want to change the rules.  The know the rules, they know what can be done under the rules, they know that they need votes, a majority of votes, to get anything done.  They don't badmouth their political opponents, they know they might need their support someday.  They don't believe in feuds and vendettas, they view them as counterproductive.  They view the Tea Party as a bunch of rabid boat rockers who may well capsize the boat.

On the other side we have the Tea Party.  They want serious changes in the rules, income tax reform, perhaps a flat tax, abolition of dead weight like Dept of Education, and IRS.  They want scalps, starting with Lois Lerner's.  They want to keep the EPA from shutting down all American industry, the FCC from taking over the Internet, the TSA from groping them in airports, and the cops from shooting them.  They distrust all government regulators.  They care about getting the economy growing again.  Many of them are parents, worried about keeping their jobs, their kids finding jobs, buying houses, paying for college.  They call the Regular Republicans RINOs.

Both sides need to bear in mind that the Independents are the key to winning elections.  Only about 35% of voters are registered Republicans.  40% are registered Democrats.  Registered Democrats (yellow dog democrats) will vote democratic no matter what.  It's a matter of political faith with them.  They voted to re elect Obama.
 But 25% of voters  are registered Independents. These people will vote for either party depending upon the goodness of the candidates and the badness of incumbents.  Put the registered Republicans together with the Independents and you have 60%, a land slide. 
  Both wings of the Republican party should remember that their beloved wedge issues (abortion, war on drugs, gay marriage) offend Independents. 

Internet Crapped out today

Both computers, Blackbox and Flatbeast complained that they could to connect to the internet this morning. I decided to wait a while and see if the Internet would come back of it's own accord.  No such luck.  So some hours later I called Time Warner Cable's help number.  They were actually very helpful and with a bit of troubleshooting we decided that the router had croaked.  So, off to Staples to buy another $50 wifi router.  The dead Belkin router was only three years old, but I guess they don't make 'em like they used to.  So all I have to show for the old dead Belkin is a 12 volt wallwart that I can use on the HO train layout.  All I had to do was introduce the computers t o the new Netgear router with a new WEP password.  I even got my LG cell phone to recognize the new Netgear router. Now all I have to do is get a test photo off the LG cell phone and onto a computer. 

Pioneer Science Fiction Authors

Jules Verne is probably the first author of what we would consider science fiction.  He wrote in the late 19th century, sometime after the US civil war.  His best was "20,000 leagues Under the Sea".  Verne wrote in French, and I still remember the kinda shabby English translation I took to summer camp one year.  Verne's prose was probably only mediocre in French, and was down right miserable in English translation.  But the story was gripping enough to overcome weaknesses in the writing.  Disney made a good live action movie in the 50's, with James Mason as Captain Nemo and Kirk Douglas as Ned Land.  Technicolor, with a fine Nautilus and great underwater shots.  Not for nothing did the US Navy name their first nuclear sub Nautilus.
   Next in line was Edgar Rice Burroughs, the creator of Tarzan.  ERB's first published story was "A Princess of Mars" back in 1912.  John Carter's derring do, deadly sword play and beautiful Martian princess set the style for space opera that lasted up thru Star Wars.  Princess Leia inherited a lot from Dejah Thoris.  The sand people riding their Bantha's look pretty much like Green Martians riding their Thoats.  Burroughs followed up with about ten more Martian stories over the next 30 years.  The first three are the best, the later ones are pot boilers.  
   Edward Elmer Smith (EE Doc Smith) first story "Skylark of Space" was published in the 1920's.  It was "super science".  Lots of high tech (for the 1920's) stuff, powerful space ships, resourceful scientist/engineer heroes, pretty girls, evil drug runner bad guys.  EE Smith kept publishing right up to his death in 1965.  I'd rate his stuff good for kids but a little corny for today's grownups.  I encountered Doc Smith as a kid and still like him. 
   There were plenty of other science fiction writers back in the day, but these three are my favorites from the era before John W. Campbell.

Bills vs Begs

The mail man (oops she is letter carrier) brings a lot of both.  I throw them in a pile on my desk and once a month a I sit down and pay the bills, and send a check to the beggars if I feel like it.  This month the pile was of scary height, so I sorted out the bills from the begs and paid the bills.  The beg pile was taller than the bill pile.  And it isn't even an election year.  Lord preserve us next year. 

Thunder Storm went right over the house

Must mean spring.  We don't get thunder and lightening with snow storms.  Maybe spring is not a myth.