A Comment on the Recent Events in Ferguson, MO

I have long advocated an end to the insane war on drugs. As of this writing, I have held this position for over twenty years.

If you disagree with that position, then we can have a civil discussion on many grounds and part friends even if our arguments do not lead to any agreement.

But if, after seeing all that has happened this last week in Missouri, you hold the position that this sort of thing is sometimes necessary (if perhaps sad or undesirable), and drug laws will sometimes need to be enforced with this sort of violence, then you are now, in my book, officially one of the bad guys.

You could, of course, hold the opinion that this has nothing to do with drug laws, in which case you are only wrong, and not necessarily evil. ;-)

Not that my opinion should matter to you, but if it does, you might want to have a close look at your motives and see if you are proud of them or not.

- Trevor.

I Hereby Support the Drive to Raise the Minimum Wage

 For years I have been frequenting fast food restaurants all around the country. The counter people are difficult to deal with about half the time. Sometimes their accents are hard to understand, sometimes they have trouble understanding me, and sometimes they just don't want to be there.

 I have wondered why we didn't have touchscreen ordering. There is no need to complicate this eating thing with people. Recently, I have seen touchscreen ordering start to appear in various, high-priced locations around the country, and I welcomed this development.

 Raising the federal minimum wage from $7.25 per hour to the $10 I hear has been proposed would toss these workers out on their butts and replace them with polite and detail-oriented computers which up until now have been difficult to justify when there are teenagers willing to work for less.

 What will happen to those people who lose their jobs, you ask? Who cares. Screw 'em. Let them go on welfare, and let the people who get the new $10 per hour jobs pay an extra $2.75 (or more) an hour to support 'em. I mean, not enough to give them any happiness, just enough to keep them from rioting. They weren't at that job to learn useful skills anyway, they were just going to rot there at minimum wage their whole lives just like we did. Really, this is better, and we know what's better for them, because we're smarter. We need to fine them or jail them if they work for so little. Better they go on the dole.

 This should work out just fine, and I get what I want, which really is the important thing here.

 - Trevor.

P.S. If you can't tell that I was being ironic above, you are not allowed to read my blog anymore. I have logged your IP address and if you try to sneak back I will come to your house and attempt to give you a hug. So watch it.

P.P.S. Also, for those who sincerely believe the minimum wage will help poor people, I apologize for the snarkiness. I respect your desire to help. I sincerely think you're wrong, and I hope your efforts fail, but the snarkiness here is for my entertainment, not a serious economic or political argument against your position. Although that could be arranged if you'd like - I can be serious sometimes.

References: Economics in One Lesson: The Shortest and Surest Way to Understand Basic Economics, Google Search of Mises.org for "Minimum Wage"

Fog Lights

Fog lights on a clear night: The perfect solution when you're afraid that someone, somewhere, doesn't know that you're a jackass.

 - Trevor.

"This Title Has No Comma In It"

 I don't keep up on new developments in English grammar. I'm not even up to speed on old developments. But there is one thing that I do differently than everyone else, on purpose, and I'll argue here that it isn't wrong. It's about quotes and punctuation.

 My argument is that quote marks indicate that the content between the marks is accurately represented exactly as someone else said, or exactly as you should reproduce it in the future. Therefore, the punctuation that exists for purposes of sentence structure, and is not part of the quote, belongs OUTSIDE the quotes, not inside.

 I agree that this post is not informative, and is boring, but I want you all to know that I'm doing it on purpose. It is a choice; it is not born from ignorance.

 So now you know that all the rest of my grammar errors are just that - ignorant errors. This particular one, however, is not an error - it's me being right against the crushing weight of the rest of the world.

 - Trevor.

Delight the True Believers

Seth Godin says on his blog: "Instead of working so hard to prove the skeptics wrong, it makes a lot more sense to delight the true believers." (Hat Tip to Lifehacker.com)

 I just want to add my voice to his, and maybe amplify it a bit. He goes into a bit more detail in his post, and it spoke to me. Strongly. It's a new way of looking at "I don't care what they think", which has always seemed a little false to me. I do care what they think, even though I don't want to.

 Here is a way to continue to care what "they" think, and turn it on its head to gain motivation instead of killing your idea so thoroughly you forget that you had it.

 That's a good way to look at life. No conflicts with those against me, because I'm focusing on those who are with me. Delight those who believe, and if no one does, delight yourself.

 - Trevor.

It's The Journey, Not The Destination

I don't know why people find these words worth repeating, or why they might take comfort from them. To me, they are words that don't seem to apply to the person saying them, they're meant for the listener, to tell the listener that he is doing something wrong, looking at something wrong, feeling something wrong, and he should quit being unhappy. Just flip a switch and @!+&*@ing smile.

 Like so many political solutions that are offered up, there is little attention paid to details, or how a thing could - or couldn't - actually work. Just be happy by fiat, and if it doesn't work, then there is something wrong with YOU, not my prescription.

 In my opinion (which is what you're here for, right?), the only actual meaning that could be squeezed out of these words is that for most people, in order to be happy, they have to be making progress toward a meaningful goal; one doesn't have to wait for goal achievement in order to take pleasure from it. But there's another side to that concept. A dark side, if you will. If you can feel the joy of goal achievement in anticipation of it, prior to completion, then circumstances which move you away from your goal can be as devastating as final failure.

 So these words, to me, when used as some sort of mood booster, are meaningless drivel, usually uttered by someone that in the future can be safely ignored - so not altogether different from me.

 - Trevor.

 I'm rooting for Hillary Clinton for President in 2016, because, "What difference, at this point, does it make?"
  - Trevor.