Stupid Comment Spammers
Spambots are continuing to attack the old OFB archive (which runs PHP-Nuke). The new OFB site runs SAFARI, but I left the old site up as an archive of the first five years worth of articles. I ended up having to turn off comments because spammers were adding hundreds of spams to the articles.
While they are no longer able to add actual comments, these spammers also seem to hope to spread their names by using bogus referrer data when accessing the site (since many sites list what sites are linking to them). So, I still see hundreds of page views show up in my logs each day that try to access the comment pages that no longer exist and leave referrer links to insurance, pharmacy and poker sites. It is making it hard to gather relevant statistics with so much “noise.”
To combat this, I've moved some things around while trying to make it so real human visitors can still find the pages they want without additional hassles. We'll see if what I've done actually helps.
Talent and the Minimum Wage
Some ads airing in Missouri are accusing Jim Talent of being against raising the minimum wage. Others are claiming he has worked hard to support increases. My question is: who cares?
I know a lot of people think the minimum wage is the way to create a wonderful, almost utopian society where everyone makes a “living wage” that allows them to do what they want with their lives. The problem is that the minimum wage will never be able to provide a living wage for longer than a very brief period of time.
The problem is simple and involves two facts. First, those who actually “benefit” from the minimum wage are at the bottom of the corporate ladder — the laborers who make stuff and keep the machinery of business running. That means every product you buy probably has some minimum wage people dealing with it. Second, companies exist to make a profit and usually aim to make a certain margin of profit. Now, if the minimum wage workers make $1.00 more an hour, the company will (rightly) transfer that additional cost to the price tag of the product, since they need to maintain the margin of profit that keeps the company solvent (at the very least).
So, let's say Bob is a minimum wage worker and he makes ten widgets an hour. If he makes $6.00/hr and we hike the minimum wage to $10.00/hr (a “living wage”), we have added $.40 to the cost of the product. Put simply, on labor intensive products, the product may actually double in price if we double the minimum wage.
Now, when products start going up in price, everyone starts demanding raises to meet the rising costs. This further increases the rise in prices as the raises move further and further up the corporate chain to the very top. Soon, Bob may be making $10.00 in 2007 dollars, but those dollars are worth the same as $6.00 in 2006 dollars, since milk and bread now cost nearly twice as much to purchase. The big idea is that the minimum wage causes inflation. It comes no closer to giving everyone a “living wage” than a hamster comes to traveling across the country by running in his little wheel.
I've passed over an important issue thus far. In this consideration, I've assumed companies will always simply raise the price of a product when wage rates are forced up. That is not true; sometimes companies will simply cease production (or outsource to places with cheaper labor). For example, if the most people want to pay for a widget is $1.00 and an increase in the minimum wage forces the price up to $1.25, the company will necessarily stop making the product and then Bob and all of the other minimum wage workers simply won't have a job at all. Now, it is true that eventually (in most cases) inflation will level things out so that $1.25 is essentially what $1.00 use to be, but that takes time — time that can kill off a product. Moreover, if the industries affected by a wage hike are makers of non-essential items, demand for those items may simply cease rather than causing inflation.
I wish everyone could have a living wage, really, I do. But the simple fact is that it does not matter if Talent or anyone else supports increasing the minimum wage. Because of its close ties with inflation, you will never make the populous better off by arbitrarily increasing the minimum wage.
Reformation Day and Halloween
Boy, I could go one of two ways with a post on a day such as this. In fact, I think I'll just cover both ends by linking to things.
Regarding Reformation Day, as I've said before, it is useful to see it as a reminder of what we should do today, not as a day of remembering old dirty laundry between parts of the one, catholic Church. I may not agree entirely on doctrine with my (big C) Catholic brothers and sisters in Christ, but I don't dwell on today as a way to further divide us. The division is an unfortunate part of the story of this day, and one that we are at least repairing somewhat as Protestants and Catholics continue to work together more. Today, the Reformation is a reminder that we should always be reforming our doctrine so as to avoid, to use a favorite term among my English Lit friends, “the signifier slipping from the signified.” The ever thoughtful Ed writes to that end on OFB.
For Halloween, check out this morbidly amusing video, entitled “the Life and Death of a Pumpkin.”
Happy Halloween and Happy Reformation Day!
Science, Truth and Stem Cell Research
I wrote an article on my take concerning Missouri Amendment 2 (the embryonic stem cells “cures” initiative), which is now published on OFB. I'm going to doing something no big name writer will offer: I will offer a quality guarantee on this article. If you can find fault with any of the major premises, I will do my best to defend my answer with hard, cold facts. If I cannot, I will make a retraction of the article. How's that for a guarantee?
I'm mostly preaching to the choir on my blog, I suspect, but hopefully this article might prove useful to someone (if nothing else, if somehow you've missed the whole debate on the issue). I don't claim to say anything new, but I do think this article is unique thanks to my guarantee. In fact, maybe in the future I'll guarantee all of my articles with this guarantee.
Apple and Intel
I should probably work this into a larger piece sometime, but I think a quick observation is worthwhile. I've noticed with the Intel switch, some Mac advocates have suddenly realized that Dell does make a cheaper computer than Apple, while many PC users who would never have considered an Apple now find Apple enticing.
It is amazing how a little CPU could inspire people to swap positions. Yes, Apples with Intel processors do not have the mystical quality that Apples with PowerPC did. PowerPC was a RISC processor and that made Apple seem a bit more exotic. I liked it well enough. But, I care more about my apps and speed than I do about how “cool” my processor sounds. If, as most will now admit, Intel's Core microarchitecture blows the consumer variants of POWER out of the water in most ways, why not enjoy that and keep on using your beloved OS? Frankly, if I wanted to go with Dell's $399 special, it was just as valid to do so against a PowerPC G4 PowerBook as it is against a Core Duo MacBook. And anyway, if you compare Apple against other premium brands with very thin metal enclosures, lighter weight units, etc., I think the MacBook family still comes out favorably.
The reverse switch to being intrigued by Apple is a lot more explainable. Macs are now the only computer that can run the three biggest desktop OSes legally. With Parallels well designed virtualization, they are also really decent at running Windows applications. And, since Windows can replace Mac OS X if desired, there is far less risk in taking the plunge than before. I think that helps a lot. Even die hard Mac haters like how Apple is squeezing the latest PC technology into sleek, small machines.
The latter group does not mystify me, the former does. Personally, I think the days of processor brands defining how much awe a system should get are fading away quickly.
Back to Normal
Well, I don't have any more scores to report, so expect my normal type blog postings to return tomorrow. I can't promise that one more baseball post might not wander in, but don't let them scare you away. If anything, let the possibility of my upcoming political musing scare you instead! 
GO CRAZY FOLKS, GO CRAZY!
Wow! Woohooo! What else can I say? WOOOOHOOO!
SOURCE: STLTODAY.com
How amazing. And an amazing team — Molina, Rolen, Eckstein, Pujols, Edmunds, Reyes, Weaver, Carpenter, Wainwright and the rest performed amazingly. How wonderful for them to allow Cardinal Nation to see a World Series win in the brand new Busch Stadium — the first time since Yankee Stadium in 1928 that a team won a World Series in its own stadium during that stadium's inaugural year, I am told.
It's only been a few years since we lost Jack Buck, but I'm sure he'd be proud of the team and his son, Joe Buck, who did an amazing job too. Slam-a-lama-ding-dong indeed!
But, to again quote the senior Buck, “GO CRAZY FOLKS, GO CRAZY.”
The best team, with the best fans, in the best city. Yup, once again St. Louis is Perfectly Centered, Remarkably Connected. Woohoo!
Oh, a question to Mark: you correctly reined in my enthusiasm in calling the 2004 NLCS victory of the Cardinals a “trouncing.” I think I can use it completely justifiably now, right?
Could It Be Tonight?
So far so good, we have one nothing in the bottom of the third. Let's Go Cardinals!
That's More Like It
OK, so now it is 3-1. I don't want to get too excited yet, but would one more win tomorrow night be too much to ask? Apparently, it has been since the New York Yankees in 1928 that a team won the World Series in its own stadium during the first year of that stadium. With this being the Busch Stadium III's first year, that'd be an interesting record to break.
It was quite a game — far more eventful than the last few, but I'm not sure I really need it that eventful. Hopefully the Cards can beat the Cheat-ahs tomorrow by taking an early lead or maybe doing another shutout like they did in Game 3.
Waddya think?
Raindrops Keep Falling on My Head
Well, Game 4 of the World Series was delayed because of rain tonight. With more rain on the way, I wonder if the Cards will get to play tomorrow? I hope this doesn't hurt the momentum that has allowed them to get a 2-1 lead so far…
