Minimum Wage

All great truths begin as blasphemies. -George Bernard Shaw, writer, Nobel laureate (26 Jul 1856-1950)

Well, we've learned this at least from the tariff fiasco: Taxes are really bad for commerce.

At least seven people were shot and wounded on Aug. 4 as they gathered near a children’s playground on Chicago’s West Side. The people gathered at 1:20 a.m. as they stood in the park on the 2900 West Roosevelt Road when a person opened fire from a black Chevy Camaro, said Chicago Police.
Didn't get much coverage, though. Some mass shootings are probably different.

From Chris' in-house: As a result of the Fed's actions, PNC is decreasing its prime rate by .25% — from 5.5% to 5.25% — effective Aug. 1. ....Despite this lack of guidance, PNC expects the FOMC's next move to be another 25 basis point rate cut, likely in October.

The attack on McConnell's patriotism has been coordinated in both Democrat and media. It looks pretty sleazy. But it is not the wild fear-mongering of the McCarthy period. Instead it is a deliberate and mendacious calumny to besmirch someone over policy. Policy. How something should be done. 
Calvinists.

“To take from one, because it is thought that his own industry and that of his fathers has acquired too much, in order to spare to others, who, or whose fathers have not exercised equal industry and skill, is to violate arbitrarily the first principle of association, the guarantee to every one of a free exercise of his industry, and the fruits acquired by it.”--Jefferson on progressive income tax

In 1965, America had 180,000 perpetually professed Catholic sisters, the technical term for women who have pledged their lives to chastity, poverty, obedience and serving the church. By 2010, that number tanked to fewer than 50,000. In 2009, more Catholic sisters in America were over 90 years old than under 60.

National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration reports that there has occurred over the last four decades a substantial “greening” of the earth — a large increase in biomass yielding much more food for insects, birds, animals, and sea life — and the peer-reviewed literature reports that increasing amounts of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere are responsible for 70% of that effect, with deserts shrinking and rain forests either expanding or declining more slowly. 
Should climate policies take such beneficial effects into account?

The Great Depression, like most other periods of severe unemployment, was produced by government mismanagement rather than by any inherent instability of the private economy.--Freidman
This is not a throwaway line. Amity Shlaes' book on this is very impressive--and studiously avoided.

On this day in 1945, the United States became the first and only nation to use atomic weaponry during wartime when it dropped an atomic bomb on the Japanese city of Hiroshima. Approximately 80,000 people were killed as a direct result of the blast, and another 35,000 injured. At least another 60,000 would be dead by the end of the year from the effects of the fallout.

               Minimum Wage

Employees compete not against employers for higher wages, but against other employees.