This shit is crazy. Say what you want about economic stratification in this country, at least we don’t have mining barons hunting humans while dressed as Orks or level 60 Mages, or whatever. Yeesh.

The Socialist French presidential candidate recently presented her 100-point platform for French death…er I mean prosperity. Among her economic policies is her pledge to raise the minimum wage to 1,500 Euros a month, or $1,950 a month, which is $12.18/hr. The current minimum wage is $10.75/hr, which might help explain the French 10.5% unemployment rate. The US rate is currently 4.6%. Unfortunately, most liberals believe they can legislate themselves whatever they want, including our own socialist government, the ASUO. If raising the minimum wage is such a good way to help the poor, why not make the US min. wage $12.18/hr? But why stop there! If we lobbies government to make it $520.83/hr, everyone could then make one million dollars a year!

While there has been many, many, studies and papers that prove raising the minimum wage only hurts the poorest of the poor by transferring their wages to other workers, this doesn’t stop governments from ‘taking action.’ When the wage is increased, young workers and women are disproportionately affected too. We can look to the French as a gauge where this country will be economically after more socialist legislate in passed in the future. Good thing I took that Youth Riot Control class…

Holy smokes. If you showed this video to any group of straight male freshmen here at the University, I think you’ll see a doubling, nay tripling, of journalism and French double majors. Does the J-school coordinate any international internships with French television?

Two University of Oregon students and their father were aboard a jetliner that disappeared Monday on an inter-island flight in Indonesia. Stephanie Jackson, a senior majoring in pre-med, Lindsey Jackson, a marine biology student in the Clark Honors program, and Scott Jackson, a wood products industry representative, were the only Americans aboard Flight KI-574, a Boeing 737-400 operated by Indonesia-based Adam Air. The flight sent out two distress signals during stormy weather on Monday. Contrary to an earlier report, rescue teams have not yet found any wreckage on land or sea.

Lindsey and Stephanie are from Bend and often travel with their father who lives part time in Indonesia, Brazil and Oregon.

Oregonian Article: Link

Register-Guard Article: Link

Via BoingBoing:’Squirrels to be given contraceptives‘

SQUIRRELS are to be given contraceptives in a project approved by Scottish ministers, The Scotsman has learned.

The Executive has agreed to fund research into immuno-contraception for Scotland’s grey squirrel population.
Click to learn more…

Ministers want to know if contraception can be given to squirrels safely and effectively and whether this could solve the problem of the rapidly expanding grey squirrel population and the declining red squirrel one.

I, for one, hope the program expands to include our fair campus. The grey squirrels have had an unfair nut-hoarding advantage for far too long!

Today’s Emerald editorial discusses the impending involuntary military draft. Charles Rangel (D-NY) recently stated that he’ll attempt to introduce a bill to reinstate the draft, claiming that if it made a comeback lawmakers would be far less likely to, say, start an unnecessary war. Hmmm… I wonder why he didn’t talk about this before the election?

Unsurprisingly, the ODE opposes Rangel’s proposal. And unsurprisingly, House Dems have already killed the proposal since they’re hoping to not play Glass Joe in 2008. But what is surprising is the Emerald’s refutation of Rangel’s logic:

We should not need a draft to make lawmakers thoroughly consider whether the nation should go to war. As a result of the bad intelligence and somewhat shady reasoning that drew America into Operation Iraqi Freedom, Congress should be even more inclined to deliberate any justifications given for war, even above and beyond what the public expects.

Congress tends to take far more stock in current popular opinion than lessons from the past. It isn’t often that I can say this, but Rangel is absolutely correct: it’s difficult to imagine that the Iraq war would have been authorized had the draft been a prerequisite. Public opinion would have been dead set against the war rather than strongly supportive of it. That doesn’t mean that the draft is a good idea– god only knows how poorly the Army would operate with infantry platoons full of Sociology and Gender Studies students– but it does mean that we as a citizenry should not be surprised when a war that a majority of us are in favor of is started. Where Congress did drop the ball is in the examination of prewar intelligence (which the Emerald correctly points out) and oversight of the war’s execution and progress. And you can bet that these problems wouldn’t have existed had involuntary conscription been in effect.

Well, it’s inventor and biggest supporter is, in any case.

Milton Friedman did more for popularizing economic thinking and the understanding of government’s role in causing economic difficulty than any other Economist of the 20th century. He helped foster the Rational Expectations revolution, and, I think most importantly, argued strongly against the Phillips Curve and established grounding for the NAIRU. I think the last paragraph of the FT obit sums it up nicely:

Friedman himself attributed the spread of both free markets and monetarist ideas to belated recognition of the consequences of soaring government spending and high inflation in the 1970s. But so far as the reaction was coherent and rational, much of the credit must go to him. The very success of free market policies has, of course, led to fresh problems; and what would one not give for a reborn 30-year-old Milton Friedman to comment upon and analyse these new challenges?

Goodbye, Milton. And thank you.

So Kim Jong Il has decided that baby’s been in the corner long enough, thank you, and has reportedly tested a small nuclear device. As with Iran’s recent Security Council shenanigans, the “how could we let this happen” hand wringers seem to be leading public opinion, implying that somehow nonproliferation hasn’t failed. Our impotence at the Security Council this summer will probably not be repeated, but North Korea has little to lose from sanctions, and the military option is a strategic non-starter.

Then again, perhaps America is not fully utilizing its full range of policy options. Might the Stalinist eagle scouts of the Happy Shiny Peoples Democratic Republic of North Korea be willing to see things differently if *wait for it* the ASUO Student Senate weighed in on the matter? Remember, last spring the Senate changed it’s rules to allow the passing of resolutions, or statements of position on any old matter they feel like taking a principled stand on. Unfortunately for global stability, the flagship resolution condemning Iran’s nuclear program failed, despite a certain Senators cheery confirmation that “By all means I support going into Iran and killing them all.” Since that fateful meeting, the Senate has yet to pass a resolution on anything, suggesting either that they are focused on the real work of responsibly spending our incidental fees, or that AIPAC hasn’t been turning the screws. This could be about to change though, as newly elected Senate President Sarah Hamilton suggested at the 9/5 Senate meeting that more resolutions would be forthcoming in her tenure.

Although the ASUO does have the international political clout to provide bold leadership in troubled times such as these, perhaps they should continue to stick to the job they have rather than weigh in on situations they do not understand and cannot affect. Guys, I understand you want to discuss the stuff that makes you sound all grown up, but A) no one cares whether or not you think Iran or North Korea or whomever is making the wrong security choices etc, and B) the few students who do pay some attention to you guys would really rather you just stuck to your jobs. Call me crazy, but administering over $1 million of other peoples money sounds like enough work on it’s own.

Hugo Chavez clearly needs to get some new talent for his propaganda department, because apparently the evils of “Savage Capitalism” are  best  spoonfed to the masses with the powerful cultural force of the Charlie Chaplin flick “Modern Times”, according to this. Hugo, baby, you’re a populist with centralizing tendencies and regional aspirations… either take the high road and show everyone the next film Chaplin made, “The Great Dictator“, or make your own goddamn propaganda.

It’s 12:15 AM and reports are coming in on Eugene TV channel 16 stating that Abu Musab al Zarqawi was killed by U.S. Special forces. Nothing on Google news or Fox news on it just yet, so I’m leaving that question mark in the title until I see some more sources come in.

Update: Ian points out (in comments) that MSNBC has also stated that Zarqawi is dead
Update 2: Fox News is now reporting it as well, says it was a bombing attack that got him. Gabrielle also points out CNN‘s headline (story) (it feels so good to have gotten this online before they did!)

Update 3: Reuters UK reports that one of his key aides was captured.

Update 4: 12:55 AM, the Fox News site no longer has the Zarqawi headline. 12:58 Now they’ve replaced it with a story.

Reports are now all over Google News.

From the ‘nannystate vs. chavs’ department:

The most famous whisky bar in the world could be forced out of business under Glasgow’s controversial plan to introduce a blanket ban on glass.

Ken Storrie, the owner of the internationally-renowned Pot Still, said he would rather lose his licence than serve his vast selection of malts, which cost up to £250 a nip, in plastic cups.

The ban, due to be introduced in all bars and pubs in the city from January, will also prevent people from buying bottles of wine or champagne.

[…]

But Councillor Gordon Macdiarmid, the board’s convener, said he was not worried by the legal challenge, adding: ‘It is astonishing that anyone in the 21st century should seek to place the protection of glass receptacles ahead of the safety of their patrons.’

Macdiarmid, who has campaigned for years to make Glasgow the first ‘glass-free’ city in the world, said he was acting on evidence, as well as demands from parents of ‘glassing’ victims, surgeons and the police.

Guardian

To cleanse the palate after all this exposure to Aroused Jesus and paranoid Insurgent rants about Catholicism, try this. As someone who tries to have as little to do with religion as possible, I found it highly informative.

(Link via Jane Galt.)

A motion to send the Iran resolution to the rules committee for enumeration failed 5-7-2 after a lengthy debate. Such a resolution should not be heard again in the Senate this year.

There were some golden quotes in the meeting which I’ll (hopefully) have time to post tomorrow.

Here‘s a copy of the Iran resolution that will be proposed at tonight’s Student Senate meeting. Attached to the resolution (but not included in our scan) are the names of 78 people who support the resolution. The addition of these signatures is apparantly an effort to show that the resolution enjoys broad support amongst the student base. A few notes:

• Rather than directly addressing Pres. Ahmadinejad, the resolution “urges our Representatives in the United States Congress and our national leaders to support current and future initiatives to put further diplomatic pressure on Iran as well as any other state sponsor of terror to cease all support of international terror organizations and to cease the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction.” Here’s the question: what in the hell do they think the United States is already doing? Do Jared Axelrod and Sara Hamilton believe that the Bush administration is ignoring Iran’s nuclear ambitions and ties to terrorist organizations? Even if we pretend for a moment that this resolution will be influential if passed, it proposes nothing different from what is already being done.
• The vast majority of those who signed on to the petition attached to the resolution belong to student groups. Indeed, only fourteen of those petitioned to support the resolution did not specify their student group (and a number of them I recognize from groups and one is Adam Petkun, who isn’t even a student anymore.) Of course, most students aren’t– those of you in student government will be shocked to hear this– members of organized ASUO student groups.
• The first Whereas statement contains the line “we unequivocally support the right of all people in the world to have interests and ambitions which are independent and separate of their respective governments.” Oh, how generous of you. The only question is, why are you asking the Senate, a body which is supposed to represent all UO students, to express an opinion on international politics on behalf of the entire student body?

From the agenda for the April 26 Student Senate meeting:

VIII. New Business

b. Oregon Iran Nuclear Non-proliferation Resolution

You’re on notice, Mahmoud!