Links I've Had Sitting Around for Too Long

Some of these have been sitting on my computer for a few weeks, waiting for posting, but that's just the way these things go.

Who actually makes the federal minimum wage? Almost nobody, according to this study by the Heritage Foundation. Only 1.5% of wage earners fall into that category, and when you discount those, like waiters and waitresses, whose tips are not counted as part of their hourly wage, the number falls to about 1.1%. A disproportionate amount of those are teens or in their early twenties, people whose livelihood (generally) does not depend on the job.

There are some people who do make less than the minimum wage though -- many residents of American Samoa. However, that territory is curiously absent from the Minimum Wage Bill before Congress. The major industry there is the tuna business, with Starkist being one of the two major companies. Starkist does happen to be based in Nancy Pelosi's home district. Hmm.... Surprisingly for a politician, the delegate representing the territory is actually aware of the negative effect that raising the minimum wage to the level in the Democrats' bill would have on the local economy. The Dems had the defense that it would be amended in the Senate, but the amendment offered there (Reid Amendment #100) contains the Marianas, but no Samoa.

I know a few people who love the old pin-ups that our troops had in past wars. Well, one group decided to create new pinups.

Lake Superior State University released it's annual list of banished words (I told you these links have been sitting around for awhile).

I'm sure we've all heard the tales about someone duping people into signing a petition to ban dihydrogen monoxide. Well, Penn & Teller stole the idea and made a nice video out of it.

I have a rather good memory, but nothing like this woman. Simple amazing.

No Whites Allowed in the Congressional Black Caucus. Wouldn't want any uppity blancos causing trouble.

Saturday Night Live did a hilarious pseudo-interview with Chris Matthews and Hillary Clinton. Funny stuff.

There was apparently a B-movie Fantastic Four made in the 1990's. It's funny-bad, definite fodder for MST3K or the like.

They now have "4D" images of the womb.

Not a link, but the Democrats' agenda for the first 100 hours of Congress passed the House in only 42 hours and 25 minutes, according to whatever time-counting method Nancy Pelosi was using, and in about 87 hours according to the amount of time it was actually in session. Either way, the new Congress took office January 3, and the House didn't finish this until January 18, for a real-time count closer to 360 hours. I've seen several articles talking about how the first 100 hours of Congress were a huge success for Democrats. However, I note that not a single bill has passed Congress as a whole. As these bills are likely to receive at least minor amendments in the Senate, it could be that even the House is not done with a single one of them. Will Nancy's clock start ticking again when the bills come back?

UPDATE: forgot a few ...

I hate unions and I do not intend to have surgery in Romania any time soon.

Apparently, under Nebraska law, a city can annex a town in the same county with a population under 10,000 without that town's consent. Elkhorn is fighting Omaha's action, but it's chances of success look poor.

A weatherman must go on the air, whether manly or not. (hahahahahahaha)

Charles Murray had a good three-part series on education in the Wll Street Journal here, here, and here. A few quibbles here and there, but I'm mostly in agreement with him.