Podcast for 27 January 2014

[MrBogosity]

[mp3]http://podcast.bogosity.tv/mp3s/BogosityPodcast-2014-01-27.mp3[/mp3]


Co-Host: Tim Dyson

News of the Bogus:

• 0:33 - Security mishandled pipe bomb, dumped its contents http://www.torontosun.com/2014/01/24/security-mishandled-pipe-bomb-dumped-its-contents
• 2:53 - NSA reforms are little more than window dressing http://offnow.org/2014/01/17/nsa-reforms-window-dressing/
  
  
  
  • Rating Obama's NSA Reform Plan: EFF Scorecard Explained https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2014/01/rating-obamas-nsa-reform-plan-eff-scorecard-explained
• 9:20 - Marijuana Legalization Scares Us, Panicked DEA Official Tells Senators http://reason.com/blog/2014/01/17/marijuana-legalization-scares-us-panicke
• 13:06 - Top 10 Most Dangerous Jobs in the Country: Police Officer is NOT on the List http://thefreethoughtproject.com/cop-top-10-dangerous-jobs-country-tanks/

18:14 - Biggest Bogon Emitter: The Air Force http://gizmodo.com/5978125/air-force-uses-martin-luther-king-junior-to-promote-nuclear-warfare

• Archive of the Air Force's post http://web.archive.org/web/20130216164341/http://www.afgsc.af.mil/news/story.asp?id=123333051

20:59 - Idiot Extraordinaire: The Economic Policy Institute http://www.epi.org/minimum-wage-statement/

• Minimum Wages and Employment http://www.socsci.uci.edu/~dneumark/min_wage_review.pdf

This Week's Quote: "It is no crime to be ignorant of economics, which is, after all, a specialized discipline and one that most people consider to be a 'dismal science.' But it is totally irresponsible to have a loud and vociferous opinion on economic subjects while remaining in this state of ignorance." —Murray Rothbard

[AnCap Dave]

Not all that shocked that minimum wage hurts minorities.

History has shown that minimum wage was a tool used by racists in the first place.

The origins of many minimum wage policies within the progressive and labour movements are not ones which any decent person would be quick to endorse. One such case is documented by the African American economist Walter Williams in his 1989 book, South Africa's War against Capitalism.

He documents how during the apartheid era the most ardent proponents of the minimum wage were white racist unions seeking to protect their jobs from honest competition with black South Africans. He quotes one South African union leader as saying:

''There is no job reservation left on the building industry, and in the circumstances I support the rate for the job (minimum wages) as the second best way of protecting our white artisans''

It is clear why racist employers favour the minimum wage. Once a statutory minimum wage is set the employer no longer pays the price for his discriminating on the grounds of race.

Another example from Australia and Canada:

In 1925, a minimum-wage law was passed in the Canadian province of British Columbia, with the intent and effect of pricing Japanese immigrants out of jobs in the lumbering industry.

A Harvard professor of that era referred approvingly to Australia's minimum wage law as a means to "protect the white Australian's standard of living from the invidious competition of the colored races, particularly of the Chinese" who were willing to work for less.

[evensgrey]

Not only did the pipe bomb get handled carelessly and the contents dumped, it took 4 days for the security guys to get around to telling the RCMP, which has a detachment in the airport for precisely this sort of thing.

The obvious reason for police to have a greater chance of being killed in a vehicle collision than many others is simply that police spend a lot more time driving that most other people.  Garbage collectors also spend a lot of time driving and in many jurisdictions they often ride on the trucks in unsafe ways, accounting for a higher risk of death than police.

Incidentally, does anyone know if police in the US are still 4.5 times more likely to shoot the wrong person than civilians are in situations where they do actually fire?  That statistic is about 20 years old now. (At the time, police were shooting the wrong person about 9% of the time, while civilians were shooting the wrong person about 2% of the time.)