CalvinDude.com

On the radio this morning, the DJs were talking about how McDonalds was planning on removing the double cheeseburger from its dollar menu. This led to discussion of the increase in prices in general, and the DJs concluded that it was due to the cost of gas.

It is unfortunate that gas prices have increased recently, because it masks the real reason. Before giving the real reason, consider this. One of the DJs said (paraphrased, of course): “You gotta think that the profit for a double cheeseburger is like 80%.”

I think we can go with this for the moment, because if you consider just the cost of the beef and the hamburger buns and the cheese, it’s not that expensive. But just like when you pay $1.99 for a large drink you’re not really paying for the beverage, when you pay for your hamburger you’re not really paying for the burger either. What you’re paying for is the labor costs for the workers to make your food and to give you your drinks. The costs you pay don’t go much toward the actual cost of the materials, in other words; it’s almost all labor costs.

So, given that, let’s use some common sense.

What are most McDonald’s employes paid?

Answer: minimum wage.

What just increased?

Answer: minimum wage.

You wanna know why the dollar menu might be gone?

Answer: minimum wage.

This has a much larger impact on the cost of food (and everything else) than does $4.00 gasoline.

I wonder who would have predicted this?

In Japan, everyone got to play Snow White because parents “[forced] the school to admit to the injustice of selecting just one girl to play the title role.”

I wish I was making that up. And frankly I’m surprised that hasn’t happened here in America yet. But the fact is, reality is real. Not everyone is “the best” and not everyone deserves the “title role.” In fact, if there is only a title role, you’ve got a monologue. Pretty pointless.

So we have a generation of kids who are never allowed to lose. Not even in video games (cheat codes, anyone?). They go through life never having experienced the pain of coming up short.

As a result, they’re deluded into thinking that the world owes them. Then reality sets in. Usually in the form of their first boss who fires them because (surprise, surprise) they’re losers!

McCain has got to be the least popular Republican nominee (amongst Republicans, anyway). It’s been months now that he’s been the only guy still in the race on the Republican side. Which makes it really interesting that running uncontested in Kentucky, he only got 72.30% of the vote. And in Oregon, he could only muster 85.64%. Running unopposed you’d think you’d get in the 90s at least. Personally, I think it says something when almost 1/3 of the Republicans in KY voted against the only guy left running for their party.

Could it be because McCain is a RINO? Could it be that the base is far more Conservative than the GOP? Could that be why the GOP is not only going to lose this election, but it won’t even be close?

Great quote:

The NRCC’s Tom Cole concludes, “What we’ve got right now is a deficiency in our message and a loss of confidence by the American people that we are going to do what we say we’re going to do.”

No, that is what you had back in 2006.

Couldn’t have said it better myself.

I just saw this article that headlined: “GOP Stunned By Loss in Mississippi.” What it should be called is: “GOP learns why you don’t shaft your base.”

As a Conservative and an ex-Republican, I have to point out that if you tick off those who support you they’re going to tend to…(what’s the word I’m looking for? Oh yeah:) NOT support you. If you have a President who’s bloated the Government far more than Bill Clinton ever did and you have a party that just assumes you’ll vote for them because you hate Hillary, you’re going to end up with 12 seats in Congress.

The GOP is getting what it deserves. Maybe it’ll wake up and return to Conservative values. I won’t be holding my breathe. Politicians are generally so stupid they’ll think they need to become more Liberal….

Note, by the way, that it’s Conservative Democrats who are winning these elections. Why? Because there’s no difference between a Conservative Democrat and a Republican. Conservatives can feel safe in voting for the Democrat in those elections because A) it punishes the GOP and B) at least the politicians in office actually act according to their stated platform as oppossed to being a bunch of whining hypocrites.

And people wonder why Congressional approval is in the toilet.

Enviro-wackos in a tizzy because plane flies with 5 passengers.

The latest “eco- scandal” flight took place on February 9 after American was forced to cancel one of its four daily services from Chicago to London.

While it was able to find places for nearly all the passengers on the fully-booked flight, five still had to be accommodated. Those who did fly were upgraded to the business class cabin.

But while they enjoyed lavish hospitality, the airline was accused of an “obscene waste of fuel” by Friends of the Earth.

May I take the moment to accuse Friends of the Earth of an “obscene waste of bandwidth” by complaning about nothing? Thank you.

Suppose that the flight before had (for the sake of easy math) 100 people. If you took 45 of those people off, you’d have a flight with 55 people; the second flight would have 50 people. Now the “carbon footprint” is diminished…

But the same number of planes (2) flew. The same ammount of fuel is burned. Just because you juggle the amount of people on each plane doesn’t change that part at all.

Of course I learned logic (not in publik skewl, of course). If Friends of the Earth would learn some, they’d look less stupid.

Check out Mark Steyn at CPAC. He provides a few wonderful arguments about why Conservativism needs to triumph in our world, all from the prespective of a legal immigrant.

McCain appeals to conservative critics. In this article we read McCain state:

“I’m aware there’s a very fine line between inspiring in unity and pandering. You know, you’ve got to present it in the right way, of course.”

And this is all you really have to know about McCain. He isn’t about principals or issues; he’s about presentation.

McCain can try to appeal to Conservatives all he wants, but his voting record already belies that. McCain is no Conservative.

McCain’s pandering includes these gems:

“I do hope that at some point we would just calm down a little bit and see if there’s areas we can agree on.”

The areas we disagree on happen to be more important than the areas we agree on, Johnny-boy.

Our message will be that we all share common principles, common conservative principles, and we should coalesce around those issues in which we are in agreement and I hope respectfully disagree on a few specific issues there’s disagreement on.

You mean “disagreements” like your violation of the First Amendment (McCain/Feingold)? You mean disagreements like on amnesty for illegal criminals who’ve sneaked into our country? You mean disagreements on tax cuts (McCain opposed them, stating the Stalinist–I mean Democratic party line that they were beneficial to the rich). All that is supposed to be ignored because we agree with you on Iraq?

Oh wait. We don’t agree with you on Iraq either, Johnny-boy. You oppose waterboarding, prefering to let terrorists kill innocent civilians. Apparently, our agreement is that you supported the “surge.”

So McCain agrees with us on the surge and that’s supposed to make everything else go away? Iraq is improving (case in point: it’s not in the news anymore!). Iraq will not be an issue for our next president. But illegal aliens, taxes, and First Amendment rights will be.

Tell me again in what way I should be pleased that McCain agrees with me on the surge?

In my opinion, I say let McCain have the Republican Party. It’s time for Conservatives to get together in our own party. Why not just have the Conservative Party as the third alternative? You have the Dems, the Dem-lites (I mean Republicans), and the Conservatives.

Imagine the political power the Conservative Party would have, once Conservatives realized there was another option rather than supporting the candidate who is only 97% evil instead of 98% evil!

Now that it appears the Republicans are going to be dumb enough to nominate McCain, it leads more credence to my rationale as to why I am no longer a Republican. I see no ontological difference between McCain and Hillary. Thus far, I think Ann Coulter had the best reasoning: President Hillary is better than McCain simply because the Republicans in Congress would know they’re supposed to oppose Hillary. With McCain, you’d get the same bills and they’d want to support “our guy.”

I remain a Conservative, and there are no Conservatives on the ballot this year. Not only that, McCain is anti-Conservative when you look at his voting record. As a result, I’ll most likely be sitting this one out. Honestly, this election is a bit like this last Super Bowl. I didn’t like either team, didn’t watch it; I don’t like any candidate, not voting for ‘em.

(Wouldn’t it have been nice if Fred hadn’t waited until it was too late?)

Liberalism: The dreaded feeling that somehow, someway, it’s Bush’s fault.