Steven Nemcek

---

Optimism remains for US-Iran relations

With the main focus of the media circuits this past week being Washington’s debates about government shutdown and the debt ceiling, a rather heartening story was buried. For the first time in over 30 years, ranking government officials from the United States sat down to converse with Iran. United States Secretary of State John Kerry met with Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif in New York with China, France, Russia, the United Kingdom and Germany. The focus of the meeting was on Iran’s nuclear capabilities, and whether or not talks could be resumed to restore relations between Iran and the West regarding this contentious issue.

Global warming report exaggerates effects

This Friday the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) will be releasing a 2,000 page report on the current scientific opinion regarding climate change. Unfortunately, there has been a preponderance of evidence to suggest the report is being dishonestly composed. The Telegraph reported Saturday that while the IPCC report will suggest that the likelihood that man is the source of global warming has risen from 90 to 95 percent certainty, top climate scientists are struggling to explain why global warming has been slowing since 1998. Robert Mendick, Chief Reporter for The Telegraph writes, “Documents seen by the Associated Press (AP) show attempts at political interference in the final report,” and that “several governments that reviewed the draft objected to how the issue was tackled. The documents, according to AP, show Germany called for the reference to the slowdown to be deleted while the US urged scientists to include as its ‘leading hypothesis’ that the reduction in warming is linked to more heat being transferred to the deep ocean.”

Increasing minimum wage detrimental

It seems to be a sick, dramatic irony that the protesting proponents for a higher minimum wage, or a “living wage” as the left has now incongruously deemed it, are acting in accordance with principles of ritualistic self-sacrifice. Minimum wage laws destroy low-skilled jobs and hurt the very economic class the “do-gooders” are trying to save. The very real efforts of these practitioners of self-immolation give metaphorical credence to the eternal aphorism “The road to Hell is paved with good intentions.” While unfortunate, much of progressive history has been steeped with racist and sexist policy. From eugenics advocacy, race-based abortion advancement and defending Jim Crow laws, to special legislation purporting that women must work fewer hours because they were responsible for bearing future generations (and thus were collective property), well-meaning progressives seem to be eternally on the wrong side of history. This time is no different. The persistent push for increasing minimum wage laws hurts low-skilled laborers who are more represented in the lower income brackets.

Let the free market drive green energy

Castle Doctrine fair to property owners

Voter ID Bill wrong answer to voter fraud in Wisconsin