The following is an excerpt from OpinionJournal.com’s “Best of the Web” written by the editor, James Taranto.
#humblebrag
CNN interviews Daniel Hernandez Jr., who has a new book out about his experience as a congressional intern, which was rather atypical:
On January 8, 2011, Jared Lee Loughner opened fire at a “Congress on Your Corner” event in Tucson, Arizona, featuring U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords. Since he had some medical training, Hernandez ran toward the gunfire to tend to victims, realized Giffords was shot on the left side of her head and used his bare hands to keep her from losing more blood. . . . He’s been credited with saving Giffords’ life and recognized as a hero, although he rejects the title.
“Although he rejects the title,” it appears in his title. His book is called “They Call Me a Hero: A Memoir of My Youth.” We got a chuckle out of this exchange:
CNN: It’s clear in the book that you aren’t comfortable with the word “hero” or the attention, so what challenges did you come across when writing this book?
Hernandez: You know, it’s not easy writing a memoir when you don’t like talking about yourself. (laughs) That was something I had to overcome quickly.
Let that be a lesson: If you aren’t comfortable with attention and you don’t like talking about yourself, write a memoir.
If You Can’t Beat the High Cost of Living, Join It
Washington Post columnist Matt Miller argues for raising the minimum wage, currently $7.25 an hour:
It’s no surprise that [Ralph] Nader, 78 years old and still fighting the good fight, worked with a couple of dozen liberal Democrats in Congress last year on a bill to lift the minimum to $10. That would still be below 1968’s level, but it would represent a $5,000-plus raise for close to 30 million workers at or near the minimum today (it would also add $25 billion to gross domestic product, according to the Economic Policy Institute).
If you can make the economy grow just by raising the price of labor, presumably raising other costs would also work. But an increase of $2.75 an hour is kid stuff. Congress would probably get more bang for its buck by mandating a raise in the salaries of top executives, who make much more money.
And if this works for labor, surely raising other costs would help the economy too. Imagine how much the economy would grow if Congress enacted a law causing health-insurance premiums to skyrocket. Oh wait . . .
Let’s Move!
“Squeezed by historic funding shortfalls, school districts across [California] in recent years have been illegally dipping into cafeteria funds meant to provide meals to poor students to pay other school expenses, according to a report released Wednesday,” reports the Daily Breeze of Torrance:
The strongly worded report by the California Senate Office of Oversight and Outcomes identified the Los Angeles Unified School District as the biggest offender. LAUSD was among eight school districts across the state ordered to repay a total of $170 million to student meal programs.
“Perhaps more troubling, department officials candidly acknowledge they have no idea how big the problem may be and fear they may have uncovered only a hint of the ongoing abuse,” the report states.
About $158 million of the $170 million debt belongs to LAUSD, which allegedly shifted money from the cafeteria fund to pay for expenses such as lawn sprinklers and the salaries of employees at the district’s television station.
On the other hand, just imagine how much worse the obesity crisis would have been if all that money had been spent on food instead.
For more “Best of the Web” click here and look for the “Best of the Web Today” link in the middle column below “Today’s Columnists.”
