So my 8:30 Friday morning class was cancelled. Of course, that was posted on the classroom door, so I actually had to wake up and come to school this morning, only to discover that I could have slept in. Ah well. Much as I would like the sleep, it'll do me good to be up and at 'em and get working at a reasonable hour today. Which never happens unless I have some sort of commitment dragging my ass out of bed.

I got my midterm papers back in Health and Human Rights, and although I did well (A-/B+ and A-) the comments make me nervous. The overall comment is that the writing is informal and reads like a book report. Which is totally true. And frustrating, since a) I used to be able to write better than that b) I should be able to write better than that and c) over the next 3 weeks I definitely have to write better than that. Anyway.

In political news, the Senate shelved a welfare reform bill, indefinitely, because republicans and democrats can't play nice together. Obviously, the issue is much more complicated than that, but it's too early for thoughtful analysis. The point I want to make is the reason the bill got shelved is democrats wanted to add a section about raising the minimum wage and the republicans didn't want to vote on it.

"The minimum wage has been $5.15 an hour since 1997. Democrats wanted to increase it to $7 over two years. A person who works 40 hours a week for 52 weeks a year would then make $14,560, rather than the current $10,712. Under federal guidelines, a family of three is considered poor if its annual income is less than $15,670."

Call me crazy, but wouldn't it be just a little bit logical if the minimum wage was set so that a person working full time was just above the poverty level? And speaking of poverty level, $15,670 for a family of three!?!? I don't know about the rest of you, but I make $18,000 (before taxes) and that's just enough to cover me and my cat. Sure, I live pretty decadently (by poverty-type standards) but I also don't have things like car payments or credit card debt or student loans to pay off, which many living in poverty do. And it's not like those minimum wage jobs come with health insurance, so that's another couple grand a year out of a measly $15,670. As Senator Barbara Boxer says, "We want to get people off welfare," Mrs. Boxer said. "That's the point of the underlying bill. Lets get them into work that pays. I hear all about compassionate conservatism. Fine. Show it to me. Where is it?"