Here is your Morning Brief for the morning of December 18, 2013. Give me your feedback below and tune in to The Chad Hasty Show for these and many more topics from 8:30 to 11am. Remember, you can listen online at KFYO.com or on your iPhone/Android with the radioPup App.

Joe Raedle, Getty Images
Joe Raedle, Getty Images
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Minimum Wage Support

A new ABC News/Washington Post poll has found that Americans support raising the minimum wage. The numbers though may be smaller than you think.

A majority of Americans support raising the minimum wage, according to two new polls.

Two-thirds of those surveyed said they support raising the minimum wage in a Washington Post/ABC News poll out Wednesday, including 48 percent who said they strongly support it, while 31 percent opposed it.

Asked what the current $7.25 wage should be raised to, 34 percent said it should be between the current mark and $9, and 25 percent said it should be between $9 and $10.

In a Public Policy Polling survey released Tuesday, a majority of registered voters supported raising the limit to $10. The left-leaning firm found that 56 percent of voters are in favor of hitting that level, while 38 percent are against it.

Senate Democrats have been pushing a bill that would raise the minimum wage to $10.10. The White House has supported that bill and President Barack Obama made raising the minimum wage a centerpiece of a recent speech on inequality.

The Post surveyed 1,005 adults from Dec. 12 to 15 for its poll, which has an error margin of plus or minus 3.5 percentage points. PPP polled 1,316 registered voters from Dec. 12 to 15 for its poll, which has a margin of error of plus or minus 2.7 percentage points.

The minimum wage will be an important issue for Democrats in 2014.

Stop Debating Santa's Race

When will it end? As the National Review points out, China is going to Moon while we have people debating whether Santa is white, black, or whatever.

China’s moon landing also carries a deeper message. While the Chinese government claims that “Jade Rabbit” is a pure servant of exploration, this isn’t about the benefit of humanity. Consider some recent evidence on earth.

Over the past few weeks, China has injected new tensions into the East China Sea. Whether in attempting to usurp new territory or in physical threats to U.S. Navy vessels, the Chinese have made clear that they intend to reshape the geostrategic balance of the Pacific. Even then, China’s foreign-policy evolution isn’t a local pursuit; it’s in pursuit of a truly global agenda. From the Americas to Africa to theMiddle East, the Politburo Standing Committee is determined to dominate international affairs. Thus arrives the true story of Jade Rabbit — as a metaphor in a broader strategic gambit. The Chinese aren’t interested in matching American power. They seek to surpass it.

And we obsess about Santa Claus.

Don’t get me wrong, I support Santa Claus’s importance to America. But I also know that Santa Claus is far less important to America than a great many other issues. Protected by our military and confident of our place as the world’s sole superpower, we’ve allowed ourselves to become detached from reality. In some sense, our retrenchment is understandable. Taken at a glimpse, the world is just too complex, too difficult, too depressing.

Yet, though our emotions are understandable, the price of our ignoring what’s happening around us is real. Where the Iranians see an arc of nuclear-armed theocracies reaching from Tehran to the Mediterranean, we see a smiling monkey. While China sees global supremacy built on authoritarianism, endemic corruption, and callous statism, we cling to Apollo 11. But we’re deluding ourselves. We forget that Neil Armstrong has departed us. Armstrong can’t create for us the new jobs of the 21st century, nor can he resolve our debt crisis or preserve global security. History can and should inspire us, but alone it cannot propel us toward our future well-being. Entertaining that myth, we’re encouraging others to challenge our ideals and our aspirations. We’re burying our heads in the sand and slowly suffocating.

In this drift of purpose, we now risk becoming the very thing we watch: a Santa Claus nation. A nation addicted to a make-believe reality, where our future is a daily dose of irreverent banter.

We need to wake up.

The author is right. The faux-outrage over whether or not Santa is white is just plain stupid. We have a lot of problems in this country and for the media to take time to debate this issue shows that our priorities aren't straight.

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