A Ray of Hope, A Ray of Sunshine
Steve Manacek ·
Sep 1, 2010 at 1:49pm
SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — California lawmakers have rejected a bill seeking to ban plastic shopping bags after a contentious debate over whether the state was going too far in trying to regulate personal choice.
When was the last time "personal choice" (other than sexual or reproductive, of course) won an argument anywhere in Blue America? What's really sad is that such a small victory for sanity should be so surprising. I fear the road ahead will be littered with attempted lunacies like this, and that we won't evade them all quite so neatly.
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May '10
Re: A Ray of Hope, A Ray of Sunshine
As you may know Steve, here in the People's Republic of San Francisco plastic bags are strictly forbidden. Since the ban was passed, baby harp seals have come to frolic in the Bay, the incidence of prostate cancer has dropped 80%, and the rate of marriage (gay and straight) between Jewish and Palestinian Americans has increased five-fold. The obstructionists in Sacramento will rue the day they failed to enact bag reform legislation.
Fortunately, through our highly democratic state proposition process, the voters will soon be able to amend our constitution through Proposition P to ban plastic bags state-wide. Jerry Brown is launching the signature collection effort in a Labor Day march and fund raiser which will begin in the SF civic center and move across the Bay Bridge ending in Oakland's Jack London square. Highway 80 will be closed on Labor Day into the evening to allow for any stragglers from the day-long march.
Aug '10
Re: A Ray of Hope, A Ray of Sunshine
Gosh, the title of this post sounds so much like a Broadway hit that I can't... resist... bursting awkwardly... into... song:
A ray of hope!
A ray of sunshine
Ta send ya on yer way!
Starts from a point,
goes on forever! Oh -
There's nothing like a ray!
A ban on bags,
It gets us down,
Our freedom sags -
We wear a frown.
Then it bursts in!
A ray of sunshine!
Our plackies* won't be banned today!
It starts from here,
Goes on for-EV-er! - Oh...
There's nothing like a ray!
*"placky" or "placky bag" is British slang for the flimsy, filmy sort of plastic shopping bag, the sort we usually think of when we hear "plastic bag".
Jul '10
Re: A Ray of Hope, A Ray of Sunshine
The Legislature also failed to pass a bill banning open-carry of unloaded firearms and another requiring registration of long guns. Any other time, these would have been gimme's.
Seems to be a pucker factor in Sacramento.
May '10
Re: A Ray of Hope, A Ray of Sunshine
Isn't it something that the best thing one can say about our state legislature is that they are cowards? One wiff of voter anger and their highly principled initiatives are forgotten. Lucky for us. I expect that many of them will be developing amnesia between now and the election.
Oh, and what Trace failed to mention is that a ballot proposition to ban plastic bags would be sponsored by a group called "Green Families Saving the Earth", which will, on close inspection, to be entirely funded and staffed by the paper industry. On the same ballot we'll vote on an amendment making plastic shopping bags a constitutionally guaranteed right. This being California, both initiatives will have tens of millions of advertising dollars to spend. We will see ads for both at every commercial break.
California politics is always entertaining...
Jul '10
Re: A Ray of Hope, A Ray of Sunshine
One wonders where the line is on this sort of foolishness. The line where sophomoric intention runs up against common sense and loses. I wish I were optimistic that this represented something other than a tactical setback.
Last weekend I found myself at an Interstate Rest Stop in Iowa (hold back the envy!). A series of large signs declared that NO SMOKING OUTSIDE OF CLOSED VEHICLES was permitted in Rest Stop Grounds. Really???? Apparently the thought that some poor soul, having spent four hours trapped in a car without a cigarette, might find blissful temporary relief is simply not to be tolerated!
What kind of sadist would pass such a law?