Idiocy of the Day
From msnbc.com:
SACRAMENTO - California could become the first state in the nation to ban plastic shopping bags, a move that has the support of Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger
What is it with these people and their insatiable need to boss everyone else around? Look, I like our environment and think keeping it clean and flourishing for my children and their children and so on is a good thing. But there are a lot of good things in this life, and sometimes they come into conflict with one another. I happen to think those plastic shopping bags are pretty useful -- they provide more flexible carrying options when you're also lugging around a couple of kids on your shopping trip; they fit better into the bottom of a stroller; and they have many, many more after-market uses than paper bags or those reusable ones so in vogue at the local Whole Foods. If someone comes up with a credible estimate of the "social cost" of using a single non-biodegradable bag, and the government wants to impose that amount of tax on each bag, I'm okay with that. But the choice should be mine, not Arnold's.
All of these things remind me of the schemozzle we had a few years ago in Chicago when the City Board of Commissars of Public Virtue (or whatever) decided to ban the sale of foie gras within the city limits on the grounds that the methods used to product foie gras are inhumane to geese. Fortunately, the city's restauranteurs are a pretty feisty and libertarian-leaning bunch, so the result was a well-publicized series of dinners at which various restaurants would charge for the rest of the meal and throw in a foie gras course for free. Hating looking silly even more than hating the inhumane treatment of geese, the Commissars backed down.
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May '10
Re: Idiocy of the Day
Do people still consider Arnold a Republican?
I can remember not long ago a grocery store that provided plastic bags for free but a paper bag would cost an extra five cents. A tax on plastic bags could go toward buying plastic syringes for illegal drug users in Portland or Seattle. Kind of like the carbon tax credit scheme.
So far, the people who need to boss other people around are winning.
May '10
Re: Idiocy of the Day
It's ironic when libertines place such low value on free will.
Re: Idiocy of the Day
"But there are a lot of good things in this life," you say, Steve, "and sometimes they come into conflict with one another." What blows my mind is that the bag-banners live in a world where choice-worship and petty despotism are not incommensurable.
And what will they use to clean up after their dogs?
May '10
Re: Idiocy of the Day
In certain jurisdictions in that country up north, they've taken such silliness to absurd extremes. In resort areas of the Georgian Bay (pictured at right), you need a permit (the purchase of which is a chore) to throw away garbage, each bag of which is checked, in your presence, by a full-time government garbage checker to make sure you've got everything sorted just so. This vacation-ruining process has led to inevitable unintended consequences: At the end of their vacations, island owners in the more remote areas now make toxic garbage-fires-from-hell to avoid the hassle (blush). And littering, obviously, is far more common now, since, for instance, they've removed all the trash cans from around the docks in town. Al Gore's wet dream; Mother Nature's nightmare.
May '10
Re: Idiocy of the Day
One of the benefits touted for plastic bags when they first came out were "better for the environment" (because they didn't use trees).
The really big question I see is "doesn't the California legislature have anything better to do?" like, maybe, doing something about the fact that the state is hurtlling toward bankruptcy? Oh, yeah, they have to concern themselves with banning aluminum baseball bats too.
Re: Idiocy of the Day
Mindbending. The upshot of this kind of insanity aggregated on an even slightly larger level is corruption -- the kind that routinely hobbles whole countries captive to such petty despotism. It is inevitable that someone will try to bribe the garbage checker, and it is inevitable that some garbage checker will decide to supplement his government wage with some tax-free income. So it begins...
Re: Idiocy of the Day
James Poulos: "But there are a lot of good things in this life," you say, Steve, "and sometimes they come into conflict with one another." What blows my mind is that the bag-banners live in a world where choice-worship and petty despotism are not incommensurable.
And what will they use to clean up after their dogs?
James, they just won't clean up after their dogs.
While the state of California is toying with the ban on plastic bags, my home city of San Francisco has paved the way as a shining example with a full-out ban on plastic bags since 2007. As a result, the sidewalks are littered with dog poop. I have a puppy -- I must import plastic bags from family down in Santa Cruz.
May '10
Re: Idiocy of the Day
Diane, you should try to turn that little cottage smuggling business into a profitable underground enterprise.
May '10
Re: Idiocy of the Day
Every good cause in my area, every store I frequent, every booth at every local fair/festival offers reusable grocery bags to all. I will never, ever run out of them. And they are not so good for dog poop.
Re: Idiocy of the Day
I use my Whole Foods "Save the Earth" canvas bags for dog poop.
May '10
Re: Idiocy of the Day
Melanie, do you then wash them by hand in the toilet a la washing diapers the old fashioned way? Or do you just toss them in the recycling bin? Canvas is recyclable, isn't it?
May '10
Re: Idiocy of the Day
:D :D :D Google is monitoring this discussion thread because there's an ad in the upper right hand corner that says: "Celebrate Earth Day 2010 See Full Selection of Eco-Friendly Bags, Packaging and More