Seattle Bag Tax

[David Nebenzahl]

On 8/25/2009 11:28 AM Doug Miller spake thus:

wrote: >

Well, fair enough: some clarification is called for here. From one of the articles you posted links to

However, the find of a small amount of mortar shells is unlikely to satisfy a growing chorus of criticism that the much-touted weapons of mass destruction either never existed or were destroyed years ago. The Danish team has found only 36 mortar rounds buried in desert about 45 miles from Al Amarah, a southern town. But it added that up to a 100 more could still be hidden at the location. The rounds were in plastic bags and some were leaking. It seems they had been buried for at least 10 years.

So the salient point here is that those munitions were clearly left over from the Iran-Iraq war. (Pointed question: please tell us who, exactly, supplied Saddam Hussein with his chemical weapons for that war?) And of course, there's no argument that Hussein did use WMDs indiscriminately against the Iranians during that war.

There were essentially zero weapons of mass destruction found that were kept for use against invading US (er, "coalition") troops.

Glad we cleared that up.

[David Nebenzahl]

On 8/25/2009 8:45 AM benick spake thus:

Regarding that last point: Are you sure about this? Who's telling you that the incinerator produces little or no pollution? Can they be trusted?

Reclaiming resources is definitely a good thing; burning otherwise reclaimable stuff to make power is an iffy proposition at best.

[The Daring Dufas]

That's because the things were shipped out one end of Iraq as American troops came in the other end. Ya know, Insane Hussein sure bragged a lot about them not to have any. Of course the WMD's that were found are denied by Liberals. You could set a leaking cannister of poison gas in the lap of a Democrat and the damn fool would scream LIAR at you if you told him it was from Iraq as he fell over dead.

TDD

[Doug Miller]

Far from being salient, that's totally irrelevant. The important point was that the cease-fire agreement that suspended hostilities in 1991 required Iraq to account for, and dispose of under UN supervision, *all* such munitions in its possession, without regard to when they were produced, what they were left over from, or any other condition -- and that didn't happen.

Germany, mostly.

Yes, I'd agree with that statement. That's not what was widely believed at the time, though: see

for an example of the prevailing sentiment among U.S. political leaders.

Me too.

In hindsight, it appears that nearly all of Iraq's vaunted WMD capacity was a massive bluff by Saddam, to make himself and Iraq appear more powerful and dangerous than they really were -- most likely, IMHO, primarily to discourage Iran and perhaps Syria from taking advantage of the weakened condition Iraq was left in after Desert Storm, and secondarily to impress his own citizens with the power of the Iraqi state in order to discourage *them* from taking similar advantage.

[Ed Pawlowski]

There is no one answer to the bag debate. Step one is to reduce the number of bags used. Some stores seem to put one item per bag rather that fill them to capacity. Loaf of bread in one bag, the dozen eggs in another.

We do use re-usable bags and frankly, I prefer them due to the design. They have a flat bottom and can be filled easily and sit well in the car. Our store gives a 5¢ credit for each bas used. We paid 99¢ for the bag and will easily get that back over time.

We do take some items in plastic bags. I use the bags to carry my lunch to work and bring the empty container home again. It may then be used as a trash can liner for a third use. It then goes to the trash to energy plant where it gives off the fuel content of 18,000 Btu per pound converted to make electricity.

The real problem is when people are careless slobs; bags end up thrown away outside as litter, trash dumped in the water so the bags float around causing marine problems. The makers of Glad seem to be responsible energy users and I'm sure they'd want the consumer to do the same.

[Jim Yanik]

[e-mail] (Doug Miller) wrote in news:h71ahg$i4l$ [e-mail]:

I believe(and Israel does too) that much of the Iraqi WMD materials were relocated to Syria.

WMD was not all of the reasons for the Iraq invasion. "progressives" always ignore all the rest of them.

Most importantly,we are now reasonably sure Iraq has no WMD,OR WMD

**programs**,and reasonably certain Iraq is no threat to the US,Europe,or other ME nations.

Prior to Pres.Bush,Iraq was a threat to the US,Europe,and other ME nations.

[stan]

september.org:

Haven't heard of any 'tax' on s.market bags. Some s.markets have decided to charge 5 cents each bag; others have not. That 5 cents is quite reasonable; 5 cents when buying say $20 of groceries, is insignificant (one quarter of one percent!)and the bags very convenient if one is just running in at short notice to pick some up on way home. Certainly a lot cheaper than driving home burning gasoline to pick up reusable bags 'shopping bags'. The newer s.market sold plastic bags are larger and more sturdy that the older type and we find them more suitable for containing burnable trash. Very convenient to contain used tissues, slightly damp paper towels etc. We then tie the top and throw them entirely into wood stove or burning barrel. As well we do have concerns about 'reusing' any plastic bag to contain any food item. Some of the reusable bags we are now encouraged to purchase and use do seem capable of being washed and/or aired on the clothes line. But wouldn't try to put them through the clothes dryer though! Being generally made of some sort of woven plastic it looks like they might melt!

[David Nebenzahl]

On 8/25/2009 7:21 PM Jim Yanik spake thus:

Ah, yes, Israel: that tail that wags the dog of U.S. Middle East foreign policy.

[HeyBub]

Sadaam Hussein was the WMD.

He's now buried.

[HeyBub]

We NEED Israel to back us up!

As we speak, there are about 13,000 'lifers' in the IDF plus about 100,000 conscripts undergoing their obligatory three-year tour. So, tonight, there are about 125,000 soldiers under arms in the Israeli Defense Force.

That number can be increased to 640,000 ground troops, deployed in combat, on three fronts, in 72 hours with the first quarter-million coming on line by this time tomorrow.

The U.S. DoD estimates that the IDF can field 18 divisions of infantry and armor. If so, the combat strength of the IDF is 50% larger than the authorized ground strength of the United States (10 Army and 2 Marine divisions).

[HeyBub]

I have a solution to the latter, and have written my Congress-critter.

Put the tax-funded FBI fingerprint database online!

Lifting a latent from the bag in my yard wouldn't be hard, and with suitable software I could probably find the malefactor.

Then I could return his "lost" property. And shoot his goddamn dog.

[David Nebenzahl]

On 8/26/2009 6:16 AM HeyBub spake thus:

Except that based on the actual performance of such systems (as opposed to their vaunted reputations and the ridiculous Hollywood depictions of the inerrancy of all systems law-enforcement related), you'd probably end up shooting the dog of the poor slob at the supermarket who bagged the perp's order ...

[Ed Pawlowski]

Back in the 70's, my brother's house was the last on the block and there was an empty lot after his property, more open land on the other side of the street. People would sometimes dump trash on the lot. He'd look for an address and take the trash back to them late at night. Sans the bags.

[Kurt Ullman]

Interesting. I wonder if you couldn't get one of those cameras that people use along trails to keep track of deer, etc. Might be lucrative to you if there is a bounty.