I've missed posting for a couple of days. June seems to have started by bustin' out all over: Outside projects need attention, especially when dry days have been rather rare here in Virginia lately; lots of community service events are going on this time of year, and so forth. But time away from the keyboard has brought out some disparate thoughts, to wit:
Fact and Fancy: I liked this item in today's paper about "factoids" that everyone "knows" and that politicians use to prove their points, but which just aren't true. This report relates to a local political race to be the Democractic nominee for Virginia governor, but there are many others. The fact is, there's just too much uncorroborated "information" on the internet, and it's pure fancy to start using it in policy discussions without checking its reliability.
GOP and Democracy: It's mostly Republicans who oppose providing the District of Columbia representation in Congress. If they really believe that requires a Constitutional Amendment (not an unreasonable position) why don't they work actively toward that end? It could be done in a trice. Meanwhile in Minnesota, state election officials and institutions have confirmed that Democrat Franken won the Senate seat back in November but his Republican opponent, now apparently in cahoots with the state's Republican Governor, continues to hope courts will grant him what the voters didn't (wonder where he got an idea like that!). Some days I have to wonder what the Republican Party has against democracy; in both these cases, Geezers Obstructing Progress are putting their narrow political interests ahead of some very basic democratic (small "d") principles.
Grocery Bags: Several jurisdictions are passing laws against grocery bags (the District of Columbia has passed a nickel fee for any bag, paper or plastic). Is this a good thing?I'm not fully convinced of the sense of trying to eradicate both types of bags. The theory is saving the environment, infinitesimal increment by increment, but the reality is passing a cost of doing business (not just acquiring the bags but recycling them) from the stores to the consumer. It's no accident that this is happening during a recession. In the U.S., most of us don't shop for groceries every day, so the quaint Euromodel of the little old lady taking her basket to market doesn't apply. I see people in stores with two full gigantic carts; how many reusable bags will they need to carry such a load?
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