Changing the culture: Plastic bags are bad, repeat.

It was the proverbial good news/bad news story out of Toronto City council on June 6th, 2012.

GOOD NEWS: The 44 council members voted to remove the silly 5 cent per plastic bag fee that the previous administration had foisted on retail stores and citizens. The original purpose of the fee was to socially engineer the behavior of Torontonians, away from using so-called "single use" plastic bags toward multiple use bags. It worked, B.F. Skinner would have been proud. But the bag tax, as it came to be known, was a sore point for many. Toronto's Mayor made removal of the bag tax an issue, that he championed, and city council granted his wish. The fee will be removed July 1st, 2012. 

BAD NEWS: But shortly after that win, a motion from a councillor to ban all plastic bags from retail stores passed in a close vote. The ban takes effect on Jan. 1st, 2013, though some believe it will be challenged in court. I hope so.

Arguments for and mostly against the bag ban have raged ever since in the local and even national media. But of course most of the arguments revolved around the environmental issue, unnecessary solid waste, evil plastic, people will get accustomed to the using recyclable bags, blah, blah, blah. Why plastic bags? Why subject this extremely useful item to this type of ridicule? Surely there are far worse environmental menaces lurking in people's garbage? Maybe the household waste of citizens should be searched too? Think of the new jobs created, garbage police, waste watchers. 

Such a search would be an invasion of privacy you say? Of course it would. So why is it that elected officials are concerned with the way people carry home their groceries? Isn't that really a private matter too, between the buyer and seller? That's the real issue, why is a municipal government involved in this? Obviously the City councillors have too much time on their hands, sitting around dreaming up new rules to justify their own existence.

The bags of course have many uses, both visible and invisible. First, they are a courtesy afforded by the retailer silently saying to the customer, "Thanks for coming to my store, please use these bags to convenience your trip home and by the way help give our store some cheap advertising." That is the invisible positive message implied by every buy-sell transaction where a bag is given freely. Perhaps Toronto council likes chasing away business to the surrounding towns? Perhaps Toronto council hopes those surrounding towns will also foolishly adopt this stupid rule too? It boggles the mind.

The visible uses of plastic bags are so numerous, I won't attempt to enumerate them. Suffice to say that everyone I know, has a bag of plastic bags in a closet somewhere in their home. As cheap and flimsy as these bags seem to be, they have multiple lives and everyone knows it. Plastic garbage bags will still be used, and more will need to be purchased if this ban succeeds, and dog owners will need to buy special bags. And of course there is the uniquely Canadian penchant to bagged milk, will that be banned too? Let's all go back to reusable glass, can't wait. 

As I have already suggested, the bags are not really at issue here. What is at issue is a prevailing attitude that people can be controlled to serve the collective good; a "good" that is determined by the wisdom a few through the coercive power of government. What is the proper function of government? That is the issue. Is government there to modify human behaviour - change the culture - or to allow humans to interact freely in a non-coercive environment? I vote for the latter.

Los Angeles also banned bags, displaying the power of mindless celebrity do-gooders. Here is how ReasonTV treated that story. 

Dots on the sun and a Cosmic collision

On Tuesday June 5, just after 6 pm in the Eastern Time zone of North American, the planet Venus will track across the face of the sun, its called a transit. For most people, its not a big deal really. A tiny dot, Venus, will be seen (**if you wear protective eye coverings**) moving from left to right across the face of the sun. Astronomers have made a big deal about this for a long time. Back in the days of HMS Endeavour and James Cook, astronomers knew that such a transit could help them determine the size of our solar system, so James Cook was sent to gather the data. Today, transits are used to find new worlds around distant stars. The transit of Venus happens about every 120 years in pairs, eight years apart. This one is our last chance, the next one is in Dec., 2117, lets hope there are clear skies. Such are the vagaries of astronomy, a puff of condensed water vapour could obscure a once-in-a-lifetime event. Its happens a lot.
While I'm on the subject of missing big events, you're going to miss this one for sure. I heard about this first, decades ago, but astronomers are now convinced that its going to happen, a collision of galaxies. Its already happening, go out late at night, on crystal clear nights, and look between the great square of Pegasus and the W of Cassiopeia. If you have a sharp eye or a pair of binoculars, you can detect a fuzzy patch of light. That is M31, the Andromeda galaxy, and we in the Milky Way are heading straight for it fast, or its heading for us....both actually. The collision will be astronomical ;-), in 4 billion years.  

Quantum Leaps and Bafflegab

In any given day there are hundreds (maybe thousands) of stories where governments and politicians attempt to exert their influence on individuals. Sometimes it's overwhelming. Where to focus first, whats the greatest danger, who should be held accountable?

I missed this story reported in Cato @ Liberty more than two months ago. UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon speaks about the energy poverty he experienced as a child in South Korea. South Korea has made huge advances since then. Now the Secretary apparently wants to bring energy poverty back, this time to everyone. Listen to his talk here. But as Chris Edwards points out in his CATO blog, Secretary Moon's writers are experts in that famous schoolyard phrase I used to hear: "bullshit baffles brains" - yes it does.

So I have cut and pasted the relevant phrases that Mr. Edwards used in his CATO entry, for your enlightenment below. Orwell would be proud.

By the way, I saw that cartoon on my Facebook page from a friend, and it fits so well don't you think? There is one more frame that is missing, but if you go to the original site here, and click the red button, bottom left, all will be revealed.

I have a high-level group of eminent experts and visionary thinkers…

Our challenge is to join forces and overcome the barriers to bring our efforts to scale. We will need to scale-up successful examples of clean energy and energy efficient technologies… We must make a quantum leap…

My Sustainable Energy for All initiative will bring together key stakeholders in an effort to create transformative change in the world’s energy systems. By leveraging the global convening power of the United Nations, it will introduce new public-private partnerships by fostering the necessary enabling conditions, including to mitigate risk and to promote large-scale investment. And by engaging a broad range of stakeholders, the initiative will mobilize innovative solutions and bold commitments…

Next week in London, the clean energy ministerial meeting will receive our action agenda on 11 areas—very concrete areas for how we can end this poverty. We must rally behind these priorities. I am very excited we are joining hands with the clean energy ministerial to promote game-changing initiatives such as the global lighting and energy access partnerships

…renewed political commitment to sustainable energy…

…concrete deliverables…

…produce a powerful outcome document…

Red Patch Syndrome - *CDC ALERT*

This is an advisory of a virulent new communicable disease: Red Patch Syndrome - "RPS"

This is believed to be a HOST - PARASITE relationship.

CLINICAL FINDINGS & PATHOLOGY: After a lengthy incubation period of up to 12 years, affected individuals seem to have the pathological need to associate in large groups and march along broad thoroughfares in cities making repetitive chants and noises with a variety of implements, pots, pans, etc. 

The diagnostic indicator of the syndrome is the red patch that appears on the attire of affected individual's.

Affected individuals assert that they have collective rights which supersede individual rights, and that individual property is an artificial construct, so they are entitled to property by virtue of their existence.  

Additionally some affected individuals choose to cover their faces, no doubt due to the shame of their condition, and many of these take part in violent outbursts destroying property (its theirs anyway, right?) and causing general mayhem. Manifestation of symptoms seems to be worse at night and in good weather.

INFECTION: Its believed this is a vector born organism that enters the ears and/or eyes of human hosts with absolutely minimal involvement of their brain. It primarily affects students of college age (18 to 25) particularly those of Francophone descent, but RPS is easily spread to Anglophones and Allophones often by cell phones or texting devices (wireless transmission! its airborne, run!!). More commonly infection is by close contact and aggravated by exposure to the toxins produced by the large number of Marxist professors in Quebec Colleges.

A common characteristic presented by those affected (usually young adults) is confusion between positive and negative rights and an inability to grasp concepts like personal responsibility and property rights likely due to the long incubation period (12 years) in government run schools and repeated exposure to the toxins produced by the unionized staff in those schools. Those afflicted with RPS ignore that the positive right to a cheap (or free) education demands that someone is obliged to provide it. Clearly this demonstrates the parasitic nature of this ailment.

MORPHOLOGY & ETIOLOGY: Unknown morphology, a causative organism has yet to be identified.
Etiology is difficult to pin point, but outbreaks of RPS-like syndromes have been known throughout history as owner-slave/parasite-host relationships. This culminated in central Europe (Moscow) in 1917 with an aggressive form of RPS that ravaged the region for more than 70 years with localized outbreaks in South East Asia and as far afield as Cuba in the Caribbean Sea.


EPIDEMIOLOGY: A strain of a less virulent form of RPS is believed to have been endemic in Quebec for over 50 years. Epidemiological research has shown that this more virulent RPS outbreak originated in South Eastern Quebec in Canada along the St. Lawrence River Valley and on the Île de Montréal several months ago. The index case may have been in the National Assembly of Quebec (Quebec City) during a budget attempt at an austerity measure for post secondary funding.
Similar outbreaks have occurred earlier in the year in Britain and other parts of Europe, but the characteristic red patch was absent.

This more virulent strain of RPS has been observed as far south as New York City during a recent Saturday Night Live broadcast with Mick Jagger and the Canadian group Arcade Fire, who apparently brought it across the US border despite the precautions of Homeland Security (nice job, eh?). Recently small pockets of RPS have been spotted to the West in Toronto, and officials there are anticipating an outbreak over the summer. Be advised, it may even spread further.       

TREATMENT & CONTROL: Local officials in Quebec have been unable to contain the outbreak despite a variety of measures to subdue and quarantine especially the violent affected individuals. Official use of a remedy agent called B(ill) - 78 has had little or no effect and may have aggravated the condition. B - 78 it also poses the risk of an assortment of nasty side effects from its hasty application.

PREVENTION: RPS-like syndromes can be prevented by repeated application of large doses of Austrian Economic Theory over several years, but such prophylactic measures are difficult because strains of RPS have become endemic in large parts of the world causing flare-ups to occur regularly.  

RELATED DISEASES: Greek Disease: This is a widespread phenomenon, closely related to RPS, that seems to be coming to a head in the Mediterranean country of Greece. Forms of Greek Disease are found throughout the Eurozone and even in North America. Its just a matter of time before the most severe symptoms are manifested.

Dutch Disease: Recently in Canada Thomas Mulcair, who is a known infected carrier of RPS-like syndrome, claims to have discovered an ailment where Canadian oil manufacturers in the West, have created a situation that results in high currency values that depress Canadian manufacturing and export abilities. This is unrelated to RPS, except that Mulcair has a distorted view of economics and should expose himself to the healing effect of Austrian Economic Theory as soon as possible.

Occupy Movement Syndrome - OWS: Definitely related.

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