Trash Days

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n For anybody who either works for or follows government, consider this a cautionary tale. This is what happens when people don't through fiscal problems.
A few years ago, the city of Springfield, Massachusets, in a bid to create revenue, decided to make its residents pay yearly for trash removal. What they decided to do was to make everybody buy specific trash cans & then pay a yearly fee to pick up the trash in them. In other words, the residents are renting their very own trash cans! That means that if they put their trash in another type of trash can or trash bag, the city doesn't pick it up.
While that may be stupid in & of itself, it gets worse. If the residents don't pay the garbage tax, the city comes & takes away the trash cans. No regulation trash cans, no trash pick up. You can see where this is going, right?
Fast forward to this year. Residents & apartment complex owners can't afford the fee so the trash cans get taken away. Trash starts piling up. Where do residents start putting their trash? The usual spots: abandoned lots, the side of the road, & in the woods. Rats & other rodents start getting at the trash, creating a potential health disaster; not to mention a very serious littering & blight problem.
When will governments learn? When thinking short term, you also have to think long term. All governments, both municipal, state, & federal, might to keep in mind the unintended consequences of their actions before doing them.

Utah Rep Bishop & the Republicans' New Energy Plan

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The republicans, lead by Utah Rep. Bob Bishop, have unveiled a new energy plan to compete with President Obama's plan. The republicans have called for 100 more nuclear power plants, expanding renewable energy sources, & more mining of oil shale & uranium.
What was missing from this plan was any major explanation as to how they were eventually going to pay for it. Also, they did not address concerns about protecting the environment, other than to create a fund to invest in renewable forms of energy.
Quite frankly, this plan is a complete joke. I would've liked to have seen newer ideas & long term thinking from the republicans about curbing auto emissions & other environmental protections while, at the same time, trying to lessen our dependance on foreign oil with more responsible form of energy. Instead, they've treated us to more of the old republican gifts to the nuclear & oil lobbies. Oh, did I mention that Utah Rep. Bishop would like to see a lot of the new mining of uranium & oil shale to be in Utah? Shocker.
Thankfully, this plan doesn't have much of a chance of passing, since the democrats control Congress. Still, I'm disappointed in the republicans. They had a golden opportunity to come up with something truly inventive & the best they can do is to dig for more fossil fuels & a lot more nuclear plants? Epic fail on their part.

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