…some national recycling experts have begun calling for government restraint in trash recycling, which can be more costly and environmentally damaging than dumping.
“We just assume recycling is always better,” said J. Winston Porter, president of the Waste Policy Center, an environmental consulting and policy organization. “But there’s a point at which you shouldn’t just recycle for recycling’s sake.”
I think we’re well past it. It’s become the new secular state religion.
My cynicism over it peaked a few years ago when (as I related in a blog post, but don’t want to look for it right now) I watched the recycling truck come by, and unceremoniously dump the contents of my yellow paper bin and my blue plastic and cans bin into the same repository on the truck, completely negating all of my entropy reduction efforts in sorting them. I do notice now, on my return to CA after five years, they’ve at least ended that fraud, and just have one big blue recycling bin.
It’s never going to happen. I’m guessing that if it ever came to light, it would destroy the president’s support and fundraising ability in West LA. Not to mention New York, south Florida and other places. In fact, I would be completely unsurprised it it turns out that it’s already been destroyed.
I’m working on a piece along these lines for PM or PJM, but Jim Oberg beat me to the punch:
The plan to reshape the Orion spaceship as a standby rescue vehicle for station crews has profound implications for the requirements of the commercial taxi and its cost. This strategy means the taxis won’t have to last for six months “parked” in space, like Russia’s Soyuz spaceships. The simplification of the taxi’s mission will allow its hardware to be significantly less expensive to build and to validate.
The crucial systems for the taxis have mostly already been built and are available as off-the-shelf technology — which means the spaceships could be much cheaper, much smaller and much more reliable.
The FUD being spread by defenders of the status quo has been almost palpable, and it’s all unjustified.
[Update a few minutes later]
I should add that I doubt very much if the commercial contractors are going to use the Orion abort system. It’s overkill, in both weight and cost. In fact, for a much lighter vehicle, as a taxi would be, it would probably kill the occupants from the acceleration.
I don’t understand all the criticism. My preference would be that he spend all his time on the links. Much less damage would be done the nation were he to do so.
Most of the people I talk to who refuse to listen to Rush have never done so, and simply believe all of the “terrible” things they hear about him in the media. But I do think that the notion of changing their political beliefs is very frightening to many of them.
Thoughts from David Harsanyi. The less trust we have in government, particularly the federal government, the better off we’ll be, so the latest polls are good news for those of us who want to restore it to constitutional principles. Barack Obama, with all of his lies, is doing the nation a favor. As are those who repeat the lies in his service.
[Update a couple minutes later]
“I don’t promote government failure — I expect it.” It’s certainly the way to bet.
This is pretty funny. I don’t watch the Morning Joe, but Mika made Joan Walsh look like an idiot. Not that that’s much of a challenge.
[Update a few minutes later]
It’s kind of inside baseball, but I’m assuming that the MSNBC suits have been telling Mika and Joe they’re not allowed to criticize Olbermann or Matthews. Hilarious.
Thoughts on Nazis being “right wing” or “conservative.” It’s nonsense, of course. They were revolutionaries who wanted to, and briefly did, utterly remake society.
[Update early afternoon]
This seems related, somehow: the fairy tale of the “Progressives”‘ own history. Jonah Goldberg has some thoughts as well. And there’s a fascinating and convoluted discussion in comments at the initial link above.