The General US Politics Thread

I like paper bags. My cat plays in them all the time.

Plus they're bigger.

And it's always been my dream to bring home the ISO-Standard Urban Groceries bag.

Oh really when?

Plastic is more convenient for one reason: handles. That said, I like the canvas totes that you can get at grocery stores; they are much better for the environment, they carry more, and they're more durable.

edited 30th Sep '14 8:58:31 PM by Fighteer

"It's Occam's Shuriken! If the answer is elusive, never rule out ninjas!"

The paper ones at the grocery stores near me have handles.

Admittedly they're just stapled on there and like to come off but they're still there.

Oh really when?

Little plastic bags are awesome trash bags.

"Psssh. Even if you could catch a miracle on a picture any person would probably delete it to make space for more porn." - Aszur

The U.S. Justice Department asked the Ferguson Police Department on Friday to order its officers not to wear "I am Darren Wilson" bracelets.

8 arrested in Ferguson after rocks, bottles thrown at police.

Bureaucrats in Ferguson, responding to requests under the state's Sunshine Act to turn over government files about the fatal shooting of 18-year-old Michael Brown, are charging nearly 10 times the cost of some of their own employees' salaries before they will agree to release any records.

Everything is Possible. But some things are more Probable than others. JEBAGEDDON 2016

I just use a reusable canvas bag now. The one downside is that you have to remember to bring it. But you get 5 whole cents off!

And sometimes even when I explicitly asked for no bag, they would still put it in a bag.

Blind Final Fantasy 6 Let's Play

Regarding paper bags, while they do generally biodegrade relatively fast, even 100% post-consumer recycled paper requires some nasty chemicals to process, I believe.

That said, I can't help but wonder if any of those who passed that law have ever done grocery shopping for themselves, instead of sending out someone else to do it. If you have a big family to feed, you'll probably need a lot of those canvas bags, and of course have to carry them around until you go to the register to pay for your groceries (which you'll have to fit around the bags, of course).

Back when I was a bagger, there were people who each week loaded up like two full buggies of groceries. Even with "stuff some of the bags inside another one" carrying around that many cloth bags is a non-trivial load before you even pick one single item off the shelf.

All your safe space are belong to Trump

Can't you carry the groceries in the bags while you go around the store? And if you're getting enough stuff to require a cart, you can just keep the empty bags in the cart too.

Blind Final Fantasy 6 Let's Play

Putting them in bags before checking out at the register gets managers twitchy about theft prevention. And, yes, people do steal from supermarkets, and not just things like high-cost cuts of meat (though some try to swipe those, as well). Hell, I know one person who got caught pocketing Hot Wheels toy cars and fashion magazines.

Also, yes you can put the bags in the cart, but given the above, where the bags are the merchandise generally isn't. Most carts that I've seen don't really have all that much storage space to start with.

You also have to remember to bring them along, as you said in your previous post, and if you guessed too low at how much you'd be picking up (it happens, even with shopping lists prepared ahead of time) so much for a convenient way of carrying things.

I'll grant you that the bag thing is "small potatoes", however, given all the other stuff that makes me think of the entire state as the equivalent of the cereal aisle at the grocery store: full of nuts, flakes, and fruits.

All your safe space are belong to Trump

I always put my stuff into a bag and noone ever complains. It's not that much different than a shopping basket, though I guess the shopping basket is easier to see into.

Blind Final Fantasy 6 Let's Play

"the entire state as the equivalent of the cereal aisle at the grocery store: full of nuts, flakes, and fruits."

I take offense to that. We have nuts, flakes, fruits, and Pop-Tarts, thank you very much.

Speaking as someone from a bug family, I can say this really won't be much of an inconvenience. Paper bag goes to shopping cart, cart goes to car, bags go into car. It is much more of a problem if you don't have a car and are carrying something without a more durable bag. It's a race against time to see whether I can get home on my bike from the bookstore faster than those lame paper bags they use fall apart on me.

"What a century this week has been." - Seung Min Kim

In the last debate between the two Texas governor hopefuls, Greg Abbott stated he would not stop a repeal bill of Texas's DREAM act, which gives in-state tuition rates to illegal immigrants, by governor veto if the state legislature brings it to his desk.

An armed security contractor with assault convictions was allowed to ride with Obama on an elevator, in another lapse of security around the president.

edited 1st Oct '14 12:32:05 AM by tclittle

"We're all paper, we're all scissors, we're all fightin' with our mirrors, scared we'll never find somebody to love."

So this Abbott guy, what's the catch with that?

Not often you find a Texan man in a position of power saying something good.

Oh really when?

He's saying if lawmakers want to repeal the DREAM act he's not going to stop it. Maybe I should edit it to be more clear.

"We're all paper, we're all scissors, we're all fightin' with our mirrors, scared we'll never find somebody to love."

And the real question is, of course, how many people at home in the US will give even a small fraction of a fuck.^note Not counting Fox News, who will only care because it's yet another smear point for them to use. Well, they at least do deteriorate in landfills, and most paper bags these days are made of recycled paper. But it's still better to bring your own reusable cloth bags, or do without if you can. How is that even remotely legal? Isn't it either free or a flat fee to release records? I mean, this honestly seems like a case for a violation of our civil rights. It's really not that hard. You use the biggest bag to hold the rest of them and stick it on the underside of the cart. What kind of insect are you?

Call domestic terrorism what it is, and stop calling attacks by American Muslims something other than terrorism. I honestly can't tell if this editorial is by someone I'd otherwise label a bigot, or if they're genuinely trying to highlight the issue of having American converts turned into terrorists. The recent beheading in Oklahoma is certainly making me twitchy.

How the rich are invisible to Americans. I didn't realize we had dozens of people who made over one billion dollars last year.

And speaking of Texas, expect a societal collapse as everyone moves to Texas while public utilities and services can't keep up, due to the state constitutional financing laws. But at least they don't raise taxes.

edited 1st Oct '14 1:10:42 AM by BlueNinja0

That’s the epitome of privilege right there, not considering armed nazis a threat to your life. - Silasw

It doesn't really matter who the religion is, terrorism is terrorism.

No one argues that Timothy Mc Veigh was a domestic terrorist.

It is a national pride issue though. No one likes to admit that nice little white boy is actually and legitimately a terrorist. They rather make it an "other". When in all actuality, the biggest terror threats we have had consistantly have been domestic, not international.

We should call each experience for what they are so not only to better evaluate the problem and the threat, but also apply better and more complete solutions to the problem.

"Psssh. Even if you could catch a miracle on a picture any person would probably delete it to make space for more porn." - Aszur

A change is coming to Texas politics certainly, one way or another and before this decade is out.

I suspect if Abbott gets the Governorship and these problems increase under his stewardship (he seems to be a part of a Texan Tea Party wave of last I saw), I suspect we're going to see a "fuck this shit, the other guys can't be any worse" turn in Texas politics.

The name of the game with Republicans lately is "Cock up your state too hard, you get bounced".

Many were increasingly of the opinion that they'd all made a big mistake in coming down from the trees in the first place. - Douglas Adams

If I forget to carry enough cloth bags to the store, I don't mind getting a few plastic ones. They are great for lunch totes and as trash bags. I toss the cloth bags in the bottom of my cart, load everything in, then whip 'em out at the register. No fuss.

As for Texas, yes, they're going to run into some serious demographic issues soon. I eagerly anticipate the fallout to the Republican party in the state, even as I don't look forward to the human suffering that will happen first.

"Cock up your state too hard, you get bounced." One would think people would eventually learn to associate this with the more general principle: "Republicans cock up your state." Too bad we have terrible education in logic and critical thinking skills.

edited 1st Oct '14 6:51:23 AM by Fighteer

"It's Occam's Shuriken! If the answer is elusive, never rule out ninjas!"

I wonder why it is that conservatives so frequently object to critical thinking being taught...

| Wandering, but not lost. | If people bring so much courage to this world...◊ |

If I remember my readings right, the general hypothesis is it goes against the Patriarchal Authoritarianism that conservatism leans itself to. Basically critical thinking makes you question your family, and leads to liberal ills.

Many were increasingly of the opinion that they'd all made a big mistake in coming down from the trees in the first place. - Douglas Adams

Who needs critical thinking when you have "common sense" and "traditional thinking".

edited 1st Oct '14 8:13:07 AM by LSBK

Almost no one even has common sense or "traditional thinking". From what I've seen, if people aren't taught critical thinking, some tend to latch onto a mess of bizarre ideas that don't link properly and hate anything that doesn't fit that worldview.

Not Three Laws compliant.

I never really believed critical thinking was something that needed to be taught. I thought it was ingrained in everyone.

Then I had to spend three hours explaining to someone why a mother would grieve for a deceased child when she knows she can just make more anyway - someone who frequently dismissed the entire notion of opposing viewpoints, emotional responses, and changes in worldview brought on by differing experiences, as "People make choices they know are wrong because not everyone is smart," - and now I am amazed that people like this exist.

edited 1st Oct '14 8:58:30 AM by TobiasDrake

My Tumblr. Currently liveblogging Haruhi Suzumiya and revisiting Danganronpa V3.

"Then I had to spend three hours explaining to someone why a mother would grieve for a deceased child when she knows she can just make more anyway"

The fuck. If I heard someone say that view I wouldn't even spend 5 minutes explaining it to them. I'd say "You're a horrible fucking person" and move on.