Saturday, November 08, 2008
Editorial: Short takes
Quick views on some of the week's news.
From the RoundTable blog
Read the latest entries
Forget bottle bills. How about a butt bill?
To cut down on litter and encourage recylcling, some states (Virginia is not one) require shoppers to pay a deposit on beverages in bottles. That way people might think twice about throwing empties on the side of the road. And, if they do, someone else might pick them up to cash in.
Roanoke Councilwoman Gwen Mason proposes taking that concept and applying it to cigarettes. On the city's legislative wish list is a Mason-sponsored item that would allow localities to charge a fee on each cigarette sold. When a smoker returns the butts, the fee would be refunded. Or more likely applied to the next pack.
While we are certainly sympathetic to Mason's cause -- discarded butts are more than an eyesore, they poison the environment -- even if she were successful in gaining approval (about as likely as a three-pack-a-day smoker quitting cold turkey on a first try), no one is going to want to cart their butts around or pick up others'.
The litter would remain. But then the city could reap the butt deposit profit and apply it to cleanup costs. Hmmm.
Sticking up for political speech
Christiansburg attorney David T. Mullins set out for the polls on Election Day with two missions in mind: vote and challenge the state's new ban on wearing candidate paraphernalia while voting. He succeeded in both. Mullins placed stickers on his lapel for each presidential candidate. When asked to remove them, he refused, claiming he was practicing protected free speech.
For failing to heed the warning, his name has been forwarded to the commonwealth's attorney for possible prosecution of electioneering.
Mullins, though, may have been too clever. By wearing all the candidates' names, he wasn't promoting one over the other. They even were listed alphabetically.
It is doubtful Mullins will serve as a test case. Better the Thomas Jefferson Center for the Protection of Free Expression, ACLU of Virginia and Rutherford Institute pursue their joint legal challenge. Better yet, state lawmakers could clarify the law in their next session.
Stockpile those guns while you still can
Never let it be said that Barack Obama's election was not good for at least one sector of the economy. The New York Times reports there has been a run on firearms sales, especially semiautomatic weapons with magazines that can hold lots of ammunition.
People are scared Obama will redact the Second Amendment.
"He's a gun-snatcher," Jim Pruett, owner of Jim Pruett's Guns and Ammo in northwest Houston, told The Times. "He wants to take our guns from us and create a socialist society policed by his own police force."
No he doesn't, but it sure does work well as a sales pitch. Works even better if folks are reminded that Obama once said some people "cling to guns or religion."
Better stock up on Bibles, too.
