Comments on: today in irrational freakouts: fees for shopping bags

By: tonyb

tonyb — Fri, 04 Apr 2008 19:59:38 +0000

I wasn’t really sure how to feel about this. All I know is it’s one more damn thing that my wife can ding me on when I go to the store (she’s a vegetarian and I’m a meat eater so I have to shop and cook for myself). I know I will not remember the green bag every time and I can bet you a bunch of single guys and husbands that grocery shop for themselves won’t be able to remember either. So while in theory I love the idea and am all for it, but in terms of my daily life I can see it’s going to be a headache (could be a literal headache depending on how many times I forget and my wife yells at me for it).

By: Ryan

Ryan — Thu, 03 Apr 2008 20:51:45 +0000

I had no idea Michelle Malkin used to work for the Seattle Times until she talked about her "old stomping grounds." Here’s her introduction as a columnist from retired Seattle Times editor Mindy Cameron in January of 1996:

The most intriguing change on these pages happens Feb. 6 with the debut column of a provocative new voice from the right, Michelle Maglalang Malkin.

Best of all, by spring Malkin will join our editorial writing staff and participate in our daily discussions. She’ll also write some of those unsigned pieces that represent the institutional voice of The Seattle Times.

At only 25, Malkin is well-prepared for the job. She is finishing up a year as the Warren Brookes Fellow at the Competitive Enterprise Institute, a conservative think tank based in Washington, D.C., and Los Angeles. For two years prior to that, she was an editorial writer and local columnist at the Los Angeles Daily News.

Malkin describes herself as a free-market libertarian. There’s plenty she and I don’t agree on. In our conversations she dismissed departing Sen. Nancy Kassebaum as a politician in "the mushy middle." I happen to think pretty highly of Kassebaum and believe the muscular middle or sensible center is the smart place to be.

Even so, I like the way Malkin thinks and writes. At this early stage of her career, she is already a fine reporter and clear, stylish writer.

Her articles critical of government failures in environment, affirmative action, education and health-care policy have appeared in the Wall Street Journal, Washington Times and 35 other newspapers and magazines. Rush Limbaugh liked one Malkin column so much he read it on the air.

Her first love is writing a local column. I asked her last week what she wanted me to tell her soon-to-be readers. Emphasize my desire to be a successful local columnist, she said. "That’s what I get my high off of."

Two things to note:

1. Michelle Malkin likes feeling high.
2. Michelle Malkin likes to leave her prepositions dangling.

By: Shawn

Shawn — Thu, 03 Apr 2008 20:49:16 +0000

Wow, the cloth bags actually hold more than plastic ones, and the handles are more comfortable when loaded down with boxes of wine!

And really, if you are going to spend $2 per week on the green tax, you might as well buy 10 cloth bags for $.99 each. They pay for themselves after a little over a month! The only problem is you have to remember to put them in the car before you head to the store. I imagine that someone with four kids, remembering reusable grocery bags is pretty low on the priorities list though…