Note: Since Friday is usually podcast day and there is no podcast this week, I thought it would be good to spring something from the behind the green door. For those with a paywall account, this is a repeat. For the vast majority here, this is entirely new since you have failed to sign up for a paywall account. Perhaps seeing the error of your ways, you will reconsider your decision.
Here in Greater Lagos, there are several grocery chains. The small moonbat community is serviced by Whole Foods, of course. They empty their wallets buying exploitation-free artisanal pickles. A step below that is Wegmans, which targets the same sort of shopper, but a click down the socioeconomic ladder. The Wegman’s customer lives in a nice suburb and supports most of the current fads.
The next step down is Giant, which is owned by the colossal Dutch conglomerate Koninklijke Ahold Delhaize N.V. They also operate other regional brands such as Stop & Shop and Food Lion. Interestingly, the Food Lions in Lagos are positioned near ghettos, so their customer base is the polar opposite of Whole Foods. In the South, Food Lion is the standard suburban grocery store.
After that comes the specialty shops and local players. Aldi has started to turn up, offering a warehouse experience for food shopping. In Europe, an Aldi is like a big convenience store. They are not as big as an American grocery store, but they serve the same function. The ones I have experienced in America are a cross between Dollar Tree and Walmart’s food area.
The point is we have a lot of options. I tend to go to the Wegman’s near my office because of quality and selection. It is a little more expensive than the Giant, which is across the street, but the trade-off is worth it to me. The staff is also nicer than the people who work at Giant. For some reason, the people who work at the Giant stores near me are surly and unpleasant.
Starting on August 1st, Wegman’s has stopped using plastic bags. I found this out the hard way when I hit the checkout. I use the self-checkout. All of the plastic bag holders were empty. I asked the clerk, thinking it may be some weird shortage issue and instead I got a lecture about the environment from a moron. Interestingly, she said it was a new law in the county, which I know is a lie.
That says the lecture was part of her training. She was forced to memorize the official answer by store management, which she repeated when people bitched about the new plastic bag policy. Put another way, this means the company knew their customers would hate it and they knew the policy was not defensible on its own terms, so they had to produce a justification.
The main reason grocery stores switched to plastic bags was that they are superior to the old paper bags. Plastic bags let you carry more stuff. They rarely rip. They also make useful gloves for picking up after the dog. Paper bags rip and they really show their stuff when it rains. Carrying your stuff to the car on a rainy day is an exercise in frustration with paper bags.
Of course, the cranks behind these schemes will counter that you can always use the grimy canvas sacks that have become one of their totems. They apparently believe that if there is a climate rapture while they are shopping, Gaia will be able to home in on their grimy canvas sacks. Gaia also commands them to impose their weird morality on the rest of us, so you better fall in line bigot.
What makes the Wegman’s scheme more ridiculous is the fact that they are now charging for the paper bags. Each one is a nickel. There is a ceremonial reconciliation at the end of the checkout. This is another one those clues that the scheme is driven by something other than business interests. The people behind it want you to know that they are compelling you to obey Gaia.
It was clear that the law of unintended consequences is kicking in. Because packing paper sacks is a hassle, fewer people were in the self-checkout. The lines for regular checkout were longer. This means the store will be faced with staffing up or losing business due to people not wanting to wait all day to checkout. It also means more customer hassles to be addressed by the staff.
The most obvious result will be many people going across the street to the Giant, which is there to sell food, not preach the gospel of Gaia. No doubt the people at Wegman’s will see this as a triumph. They have finally purged those hidden fascists prowling the cereal aisle of their stores. It is the price they are willing to pay for the war on white supremacy and climate change or whatever.
The whole thing is another example of how this stuff works like a religion. The people who produced this crackpot idea are not doing it to make money. They are not doing it to curry favor with a specific audience. It is a public act of piety. This is all about proving their faith because they really do believe this stuff. Rational arguments to the contrary are just seen as proof of their eternal goodness.
It is one thing, but multiply this by hundreds of examples and it is not hard to see why everyone is so salty. We live in a world where a small cadre of lunatics are trying to impose their beliefs on the rest of us. Not only are those beliefs insane, but they keep changing almost as if the point of the religion is to be a nuisance. The Church of the Public Nuisance now controls public life.
If you like my work and wish to kick in a few bucks, you can buy me a beer. You can sign up for a SubscribeStar subscription and get some extra content. You can donate via PayPal. My crypto addresses are here for those who prefer that option. You can send gold bars to: Z Media LLC P.O. Box 432 Cockeysville, MD 21030-0432. Thank you for your support!
Promotions: We have a new addition to the list. Havamal Soap Works is the maker of natural, handmade soap and bath products. If you are looking to reduce the volume of man-made chemicals in your life, all-natural personal products are a good start. If you use this link you get 15% off of your purchase.
The good folks at Alaska Chaga are offering a ten percent discount to readers of this site. You just click on the this link and they take care of the rest. About a year ago they sent me some of their stuff. Up until that point, I had never heard of chaga, but I gave a try and it is very good. It is a tea, but it has a mild flavor. It’s autumn here in Lagos, so it is my daily beverage now.
Minter & Richter Designs makes high-quality, hand-made by one guy in Boston, titanium wedding rings for men and women and they are now offering readers a fifteen percent discount on purchases if you use this link. If you are headed to Boston, they are also offering my readers 20% off their 5-star rated Airbnb. Just email them directly to book at
sa***@mi*********************.com
.
When trying to choose which restaurant or other kind of store to give business to, I use Trip advisor more often than not. There is a handy ‘safety measures this business is taking’ hyperlink that tells me ‘shop elsewhere’. The businesses that don’t have any measures seem transgressive at this point. One store that seemed to have excellent pastries listed numerous safety measures, so I crossed them off my list. I felt less bad about missing out on delicious sweets when I found another good store without the covidiocy, and also when driving by the first (covidiot) I saw a… Read more »
You can buy a pack of 200 plastic bags on Amazon for about $12. I’ve found they can be used 3-4 times before they start to go. I’m sure you can get them cheaper, I just picked the first one I saw. The “Thank You!” is a nice fork in their eye.
And you can stuff them in your pocket easily enough. Not like those stupid canvas bags.
Now go be a heretic, and be sure to laugh as you waive your bags at them on your way out.
https://www.amazon.com/Concession-Essentials-Disposable-Reusable-T-Shirt/dp/B09H3CZ7K3/ref=asc_df_B09H3CZ7K3?tag=bngsmtphsnus-20&linkCode=df0&hvadid=80745505277085&hvnetw=s&hvqmt=e&hvbmt=be&hvdev=m&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=&hvtargid=pla-4584345032689596&psc=1
You seem to be as obsessed with “grimy canvas sacks” as other “conservatives” were about “foot fetishists in sandals,” “health nuts who won’t let me smoke on airplanes,” etc. You should stop it; it makes YOU the one who sounds like a crank.
If this helps you:
https://totebagfactory.com/blogs/news/how-to-machine-wash-a-canvas-tote-bag
It’s kind of like saying “stupid electric cars that don’t start” because you don’t know how to turn one on.
If you refuse to use a new fangled washing machine, get a slave to wash it at the river and beat it out on the rocks, like God intended.
How about you eco-warriors minding your own business and leave others in peace.
Yeah, really. I personally prefer the canvas bags, but these people’s pomposity rivals that of the vegans.
You should read some of his written works. You clearly don’t know who he is. He is criticizing the moronic Fox News/Bongino/Rushbo distraction theater that has kept “conservative” on the leash for the past 30 years. Complaining about plastic bags — like complaining about student loan forgiveness — is considered “permitted speech” by the Left for Boomercons. It’s basically a free kick; you’re not losing your job for speaking out on this issue, and the cops aren’t going to show up and arrest you for using your own plastic bags at the counter the way they would if you called… Read more »
Wm Corliss: Cannot tell if you are being pompous or sarcastic – but some of us are well aware of who he is . . . and we don’t particularly give a damn. I don’t recognize any self-asserted hierarchy amongst dissident writers, and even if I did it would still not entitle him to lecture others on their personal shopping bag habits or opinions regarding electric cars.
You called him an “eco-warrior.” That is clearly meant to mislead people who *don’t* know who he is. You are implying he’s a left-wing loon. Don’t try to pull that sort of thing and then claim ignorance.
Keep complaining about the trash bags. You sound like slaves. What’s next? Rough toilet paper?
Exactly. Seems whenever an eco-warrior determines another does something “bad”, they use the rule of law, or worse intimidation, to stop them from doing such, rather than persuasion and science. In some cases, this is necessary, but increasingly this behavior is simply totalitarian. Smoking bans are a good example. Smoking is now banned in some communities outside and *inside* your home or car.
O’Meara:
You appear to be missing Z’s f*****ing point.
Be gone with you, if you are that blind.
No man should expose his feet in public. It is disgusting. And I’m still pissed off they won’t let me smoke on a plane.
At first, it really pissed me off when they banned smoking in prison. But then I figured out how to make it a very profitable business venture.
When they give you lemons, make lemonade.
Weekend educational exercise. So, down thread some anonymous Stasi shill brought up a topic that deserves clarification. What is the difference between a “threat” and a “deterrent”? A threat occurs when one party intends to do actual harm to another party and makes a demonstration indicating that future action is imminent. Thus the words or gestures serve as a precursor to an initiation of force. A deterrent occurs when the party making the threat receives feedback from the target of the threat and this feedback indicates that the threatened party is well prepared to defend themselves against the upcoming attack.… Read more »
I agree, but urge caution on your example of the householder greeting any LEO at the door with a visible weapon. You’ll be shot and the LEO will plead he believed he was in fear for his life—and it will seem al the more credible when the weapon is shown.
Good point, but now go deeper. In the sane world of our ancient memory, your caution makes good sense because LEOs were, more often than not, rational good guys who did the right thing most of the time and you could feel generally safe when they approached your door. By we now live a world where the Stasi will conduct a politically motivated punitive raid on an ex president, and do it with impunity and arrogance. How far are we away from the 3:00 am no knock raid and your neighbors disappearing, never to be heard from again? How do… Read more »
In the YUK they have descended to this.
“When Keane asked what specifically she had done that could possibly warrant two police officers to come to her house, one of the officers responded:
“You have been untoward about pedophiles on YouTube.””
https://newspunch.com/hurtful-comments-british-police-visit-woman-for-disrespecting-pedophiles-on-social-media/
Here a long time ago, radio talk show host and Nixon henchman, G Gorden Liddy used to joke about the crime of “1st degree mopery”. Look it up. Of course, we all knew he was joking. Foolish us.
You’re absolutely full of it and youre doing zero of the things you tell everyone else to do or youd be dead and or in federal prison. Quit LARPing and trying to pull other people into whatever nonsense youre always talking about.
Clearly you have no idea what you’re talking about. I advise people to get out of the big city and find a safe haven in which to survive the collapse and maelstrom of chaos that will kill off most city folk (I’ve done this). I advise that people use the interregnum to improve their survival skills and become fit (I’ve done this). I provide guidance on how to become a “grey man” and hopefully avoid being among the first dissidents to be rounded up and sent off to detainment camps (I’ve done this). I advise against joining a citizen militia… Read more »
Or should they be so inclined, they’ll plant one out of convenience.
Who decides? This yet another example of Who decides.
An impartial fair decider with access to sufficient information could determine threat-er vs threat-ee. And that is just “who decides.”
Practically, it is those who control the megaphones which shapes public opinion, combined with the power to force. It is who wrote the book.
TomA ladies and gentlemen! for the one thousandth time encouraging you to get shot and hand the media just the villian theyre looking for in some hairbrained plot or incident that will get you put away for life and your family unpersoned for two generations. Either a deluded elderly man with no sense of the world in 2020… giving well meaning but insane advice. OR something worse If you dont think these people are real on the forums you arent paying attention. Do you realize how much money is flowing into manufacturing politically helpful incidents now? You think theyre only… Read more »
OK, so clearly you’ve revealed yourself to be a Stasi covert op or shill, but I’ll take your challenge at face value. You’ve written a few hundred words of pissing & moaning and “the sky is falling” bullshit, but have yet to prove that you have either balls or brains. So put up or shut up. I’m going to once again list specific things I have promoted here (not your gaslighting about what you think I have written). Explain why you think it’s wrong and what your alternative is. And if you won’t step up, then fuck off. 1. Get… Read more »
Point to TomA. For the record, he’s been here a very long time. Somehow I doubt a Fed would be so dedicated, but I could be wrong. Anonymous, you lean more toward a “false friend,” which is a low cost discredit the enemy propaganda move.
An analogy would be to point at some of the more lunatic anti-vaxxer conspiracy theories (quite plausibly planted by operatives, too), such as 5G towers reprogramming our brains, that viruses don’t really exist, etc. and use that to discredit any questioning of the “vaccines”, no matter how valid a doubt might be.
I rather side with karl calling out TomA. Tom’s getting mighty uppity
So, your plan, if you even think it’s okay to have a plan, is to have no plan, and just go straight to getting a punch in the mouth (h/t Mike Tyson)? Just “lying flat” ’cause having any plan geared toward your personal or family survival, no matter how essentially defensive it may be, would be provocative for the taste of the leftist Stasi? Okay, Glowie, thanks for the input, to the degree to which we should be thankful. Me, I’m getting to be an old man, and my efforts will be correspondingly calibrated in any efforts to preserve safety… Read more »
Irish democracy. This state charges 8 cents for a bag, plastic or paper. when useing self check under report.. need five bags claim one or two.
A political theocracy.
The USSR was a political theocracy, as well- authority, not from a declared deity, authority from the State. Stalin was its Pope.
Since we are a “democracy”, the unseen god of Democracy is invoked. Xim is head of the holy pantheon: Democracy, Diversity, Inclusion, Equity, Choice, Fluidity.
Choice. Such a pretty name.
I think I’ll name my adopted Haitian children Choice and Equity.
Oh my goodness. I forgot to mention Climate. Now Trump is going to snatch my soul to Trailer Land!
Welp, if this ain’t a theocracy, I don’t know what is
More Wegmans fun…
Here is their list of values, which they claim their 50k employees are, “living every day.”
https://www.wegmans.com/values-in-action/
Here is the family leadership team, which is currently controlled by a pair of Karens straight from central casting:
https://www.wegmans.com/about-us/company-overview/
Of course, they are eager beavers when it comes to pumping their customers full of whatever mix of Pfizer and Moderna gene juice they have on-hand.
And Zman is happy to support their efforts, because they’re nicer than the deplorables across the road.
I purposely take dirty nasty bags into aldi. One time after work I didn’t have a bag and went in with one of my work 5 gallon buckets usually used for dirty tools and parts. I also observe the 30 second rule for food I drop on the floor ( although Bear usually gets it within 10 seconds.)
Just to clarify a few things for anyone not familiar with German grocery stores, Aldi is not a “convenience” store in the way you might think of 7-11 being a convenience store. Aldi, and it’s competitor Lidl, are just small grocery stores in the mid range of both price and offerings. Not a lot of selections, but the prices are modest and the shelves are restocked daily. I think Trader Joes in America would be a fair comparison in size. Below that price point would be Penny and Netto which basically sell products that are very close to their expiration… Read more »
Some trivia for y’all: the US Chains known as Aldi and Trader Joe’s are the US names for two versions of Aldi that parted ways in the 1960s when two brothers who ran the chain couldn’t agree on whether cigarettes should be sold. I’m an American and I love my nation (or at least what it used to be). But I’m sorry to say that one thing “wrong” with America is the corner bakery is almost non-existent. Anyone who’s lived, or at least traveled, in Europe knows what a treat a good [insert country name] bakery, cafe or local restaurant… Read more »
McDonalds and KFC have made a place for themselves in Germany as well as France and Italy.
What I wish we had was Taco Bell. Not the greatest “Mexican” food, but we have nothing like it here.
In Heidelberg (c. 1984) the former Kentucky Fried Chicken franchise (“KFC” was still in the future) was called “Schultz’s Fried Chicken”) 😀
I love American fast food, but I dearly miss your local food like Nordsee (fish sandwiches), the local gasthaus with its schnitzel und wurst. The beer was passable too 🙂
LOL, so basically you demand your women act like American women…..from the 19th century.
Gosh, we need to be more like Europe……
I lived in DE (shorthand for “Germany”) for about 5 years, in the early 2000’s. And, without getting in to the intricacies of politics and postwar history in Germany, I’d say that The Greens have now arrived here in the Former USA. The only minor quibble I have with Karl Horst’s observation about Gaia is that DE “went green” about 2-3 decades before the USSA. So YES, they did adopt (and I have had conversations and done research about the purposeful genesis of this Greenwashing in DE) this “Save Gaia” mentality ON PURPOSE in DE (Germany). As with here, it… Read more »
Considering industrial food production, I don’t get the fuss over bags. I’m practically eating farm-to-table half the year, as clean as it gets, and it isn’t clean. They want us eating bugs. I imagine grocery bags is one of those symbolic issues.
Well, as others have noted below, the humble plastic bag is an enormously useful, utilitarian tool for a variety of situations.
In this resort town, the only large grocery store has not only done away with plastic bags, it is charging .20 for the paper bags, Gaia and profit together…They can get away with it as long as there is no real competition..
Yes the eat the bugs thing is very important. Its a ritual humiliation by the Soy Jacks and AWFLs against the Dirt People.
Of course, the Sepoy Mutiny was caused by dietary disgust. The rumor was the new paper cartridges introduced by the British was smeared with pig fat and beef fat together. And I will note “migrants” did not come to the US to eat bugs.
The auto industry is where the Gaia cult will really put the screws to us.
Japanese car makers have pledged to cease gas engine production by 2035. California has declared a ban on gas car sales within the same time frame. Dodge is discontinuing its popular Charger and Challenger models in favor of a rebadged Alfa Romeo hybrid.
Making people use canvas bags is a humiliation ritual. Attempting the folly of replacing all internal combustion engine cars with electric ones is Jonestown style mass suicide on a national scale.
worldwide scale.
Seriously. For those that really believe there still is this free market where companies respond to customer demand and compete for these customers, I cite the discontinuation of the Dodge Challenger and Dodge Charger. Exactly which Dodge customers are sitting around saying, “you know what, I’ve always wanted an electric muscle car”? Likely zero. For this to make any strategic sense, you would have to believe there is some other segment of customers who really want an electric muscle car that Dodge has not been able to reach because they don’t have an electric muscle car offering, and that segment… Read more »
That seems to be the implicit message from the purveyors of most any good or service, or at least from their ad agencies. Given a choice of take it or leave it, I usually choose the latter, but there seems to be a well-coordinated effort, a phalanx of raised middle fingers aimed at Normie consumers that are figuratively asphyxiating, giving us the “choice” of destitution or starvation if we don’t submit. I used to believe that ad agency “creatives” lacked adult supervision from the suits in the office, that they were more interested in impressing themselves and their counterparts than… Read more »
It’s not a “free market” at all, it’s a left-wing corporatism. The auto companies are for practical purposes a government-backed monopoly, the government tells them what they will build, and you proles will buy it. You have a false illusion of a “choice” because they have different nameplates, but the product is essentially the same to comply with government mandates.
I’ve heard that Dodge plans on putting some kind of speaker in the cars that simulates the roar of a hemi engine when they accelerate. I shit you not, this was what someone at the gym told me a few days ago. Imagine that. Could anything be more fake and ghey than simulating a sound of an internal combustion engine on an electric car? It truly captures the spirit of what clown world creating for us. F**k it, if I’m going to have a car that makes fake sounds when I drive it, I want mine to be the sound… Read more »
It won’t be complete until they have outside speakers for that big hemi sound.
LA lowriders: swap it to the boombox, ese, we like the cars, the cars that go boom
Muslims: …the cars that go what?!
Much more exciting and, er, ressounding than the growls emitted by the ferret-faced punks and Brownasses whose dark-mirrored noisemakers perform forays in our neighborhood just to piss us off. Well., I know the whereabouts of these psychopaths, and I’lll see that they pay with interest.
SOME lof these psychopaths. And, let me emphasize that.me reference to “Our Greatrst Ally was totally ironic. I stand corrected.
It’s not speakers, exactly. It’s a series of pipes and chambers that produce sound as air is forced through them.
On the one hand, it’s kinda fake and gay as there’s no reason to design the car to force air through it as it’s electric and doesn’t need it the way an ICE does. On the other hand, it’s not as fake and gay as actual speakers with fake engine noise are, which have been used on ICE cars for awhile now.
Probably by way of plausible deniability, Chrysler has said, “We need to go electric because the Hemi has serious design flaws.”
They’re saying they need to foist products no one wants on their customers rather than fix a known issue because they suck?
You know what? I think they just convinced me.
Humor me.
Let’s say everyone, or at least 85/90 percent of car owners buy an electric car. They somehow bite the bullet and finance at great financial pain, a rolling computer.
Where will they charge it?
How will the “infrastructure” support it, vis a vis the power grid?
Who is gonna service them?
Where they gonna get the chips for EVs, when ICE cars are backlogged?
I just don’t see it happening anytime in my lifetime.
This, however, may be an entre’ Into the car market by intrepid independents.
I’m right there with you. Every Friday night during the summer (weather permitting) there is a local car club that stakes out a corner of the local diner parking lot and they have music and a raffle – usually to benefit a local charity, or kids sports teams – and a great time is had by all. Fast forward to this summer and the cancer that is transplanted Manhattanites have metastasized here and there in our town. One result is that you see a lot more of the electric skateboards showing up in the parking lot than the year before… Read more »
One consistent thing I’ve observed when interacting with wealthy people: if you want to piss them off, show a lack of interest in the materialistic junk they’re showing off to you. It has to be a genuine disinterest though, if they can smell any resentment that still gives them the narcissistic supply they crave. Back in college a group of us were looking for a house to rent to get out of the dorms, and there was a landlord showing us some of the units he had available. I remember him making a point of telling me about how he… Read more »
“He owned THREE Volvos”. Hmmmm, if he had said something like he owned three ’70 Chevelle SS’s, that might be something, but bragging about Volvos………unimpressive to say the least.
Yup.
No diesel, no modern industrial civilization.
Enjoy your free time travel back to the 1720s.
Only no one has any horses. So its more like the 1320s.
walking for you.
How much lower is global average IQ today than it was in the 1300s? 50 points? I wouldn’t be surprised. The papers I’ve read about the Speculum Musicae are *shockingly* dumber than it is.
Dutton says repeatedly, we are back to at least preindustrial times—1700’s—IQ wise.
I can’t wait to see the new International Harvester non-diesel, environmentally friendly, carbon neutral crop harvester. They can call it the Sambo 5000.
They won’t be obsolete farm equipment anymore!
What’s old us new. I however vote for repatriation.
Yes, especially since we will be lucky to maintain the present level of electric generation within a few years, and have zero chance of multiplying generation by x3, which is what it would take to have an all electric car fleet…
Irish democracy. This state charges 8 cents for a bag, plastic or paper. when useing self check under report.. need five bags claim one or two.
Since I am already a green door subscriber, I already read this excellent piece. That being said, I read it again and I couldn’t help but smile about it yet again. It really is a spot on piece that shows the effects of the idiocy of our ruling class on normal people.
Now that you’ve published it I’m going to do what I always do and send it to as many of my normie conservative friends as I can.
It’s not idiocy, this fucked up shit is deliberate.
Behind the curtain, eliminating plastic bags and charging for paper ones has nothing to do with the environment. It’s a cost saving move.
In California thin plastic bags were replaced by thick ‘reusable’ plastic bags.
The thin bags were good as trash bags, the thick ones aren’t.
The thick bags use more plastic and still probably aren’t being reused as much as the thin ones.
Nobody here, or anywhere, has acknowledged this obvious (to me) fact.
It’s some kind of scam, and everybody is stupid (except me).
Z Man, the banning of plastic bags is the example that you often use to illustrate your annoyance with environmentalists. I agree that plastic bags are better than paper ones.
Would you accept a program where you are charged a nickel for each new plastic bag to encourage people to reuse existing plastic bags?
I dispute the premise that plastic bags are a great menace. Like so many assertions by these people, this one is short on hard evidence. I have spent a lot of time in the great outdoors, hunting, fishing, cycling, you name it. I have probably seen more old tires than old plastic bags. Old water bottles are vastly more common. Let’s start with those, which are on every roadside in America. I have been in places that are miles from a dirt road and found plastic bottles. Slap a one dollar deposit on plastic bottles. We instantly move back to… Read more »
I hate plastic bottles, not because of the environment, I think almost any drink tastes better out of a glass bottle or a tin can
My Sam Adams Boston Lager and Leinenkugels do.
In my 30s when I was still a beer snob (which meant drink a couple good ones and chase it down with a six of Natural Ice, a 40 of Steel Reserve or, well you get the idea….:D ) I recall an article on the “can vs. bottle” debate and the author made the succinct observation that bottled beer tasted better than canned according to everyone except the sellers of aluminum cans.
Thirty years ago that was the tag line for Keystone beer. “Bottled beer taste…in a can!”
I’d have to agree on bottle over can. What I can’t understand is why I prefer “draft” beer whenever in a restaurant. Last I knew, draft beer was simply beer in a very big can. Anyone with knowledge, clue me in.
compsci: draft beer is fresher. much much fresher. it doesnt have time to take on the metallic taste of the ‘big can’ because they are empty within a day or two.
Compsci- the reason kegged beer tastes different from bottled beer is due to how they are carbonated. A keg is carbonated with carbon dioxide (you run a line from a co2 to the keg to pressurize it). Bottled beer is carbonated with corn sugar ( basically, you drop corn sugar pellets in the beer and seal the lid; the sugar dissolves and ferments and the beer absorbs the CO2 that’s created by fermentation). Kegged beer also tastes less metallic than canned beer because of the difference in volume to surface area ratio.
The paper bags have their uses. They work well as standalone trash containers, are good grease absorbers for fresh baked cookies, and if you take a sharpie and draw a smiley face on the bag you can put it over the head of an ugly woman and easily expand your dating options.
I’ve done that in my mind many times after a dozen or so malted beverages. It seems like less of a good idea the next morning.
I’m willing to work with the Gaia worshipers on environmental issues. For example, all those plastics end up in the water supply and do lots of harm. (In a related issue, I can’t eat tuna steaks regularly anymore because the oceans are full of mercury and the big fish accumulate toxic amounts.) The difference between me and the Gaia worshipers is that I’m not going to diminish plastics or fossil fuels until we have suitable replacements and even then the transition will be slow and steady. I support government funding to find such replacements and incentives to restrict our pollution.… Read more »
I too am a conservationist. I am not married to plastic bags. My understanding is the modern ones are biodegradable, but if something is better, I will support it. The big lie here is that our use of plastic is creating the problems. That is not true. It is China and India polluting the oceans and clogging the world with discarded plastic. For the good of the planet, I would support a boycott of those nations and their people until they clean up their act.
What does biodegradeable actually mean in this sense?
What does it breakdown into?
Tons of microscopic particles? component molecules? what are those? Do they just build up in the food chain from the bacteria?
Carbon dioxide and compost. As you know, these same folks have labeled carbon dioxide, required to sustain life, a pollutant.
What is the remaining compost composed of?
As most plastic is petroleum based.
@trumpton:
You answered your own question.
I don’t see how.
the compost is what?
I want to know the exact chemical and structural nature of this.
what is the mass, polymers of some kind? tar compounds?
@trumpton:
The compost is not the same as biodegraded plant or animal product, obviously. From what I gather, the compost is tar and just requires less space in a landfill. If you are getting at “green plastics” being a fraud, yeah, some, since it also produces mostly a tarry compost with only the introduced organic components broken down.
hmm. so why use compost as the name?
its not plant nutrient.
tar is going to be water and soil polluting.
@trumpton:
Fair enough.
I totally agree with you, as do most people who fish and spend time on the water, although bottles and six-pack rings are far worse pollutants. The actual problem, as Z mentioned in response to you, is that basically all the plastic garbage in the sea got there via seven or eight rivers mostly in China, with a few in India. They are not going to do a damned thing about it except dump more. What we do here has minor to almost invisible impact. The Gaia worshipers pounding the anti-plastics drum, and I do agree with them to a… Read more »
Jack: Well said.
Well Z – I’d be behind that green wall in an instant – but we are in the middle of a recession up here in Canada, I was prematurely retired and retarded… and I make every coin stretch. It saddens me that I cannot support your work as much as I would like to. I am in a continual state of casual rebellion up here in Canada. I have a fire pit in the back yard and when I end up with some idiot’s ‘recycles’ blown into my yard – into the pit it goes! If you can’t properly package… Read more »
They have a think tank. It’s called The Stasi.
I’m Canadian too – how do you get one of those gold stars? I deserve it a million times more than the seething woketariat in this godforsaken capital city; I even dry my clothes outside on a clothesline! Probably the only one who does within 5 square miles. It saves on the electric bill and smells better. I’ve got towels hanging out there until the snow makes the clothesline inaccessible.
Wegmans is headquartered in Rochester, NY. It used to be just a well-run, family-operated chain, but lately they’ve gone super-woke, especially during the COVID hysteria.
Rochester is insufferable, it is full of condescending progressive cunts who fetishize their progressive connections to Frederick Douglass and Susan B. Anthony. not for nothing is it nicknamed “Smugtown.”
For what it’s worth it illegal under New York State law to give out plastic bags in any stores (and I think California too), no doubt they’re lobbying to get this kind of woke bullshit implemented on a national level.
Wegman is where I first saw a Covidian. Soon after the store was literally spraying down the checkout after each customers came through. Then they instituted a policy where only a few people were allowed in the store at a time. I saw a woman with a homemade hazmat suit on in line waiting to enter the store. I started using the other chains at that point. The ghetto Food Lion did the barest of bare minimum.
Trader Joe’s did that, they had all the masked middle-aged Jewish women in Lake Oswego lined up around the building on little social distanced marked places to stand, only letting in one at a time.
I hate that store and everyone who works and shops there with the fury of a collapsing star, but it’s the only place I can get the Israeli feta I like.
I heard about one grocery story that had exactly six million customers but only a few very slow checkout lines that frequently broke down. They managed to get them all through in no time though, so I guess things dont always work the way you’d imagine.
Israeli fete, now that really is niche
Well I’m not entirely thrilled about buying zionist cheese, but there’s a pretty wide quality gap between domestic and imported feta. They pulled the shrinkflation trick at TJ’s though, so I’m going to have to go hunting for a middle-eastern deli after all.
Isn’t feta Greek?
Did you go into any of the New Seasons during the height of the Coof frenzy? Not only did they place circles all over the floor to let you know where you needed to stand both while shopping and checking out but they monitored traffic entering and exiting the store to make sure you went in/out the right door. They were insane with their compulsive need to keep people from getting within spitting distance of each other. That place became beyond insufferable when the commies took over. Almost as bad as the co-ops but without the B.O.
Although my Aldi was probably the least jackbooted of my grocery options, I still rankle at the “Heroes Work Here!” signs they put up in the parking lot. FFS.
Some chain auto repair shops in Germany jumped on the spray-down bandwagon in a rather innovative way –
They now charge customers 3-Euros to “sanitize their vehicles” in order to protect their employees from their customers “germs”.
Best scam I have ever seen!
Here the grocery and retail chains that use shopping carts *still* spray and wipe them down in many cases—poorly too. So big deal, what of it. Well, this is AZ and they were doing so in the midday sun when the temp’s were approaching 110 degree F! Absolutely nothing survives the UV rays and temp for more than a second or two in such conditions. This has been analyzed and shown a dozen times over by the researchers who study germ/virus transmission. It all for the benefit of the rubes.
The bigger the worse. As a business gets larger and gets pulled into the Power Structure’s ambit, it becomes anti-white. And this is why, as a rule of thumb, I always spend my coin with a smaller entity when possible.
As someone who has wasted far too many good years in the San Francisco of Western NY, I agree with Xman 100%.
I was in the Rochester Museum and Science Center a couple years ago and they had an entire room dedicated to old timey advertisements that portrayed joggers in a poor light. It was all I could do to keep from being ejected for disturbingly loud laughter. Will they ever pivot to dislays of current-day TV commercials that deify groids and humiliate whites? Will they, f–k. On a similar note, I was at the Corning Glass Museum last week and a dislay of George Washington had the requisite critiques of his poor life choices. On the other hand, Chinese Imperial pieces,… Read more »
There’s so much about the business world that makes it almost an arm of government rather than something independent. Like why does every restaurant have a tv in it. I’m almost waiting for the day when an incompetent American regime causes power outages all over the country. Maybe then we can realize that while technology can liberate us, it can enslave us too.
I commented on this back when you first posted it to Subscribe Star. I have half a dozen of said grimy sacks – all for free from various health food/supplement stores and Aldi when they first opened. I used to bring them, filled with plastic bags from other grocery stores, when I shopped at Aldi. Useful for carrying larger amounts slung on my shoulder. Since I generally find I buy more (and often non-grocery items) than I anticipate there, I now just use a quarter and the grocery cart. Then I sort and plastic bag things (some goes in the… Read more »
A few years ago, the City was discussing banning plastic grocery bags. I said screw this and bought a supply off of Amazon—exactly the same as the standard grocery bag used by all stores. My plan was to do an “in your face” at the grocery store when they stopped using them by bringing them along and asking them to load up these bags. However, the City settled for a “voluntary” recycling of plastic bags at each store using them, so now there are large containers by the doors to the collect “used” plastic bags. Those who have multiple dogs… Read more »
3g, since I moved to the mountains, where there isn’t mail service or trash pickup, I drive 75 minutes into town each weekend to resupply.
Love it up here!
You are living my dream. As long as there is a place to fish for bass…
Line: I’m so glad you were able to get out of your burgeoning and Californicated town and up into the mountains. We cannot wait to move (still trying to offload our suburban house and for the sellers to depart from what is now our new property). I guarantee your mountains are a lot higher than ours (I think we’re just over 1100 feet, but there’s nothing higher in the immediate vicinity and the privacy and views are achingly beautiful). I totally forgot to ask about mail service; I know there isn’t trash pickup. We’re about equidistant between the two largest… Read more »
You all will love it. A note of caution, although you probably do this already: keep on hand literally everything you could possibly need, down to spare can openers and extra boxes of crackers (everyone should do this already). One of the first lessons of living outside of the Hive’s preferred economic zone is that a 30-minute drive for a can of coffee really makes you weigh how much the can of coffee actually is needed. And a second thing: you are about to recall things forgotten long ago about life prior to the so-called post-scarcity world, and it will… Read more »
No mountains by me, but I am at the end of the mail route. And no trash pick up. I burn everything. Everyone has a burn pit. Stores are an hour away, so you just have to plan trips. I hate being around people (crowds) anyway, so it’s a win.
I needed to slow down both physically and mentally. The farm has forced me to do that.
It is a revelation.
It truly is a revelation. You soon realize how costly it is to live for convenience’s sake.
3G:
Where ya headed?!
Glad to see these comments about living outside of town.
I didn’t read far enough in 3g’s response, about The Lone Star state,
Personally, I aim to escape Sodom-on-the-Potomac (TM)within the next year, in favor of the Bluegrass. Beautiful place out there.
Carrie: No big secret, but I’d rather not mention our specific location online. It’s not in Texas but a nearby state with higher elevation and much more natural water. We’ll probably be making trips back to Dallas every 6-10 weeks for a while since my husband will be working remotely, but we consider the hassle to be worth living in a much less populated and minimally diverse area.
The war on plastics is all to fight something we are not part of. All the plastic in the ocean and the alleged ‘plastic island’ (caused allegedly by currents) is coming from Africa and India. Almost none of it is coming from the US. Of course, they always do what makes the least sense. Why not force the soda companies to go back to making bottles with steel or aluminum caps? A single 20oz soda bottle and cap weighs more than all the plastic bags I used to get in a month combined. They have outlawed disposable plastic bags in… Read more »
I imagine the mass production and dumping of Moron Masks is hardly an environmental benison, but the Power Structure doesn’t seem too concerned.
Contradictions and hypocrisy never seem to faze Leftists. However, sometimes it can be highly amusing. Once at the University one group of Lefties was soliciting donations of disposable diapers for our poor minority community mothers during a United Way drive. Immediately, they were set upon by the Gaia crowd that said only *clothe* diapers should be used as disposable diapers fill up the landfills, which gave Gaia heartburn, and should be banned. The clothe diaper crowd shot back that the poor minority mothers had no washing machines to clean clothe diapers. The Gaia folk said too bad, give them washing… Read more »
I would say chuck some red meat between the warring factions to encourage mutual bloodletting, but I expect that would produce a repulsive effect. Lob a tub o’ tofu between them instead and behold the feeding frenzy of tapirs.
More than Africa and India it is coming from Southeast Asia. China is the worst, but Thailand, Indonesia and others are not far behind. Tell anyone who lectures you about plastic use to type “Yellow River pollution” into Google images and watch their reaction. Almost all of the plastic in the Pacific comes from Asia, yet middle Americans are getting blamed by our elites.
No one cares about facts.
Hallucinated certainty is the driver.
So does most CO2 “pollution”. None of this is about practical solutions, or solutions at all. But you knew this already.
Barnard
I did what you said and holy cow! The pictures that came up looked post apocalyptic.
But the Chinks are gonna rule the world. Ok.
That is arguably not even the worst one, I just pick it because yellow is easy for people to remember and spell.
Anyone who’s travelled in much of the (rural) Third World can confirm this: the typical way to dispose of anything disposable is to toss it onto the side of the road, or equivalent. Most of my experience is with Latin America. Very rustic places can be quite bucolic, but anything that might be called suburban or settled has trash virtually everywhere. You can be assured that local waterways are treated just the same, with the bonus that liquids and floating trash will be carried downstream.
The majority of my non-professional attire was manufactured from recycled soda pop bottles. I am a rabid global trekker/back packer when not working.* The clothes are comfortable as hell and perform brilliantly in the field. I just wish people wouldn’t litter and would direct their recycled plastics into my closet. Although I admit breathing plastic spicules that are sheared off by common motion is probably bad for my health. *I knew I was afflicted when I completely forgot to watch sex porn and instead realized I am addicted to map porn — I literally have a large area with stored… Read more »
Many years ago, in another life, I subscribed to Scientific American. They were sort of a cross between a very stead scientific journal and the New Yorker magazine. Anyway, they published research papers and one of the topics de jour was concerning paper cups vs styrofoam cups. In the recent news was the pressure on McDonalds to do away with their styrofoam containers, in favor of paper. Paper containers was assumed without thought or study to be a good as it was “recyclable”. Oil products at the time were bad because they would never decompose, not recyclable, and not renewable—case… Read more »
I wonder if it is the hot food that causes them to use paper bags. Like the heat can make the plastic leach something into the food.
Perhaps. I do not scoff at concerns of chemicals leeching out of plastic containers, but at the time such was unknown and never mentioned. So McDonalds was I assume not concerned with such in its decision. But while on the subject, above me on the 8th floor at the university was a newish lab and offices called the “Laboratory for the Study of Emerging Environment Contaminants”. I got to know the Director and a few of the scientists who worked there. They’d often ask for some help with the facilities. Nice folk all and I believe some were from outside… Read more »
Not so fast though as a lot of that plastic dumped into the ocean by the third world is crap that we’ve paid to have sent over to them to be “recycled”. There was an interesting article I read this week that posited that weight issues in the west are caused by environmental contamination. The correlation is strong that something, starting about 1980, has greatly aided in our weight gain. My first thought was boomer women taking the pill then putting their daughters on it, but my second thought was remembering when everything was paper and glass rather than plastic.… Read more »
“The correlation is strong that something, starting about 1980, has greatly aided in our weight gain.” Yeah… Women in the workforce. I experienced this myself in my own family. In the 70s, dinner was ready 5 minutes after dad’s usual time to come home. A cooked meal my mother made. Then, in the late 70s, my mother went into the workforce and didn’t get home for a like an hour after my father. Suddenly we were eating a lot of pre-made processed foods and maybe a canned vegetable as a side dish for supper. More and more eating out too.… Read more »
The EPA and most other such agencies are victims of “mission creep”. They long ago met their assigned goals and now look for “new problems” to “solve”—otherwise they’d rightfully downsize or go out of business. Can’t have that, can we? Another aspect that I touched upon is technological advancement in detecting environmental pollutants. Standards that were once set in parts per million, can now be set in parts per billion—roping in more businesses and municipalities. Finally, there is a very blind faith in “models”. Yep, the same “predictive” modeling that we so decry in our recent Covid scam and our… Read more »
The elders had banned plastic bags here in the D.R. of The C’ago. Too many were ending up in the big lake and local lagoons. But we must not speak of the grotesque numbers and volume of worthless face masks that are floating here, there and everywhere. Quietly, plastic bags have returned and they represent environmentally sound policy because . . . now we have to pay a fee to use them, so it’s smart, right and proper. The big lake and lagoons are now becoming littered with BOTH ineffective face masks and plastic bags. Our Wokeandan Religion sayeth it… Read more »
The same old cry of “non-degradable” litter was used here. But that is an abject lie. We have one thing in abundance—Sun—which means UV rays. Nothing plastic survives indefinitely, especially plastic bags. I have some stuff on the patio covered in garbage bags. After 6 months or so, the first storm blows them to pieces. I now change them out regularly. But they are somewhat unsightly I agree, but so are the damn beer cans and newspapers blowing along side roadway.
no related to the thread, but I’m sincerely amaze by the quantity and the quality of your work 5 days/week, every week. Since years. (Of course, I don’t agree with all (especially french history) but that’s a litte detail. In politics, nobody agree 100% with anybody) Do you still work on a private company ? I hope no, would be the path to nervous breakdown with all this work. Anyway, thanks again for your work 🙂 PS : I have asked this simple question on 4 sites, never get a serious answer : for God’s sake : what means “GN”‘… Read more »
what means “GN”
-gynecologist, it’s considered rude to spell the whole word out.
Re “rude to spell out the word” for gynecologist.
On which planet??
It’s like women ruining their sons by using the word “pee pee” instead of the actual biological word for the male organ.
What a load of horsesh*t.
I have come to the conclusion that there is *no* Z-man! Only a nefarious cabal of closely knit/minded individuals who work prodigiously together to put out the content of this blog.
Prove me wrong….:-)
We are the Z-Man. Lower your defenses. We will add your distinctiveness to our own. You will adapt to service us. Resistance is futile.
ZDeepState is exists.
Trust the Skience.
Off topic but still relevant-I had the blinding light moment yesterday when I finally realized the Internet was slowly disappearing. It’s like the paragraph in the book The Running Man where Ben Richards slowly experiences pattern recognition when he realizes he’s being hunted. I was searching on Yahoo for some subject and no matter how many times I clicked on “next” it only kept returning the same 10 or so websites. I was reminded of the opener to The Outer Limits “sit quietly and we will control all that you see and hear”. The ISP’s are happy enough to take… Read more »
Try yandex. I’ve had a lot of success with that site. It’s not as good as google for most stuff, but you get all the hidden results.
Tars: Agree on Yandex. Even there it helps to try half a different variants of word choice and order to narrow down results, but at least you can avoid the woke algorithms used by every US search engine.
It’s probably not the conspiracy you think it is. Servers require an ongoing stream of electricity to be accessible. Electricity costs money, so servers are an ongoing costs. Free services, like blogger or WordPress will sometimes delete inactive blogs (that happened to the one I set up in high school), while others will do purges of questionable content (usually in regards to copyrighted content bring shared by a non-holder; reddit and Tumblr being recent examples). For self-hosted blogs, sometimes the people running the server die and the thing gets unplugged. Sometimes people lose interest in writing and decide to go… Read more »
What Tars said… Google is effectively useless at this point if it is anything even a fraction of a degree outside official narrative. It is also now completely filled with corporations who’ve payed for SEO (search engine optimization) being at the top. So you have a mix of leftist propaganda, and corporate BS as your top 2 categories for ‘answers’. Break the conditioning we all have to type google.com into the address bar. Yandex, as Tars said, is surprisingly effective because why? It is run by those evilest of evil tyrannical authoritarians, the Russians. Our Free, Open, and Democratic society… Read more »
Wait–there’s a difference between Leftist propaganda and corporate BS?
The difference is that Leftist propaganda is BS and corporate BS is propaganda.
Google is great, still the best *and* useless. One reason, trust. Google can’t be trusted. You can’t have an “advisor” who lies to you. In a similar vein, Google can’t be *your* advisor on any matter of import.
duckduckgo is not as awful as Yahoo and Google, although I’m sure it still toes the Leftist line to a certain degree. But in theory, they don’t share your search history, etc. with anybody, and the search returns, from what I can tell, don’t look suspicious.
DuckDuckGo has become oozed, although just in the last couple of years.
I used to use them, but then read something about the plz, and switched.
And when I heard a radio advertisement for DuckDuckGo, I thought: “OK, we are done here.”
I am glad to learn about yandex.
I currently use Startpage. Can’t recall where hey are based, but they do pretty well.
Qwant is not too bad. Yandex is pretty good. Google is some screwed up now the results are often just weird.
Part of this comes down to this basic human need for struggle. Black people don’t have this gene by the way. Their struggles are unintentionally created just by existing. It’s the same reason some people who were raised in affluent suburbs move to some urban condo and take public transportation. The bum urinating on the light pole makes them feel edgy and sophisticated. You wouldn’t appreciate the city life. You wouldn’t appreciate the overpriced bento box for lunch. It’s more authentic than your plastic way of life. One thing about those marketing VALS surveys is that they’re pretty darn accurate.… Read more »
It’s funny, but when I see a female wearing a mask, I think to myself.” Ah, just as it should be, a woman with a self imposed muzzle”.
Silver linings……
What is this ‘grocery store’ you speak of? Just kidding. Sort of lol.
Unfortunately, the jack-asses in our state did ban the use of plastic sacks unless you pay for them, usually 5 cents each. I just realized while reading this that the way around it, and to show your contempt for this crap, is to buy a box of regular plastic garbage sacks and keep it in your car. Then take a bunch of them with you into the store when you shop and use them to bag your groceries. The banning of plastic sack is stupid. Everyone I know uses them as trash can liners at home. We even had a… Read more »
There is an active market for plastic grocery bags now. You can even buy them with amusing word printed to tweak the Gaia worshippers. Cheap too and they come with dispenser box.
You were looking for ideas to offer up as merch……….
There is also a budding industry to recycle/process plastic bags into fuel additives that are then sent to refineries and blended to make petrol. So plastic bags could be part of the green solution and Gaia will be happy! That is until ICEs are banned.
The one that makes me smile is when the Wokel buys a paper straw.
In a plastic sleeve to keep it clean.
Gah, I would have loved to get your 2 cents on the Gavin Mciness arrest Zman. I suppose I’ll have to wait a couple days though, such is life.
I just heard about it a few minutes ago. I still know nothing about it other than he was dragged off the set of his show mid-broadcast.
Yes I also first heard about it only an hour or two ago.
So there’ll be professional video of him begging to fellate the cops as they drag him to the gulag for starting a breakfast cereal appreciation club.
How long before Tucker is dragged off of his set?
How long before I’m dragged away?
4-7 years the way things are going? A bug out plan might be a good thing to consider.
Interestingly enough, eliminating about 2,000 web “influencers” was a storyline in “What I Saw at the Coup”.
Conservative voices were black bagged and disappeared.
A fictitious story is slowly manifesting itself.
It’s funny till it’s not.
I guess the Regime is returning to the Proud Boys boogieman. Maybe some management class cubicle borg remembered McInnes on Joe Rogan and couldn’t take the irreverence.
Agreed.
This is going to keep ratcheting up until November. Hand-in-hand with stories about the “red wave” dissipating.
Make the steal less obvious. Wish I could say I cared, but Republicans are so worthless it’s difficult to get very upset about it.
Yeah Im sure the secret police will never come for anyone here. Probably just arrest those people we all agree are no threat to the regime and stop there.
I saw a reference today to James O’keefe of Veritas getting indicted as well.
Someone earlier this week posted a link to a piece on the right wing media getting scooped up as part of a short story written a few years ago from the point of view of a current regime member about to be hanged.
Can’t remember the name of it. But a few more of these and maybe its starting to look similar.
It’s What I Saw At the Revolution by Matt Bracken. A good story, by the way.
That was it.
The story seems a lot of wish fulfillment as to the reaction.
History tends to show mass roundups just lead to more.
It’s actually, “What I Saw At The Coup.”:
https://www.forumsforums.com/threads/bracken-what-i-saw-at-the-coup.74830/
The Westexec gang running the DC regime appear to be using it as a playbook.
The usual trajectory also involves people being “disappeared.” This appears to be what happened to O’Keefe, at least as far as we know. Generally, political arrests here and there follow mass arrests, and “disappearing” becomes a thing in between the two, and it ends with gulags and extermination camps. Anyone at this point who doesn’t think that is at least planned is delusional. I had put “disappearing” as my marker for full-blown totalitarianism, and that has happened now. There probably is no turning back, and every human rights abuse and outright murder will happen under the “color of law,” which… Read more »
*I may have conflated McInnis, who definitely was disappeared, with O’Keefe, who apparently has decided to keep a low profile since the police state apparatus targeted.
Lawsy, Massa Z! Liz Lincoln Cheney gonna free Food Stamp and take him to de Promise Land!
Bah. The Mar-a-Lago stunt, like the Jan 6th dud before it, are just the scriptwriter’s excuses for the media to keep chanting “Trump, Trump, Trump, Trump,” like barking seals.
I say it’s a conspiracy hatched in the dark bowels of the Church of the Public Nuisance!
I like the canvas or reusable bags. Most are made of plastic anyway. The main reason for liking them is they hold a lot more weight. You don’t have to double bag heavy glass jars and stuff. I too hate the forced morality, but damn those bags are nice to use. I don’t hate paper either. I Tetris boxes and heavy stuff at the bottom and throw the light and odd shaped stuff up top. The do okay on the floorboard of my truck without tipping over. Home Depot has the absolute worst plastic bags. Other than that. I use… Read more »
Unless you launder the canvas bags each time, for me they get real nasty looking with each use to the grocery store. and I simply don’t like putting vegetables and other produce in them.
Fair points. Usually the veggies get those small bags in the produce area. I more concerned about meat juice. Some places have the produce bags for meat packages too. Not everyone.
There was a study back a few years ago when this started. Organic material remains in the bags and that means all sorts of critters growing in the things. You are better off licking a public toilet seat than using these things, unless you boil them after each use.
Yes. They are bacteria and I may have the number wrong, but I think one of those Gaia “Sustainability” Sacks has the amount of plastic and material equal to 9000 of the old plastic bags. As usual, this religion is probably a confluence of factions coming together. We’ve all heard the, “America needs to be more like Europe”, trope from the Soyulent Elitist trying to sound refined and on the vanguard of culture and intellectual life. It is true, in Europe, when I lived there 25 years ago I was shocked when I had to pay for my plastic grocery… Read more »
oops. “the unemployment rate for their youth is extremely HIGH”
Not all bacteria is bad for you. The human body consists of about 30 trillion cells (and they are very large cells comparatively). In addition, we also host about 50-100 trillion symbiotic bacteria cells that reside within the gut and on our skin surface. These bacteria need us to stay alive in order for them to stay alive, so they have evolved as defense force protecting us from many types of foreign attack from the environment at large. This is known as the microbiome, and you need to keep it healthy if you want to stay healthy.
It’s an important point. All of us, including the most healthy, are under constant attack by microorganisms. You don’t notice it when healthy because your immune system takes care of it and it doesn’t trigger your neural sensory alarm system (pain/discomfort).
It’s like atmospheric pressure on our skin. It’s always there pushing on you, but we evolved in that pressure range so we don’t notice it (evolutionary calibration) unless it grows stronger or weaker.
Sounds as though each and every one of us is a walking slab o’ Roquefort.
On the plus side, after a few months you can probably throw that cloth bag in a big pot and have a nice 3-month stew made from the random stains inside of it.
Delicious.
Good advice for when the food system dries up after the collapse. Beats selling your children. 🙁
Good thinking! Now that shoes all have rubber soles, we need something to replace shoe leather as an emergency food source.
Germs are everywhere. I read something about a water bottle and bacteria after just a few hours. I hear you, but I’m sure my boxed food is fine in a bag that’s had other boxed food. Meat juice is another thing.
Oh how times are changing. Now a peasant in a mask delivers my groceries for ~$60/yr.
Wish they would at least do the Aldi model, whose model has no bags for solely price and efficiency reasons. Checkout goes lightning fast when they just put the food back in the cart and easily makes up for the slight inconvenience of putting your items in a box afterwards. Another fun way to skirt the nonsense is a lot of these stores have free pickup services, where they obviously can’t do the ‘bring your own bag’ model. You get the extra benefit of not dealing with morons. Downside is, morons get your food, so you have to check the… Read more »
Yeah I like Aldi and Lidl, do you have Lidl in the US
Its interesting that Aldi are pretty low tech, but the checkout lines move fast
Lidl>>>>>>>>>Aldi IMO
There are Lidl stores in the U.S. but not remotely close to where I live. Have a feeling the hyper-efficient model of stores are going to get far more popular are food prices continue to rise.
Then there are stores going the opposite direction. The Kroger next to me, already very expensive, is installing a Starbucks coffee area, and this is not a rich area.
In NJ disposable bags are illegal for grocery stores to give out now, so you mist either bring your own or buy “reusable” bags. This is statewide. I bring boxes to the grocery store for my stuff.
It’s interesting that you had this happen in Lagos this past year as well. Here in the People’s Republic of Massachusetts, it also happened all of a sudden in the past year. A few noon at communities have had these bans for a few years now. Then all of a sudden over the past year, it seems rest of greater Boston adopted this at once. Likely a good example of emergent behavior controlling actions versus deep state.
* dingbat communities. Very interesting autocorrect
I thought you were going for “moonbat”.
On second thought, that may have been it. Years of listening to Howie Carr while driving places with my mother as a child definitely added that to my vocabulary haha.
Whole Foods here has no self-checkout. They plump for Amazon Prime at the register.
I never use self checkout for the main reason, the jobs they obsolete are important to many and make the neighborhood just that much poorer when gone. And of course, no one at the self checkout gets a discount for doing the store’s work. Was at Walmart the other week—they have store brand item I can’t replicate. They have completed the transition and trained their seals to use self checkout. I was amazed. They had converted all but three cashier stations, which were unmanned so I could not purchase anything. They had a huge open area with at least a… Read more »
At the Walmart I go to I either do self checkout or have the fattest, slowest black woman check me out (after she rings out the other two people in front of me that are buying half the store).
No one to my knowledge on this blog ever said integrity was easy. 😉
Compsci: I feel your frustration but at this point don’t know how to avoid it. I loathe being surveilled and filmed when I shop and checkout at Walmart, but sometimes there are things I need to get there. And I won’t use grocery delivery services (which I guarantee are not available where we’re moving to shortly). I prefer to choose my own produce (and I hope to be able to buy more at a local farmer’s market) and check prices and expiration dates on other products. Unless I have a very full cart, I check myself out far more quickly… Read more »
I refuse to use self-checkout for the same reason I strenuously avoid restaurants that don’t have wait-service–I want to be served, dammit! Having to check out your own shit is just another little hassel, and I don’t want any part of it.
Aside from that, I’m not an employee of the store, so I won’t act like one.
It’s a hassle and a degradation of the service once included in the price of the object(s) bought. No different to me than packages shrinking while prices remain the same as for the prior (larger) quantity included.
As 3g4me poignantly expressed, it’s a losing battle, but one that I fight as best I can.
Wegman’s is headquartered in Rochester, NY.
Cuomo issued an edict to ban plastic bags in NY state early in the plandemic hysteria.
So, Wegman’s is essentially imposing a NY state edict on shoppers in other states.
It probably doesn’t help that the company is currently run by sisters Colleen and Nicole. I’m guessing the edict aligns with their personal morality on plastic bags, which they are now imposing on you.
They should just change the name to, “Karens,” and get it over with.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wegmans
A slight correction. NYS banned plastic bags shortly before the Covid hoax but then Cuomo allowed them to reappear in the spring of 2020. Because somehow they were safer than bringing your own bag? I didn’t see the logic in it either but I guess that’s the point. I think they were once again banned in early 2021.
For a brief period of time the Covid God was at the peak of the Cult’s hierarchy, but soon enough Mother Gaia resumed her rightful place.
Thanks for the assist, KGB.
The ban is working so well they can’t even enforce it in the NYC metro area:
https://citylimits.org/2022/02/10/plastic-bags-still-ubiquitous-in-nyc-shops-months-after-enforcement-of-ban-began/
Maybe this kind of person instinctually fears plastic bags? Genetically, or on a universal conscious level they all know that Pol Pot used plastic bags to weed out urbanite mid wit parasites.
“I got a lecture about the environment from a moron”
Just curious Z, was said moron wearing a mask?
Another great example of what I call the “Crazy” that infests our daily lives. But it’s not enough to just complain and rant about the latest outrage to come down the pike. We have to fight back as best we can. But arguing with these idiots does nothing, so what is an alternative that might actually have an impact? I have found that when confronted by one of these zombie lunatics, it’s best to just stare at them with a puzzled look on your face and hold eye contact for a little too long. As soon as they start to… Read more »
Hey TomA youre going for something new here! Usually you just make oblique references to some terrorist plot that people here should definitely publicly arrange and conspire in… now youre just proposing dissidents threaten people with firearms in normal social interactions? What could possibly go wrong? Literally nothing, absolutely nothing could go wrong. This is really great and totally legit advice like usual. Im sure having this kind of discussion here is great for Zman too, should he ever get doxed or end up in kangaroo court. I just wonder if we should wait to write manifestos FIRST and if… Read more »
There is no threat either overt or implied when a firearm is casually revealed in public. If you carry with any frequency, you know that inadvertent expose happens all the time as a result of normal body movement (and no, no one carries in the crack of their ass as shown on TV). Furthermore, when others know you’re armed, the probability of attack goes way down (this is known as common sense). I’ve seen shady characters quickly exit a convenience store upon “accidentally” seeing my pistol. And open carry is an even a bigger deterrent to incipient crime activity.
Careful TomA. Just the other day a legally armed (concealed carry) person at my university was “printed” (spotted) by a student and all hell broke loose. He was arrested and has several prelim charges against him, one being terroristic threats. You don’t need to say a word, only be spotted by the sheep as a potential wolf.
I live in a small town and only carry when warranted and I know the terrain. Universities are hostile ground for many reasons, and to be avoided at all costs. But that said, it’s better to be falsely arrested and then fight the false arrest, than to be unarmed when needed and permanently dead as a result. And I will say again for the umpteenth time, firearms are for hunting and self defense ONLY.
I’m not totally up to date, but last I heard, even in States with liberal (in the classic sense) concealed weapon laws, doing so on school property is a no-no. Do you live in Utah? Because that’s the only exception. Here in gun-happy Florida, permit or not, packing iron on school (university) property is a felony offense. Curiously, FL CCW allows holder to carry a taser-type weapon on campus. I held a CCW in another State, but rarely used it. Not for the least reason is there are always places where it’s not valid, and these places vary by State.… Read more »
AZ has passed any number of liberal firearms exemptions. Basically we are Constitutional carry. The only real authority the University has is the statue regarding “…interfering with the peaceful conduct an educational institution”. Vague to the extreme. The campus is completely open and roads from the city pass through the campus (on periphery). Campus quad is closed to traffic. People walk through all the time, even shop and eat. However, the law is a catch all. Once a driver was stopped off campus at a Circle K for a bad tail light (probably a pretext) after having driven through campus… Read more »
… for once I disagree with you, Z! there was a time and a place, before over abundance, when people brought their own bags to shop; as to ‘grimy’ – the world is grimy, get over it, give your immune system a chance, dirt is good, kids get dirty – they live …
It not really the grimy sac, its the assholes and all the other ideas that go along with it
If we all used the grimy bags, how long will it take for them to find something else to lecturer us about
It’s also the clear “burning incense to the Emperor” thing of making you pay an explicit tagged-on charge for it. When they just want the money (gas taxes), it’s prohibited to tell the consumer what the government’s cut is; when they want to rub it in your face for moral reasons, they require the clerk to make the incantation at the end of the transaction that you’re being fined fifteen cents for your offenses to Gaia.
They’re not pissing in your cornflakes because they couldn’t find a urinal, they’re doing it because they hate you.
I love it! This is ancient wisdom. Good on you for being so bold and telling it like it is. In defense of Z, he’s just using snark to dehumanize the effete snobs that plague our daily lives (you should see what he does to libertarians). And in regard to grimy food sacks, there is this new invention called the washing machine (see I can use snark too).
You have the right to disagree. What Z’s saying is they force others to comply with their beliefs. Do you want to force me, a handicapped person, to OBEY your bagging desires?
Being forced to comply with the beliefs of others is what society is all about.
From grimy plastic bags to St. Batholomew’s Day Massacre in 3…2…
Only to an extent
There’s the raw meat issue, in that a bags used for raw meat should never be used for anything but, and I doubt that most people can be that methodical.
The SubscribStar thing is worth it and I’m a cheapskate. For $5 a month, you get a couple of extra posts and half hour podcast every week. What else can you even buy for $5? And with inflation these days, $5 is like $2.
Also, Z Man deserves a few bucks from each of us for huge amount of content he puts out for free.
(Z, you have my address for the commission check, right?)
Agreed. Love the SS site with the additional podcast and commentary. Putting that aside, have a wonderful break, Z.
Poor choice of an acronym there
I told a friend this… If Z retires and went full time on a daily show I would subscribe to it for whatever he charged. There is no content like this ANYWHERE else. Period. Currently, Z is the only political content I subscribe to. The money is minimal (I spend a lot more at the bar every month), but supporting his work and reading the excellent commentary by the various commenters is worth its weight in gold.
I’ve been contributing the same $5 here for a year or two now. I jokingly said it was to pay for the electricity for the night light in his hallway bathroom. With escalating inflation, perhaps that approaches the truth. 🙂
It’s tempting I could get more content at same cost (Is that the “green door”?) However, my current participation is enough of a time sink already, and plus, were I to make the transition, it would deny impecunious reads my many pearls of wisdom 😀
“Of course, the cranks behind these schemes will counter that you can always use the grimy canvas sacks that have become one of their totems. They apparently believe that if there is a climate rapture while they are shopping, Gaia will be able to home in on their grimy canvas sacks” Thanks for pointing this out Z. Those sacks are reusable but are only really safe if you wash them in the laundry from time to time. The Lovely 🥰 Mrs. has a few in the trunk of her car as Trader Joe’s charges for paper bags and ALDI near… Read more »
Coal-powered cars!
You know Newsome must have lithium mining stocks up the frickin’ wazoo. Betcha he’s in on an EV IPO as well as kickbacks, er, campaign contributions from the electric company (PG&E), the toll road “investors” (EV Only Fast Lane Tolling), and the Tesla charger companies.
Did you know there already ‘only’ 80,000 charging stations in California? It’s gonna be a scrapper’s field day, I tell ya.
Move over, fentanyl, the homeless won’t have enough shopping carts to handle their new industry.