Old bags of the nanny state...

A ban on the use of traditional plastic bags by retail stores failed in City Council today under pressure from the business community and the plastics industry.

Councilman Frank DiCicco's bill was rejected by Council this morning in a 6-10 vote. Council President Anna C. Verna, whose husband was buried yesterday, was absent.

I've noted that a number of urban centers are playing around with this nonsense concerning plastic bags as of late. Philadelphia just gave it a shot in their City Council, and it was defeated.

Councilman Jim Kenney, a co-sponsor, blamed ShopRite for lobbying against the bill, and encouraged Philadelphians not to shop there. DiCicco accused the plastic bag industry for undermining the bill.

"I have never dealt with an industry that has been so manipulative," DiCicco said on the Council floor.

A city councilman is encouraging Philadelphians not to shop at ShopRite because they put up opposition to something that would hurt their business. The sponsor of the nonsensical bill claims the plastic industry is "manipulative." Uh...it would seem to me that the only manipulation applied here is by the jackass politicians on the local level who are trying to ramrod a bill through their municipality that would be a detriment to the plastics and retail food industries while making is more inconvenient to the customer based purely on junk science (which wasn't even part of the council's discussion). Who's manipulating...really?

Oh...by the way, I have the whole issue under control. Should my municipality ever decide to outlaw plastic bags at the grocery store, I'm going to buy them bulk on the internet and hand them out for free at the local grocer.