Washington’s city government has long been a symbol of poor management, wasteful programs, and gross inefficiencies. That image was reaffirmed this month after the city turned a program to replace trash bins into an utter disaster. Shortly before the primary election, Mayor Vincent C. Gray (D) rushed the new cans out to every citizen. The program was so rushed that there appeared to be no system in place to collect the old cans. Now, it appears that the city has not only been chucking new cans but it has not been recycling the plastic cans — simply pumping them in Virginia for incineration. However, the city charged two people who tried to reuse the discarded bins.
The city delivered more than 200,000 new cans but left old cans on the streets. The result was alleys full of new an old cans. Then the rain washed off the stickers to identify the new cans so that crews began to collect new and old bins for disposal. In the meantime, the city arrested a District artist who decided to take some of the old discarded cans and repurpose them as flowerpots. So, while she was being prosecuted, the city was collecting old and new cans to throw them away. At least 132 truckloads of plastic bins — a third of the 16,000 cans that were to be collected and recycled — were simply dumped in Virginia to be burned.
The city has a curious defense. Since it failed to properly rollout the program, the mix of old and new cans now were clogging streets and presenting safety issues. Thus, the city decided to dump rather than recycle the cans in its rush to deal with its gross negligence. While the new cans came with stickers to put on old cans reading “Take Me” to allow them to be collected, the stickers fell off and left crews uncertain as to which cans were to be collected. Public Works Director William Howland (right) ordered dump trucks to “blitz” the city and treat the cans as garbage to be dumped.
In the meantime, outgoing Mayor Grey was not available — he is traveling to Las Vegas for a taxpayer supported conference. He is also unreachable to deal with another year of appalling school scores for the District and a new investigation showing police officers running red lights with impunity.
The city however charged Mina Karini and a friend with theft after they took the “Take Me” signs literally and repurposed some of the cans as planters. The District argued that by taking the cans, the two acted to “deprive” the city of “property of value” and potential profits from recycling the cans – which of course they did not do.
Source: Washington Post
Paul Schulte
Dredd – trying to kill the messenger is a logical fallacy.
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The twisted messenger is fair game.
“Frame” your message!
Lakoff is a linguist at UC-Berkeley, and his theories (which are not shared by most linguists; see Matt Bai, “Framing Wars,” New York Times Magazine, 17 July 2005) have convinced him that we all have “frames” that shape the way we see the world. And the frames are shaped by language.
Change the language and you change the frame through which we see. So if your conservative opponent speaks of “tax relief,” don’t come up with a better version of tax relief — you’ll just be reinforcing their conservative frame. Instead, argue that taxes are the price we pay for living in a decent society. If your opponent speaks of an elephant, don’t think of an elephant when you answer him or her!
Lakoff says there are only two frames. One derives from what he calls the “strict father” family, the other from what he calls the “nurturant parent” family. The first is Republican / conservative (surprise!), the second is Democrat / progressive, and about 35-40% of us are currently hooked to each frame.
A minority of Americans — 20-30% — is in between, confused, torn, and up for grabs.
According to Lakoff, for progressives to start winning national elections again, they need to cement their base and win over that 20-30%. And the way for them to do that is to sharpen their language so it has little or nothing to do with conservatives’ language.
Paul Schulte
Dredd – great. Today we play word games …
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Don’t get any on yourself.
Dredd, I have had now to delete two more comments that attack another poster and clearly violate our civility rule. If you cannot comply with this minimal rule, you will have to be suspended from further commentary.
Dredd – trying to kill the messenger is a logical fallacy.
Paul Schulte
Dredd – to cherry pick comments from the Pope when you agree with him but not condemn his comments when you disagree with him is hypocritical. And yes, some Roman Catholics are hypocritical. Nancy Pelosi comes instantly to mind.
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The Paulpul Bull.
Dredd – so Lakoff can crank out progressive pablum and you agree that he is competent, but you don’t trust my judgment. Why am I not surprised?
Paul Schulte
Dredd – great. Today we play word games …
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And book games too.
What fun.
Police arresting artists for using old trash bins is a fun word game that could be made into three books.
More fun.
Dredd –
How does this make sense?
Paul Schulte
Dredd – I am currently working on three books, all in different areas. That hardly makes me small minded.
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Correct.
The quality is determinative, not the quantity.
Paul Schulte
Dredd – somewhat like Lakoff and his 200 articles?
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Can’t speak for your quality or quantity, since I don’t trust your judgment.
But Lakoff is very competent.
Paul Schulte
You said “Dredd – Pope Francis said abortion was a sin and you didn’t back him then. This is kind of hypocritical of you.”
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Why do you think I have to back the Pope or not back the Pope on anything?
And why would that be hypocritical?
Some Catholics agree with him on some things but not others.
Are they hypocrites for that?
Your assertions are utterly absurd.
Dredd – to cherry pick comments from the Pope when you agree with him but not condemn his comments when you disagree with him is hypocritical. And yes, some Roman Catholics are hypocritical. Nancy Pelosi comes instantly to mind.
Paul Schulte
Dredd – I am currently working on three books, all in different areas. That hardly makes me small minded.
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Correct.
The quality is determinative, not the quantity.
Dredd – somewhat like Lakoff and his 200 articles?
Drill holes in the bottom, fill halfway with rocks first then add soil, they will indeed be so heavy no one could run off with them easily. Paint and plant!
Sorry, but I think these garbage bins are going to make terrible planters.
They’ll need drainage – better drill some holes in the bottom. They are tall (unless you plan to cut them down and those mothers are going to be plenty hard to cut and once cut will have terrible ragged edges). You will have to fill them with something that will drain but won’t rot or decay before you add planting material and chances are that something is going to be verry heavy so you better have your planter positioned right where you want it because it is likely to be immovable once it is planted.
Terrible waste by the city, of course. But I’m not too confident that we are any better prepared to engage in any city ‘planning’.
Paul Schulte
Dredd – Pope Francis said abortion was a sin and you didn’t back him then. This is kind of hypocritical of you.
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He was closer to saying you have a small mind:
I nether back his position nor do I not back it … I have no position on running the Catholic Church … that is his realm.
I do like his frankness on PC (Pope Capitalism) and I back a better capitalism that is not small minded.
You are going to make the small minded book if you want to.
Dredd – I am currently working on three books, all in different areas. That hardly makes me small minded.
Dredd – you need to reread your 9:23 post. It does not make sense.
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I have neither backed nor not backed the Pope on whatever stance the Pope has on abortion as Paul Shulte falsely claimed.
Dredd – your comment shows that I did not falsely claim anything about you. Dude, you need to read your own stuff. 😉
I have not backed nor not backed the Pope on abortion.
Your stance on falsehood is noted.
It is as wide as need be.
Dredd – you need to reread your 9:23 post. It does not make sense.
I have not backed nor not backed his stance on abortion.
Neither do I know what his stance is.
Your word on it means nothing.
I do know that one of your favorite senators had a wide stance.
What is your stance on his stance?
Dredd – great. Today we play word games. You would have to identify the particular favorite Senator to see if I agree he has a wide stance and then I could tell you if 1) he was one of my favorites and 2) what my stance on his stance is. I know what my stance on your stance is if you want to know.
Paul Schulte
Dredd – Pope Francis said abortion was a sin and you didn’t back him then. This is kind of hypocritical of you.
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Paulpul bull.
Dredd – so you back the Pope’s stand on abortion?
Dredd – Pope Francis said abortion was a sin and you didn’t back him then. This is kind of hypocritical of you.
Treating the Earth like garbage is a sin according to Pope Francis:
(Climate Progress).
Pope Francis can have his own opinion. Here is a scientist burned at the stake of political correctness.
http://patterico.com/2014/05/16/is-study-of-so-called-climate-change-even-science/
Reblogged this on Milieu de la Moda.
pressure wash them and resell as portable beer keg coolers.