APPLIANCE AND REFRIGERATION HOSPITAL

flame on.

this one goads my ire.

this one makes me genuinely angry.

in this instance, the cart is so far in front of the horse, it is rendered invisible.

let me elucidate.

the confusing issue:

my local authority is considering a new scheme, a scheme in which i will be financially liable for all that which i do not recycle.

for all that i do not recycle, i will be fined. i will have to pay.

here is my problem with this particularly moronic and morally fractured 'idea'.

because my fellow human beings make choices.

they excersise freedom of choice.

because my fellow human beings choose to buy [and constantly renew!]:

cars
kitchens
cameras
televisions
bathrooms
holidays
freezers
ovens
computers
furniture
mp3 players
fridges
showers
hot tubs
sunglasses
jewelry
clothes
nappies
lawnmowers

et al

a fine is to be levied upon me for 'wasting precious resources'.

can no-one see the immense irony in this cretinous plan? as ever, my local government body is acting in a way that suggests collective stupidy, arrogance and moronic moral judgment that seems beyond measure.

consider one television. consider the gargantuan waste of resources needed to produce that one television:

the materials that make up the product itself.
the cars that are needed to transport the workers to the place that one television is manufactured.
the place, the enormous factory, that the one television is produced in.
the materials that make up that factory.
the materials that make up the means of production for that one television.
the metal
the brick
the plastics
the oil
the electricity
the water
the stone
the steel
the glass
the wood
the paper
the rubber
the money
the hours
the time

you would probably have to recycle every single scrap of your own waste [and that of your neighbours] for an entire lifetime before you could claw back a fraction of the profligate waste of resources needed to manufacture that single television.

i have to pay for your choices [and my own], for your purchases, for your products, for your lifestyles.

i'm paying already.
we are paying already.
with a planet.
and a species.

as ever, government slaps an elastoplast on the shotgun wound.

once again the questions need to be asked:

'how much do i need'?
'how much is enough'?
'is this purchase justified'?

do i really need a solid gold toilet seat?

subjective of course.

do not suppose i consider myself guiltless. i am as culpable as you. i am part of the problem.

flame off.

the|G|™

Here's my brother Bob doing... what...? Putting his finger in the flames right in front of his father taking the picture? Hopefully there was no encouragement from the photographer for this incautious action.

I'm not sure about the other two, but it looks like a Hubley wrecker truck there on the table. Hubley was a Lancaster (PA)-based toy company - a major player in the toy car/truck and cap gun national market.

I remember that Fridgidaire behind Bob. Brings back memories. And what's neat is that all of the memories are seen from an angle of being a yard or so tall: reaching up to hang onto the the handle and pull it toward me to open the door; seeing the huge interior of packed brand-labelled food containers lighted in a yellow tungston glow; Reaching far into the things on the shelves, and just barely getting the tips of my fingers to items against the back wall, and even then it was almost crawling into the fridge - my arm extended as far as it could reach, my armpit against the shelf; not being able to reach the freezer, that when it was opened, was always thick with a white crust of ice... Yeah, it's neat remembering from that perspective...

That white cabinet is still in my mother's dining room - this same dining room in the house we all grew up in. It's painted brown and is now by the windows, but it's otherwise the same...

The vase on the cabinet is really cool. It's a clear glass vase set into a framework of metal.

Guess that's about it. Hope you enjoyed the tour...

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