Garbage police

This is a news report from KPIX here in Ess Eff on the garbage police. Apparently, the garbage company here in Ess Eff has the authority to go through your trash to make sure you're recycling. Once again, the powers that be in this City will stop at nothing to enforce their way of life on the residents of Ess Eff. Eventually, City mucky-mucks would like to see fines for people who veer off the chosen path.

Having garbage workers go through people's garbage presents several concerns- 1) don't they have better things to do than go through people's trash to make sure recycling is going on, 2) if they are going through people's trash, what's to stop them from stealing stuff from the trash, say, credit card bills, or other sources of information that could lead to stolen identities, and 3) seems to be an otherwise unwarranted government intrusion on one's privacy, to the extent one believes in a "right to privacy" (which I do believe is a requirement to be a liberal, errr, progressive).

The City is increasingly using the guise of environmentalism to enforce a rigid set of lifestyle rules for the residents of Ess Eff, right down to monitoring your trash, regardless of cost. This is no more apparent than in an article from today's Chronicle on the hiring of a "Director of Climate Protection Initiatives" with a salary of $160,000 a year- now one of 25 people employed by the City to work on climate change. Wouldn't that money be better spent actually doing something instead of talking and meeting? Nevermind the bond measures that have passed and will be presented to voters in the coming elections on various spending priorities- how can the residents sit here and allow their tax money be spent on frivolous city government jobs and at the same time agree to huge bond measures that will burden current and future city government budgets and residents.

Sorry, I'm just a bit cranky these past few days and am not looking forward to a group exercise tomorrow on Value Statements and Group Objectives that is required by work.