You’re driving across the Mojave Desert on Highway 40 and stop at a café in Barstow. You order a burger, fries and soft drink and it arrives at your table. You expect a straw for the soft drink and you’re told they can only offer you one if you request it. What? Talk about poor customer service!
The masterminds of minutiae in the California Legislature are looking at a bill to outlaw plastic straws unless requested, with a fine up to $1,000 and six months in jail. Only in La La Land would such an idiotic law be considered.
You think this is outlandish – you’ve never been in California – where every day is an experience in frivolous, idiotic ideas and laws. Is the California Legislature devoid of real things to work on? Looking at the debt the state is in, I think that would be their main and overwhelming concern. But the loose, dope-smoking, dunderheads in the population must have been elected to state offices of power. How else can the plastic straw bill be explained?
Representative Ian Caleron has introduced the bill to stop sit-down restaurants from offering customers straws with their beverages unless they request one. A waiter who serves a drink with an unrequested straw would face up to six months in jail and up to a $1,000 fine. A few California cities already have passed straws-on-request laws; San Luis Obispo and Davis, both big college towns and liberal havens of far leftist thought.
Another argument, brought up by the Los Angeles Times, warned “repetitive sucking may cause or exacerbate wrinkles on the lips or around the mouth! This is an example of their best literary efforts?
The La La Land of idiotic and stupid ideas is alive and well in the beautiful land of the far west. California is such a beautiful place. I would live there if I were able; but housing, taxes and cost of living are astronomical, as is New York City (noisy, stinking, crowded, and cold this time of year, and too hot in summer).
New York is Los Angeles of the East Coast, without the sunshine, but populated with the most obnoxious and vile humans in the United States. The most popular color to wear is black because of all the dirt and filth from walking the streets and running in and out of buildings.
Chicago is a close third without much of the pollution both LA and NYC have. But don’t drive the freeways unless you average 90 mph and can dodge all the cars changing lanes. And don’t carry a weapon or you’ll be in big trouble. The mayor dislikes cretins coming into his city with the notion of concealed carry for people to defend themselves from street crime.
I don’t expect California to use common sense and street smarts to solve the straw issue. I’m sure they will go forward and fine poor servers for supplying straws for soft drinks. It’s tough enough to work for minimum wage and tips only to be fined a huge fine for supplying a straw. What creep would work for the state to catch servers giving out a straw without a request to supply one?
I’m sure someone with a relation in state government has the inside track on being a “straw inspector.” What a fine job. Only in California!
The rotting of America from within continues…
The straw that broke the camel’s back. One little straw added on top of the rest, and the sturdy camel collapsed.
California has a reputation for being “out there” when it comes to all kinds of trends. The straw idea is just the beginning of what has to be done to save our oceans from the growing tangle and strangle of plastics accumulating there and killing marine life.
I applaud anyone courageous enough to buck the nay-sayers who ridicule them for caring about someone or something other than themselves.
You crazy Californians go ahead and march to your west coast drummer. Many of us will be marching right behind.
You should not have stopped in Arizona, you’d fit right into California culture.
They should really go for the big enchilada and outlaw all types of plastic: bags, garbage & storage containers, bottles, and utensils. I see more plastic bags, containers, and bottles in the ocean when I’m in FL (and I retrieve them when possible) than straws. I don’t remember seeing a floating straw. I think the straws are popular on the West Coast to suck up all the cocaine.
But then how would you get your water, store and move garbage, and eat? Could you imagine a world without plastic? I could get along but hypocrites couldn’t because as much as they complain they are usually the worst offenders at properly managing and disposing of plastic waste.
Thank you for your kind observation. If the grands were in CA I’d gladly be there.
As to your other claim, how did we get water, store and move garbage, and eat before plastics? Reusable glass containers, garbage and trash barrels that we washed (yes, that really happened), and food wrapped in wax paper or cardboard. I can imagine a world without plastic because I lived in one, and it was here in the good old USA. We manage just fine with our canvas totes and glass storage containers, and the plastic that gets used over and over and over instead of junked. The straw in CA are the first baby steps toward a more responsible stewardship of the planet.
Come join us around the drum circle and learn what it is to care for mother earth.
Mrs. Mandaville,
If it were your child, a 19 year old college student working to pay for college who commits aggravated straw providing,and they go to prison and have a felony record that follows them for life, perhaps you would think this law a bit harsh. Bet most service providers in California are minorities/women/Hispanic; are you for sending them to jail? Should they be deported if illegal? What if they merely misunderstood the law because of limited English-speaking skills?
Very harsh of you to send poor minorities to jail for a mistake. As good liberal you should beware of what you wish for, as you may get it.