Seattle Social Police

Didn't it seem innocent when they forced us to buy "efficient" toilets that wouldn't waste 5 gallons a flush? Nobody cares that you have to flush the new toilets many times to get them empty, and nobody cares that my 89-year-old dad plugged the toilet many times, and stood there in his confused adult-onset-dementia state and flushed, and flushed, and stared perplexed at the flooded floor.

Then it was water-flow reducers, that make you take a 15 minute shower that used to take 7 minutes because it takes longer to wash off all the soap suds with the reduced force.

Garbage cans became Seattle's next target, with recyclable materials outlawed from your trash can, complete with garbage police to inspect and reject garbage cans with more than 10% recyclable material by volume. There are two warnings before a $50 fine.

Table scraps were the next feast for the newly-monikered Seattle City Clowncil. All except meat and diary products are also outlawed from the garbage can, and have to be put in the yard waste container. And beginning in 2009, residents will be charged for their work.

Now the city is proposing a 20-cent tax if you use a grocery store's plastic or paper bags. And they want to give part of the money to stores for having to collect it. Not to mention that the stores will save "hundreds of thousands" in bag costs, according to the local news broadcast.

Proposals are also in the works to tax un-green things like disposable diapers and plastic bottles.

When do you think the social engineering will stop? I think they'll soon charge $5 a gallon for water, $10 a gallon tax on gasoline (to encourage conservation, of course!) and a dollar-a-day for the air we breathe.

Oh, and the Seattle Social Police will just want to be called the SS.