Afraid that the chilluns of the Bubble Wrap Generation might be exposed to icky stuff, Congress dashed off a quick law between their three martini lunch and their after work toddy. It was a simple law, stating that any clothes or toys sold for children under the age of twelve had to be tested for lead and other various toxins. Then, without ever stopping to wonder how they managed to survive a childhood where you could buy whole toys made of lead, they patted themselves on the back and went off to wreck another sector of the economy.
Meanwhile, thrift stores are stuck wondering how in the hell they're supposed to get their secondhand clothing tested, and Goodwill may have to get out of the tyke wrapper market altogether.
Good job, Congress! I'm sure your further monkeywrenching in the financial industry will show a similar deft touch and careful forethought.
UPDATE: Fight tha power!
(H/T to Survivalblog.)
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
23 comments:
Change!
I see entire stores popping up selling clothes and things for incontinent midgets with childhood fantasies.
And every craftsperson who makes eco-friendly natural childrens items is being forced out of the market because they can't pay for expensive lab testing...happening to some friends of mine who make baby rattles out of wood. No paint, just wood, some glue and beans or somesuch...
They've been in session for, what, six hours total? Glad to know they had a fair, open, and thorough debate...
To be fair, a high-lead diet in youth might help explain Congress.
Hmmmmm, I wonder if a mountain of "hazardous waste" (children's clothing) on the steps of Congress might make a point. Not that you can get to Congress, anymore. I suppose one could dump it in the street outside.
This reminds me of the minimum wage hike: taken entirely on its own, it seems like a good idea to Caring People, but by increasing costs it simply makes things worse.
Another big gift to big corporate. The small clothing and toy businesses will be unable to compete. WalMart is laughing all the way to the bank. I wonder if this is the change the Left(TM) voted for?
Well, first the contaminated clothes, then the source. After the DO8 trials, it was only a matter of time before the legislative instant -gratification seekers honed in on its implications. Now the next step is to get that pesky toxic substance out of the hands of the consumer public/constituency altogether! Let them shoot plastic!
Politicians don't read the laws they pass. Most judges in USA are not licensed lawyers and never went to law college, says NY Times.
Today, Knoxville News "Sentinel" Blog Police censored and banned Pirate News TV blog from its RSS listing of Knoxville blogs. The URL link to Pirate News TV was deleted from the html code on the left-hand sidebar, and the RSS agregator blocked syndication of all Pirate News TV articles.
http://piratenews-tv.blogspot.com/2009/01/pirate-news-banned-by-knox-news.html
If you want Free Speech in USA, then complain to KNS dictators about the censorship of the news reported by Pirate News TV, and demand reinstatement of blogging rights.
Another KNS blogger was also banned today:
Posted: January 07, 2009, 11:15am EST by Helen - 1550 - KnoxViews - The number of local job cuts announced yesterday by Brunswick, Alcoa, and Goody's: 1550 UPDATE: A reader alerts us that WBIR reported the Goody's toll at 1100, upping the total to 1850.
http://blognetwork.knoxnews.com/feed.php?channel=50
http://www.knoxviews.com/node/10070
Sorry, 76.123.221.94 has been banned.
KNS previously censored and banned PirateNewsDotOrg from posting Comments to daily news articles. This is a Super Secret Censorship that actually cesnors the censorship from the person being censored. The Comments are still visible to the poster, but not to anyone else. The banned person is never notified they are banned, so they keep posting month after month, year after year. This waste of time appears to be one of the major military tactics of DARPA.mil, inventor of the internet. Free Speech don't matter when nobody's can hear it.
Bankrupt KNS was paid a $20-million bribe, er, "Taxslave Investment Funds", by City of Knoxville Municipal Corporation, for propaganda services. How many other Knox buisnesses would like corporate welfare, especially during a Depression? This government paycheck makes KNS a government contractor, which must abide by the First Amendment to the US Constitution, as proven by every supreme court and US Congress. It's THE LAW!
Here's the Pirate News that KNS does NOT want YOU to THINK:
http://piratenews-tv.blogspot.com/2009/01/pirate-news-banned-by-knox-news.html
"...cesnors the censorship ...". Insightful.
I agree with perlhaqr, they obviously ingested great quantities of lead in their youth and now are mad as hatters....
Lead, mercury, thalidomide - what else can we force-feed them?
No company will want to be saddled with the expense, so that's another 200,000 federal workers, or something in that neighborhood.
Why is it such a bad idea to simply ask the manufacturer not to use lead in the product?
There are companies that will buy the clothes from Goodwill and sell them back to the second and third world. The price will be much less than what they would have gotten in their stores but at least they won't end up in landfills.
Apparently knitters will be a bit stuffed as well, as their wools will have to be tested to comply with this silly law.
Hopefully it will not be enforced against such small targets.
How do we get out of this damn hand basket? I don't like where we're going...
KNS is still privately owned. You have no more right to see something in their newspaper than you have right to stand in someone front yard holding a picket sign to their window.
That said, KNS isn't immune to idiocy or perfidy, as demonstrated.
This whole thing PISSES me the hell off. I don't make things for kids but I do love buying handmade gifts for my little cousins. And when I do have a little munchkin I want the options to buy handmade clothing, blankets, toys, etc.
I hope people will help us try to get this law revised. It goes into effect Feb 10 but several groups are working HARD to get Technical revisions made. I've linked to the groups on both of my blogs.
Thank you for posting about this!!!
Never mind that we wouldn't have all this toxic lead-laden crap in the country if these same morons hadn't been playing footsie with the ChiComs all these years...
Looks like resell stores get a reprieve from the new regs.
Yes and no...
They won't have to pay for tests, but can still be held liable for selling, in good faith, an old toy that fails.
Staying in the toy biz is a sucker's bet for a resale shop...
Man, the crap's already starting, and the Light Bringer, ole Luce Veritas himself, hasn't even been sworn in yet.
Look forward to a reverse Midas touch coming to every aspect of your life that they touch for at least the next two years.
Post a Comment