Big Brother - curbside waste edition

Hat tip to xfloggingkylex.

On its surface, this article doesn't really stir the blood or rile the spirit.  I mean, it's simply touting the technology used to keep recycling bins...you know, the ones the County REQUIRES us to have...from being stolen.  Right?

After spending millions on new recycling carts, Frederick County is not going to let them disappear.

The county has radio frequency identification tags on each recycling cart. The electronic tags are scanned by trucks each time recycling containers are emptied.

If the Frederick County Office of Recycling is notified that a recycling cart has been stolen or is missing, staff are able to look it up and see where and when it was last used.

In some cases, they have found the cart somewhere else in the county and returned it to the original address, said Dawn Adams, recycling program manager.

"It was nice to see the system working like that," Adams said.

Nice, right? The County is being proactive in assuring that these bins don't get stolen.

But about halfway into the article, the tone changes.

The recycling office also hopes to use the tags to measure recycling participation rates. The tags will show how frequently residents use their carts and will provide targeted information on which areas of the county set out their carts the most and least.

Uh oh. I don't like where this is going.

The only information recorded is whether a container has been set out.

It does have an individual address associated with the cart number.

Ah! Money shot!

If you think for one minute that the RFID data won't be used to persuade coerce people to recycle, you're out of your mind.  Government only knows how to do two things: (1) get bigger, and (2) use force.  Be on the lookout for a County-wide campaign in the very near future "urging" us to be more diligent in recycling.  This will be followed later on by a campaign to assess fines against those who don't recycle.

Because in order to accomplish Objective 1 (get bigger) money is needed.  And our "betters" are finding more and unique ways to bleed us dry every day.

Wiener of the Week

The U. S. Army has become neutered. Political Correctness has overwhelmed common sense and has turned the Army (with the exception of their elite forces) into meals-on-wheels with guns.

The idea that an Army base has a policy of NO WEAPONS is the quintessence of a complete lack of common sense. It was this ass-headed policy that made it impossible for the soldiers at Ft. Hood to defend themselves when Major Jihad shot the place up.

The idea that an officer can declare allegiance to Islamist practices, proselytize soldiers in an attempt to convert them to Islam, and receive a PROMOTION is the quintessence of a complete lack of common sense.

The idea that this officer should be deployed to a war zone -- where an Islamic enemy is being fought -- is asinine in extreme. That he was even still IN the Army was asinine in extreme.

Congratulations, Army. You suck at so many things, but you have Political Correctness down to a science. Oh yeah, and you're the Wiener of the Week.

Political Correctness kills

Reading this, I don't know how you can come to any other conclusion than that the people who were killed or wounded at Ft. Hood were victims of Political Correctness run amok.

U.S. intelligence agencies were aware months ago that Army Major Nidal Malik Hasan was attempting to make contact with people associated with al Qaeda, two American officials briefed on classified material in the case told ABC News.

According to the officials, the Army was informed of Hasan's contact, but it is unclear what, if anything, the Army did in response.

The Army was informed. And did nothing.

Nothing.

How could they?!?!?

Easy. Major Hasan is part of a protected minority.

An officer who took action against him would imperil any chance of future career advancement. So his superiors sat on the information. Rather than deal with him, they shuttled him from Walter Reed out to Texas, where he could be some other officer's problem.

Instead he became the problem for 13 dead and 38 wounded people. People who would still be alive and whole today had the Army had the balls to do the right thing instead of the PC thing.

PC kills. It's time to cut the BS and let reason rule the day. An Army officer trying to contact al Queda should be brought up on charges of treason - NOW! Said officer should NOT be treated with kid gloves simply because the anti-American tools at CAIR will be offended. Lives depend on it.

Hey, Army! It's time to stop the madness. No more protected minorities. Every soldier is a unique individual and should be judged as an individual, NOT by their group identity. STOP IT! Stop endangering the innocent out of fear of fringe identity groups. Show the courage at the top that our troops show in executing their duties in the field.

You owe it to the troops under your command. You owe it to the American people. And you owe it to the survivors of Thursday's attack.