Have you ever read a newspaper article and walked away stunned that the writer seemed to be totally oblivious to the real story or left some significant questions unasked?
Conservative readers of the June 9 Washington Post could understandably answer yes to the aforementioned question after reading the front page story "Early Lesson in Eco-Activism Comes From Economics Book."
Writer Daniel de Vise begins:
Casting about for a cause, the Young Activist Club at Piney Branch Elementary settled on something close at hand: the hundreds of polystyrene trays and plastic utensils discarded daily in the school cafeteria.
Story Continues Below Ad ↓The students from Takoma Park, known as one of the D.C. region's most socially conscious communities, have raised $9,000 from foundations and sympathetic residents to purchase a dishwasher, washable flatware and other supplies so they can banish Styrofoam from their school. But they have met unexpected resistance from a school system in which food-service operations rely on the convenience and disposability of plastic.
Back up the train. An elementary school has politically motivated extracurricular clubs? But young children are highly impressionable and the the political activism they would engender most certainly would be guided by the political views of their parents and teachers. As de Vise admits, Takoma Park is one of the area's "most socially conscious" (read: liberal/progressive in politics) communities.
But if the community at-large is pretty liberal, why on Earth isn't the push for eliminating styrofoam from the school's cafeteria the province of the Parent-Teacher Association (PTA)?
De Vise doesn't seem curious on that point, nor does he seem interested in probing how much the students understand about cost-benefit analysis.
Instead, de Vise opts to dutifully transcribe quotes from the little kids who are no doubt egged on by their parents:
"Polystyrene trays are bad for the environment and they have a big carbon footprint and they're made out of oil, which is bad for the environment, because it makes global warming," said Margot Bloch, 8, a third-grader at the school. Her mother, a peace activist, is among the club's sponsors.
Students have won over their principal, the school lunch lady and the City Council, which last year banned the use of Takoma Park funds to purchase small plastic water bottles. About 20 children converged on council chambers last night and spoke beside a stack of disposable trays.
"That's one day's trays. They're as tall as my brother," said third-grader Emily Fox, 8. The council passed a resolution supporting the students' efforts.
While de Vise noted that the students did crunch some numbers, he failed to explain that the cost of going green would exceed the present arrangement, even leaving out the supposedly environmentally harmful effects of the schools dish detergent use:
Montgomery school officials said they are considering biodegradable alternatives to foam. But they rejected the school's proposal to wash and dry its own dishes in a brief June 1 memo, citing "a number of operational issues," including labor costs, that led them to disposable trays in the first place. Students sometimes discard reusable trays or repurpose them as sleds. Dishwashers consume water and power and introduce chemicals into the environment.
[...]
The Takoma Park students calculate that their school spends $3,700 a year on disposable trays and $1,600 on plastic cutlery. They estimate it would cost between $2,000 and $5,000 to buy a rebuilt dishwasher, $1,500 to buy enough hard plastic trays for the 500 students and $400 to $600 for washable flatware. They also say it could cost $5,000 a year to pay someone to operate the dishwasher.
One-time capital costs aside -- like the $5,000 for the dishwasher -- only $300 is saved by going green in operating costs while it appears the replacement and repair costs of the new equipment is ignored.
For example, how long will the new trays and silverware last before being worn out and needing replacement? What about replacing trays, flatware, and silverware that end up lost, broken or stolen by year's end? What of the cost of detergent and increased energy use to heat the water used for the dishwashers? Indeed, what of the increased water, energy, and chemical use that leaves an adverse -- according to environmentalists -- footprint?
I'm not expecting a newspaper reporter to ask these difficult questions of impresionable 8-year-olds, but they are legitimate questions for the adults who are using their kids as "socially conscious" political props.
Caption for photo above: Paula Nersesian helps daughter Kira Goo, 9, test the step-stool provided for Piney Branch Elementary pupils at last night's Takoma Park council meeting. (By Kevin Clark -- The Washington Post)
—Ken Shepherd is Managing Editor of NewsBusters
Editor at Large
Comments Policy
Yep...the left always USE
June 9, 2009 - 16:39 ET by bigtimerYep...the left always USE the kids for their agenda...always, one way or the other.
Isn't anybody sick and tired of this ruse by now?
I would love to hear a conservative that is running for any kind of office come right out and say this with conviction...loud and clear, more than once until that point is well made.
Shove it back in their faces...they do nothing for the 'kids'...they do it for them and their leftist agenda...all of them, and they have been doing so as long as I can remember...and that is quite awhile now.
Doubling down on stupid is not a particularly good idea. ~Andrew Breitbart
ask soros
June 9, 2009 - 17:06 ET by sevenFebruary 24, 2009 (LPAC)--Nazi protege George Soros, who has committed crimes such as participating in the roundup of Jews in Nazi-occupied Hungary during World War II, and speculating against currencies and thereby causing mass deaths in nations as a business career, is enraged over his 2002 felony conviction in France for insider trading, and his subsequent loss of every allowable appeal there. Soros has called his conviction "a gift to my enemies in the United States."
Soros is pushing the carbon tax big time. climateprogress.org and Joseph romm.
They are getting ready to go postal and threaten people.
We are finding that false temps are behind the weather reports. some weather stations are next to heat sources.
Progressives.
June 9, 2009 - 17:10 ET by sevenAs de Vise admits, Takoma Park is one of the area's "most socially conscious" (read: liberal/progressive in politics) communities.
Bring out a bible and they blow a gasket. Say a prayer before a meal and the same. They get anti social real quickly.
It is all a farce.
seven... Thank you for
June 9, 2009 - 18:03 ET by bigtimerseven...
Thank you for both of the posts above...especially for some that may not know about who is really behind the empty-suit and tons of congress-critters, let alone a lot in the msm, and we all know about his various ties on the internet.
This man should have been behind bars years ago...to put it nicely here...Soros it the Enemy Within and has been for years and years now...decades.
Doubling down on stupid is not a particularly good idea. ~Andrew Breitbart
Blame no tort reform..
June 9, 2009 - 17:52 ET by upcountrywaterWe would still have, coke bottles that would still be made out of thick glass, designed to be ran through a bottle washer, many times.
Someone somewhere sued some school system, over a chunk of food stuck to a plate.
The judgement was many times the price of a dishwasher.
Reagan V,S Carter and 0bama
There is something
June 9, 2009 - 18:15 ET by 10ksnookerThere is something fundamentally wrong with using children to push a lie.
They have kids carry bombs
June 9, 2009 - 19:34 ET by sevenTeaching kids it is goo for mother earth is the agenda. They are also teaching kids to turn in their parents.
Now for the big one. If the US goes with the UN laws for children, the state will have authority over children and not the parents.
Our Kids
June 9, 2009 - 18:18 ET by iveseenitallAgain we see our kids being used for political crap. There once was a guy with a teensi weensi mustache who used the children in his nation, right down to the time he had to put the little tikes into what was left of his army. The young are always the most vulnerable to the shelfish creeps who wish to rule the world. Sad.
NEVER,NEVER trust a "liberal"
→ ISIA?
June 9, 2009 - 18:19 ET by Cool ArrowCharlie Chaplin?
"The Rule of Law is the only thing that separates us from Democrats" - a Firefighter
Cool
June 9, 2009 - 18:46 ET by iveseenitallBINGO!
NEVER,NEVER trust a "liberal"
Keeping with the humor of this . .
June 9, 2009 - 18:45 ET by DoktorFranken''shelfish creeps''
Like Zoidberg?
liberal brianwashing
June 9, 2009 - 18:47 ET by thewookEvery twenty-something that I know throws their aluminum cans in the trash. The brainwashing they do in school must not be very effective.
That's called rebellion.
June 9, 2009 - 20:01 ET by kgThat's called rebellion. The schools surely tried.
"DumbAssity of Dope"
Future Republicans in the making?
June 9, 2009 - 18:51 ET by danboMany of these kids will grow up to find they were used by peace activist mothers, green teachers, and see the lies in their green textbooks and the green lobby. They'll know AGW is bull. And probably become the exact opposite.
Time is running out for the green elites.
I'm loving it.
Limited Disclosure: I used to belong to the Sierra Club untill they went crazier. Worse of all, I was bribed by Exxon with free New Orleans Saints glasses with fill ups in the 70's.
How to save millions, and the environment
June 9, 2009 - 19:07 ET by ThisnThatPack your lunch. This involves a one-time purchase of a re-usable lunch box. Or the kids can bag it. Only sell milk at school.
That's how I did it. Along with everyone else I knew. No way we could afford lunch money.
This solution solves a lot of problems. Green, peace-activist mothers should love it. Kids can bring in their organically-grown food, and pack all the rubbish in their lunchpails to take back home and place into the compost pile. Green, green, green all the way.
It takes conservatives to teach real green to kids and adults alike.
___________________________________
Liberals constantly demand that we accept a glaring falsehood as truth; Obama's elimination of the word "terror" will make terrorist acts less terrifying
School lunch
June 9, 2009 - 19:37 ET by sevenWe have a retired pastor in our church,. He volunteers at schools. He told me he counted over 90% of the children threw their fruit and milk in the trash. Not their concept of food. How are they coming on propoganda?
If they only sell milk.
June 9, 2009 - 19:44 ET by danboIf they only sell milk. They'll get hit with the cow fart tax.
Is it going to be $250/dairy cow/year? We'll have to kill the cows to save mother earth. Even california's happy cows. And Else.
Limited Disclosure: I used to belong to the Sierra Club untill they went crazier. Worse of all, I was bribed by Exxon with free New Orleans Saints glasses with fill ups in the 70's.
And Else?
June 9, 2009 - 20:12 ET by BlondeOr Else?
LOL...sorry Dan, couldn't resist.
These Warmers are just plain nuts!
I hope he fails, too.
Or is that Elsie? I'm
June 9, 2009 - 20:22 ET by danboOr is that Elsie? I'm spelling challenged.
Limited Disclosure: I used to belong to the Sierra Club untill they went crazier. Worse of all, I was bribed by Exxon with free New Orleans Saints glasses with fill ups in the 70's.
My plan
June 9, 2009 - 20:42 ET by moderncommentaries83If my kids ever jump on this green gestapo bandwagon, my plan is very simple. I'll go so green on them they won't know what hit them.
So my kids will be totally free to drink of the eco Kool Aid. But they had better know that I will expect them to be in full compliance with the strictest of green measures if they are going to act like little environmental brownshirts.
I think a week or two of living like this will get them to rethink these politicial choices.
And if you think I wouldn't do this, ask my husband. He'll tell you I'm serious. Heck, this isn't too different from the nuclear option we have in place to deal with serious misbehavior.
Because, see, unlike Al Gore and other eco-hypocrites, my kids won't badger me about my carbon footprint without completely neutralizing their own first. I will be a great learning experience, don't you think?
Aut viam inveniam aut faciam
Priceless
June 9, 2009 - 20:51 ET by bigtimermc83...
I love ya gal...my heart and thoughts are right with you...I mean that.
What an excellent post!
I am saving this and passing this on to all I know...I am serious...this is the best I have ever seen.
Thank you so much.
You're going viral ...I guess that's he correct term...and our kids better read this and pass it on to our grandkids etc.
Doubling down on stupid is not a particularly good idea. ~Andrew Breitbart
i guess you think this is
June 9, 2009 - 21:02 ET by criticalthinkingi guess you think this is clever, but to me, it is just another example of taking the oppositions argument, blowing it completely out of proportion so as to make it rediculous, and then pretending that this is actually their argument. Both the right and the left do it way way too much in american politics.
If environmentalism isn't a
June 9, 2009 - 21:34 ET by moderncommentaries83If environmentalism isn't a "political issue" why do we have all manner of politician lobbying in favor of "green" initiatives? It is, to use your term, "rediculous", but what's more ridiculous is
All of that and more, and some of us aren't supposed to get snarky?
I'm a big believer in walking the walk. If environmentalists think the environmental situation is so terrible, then they should lead by example and do something about it. Today! Go completely green. But I can think of one, B-list celebrity, who actually lives what I consider a "green" lifestyle (Ed Begley, Jr.). The rest - like Al Gore - think the sacrifices need to be made by the rest of us little people. I demand that they make the sacrifices first before forcing the rest of us (through the political process) to pretty much do what I described above.
I don't advocate for the wanton pollution or destruction of the planet. My family and I live a relatively simple life. We live in an apartment in a multi-famliy complex. We own one car that gets roughly 300 miles to the tank (about 30 miles to the gallon). My husband takes the bus to/from work (I work 20+ miles from our house, in a rural area, so I need to drive). We have our electricity/heat on a budget plan that we manage to stay well under. We turn off lights and appliances when not in use. We have great cross-breeze, so we use our windows to cool the place and only use air conditioning when the temperatures get very unbearable (and I grew up without AC of any kind, so I can tolerate quite a bit). We shop every other week and only buy what we need. I have a bag fetish, so we have lots of "green" bags that we actually use. We recycle what we can. We saved all our clothes and baby gear from our first son and will hand them down to #2 (coming in August). We have no qualms about shopping second hand.
But I do like turning the heat up a little when it's -25º here in Wisconsin in January. I do like having the freedom to pick up a steak or some lamb chops for dinner. I do like being able to use my car to get to work. I do like being able to go online and turn on a lamp after the sun sets. I do want to have at least one more child, who will inherit most - if not all - of the stuff used by his/her older brothers. And I do like doing this within my budget (something Obama is hellbent on making impossible).
In other words, we do what we can to be responsible consumers.
Yet that isn't enough for these environmentalists or the politicans who want to make eco-policy. They want to have control over every room in my house, and even control over what I put in my body and how many children my husband and I choose to have.
So if you don't think it's clever, that's your opinion. It really is satire, but as someone who doesn't buy into the global warming - sorry, global climate change - hype I get really sick of people telling me to do without while they jet off to Aruba to discuss how important they, and their environmental policies are. And I get sick of them turning our children into brainwashed little brownshirts because I'm willing to bet few, if any, of these kids hear both sides of this issue and are allowed to come to a conclusion on their own. Because they might just decide global warming is a load of hooey and it would be a huge setback to the liberal environmental cause.
And I detest the fact they want to use kids as little stool pigeons to rat out parents for "eco sins." Not happening. You may not like my parenting methods, but I'm fairly confident my little experiment would be more than successful in getting across the point that zealotry is not the way to go on this issue.
Aut viam inveniam aut faciam
I think you'v short circuited
June 10, 2009 - 11:49 ET by general companyHis critical thinking. Love the idea with the kids also. I simply forced my kids to defened their claims, but you idea would had been a better reality setter.
My Gov. thinks I am dangerous, so be careful
"Television is a freak show" Bernie Goldberg
Your not clever
June 9, 2009 - 22:04 ET by general companyOr right
My Gov. thinks I am dangerous, so be careful
"Television is a freak show" Bernie Goldberg
To whom are you speaking
June 10, 2009 - 08:27 ET by moderncommentaries83Me or my critic?
(I'm guessing it's my critic, but I could be wrong)
Aut viam inveniam aut faciam
Your critic
June 10, 2009 - 11:52 ET by general companyWho seems to have a little to much to think about.
My Gov. thinks I am dangerous, so be careful
"Television is a freak show" Bernie Goldberg
Thanks for
June 10, 2009 - 12:02 ET by moderncommentaries83Thanks for clarifying.
I'd like to see a response to my previous post. Especially since I've been there. Six years ago, I was a liberal who would have easily voted for John Kerry in 2004 and - had I continued - Obama in 2008.
But then I met the man who would become my husband and he challenged my views, provided logical arguments and evidence to support his beliefs, and the logic won out over what I based my arguments (and what most liberals base their arguments) on: intentions and feelings.
Aut viam inveniam aut faciam
I doubt he will respond
June 10, 2009 - 14:48 ET by general companyAnd even if he does it will be with a false anology to justify his beleif, typical liberal nonesense.
Great to hear there are still men willing to take on a challenge, my wife is also a former liberal. : ]
My Gov. thinks I am dangerous, so be careful
"Television is a freak show" Bernie Goldberg
It's really comical that
June 10, 2009 - 09:08 ET by ThisnThatIt's really comical that criticalthinking has no ability to think critically. For example, which of these positions are more "extreme"?
Each of the second choices in my pop quiz are what the school district thinks. But they are exactly equivalent to what M-83 is proposing. Yet you considered M-83's extreme, while buying into the school's koolaid. You are really, really are dopey for trying to point out one for being extreme while ignoring the other, aren't you?
___________________________________
Liberals constantly demand that we accept a glaring falsehood as truth; Obama's elimination of the word "terror" will make terrorist acts less terrifying
your major error, and it is
June 9, 2009 - 20:45 ET by criticalthinkingyour major error, and it is one of the biggest errors I believe that conservatives make, is to consider being "green" or "environmentally aware" or "caring about the earth" is somehow a political issue. It is not at all a political issue, it just isnt. And it is so sad that conservativs have jumped on it and try to turn taking care of the planet into politics.
How many millions of people
June 9, 2009 - 20:54 ET by danboHow many millions of people did the caring enviromentalist kill with their banning of DDT? Almost 100,000,000?
Malaria. The green legacy of death.
Limited Disclosure: I used to belong to the Sierra Club untill they went crazier. Worse of all, I was bribed by Exxon with free New Orleans Saints glasses with fill ups in the 70's.
To keep things in
June 9, 2009 - 21:07 ET by danboTo keep things in perspectives. Total deaths due to WWII are estimated at 50-70 million.
The loving, earth caring environmentalist may have killed more people than died in WWII.
Limited Disclosure: I used to belong to the Sierra Club untill they went crazier. Worse of all, I was bribed by Exxon with free New Orleans Saints glasses with fill ups in the 70's.
Oh shut just shut-up
June 9, 2009 - 20:55 ET by bigtimerOh shut just shut-up troll.
You're the major error.
Good point , bigtime. You
June 9, 2009 - 21:03 ET by criticalthinkingGood point , bigtime. You must be one of those articulate conservatives...
Why waste time and effort
June 9, 2009 - 22:29 ET by CortillaenWhy waste time and effort crafting an intellectually solid response when the best it'll earn is you making a strawman of it? Deriding trolls and otherwise treating them as such is simply a matter of time management. If you want to meet with rational discourse, try giving some to start. "...conservativs have jumped on it and try to turn taking care of the planet into politics" is utterly laughable in the face of AGW's greatest proponent being a through-and-through Democrat politician.
More of my thoughts
"With your mind as high as Mt. Fuji you can see all things clearly. And you can see all the forces that shape events; not just the things near to you." - Miyamoto Musashi
It is not us conseratives
June 9, 2009 - 21:03 ET by general companyIt is not us conseratives forcing it on the public. Everyone want a clean Earth, but Conservatives dont think we should bankrupt the counrty passing extreamly harmful ledgislation just because a nitwit who stands to make billions says so
My Gov. thinks I am dangerous, so be careful
"Television is a freak show" Bernie Goldberg
GC
June 10, 2009 - 00:14 ET by well99Anyone with common sense would agree with you.For crying out loud.Lets put people to work.Drill Anwr(SP).Remember the first Alaskan pipeline. People made big bucks working it.Plus it would cut back on our dependency.
Yes it would
June 10, 2009 - 00:30 ET by general companyUnfortunatly, I dont think they want anything to do with helping this Country out though. There is a ton of things they could do to help us out, but they seem hell bent on doing just the opposite.
My Gov. thinks I am dangerous, so be careful
"Television is a freak show" Bernie Goldberg
Reality Check
June 9, 2009 - 21:22 ET by dboAnd it is so sad that conservativs have jumped on it and try to turn taking care of the planet into politics.
Are you going to sit there with a straight look on your face and try telling me that fiberals haven't turned the environment and global warming into a political issue? Puh-leeze. Yep, no politics at the UN, none.
Let's return to thegood Ole Ways
June 9, 2009 - 21:06 ET by ChattychitoI went to elementary school in the 60's, our cafeteria used reusable plastic plates, staff and students were used to wash them using high pressure sprayer and an electric dishwasher which washed them with very hot water to assure sanitation.
Then water use became a problem as we went into the 70's droughts in California and the west, the amount of phosphorus soap being used and dumped into the sewage system, not to mention the cost of additional staff and maintenance of the machines.
So in the Late 70's and early 80's all the school districts were given special grants from the Federal Govt to remove these time and resource wasting machines and replace them with Styrofoam cups and plates and plastic forks and spoons. the saving cost alone and we were told this was helping the environment.
so now they want to go back to time and water wasting machines, hire more staff. well we already were on that road and the global alarmist of that day cried wolf and now they want us to go back to the good ole ways of yesteryear.
a full circle we have come. what fools we have been.
"A man who doesn't borrow from the brains of others proves he has no brains of his own." CH Spurgeon
One of the main functions of
June 9, 2009 - 21:43 ET by MidAmericaOne of the main functions of this club for little kids is to teach them how to think and act like a liberal activist. Being "Green' is used as an outward symbol of liberal purity and pushing it onto others is way to express their sense of superiority over the less committed and to especially contrast themselves with the brutish and lower developed life forms such as conservatives.
Critical thinking
June 9, 2009 - 22:06 ET by sevenLiberals and gang greens can't live green and most do not know they can't They can peddle a limited set of ideologies to others but not live with them
Greens are famous for name calling such as "anti science"
Deniers
Dangerous
If one day a true green agent would clean a chicken house to get chicken poo to plant an organic garden and a few veges, they wouldn' make it to the planting phase. it stinks. People that want local farmers market veges have no idea how they happened.
Plants of course can't be nourished with chemical fertilizer from fossil fuels.
As a lunch lady....
June 9, 2009 - 23:38 ET by lbcdawnMaybe they should issue
June 10, 2009 - 00:59 ET by Jack Hermaneach child a mess kit and make them responsible for cleaning it every day. They could each take it home with them and help Mommy or Daddy wash it with the family dishes.
That wouldn't last long.
Great idea
June 10, 2009 - 01:10 ET by general companyThis would teach responsibility, liberals wont like that
My Gov. thinks I am dangerous, so be careful
"Television is a freak show" Bernie Goldberg
A product of Annenberg
June 10, 2009 - 01:10 ET by RR GOPA product of Annenberg Challenge money?
One of the 34% who thinks George W. Bush was a great President. One of the 61% who wants to bring back the stock and pillory (yep...approval for Congress now at 39%...do you believe that!?).
your question
June 10, 2009 - 06:54 ET by AJB"Have you ever read a newspaper article and walked away stunned that the
writer seemed to be totally oblivious to the real story or left some
significant questions unasked?"
Yes. Every article about Comrade Glorious Supreme Leader For Life Obama.
I used to be stunned,
June 10, 2009 - 11:03 ET by mattmI used to be stunned, amazed and shocked, but now I expect it.
It's not that they miss the real story, or fail to ask significant questions, or make some other mistake...this is not a matter of incompetence, it's simply more proof of the propagandistic nature of the MSM.
"Journalism is dead." - Publius
Pony up!
June 10, 2009 - 09:09 ET by TheCynicThe real story is "why don't the liberals just pony up the cash to buy this stuff"?
Why does it need to come from the school board? Just raise some damn money and DO IT.
That's the real problem with liberals. Even when they have good ideas they never want to fork over the cash to implement it. They always expect someone else to do that part.