The Coalition of the Swilling

Ummmmmmmm, I wants me some sparkly bear ass!

Unless it's some sparkly clean bare ass.

"...bare..."

That's always dependent on "whose" 'tis, n'est pas? Being a family friendly site with delicate reader sensibilities...we'll just leave it at that. And agree on the unbearable cuteness of it all. {8^P

Wonder why someone chose a bear for that ad. Are they suggesting an alternate answer for that age-old question, "Does a bear sh+t in the woods?"

If he does, he leaves Klingons...at least until he gets Charmin, according to the commercial.

Which, despite the cute ursine actors, is REALLY pretty revolting.

What does it matter, we're only s'posed to use one square anyway.

Having personally experienced Euroweenie style jungle money, Greenpeace and similar watermelon organizations will have to pry my cold, dead fingers from my nice, soft toilet paper.

Heh. I'll never forget the toilet paper in East German trains (I traveled there briefly back in the 80s); it was just as grey and scratchy and nasty as the Brit stuff, except with the words "Deutsche Bahn" printed on every square in blue ink... blue water-soluble ink. I found that out the hard way /shudder/.

The stuff they call toilet paper in the Far East is far worse, wood chips, I kid you not. Couple that with the conditions of the digestive tract you can easily acquire... not a pretty picture nor a pleasant experience.

The stuff they use in south america is all made from eucalyptus; it has the texture of waxed paper.

and about as efficient.

The stuff they call toilet paper in the Far East is far worse, wood chips

Sounds almost as bad as corncobs.

Oh, for the halcyon days of the Sears Catalog.

I may, MAY nind you, later explain the reference.

Dammitol. I hit "n" instead of "m" in the word "mind". I blame the beer.

But it still reminds me of a great line from whom I cannot remember:

France: The country where the money falls apart and you can't tear the toilet paper.

Never been to France except for that one unfortunate excursion into Strasbourg, but Germany was similar some 11 years ago. Except with better people on their currency.

(Like I said on another blog…)

“Future generations are going to look at the way we make toilet paper as one of the greatest excesses of our age. Making toilet paper from virgin wood is a lot worse than driving Hummers in terms of global warming pollution.”

Future generations will see this quote and wonder how the author could have mastered walking upright.

Gunslinger, lefties (and especially leftist greenies) are well known for pulling nonsensical "facts" out of their asses. Two biggies I remember from my college days: that 75% of all solid waste shipped to landfills was disposable diapers, and that 90% of all the water used in the country went to raising cattle.

Not only utter bullshit, but painfuly obvious bullshit (hey! I made a double funny!)

I think this is probably the perfect forum to bring up something I've always wanted to know about...and if anyone has any input on this, I'd be really curious to know.

We use A LOT of paper in my job, and my boss, who I think identifies politically with being slightly left of center (though far from what I would call a hippie), says it is more hazardous to the environment to create and operate the machines which recycle all the paper, and that it is a federal law, that for every tree cut down to make paper, two are planted in its place.

In other words, he believes chopping down trees is good for the environment, which sounds kind of weird, but...to tell you the truth, I think of him as an intelligent man, but I cannot find any evidence of this particular federal law of which he speaks.

Anyone know anything about this?

Erica-I could write a book on that stuff, or at least a post, and maybe I will. I think most virgin pulp produced in the US comes from managed private forests. The paper companies who own such forests have their own self-interest at heart to manage them properly and sustainably. I think the biggest real environmental issue with those forests is a lack of biodiversity, but you know, they aren't forests in the classic sense anyway, they are tree farms. I've never heard of a federal law mandating how they replant, but it could be true.

Paper recycling made me a little cynical back in the early 1990s. There was a lot of feel-good BS that was fairly disconnected from reality. People would feel all superior about recycling paper, yet they didn't give a second thought to what actually happened after it was taken away by the truck. Nor did they take into account the toxic sludge that comes from de-inking post-consumer waste or the energy and chemical footprints of the process. Some of that has probably changed with the development of more environmentally friendly inks and toners since then, but I'm not sure to what extent.

I wouldn't go so far as saying that cutting down trees is good for the environment, but it is not the environmental horror that it used to be and that some people still imagine it is today. Your boss is correct to at least look at the total picture, but I think he may be a little off on some of the particulars.

This ludicrous bit of greenery (or is it brownery ?) over toilet paper is getting world wide attention.

See the green alternative at mickysmuses...

http://mickysmuses.blogspot.com/2009/02/living-green-sustainable-lifestyle.html

Are these people (the ones who wrote the article) the same idiots who claim that chlorination of water is "really, really bad?" Or that most of the things I would consider modern improvements in hygiene which, you know, keep us from DYING HORRIBLY are terribly bad for the earth?

People like them make my head hurt. They either don't know, or deliberately forget, history so they can advance their agendas against
running water
vaccines
pasteurization
a modern, efficient food supply that provides the necessary nutrients ("NO! Eat local! Even if that means nothing but turnips for six months out of the year!")

And even now - I kid you not - refrigeration. Yes, there are some greenies who want to save us all from our Frigidaires. Oh, sure - you have to market every day. And oh, sure, there's no chance at all of keeping meat or milk in the house. But that's a "small price" to pay in their books.

I really wonder how these folks would survive a true catastrophe; they seem to be good at making "normal life" into a burden.

How in the world do the anti-refrigerator types justify DRIVING TO THE GROCERY STORE EVERY DAY FOR THEIR FOOD? Doesn't that hurt the environment WORSE?

As for toilet paper...I'd rather "harm the environment" than turn up with typhoid or cholera. Or have my rear scraped raw with the same type of paper they put in elementary school bathrooms (you got a choice between wipe slow-wet hands/wipe fast-splinters).

Ricki, don't forget that so many of the anti-vaccine, "nothing unnatural in my body" types are also pro artificial birth control. Regardless of how one personally feels about the pill, it can't be argued that it is natural. Similarly, I hear it's quite tough to remove at water treatment plants.