Today's rant is a two-fer...

@OnionSoup
Actually… you can get fined and do time for that!
From the Bottlebill.org site

Containers bought in another state cannot be returned for a refund because no deposit was originally paid in the state giving the refund. It is illegal to try to collect a refund on a bottle or can purchased in another state.

@chienfou
“Big Joe over there… He’s in for tax evasion, me murder, Grisly Bob is here for grand theft auto and assault with a deadly weapon. Why did they lock you up?”

“Oh, I returned a.can for 10 cents to Michigan but i bought it out of.state.”

“You monster!”

@OnionSoup

@chienfou @OnionSoup “You Rockstar!”

@cinoclav I generally say that people can do whatever they want with their own bodies, but it never ceases to amaze me how horrible smokers are to the planet and everyone else. Obviously they don’t give a shit about their lungs so they don’t give a shit about anything else. Pick up your butts, you heathens!!

@Fuzzalini Especially the assholes who throw their lit cigarettes out their car windows, which in turn bounce off the front of your own car. Every time it happens I silently wish them a very painful bout of lung cancer. I know that’s awful but it’s keeping me in business!

@mehcuda67 The local police will likely setup a stop. Unfortunately someone that doesn’t care about open container and littering laws likely doesn’t care about a whole bunch of other laws. Also, there are systemic societal problems that result in increasing populations of people with similar attitudes about a failed legal system on many, many levels.

Like when the cops pull the person over, they find that the person is indigent and doesn’t GAF, so fining them under threat of jail doesn’t really solve anything. Or the person is living under conditions and in a situation where drinking is the safest of the limited available options they have to cope in their lives. Which is sad, but too often the case.

Or you that views the littering as a failures of the legal system and policing. Or the taxpayer next door who would rather the police be chasing “real” criminals instead of busting poor people. And heaven help them if they are POC and a police stop ends up in another senseless death.

Not defending whoever is littering, just saying that life is messy and solutions are complicated, and often come with unintended (and sometimes intended) systemic or institutional issues that only perpetuate or exacerbate them.

I have my own “friend” that tosses an empty bud light 32oz every few days in the same spot, too.
/image peter griffin grinds my gears

@mehcuda67 speaking of beer bottles… Those things are tough.

Driving home one day. Car in front of me throws a fast food package out the window… It hits concrete barrier on side of road… Bounces back into my car and smashes my windshield… I see what I thought at the time was ice smash over my windshield.

When I pull over I find the ice wasn’t ice but bits of glass from a beer bottle… The people in front of me had been drinking and driving and disguising the beer bottle in a fast food bag so people wouldn’t see.

I got the license plate and reported them to State highway patrol. Had the whole thing on video dashcam.

Police never called me back though to see the video… Fortunately, I live in a state where insurance companies have to replace your windshields for free and can’t hold it against you. (Safety, they don’t want people driving with cracked windshields).

@mehcuda67 @OnionSoup
Too bad our health insurance system doesn’t work the same way. Single payer would help that, though.

@j2 I heard it on

@j2
What?? They didn’t even run DNA tests on the cups. What sloppy CSI skills!

@j2 my wife had friends who kept getting their tires slashed. First at their house, then at church, at work, while shopping. All over the course of about two or three months, no way it could have been a coincidence. They say they have no idea who would do such a thing… Both the man and the woman had their tires slashed.

… to go to that extent, going to their home, work, and church it’s obviously someone with a real grudge and someone who really wanted to inflict pain on them. Someone was invested.

For that type of motive, I suspect it was a jilted lover. One of them had had a dalliance and obviously couldn’t admit they knew who it was so they both pretended they didn’t know.

As far as I know the person was never caught… But if it was what I suspect, if they were caught, they probably wouldn’t admit they found out who was doing it. I don’t recall if they went to the police about it or not… This was about a decade ago.

@OnionSoup Hate is a funny thing. We have a guy at work that won’t retire because his ex-wife will receive some of his pension. They’ve been divorced at least 25 years. I can’t imagine hating someone so much that it prevents me from enjoying my own life. Seems like the other person wins.

@j2 my father in law is usually a pretty decent guy… But he has one really dark aspect I cant fathom and seems so hateful and out of place in him. He has gone so far out of his way to make sure that his current wife (of about 12 years) gets as little as possible after he dies.

He doesn’t even hate her, he claims to love her, but he doesn’t like her sons. He has spent money hiring lawyers to make sure that she is left the legal minimum in his will, so she can’t challenge it, and that she doesn’t get the spousal death benefits from his pension plans (even though it doesn’t cost him anything or anyone else anything for her to receive them). Those pension plans are currently funding both of them.

He’s just wants to make sure his death doesn’t financially help his wife any, because she would leave her things in her will to her kids.

She knows none of these plans, as far as I’m aware, and expects to receive something from the man she loves if/when he dies.

I understand wanting to leave possessions and money to his own kids (although honestly the.wife should get a decent share of that). But giving her the minimum and writing her out of any spousal survival benefits, meaning no one benefits, is just heartless… And it’s not that he hates her… It’s that he doesn’t like her children. He hates her children so much he wants to financially hurt his wife whom he claims to love.

@MrHappypants Still better to plant the seed that people don’t appreciate it. You probably caused some small impact long-term.

@kerryzero

Why people think that is ok is beyond me

Theydon’t think… That’s the problem!

@kerryzero They think it is OK, just like you think it is OK to heavily spray the area with skunk oil or deer spray (the kind made with rotting eggs and garlic oil). To keep yard pests away.

@kerryzero it has changed now, but 20+ years ago it used to look really trashy around here. Every intersection would be littered in lots of cigarette butts people had tossed out their window. It looked awful, a lot of medians the grass would be burnt black in places too.

Thank goodness not many people smoke any more… Or the ones that do are nice enough to not throw their cigarette butts out the window anymore.

@kerryzero @OnionSoup
Now I find vape cartridges instead…

@kerryzero @mike808

…just like you think it is OK to heavily spray the area with skunk oil or deer spray…

Did I miss something??

@chienfou @kerryzero It was a suggested response and explanation when said cigarette-butt litterers toss lit butts over the fence onto your kids toys and yard.

@kerryzero @mike808
Kinda tough on your own kids though…

@chienfou @kerryzero Obviously, you remove the toys and protect your stuff from collateral damage. Too bad there isn’t a robot you can hook up to a wildlife-cam and a targeting system using drone controls with firing controls to … release the kraken on those no-goodnik hoodlums hopped up on goofballs and candy corn.

For your kids, use it as a teaching moment in how to make stink bombs. Trust me, they’ll love it. Especially the boys. However, be prepared to referee the bottle-rocket wars that will follow. It. Is. Inevitable.

@chienfou @mike808 LOL oh yeah they would love any kind of mayhem they could wreak. And having a deserving enemy on which to wreak it (Technically they’re my sister’s kids but they’re over here all the time.)