State of Michigan:

Inland water surface: 44,000 sq. miles
Great Lakes water surface: 94,250 sq. miles
Total Michigan water surface: 138,250 sq. miles

Water volume of the Great Lakes alone is 5,500 cubic miles.  21% of the worlds fresh water?  That is one big ass goldfish bowl, Mr. Rustem.  It's so big in fact that I'd challenge anyone, in their lifetime, to find your "one cigarette butt" if they tossed it into this dying "goldfish bowl" analogy of yours.  Go ahead, mark a butt and fire it out in the water and go look for it an hour later.  Good luck.  It's the same game when Lake Erie was declared dead back in the late 70's.  Just another nonsensical our planet is dying enviro-whacko cause to further any politicians populous agenda much like Al Gore Warming.

Bottom line, Mr. Rustem, you and the Ann Arbor Nerd just don't like piggy smokers.  I don't either.  Matter of fact, I seem to notice that I am one of the few smokers that'll field strip a smoke and put the filter in my back pocket until I can find a trash receptacle to dispose of the butt later.  I also encourage other smokers to do the same just to eliminate the Nanny b!tchers in our society their last substantive b!tch about smokers.  That is all they have left to harangue about.  Ya, we already have littering laws on the books that address the GoverNerd's and Mr. Rustem's personal peeves.  Enforce those Laws.  Outdoor second hand smoke and dying goldfish?  Nah, that is overreaching lunacy that has consequences, unintended or not.

Consequences you ask?  The Liberals beloved Governor Willy Milquetoast is noted for his much ballyhooed "Good policy is good politics" that the GoverNerd and his retread Policy Director preach to us peon taxpaying class.  Now, with that being true, one would have to assume that the GoverNerd implemented 'good policy' when he eliminated Michigan's item pricing mandate.  The GoverNerd presented argument in his SOTS address that Michigan retailers were at a competitive disadvantage with being one of only three states in the nation with this price sticker mandate as a hidden tax that costs us consumers in Michigan billions of dollars every year.  OK, fair enough.  I can reasonably see the GoverNerd's point, but honestly, most all of the mom and pop stores around me still use price stickers because both the customers like them and most mom and pop stores haven't the capital readily available to invest in register tech to do business otherwise.  Ya, belts are kind of tight for most in this state.  So, the operating advantage went to the Big Box retailers immediately.  Small business?  Hey, government has always been against you with flippant regulations.  It's nothing new there.

By now, readers have to be saying, "CS, ferchrissakes, where the hell are you going with this?"  Hang on, folks.  This is about 'Good policy' and it relates squarely to career government interloper, Bill Rustem.

Ya see, Bill Rustem is directly responsible for Michigan's 1976 campaign to require the 10¢ deposit on bottles and cans.  Ya, it's another hidden tax on Michigan business and consumers that only 9 other decidedly Liberal Blue States (Guam will tip over included) in the nation have as law.  Ohio and Indiana are not one of them.  It begs the question why Michigan taxpayers and businesses have this imposed upon us if one is going to use the GoverNerds' SOTS argument for Public Act 15 of 2011, Repeal the item pricing mandate.

Now, the unintended consequences of the GoverNerd's chosen retread Bill Rustems' 1976 enviro-whacko bottle and can deposit fee?  Well, I have mentioned on a few occasions that Indiana isn't that much of a journey when it comes to restocking the Man Cave with libations and smokes, because quite frankly, any damn state government that wants to impose it's forceful will over private property owners (ya that means bars, bowling alleys and restaurants) does not deserve my money for its outrageously higher 'sin taxation' than compared to its bordering states.  Consequently, I throw away all the expended out-of-state libation containers and begrudgingly bag up any resulting collateral cans or bottles with the Michigan 10¢ mandate on taxpayers and hidden cost to business we all are forced to deal with returning.

That is until the beloved was a wee bit less than amused with me getting behind on rounding up returnables and accidentally collected everything and headed out on her expedition of the ritual weekend hunt, err, shopping.  Ya, you guessed it... they are accepted like any other Michigan deposit can or bottle.  No, I am not advocating for anyone to cash in out state containers.  It's illegal.  It was an easily made mistake that does indeed have costly consequences to Michigan business and taxpayers as does all of the GoverNerds Big Nanny Government Wellness Plan schemes.

Good policy, Mr. Rustem?  GoverNerd?  Mr. Rustem, you've been batting roughly .100 for 35 years on 10¢ deposits with God only knows what the actual cost is to state taxpayers ...and you and the GoverNerd expect any rational person to buy into expanding Lansing where it doesn't belong with your 'ciggy butt in a goldfish bowl' nonsense?  Puh-lease.