[raccoonradio]

DANGEROUS WEAPON OF MASS DESTRUCTION

>>if the article passes, it's going to cost Marbleheaders more to groom their yards — substantially more, Thomson said. "I would say 25 percent more at the least," he said, noting that it will take workers a lot longer to do the same job with a rake.

Nanny state (and in Concord MA they want to ban bottled water in plastic containers)
>>People who have paid for leaf blowers want to use them, Grader said. "And I hate telling anyone what they can do," she said, but adds, "You have the darn things going all summer long."

All summer long? Are there that many fallen leaves?

>>gasoline-powered motors pollute the environment.

BAN CARS!

[Bloody Sam Roberts]

My town in MA has a large vehicle that sucks up leaves in late Fall after homeowners make a pile at the edge of their yard.

The town composts theses leaves for about 18-24 months and then gives the loam away to homeowners for free.

The vehicle they use makes the Devil's own noise and can be heard from 1/2 a mile away. If it weren't for the free loam, I'd love to see that beast mothballed.

[Responsibility2nd]

This is what you get when you have Mass-holes in a state that would vote for Barney, Teddy and Mitt.

[NEMDF]

Tell her to buy some ear plugs for her mother. GEEEEZ

[BuffaloJack]

I own a gasoline drive leaf blower.
I haven’t actually turned it on in 8 or 9 years. It sits in my shed without so much a scratch on its painjob.
I no longer rake or blow the leaves. I simply put the mulcher blade on my lawnmower and turn the 3” or 4” thick carpet of leaves every fall into finely ground dust that settles back into the grass as fertilizer. It takes less time, looks better and produces no waste.

[discostu]

Leafblowers are one of the most obnoxious devices on the planet. They’re hellishly loud and people never use them to clean up debris instead using it to push the debris off their property. I don’t know if they necessarily should be banned, but it’s nice they’ve largely gone out of vogue in my chunk of the world.

[joe fonebone]

it is past time for a “Million Leaf Blower March” on city hall.....

[Made In The USA]

Too much noise huh? Guess other things will have to be similarly banned:

1) Neighbor’s dogs
2) Neighbor’s kids (not mine of course)
3) Airplanes
4) Politicians
5) Motorcycles (not mine of course)
6) Skippy, the ice cream truck
7) Politicians
8) Fire and Police Sirens
9) Rap music
10) Politicians

[FrankR]

Here we go again.

These wimpy people and other marbleheads are out in force. Go out, look for the first thing that you can bitch about, and alert the liberal media.

Mass better watch out, California is well on hits way to banning everything except bankruptcy. People who are tired of the nannystate are moving away from California in droves. Many of them are going to Texas where things are still booming, relatiely anyway. They can do the same thing in Massachusetts, too.

I have a Husquevarna backback blower, and being in the heavily wooded state of Georgia, I use it quite regularly. Yeah, it's a little loud, but even hanging on my back it's not unbearable, and its so efficient the job gets done a lot faster. Even when I'm not using mine, a lot of afternoons the neighbors are using string trimmers, chainsaws and lawnmowers. Sure, if I'm out on the porch, I hear them, but it's not objectionable to me. I know they'll be finished in a while and it'll all be peace and quite again.

Actually, listening to an obama speech - in fact, listening to obama speak, period - is much more objectionable. But he does have that same kind of monotonous whine as the blower, and sometimes the same kind of "yeow, yeow, yeow" as the revving of a string trimmer.

This "banning" thing - banning anything - is utopia to liberals, they want everthing banned - except the things THEY want, of course.

But it's the northeast - it's Massachusetts...ROMNEYLAND, so what can you expect except more of the same.

What's next Mass? You gonna ban toys in Happy Meals too? They're inching toward your guns...one ban at a time....right Mitt?

[The Sons of Liberty]

Every year another ban, restriction, etc. This USED to be “The Land of the Free”, but every group, from neighborhood associations on up, has become despots handing down edicts.

[bgill]

If it weren’t for trees, they wouldn’t have leaf blower problems.

BAN TREES!!!!

[whatexit]

Rakes? I can’t stand the sound of those either! Demand that each leaf be picked up by hand!

[cincinnati65]

Now, all you people who thought smokers were crazy for getting upset about all the smoking ban ordinances, can now officially apologize. Once the “illuminated elite” figure out they can push people around, there’s no end to it. They’ll just keep expanding the groups they can push around.

[chris_bdba]

I hate those things.People seem to use them and think it is ok to blow the leaves out of their yard and into others yards.Better to run a mulching mover over them and leave them on the lawn for food.

[murron]

I’ve always wondered to where do they blow the leaves? Aren’t the leaves eventually going to blow around again? In my neighborhood I’ve seen the leaves being blown into the catch basins, which clogs them up and causes our street to flood. There’s actually a law against it, but it’s never enforced.

[EyeGuy]

These ideas are always advanced by liberal pussies who don’t do their own land maintenance, and never have pushed a mower or pulled a rake.

[EyeGuy]

These ideas are always advanced by liberal pussies who don’t do their own land maintenance, and never have pushed a mower or pulled a rake.

[A Navy Vet]

"And I hate telling anyone what they can do, she said, but adds, You have the darn things going all summer long. She notes that her seriously ill mother, confined to her room with open windows, will be hard-pressed to bear the racket. The decibel level of a leaf blower is much higher than a lawn mower, she said."

Then shut the damn window. If you live in a community where people can afford to get their landscaping done, then you can afford a window a/c. Shut the window, dipshit.

"Peaslee points out that gasoline-powered motors pollute the environment."

So now leaf blowers are a pollutant and adding to the failed global warming theory?

"Moreover, leaf blowers' absence would improve conditions for the garden, as they often take out vital leaf litter that helps plants thrive."

BS. I watch my mow & go guys blow the leaf debris into my flower beds and they're doing fine. Where does she think all those leafs go, down some special leaf drain hole? Also, if you have a garden, then you know how to fertilize it. It doesn't need "leaf litter".

"Grader also invites voters to consider what's in the dust that leaf blowers kick up, including animal droppings. The dust lingers in the air, she warns, and runners and others breathe all that deep into their lungs."

Unbelievable. Dust in the air? Guess they should outlaw dirt and the wind. While they're at it, they should outlaw plants that are the main cause of allergies that get into the all so wonderful "runners" lungs.

As far as "animal droppings", anyone who has a pet or has pets outside next door is inhaling molecules of fecal matter. Here's a fact for this dumbass: She inhales more fecal molecules every time she flushes the toilet after emptying her bowels, unless she pushed the handle and runs. If she's not strictly hygiene aware, than she also has fecal matter on her hands after doing her duty.

While I'm on a rant: I am so sick of that stupid commercial that shows some woman on her balcony smoking and watching the special-effects generated smoke drift up to the floor above and left of her to attack the baby in the crib.

Think about it. She's outside which immediately dissipates the molecules. Yet, they show the smoke (in a stream) traveling directly up and over to the other apartment and then inside and then into the baby's room and then hanging over the child with a demonic look. How many exhaled molecules could actually reach the child from that distance from outside? I say 4.

Poor kid is gonna have stunted growth and emphysema due to that women outside below. Sheesh. The kid has more threat from its own parents bringing home some bacteria or virus.

Another example of government officials and busy-bodies needing to justify their existence.

[yefragetuwrabrumuy]

Instead of banning leaf blowers outright, a better way would probably be to do three things:

1) Make a scheduled window of time each weekday when leaf blower use is acceptable. Make it flexible in case of storms, or for people who work during that time, encouraging them to agree with their neighbors when an acceptable time would be. Discourage leaf blowing on the weekends.

2) Encourage “casual” leaf blower users to use electric, either wire or battery powered, which while less powerful are also less ‘stinky’. Encourage “professional” landscapers to keep their gasoline powered leaf blowers tuned and serviced, to minimize their stink.

3) Combine it all with a public-private composting initiative, which already exists in many cities, in which there is free curbside pick up of bagged leaves and other garden waste, by request. This works in two ways, in that after composting, local residents can pick up free compost fertilizer for their gardens, with the remainder used for public parks.

[SaraJohnson]

I lived in Masshole. Without a leaf blower... I hope liberals do this. :)