Light Bulb Lunacy (The Commons at Paulie World)

This is a pretty good article about light bulbs and a proposed Congressional ban on incandescent light bulbs.

"In a few weeks the US Congress is likely to vote to phase out the standard incandescent lightbulb within a decade. The frantic race to see who can best appease the global warming alarmists will claim another victim, the friendly glow of the direct descendant of Thomas Edison's filament-based light bulb."

Cheap electric light, through Edison's incandescent light bulb, is one of the single greatest advancements in human history, ranking right up there with fire, the wheel, and the internal combustion engine. Just think how wonderful our lives are because we have harnessed electricity. Just think how wonderful our lives have become because we are no longer slaves to the cycles of light and darkness. "I think I'll read a little before I turn in."

So, Congress is trying to make the incandescent light bulb a thing of the past, replacing it with those itty-bitty flourescent bulbs that cost five times as much and are made in China. So, by a) screwing the little guy into spending five times as much on a bulb that doesn't last five times as long nor give off equal light; and b) giving an economic boom to the Chinese - who are already building one coal plant a week, Congress hopes to limit greenhouse gas emissions produced by coal plants in the US.

Go read the article.

The bottom line is: never trust a bunch of legistlators to do anything but screw up our lives.

Oh, wait: that's every day's bottom line!