hello lovelies!

Finally some refreshing words from some one that isn’t blindly riding on a band wagon of ignorance – not to discredit an attempt at a good deed – but come on people, lets be logical – not over idealistic. I positively loved this read. I am all about energy conservation (those who know me can more than vouch on that statement), however any movement done blindly is going to head down the wrong path and smack its broad forehead right into a brick wall. . . also i destest detest and did i mention detest big government. this is a perfect example of the central government’s over infiltration that, *sigh* go figure, will turn out to be yet another stupid pass in legislation. enjoy this blurb from the wealthypoet.
lets weep for the incandescent light bulb – for he will be banished over the next few years.

sincerely

[s h e n a positively tickled]

{Banning The Light Bulb:
Absolutely The World’s Best Example Of Unbelievable Stupidity When American inventor Thomas Edison patented his incandescent light bulb in 1880 he thought he was doing the world a favor. The world thought he was doing it a favor too, and we’ve celebrated the light bulb ever since, regarding it as a cultural icon as well as a utility and revering it not only as a source of light, but of warmth, color, and a universal symbol of creative insight.Turns out Thomas Edison was the Devil in disguise and his evil invention is just a ticking time bomb set to destroy the entire planet. You see, the light bulb secretly uses more energy than is socially acceptable these days. The ugly truth was first uncovered by the giant scientific minds of Fidel Castro’s Cuba, quickly confirmed by the giant scientific minds of Hugo Chavez’s Venezuela, and then followed by the giant scientific minds of Canada, Australia, California and Tennessee. Acting in the nick of time, the giant political minds of the United States Congress passed and the president signed an 822-page energy bill that bans the incandescent light bulb completely by 2014, starting with the most useful 100-watt bulb in 2012.No Joke U.S. Rep. Jane Harman, D-Calif., a former college professor from New York who serves on the House Energy & Commerce Subcommittee on Energy and Air Quality, reassured skeptics, “We must change the way we consume and produce energy in this country. One small change that everyone can make is as simple as changing a light bulb.” Which begs the question, How many radical environmentalists, government bureaucrats, duly elected dullards and other unbelievably stupid people does it take to change a light bulb? All set to replace the incandescent bulb is the “compact fluorescent” known as the CFL. That’s the fluorescent tube twisted into bizarre shapes so it doesn’t take up as much space. There are only a few problems with the CFLs: they cost about six times more than incandescents; they don’t work well with certain types of lampshades, recessed lighting enclosures or dimmer switches; they give people headaches; when they burn out they often melt their plastic parts, emit smoke, and can start fires; they emit ultraviolet radiation that can cause damage if placed too close to the skin, so they’re not recommended for reading. But their biggest problem is that they contain mercury, a highly persistent and toxic chemical that can build up to dangerous concentrations in fish, other wildlife and human beings. When a CFL bulb is broken, mercury is spilled or set free into the atmosphere. When a CFL bulb burns out, the only place you can legally get rid of it is at a special hazardous materials disposal site. [Death and Destruction] The EPA issues extensive warnings and instructions about what to do if a CFL bulb breaks. Their first advice is to open a window and leave the room immediately. Never use a vacuum cleaner or bare hands to clean up a broken CFL bulb. After final cleanup, place all materials in a plastic bag, seal and take it to a hazardous materials recycling center. Wash your hands thoroughly. Mercury attacks the central nervous system, kidneys and liver, and can cause long-term debilitation and death. All across the United States, schoolchildren are being urged by the Department of Energy and local politicians to replace incandescent light bulbs in their homes with CFLs. Businesses like Wal-Mart are pushing CFLs hard, as are environmental groups. States and even cities and counties are jumping on the bandwagon and banning the sale of incandescent light bulbs without waiting for the federal ban to take effect. It seems a lot of people are exceedingly susceptible to mass hysteria these days. If Thomas Edison is rolling over in his grave, he’s probably recalling one of his most famous quotes: “Of all my inventions, I liked the phonograph best.” [Squandering Energy] If anything should be banned for wasting energy, it’s the practice of politics and the people who practice it. If the time has come for incandescent light bulbs to go, the people who buy them and use them will make that decision. Better (or worse) products will always make it clear what is obsolete (and what is not). The very idea of a government banning a perfectly useful device in order to synthetically and systematically promote the use of a similar device that performs the same task in a more “politically correct” way is an idea that could originate only in a mind as perverted as Fidel Castro’s (and carried forward only in minds almost as bad). The aforementioned U.S. Rep. Jane Harman, D-Calif., is particularly bent out of shape because, according to her, “only 10 percent of the power used by incandescent bulbs is turned into light, with 90 percent being released as heat.” Reminds me of another famous Thomas Edison quote, my special favorite: “We don’t know a millionth of one percent about anything.”} – the wealthypoet

[read on for more info]

LIGHT BULB LUNACY
By Steven Milloy How much money does it take to screw in a compact fluorescent lightbulb? About $4.28 for the bulb and labor – unless you break the bulb. Then you, like Brandy Bridges of Ellsworth, Maine, could be looking at a cost of about $2,004.28, which doesn’t include the costs of frayed nerves and risks to health.
Sound crazy? Perhaps no more than the stampede to ban the incandescent light bulb in favor of compact fluorescent lightbulbs (CFLs) – a move already either adopted or being considered in California, Canada, the European Union and Australia.
According to an article in The Ellsworth American, Bridges had the misfortune of breaking a CFL during installation in her daughter’s bedroom: It dropped and shattered on the carpeted floor.
Aware that CFLs contain potentially hazardous substances, Bridges called her local Home Depot for advice. The store told her that the CFL contained mercury and that she should call the Poison Control hotline, which in turn directed her to the Maine Department of Environmental Protection.
The DEP sent a specialist to Bridges’ house to test for mercury contamination. The specialist found mercury levels in the bedroom in excess of six times the state’s “safe” level for mercury contamination of 300 billionths of a gram per cubic meter.
The DEP specialist recommended that Bridges call an environmental cleanup firm, which reportedly gave her a “low-ball” estimate of $2,000 to clean up the room. The room then was sealed off with plastic and Bridges began “gathering finances” to pay for the $2,000 cleaning. Reportedly, her insurance company wouldn’t cover the cleanup costs because mercury is a pollutant.
Given that the replacement of incandescent bulbs with CFLs in the average U.S. household is touted as saving as much as $180 annually in energy costs – and assuming that Bridges doesn’t break any more CFLs – it will take her more than 11 years to recoup the cleanup costs in the form of energy savings.
Even if you don’t go for the full-scale panic of the $2,000 cleanup, the do-it-yourself approach is still somewhat intense, if not downright alarming.
Consider the procedure offered by the Maine DEP’s Web page entitled, “What if I accidentally break a fluorescent bulb in my home?”
Don’t vacuum bulb debris because a standard vacuum will spread mercury-containing dust throughout the area and contaminate the vacuum. Ventilate the area and reduce the temperature. Wear protective equipment like goggles, coveralls and a dust mask.
Collect the waste material into an airtight container. Pat the area with the sticky side of tape. Wipe with a damp cloth. Finally, check with local authorities to see where hazardous waste may be properly disposed.
The only step the Maine DEP left off was the final one: Hope that you did a good enough cleanup so that you, your family and pets aren’t poisoned by any mercury inadvertently dispersed or missed.
This, of course, assumes that people are even aware that breaking CFLs entails special cleanup procedures.
The potentially hazardous CFL is being pushed by companies such as Wal-Mart, which wants to sell 100 million CFLs at five times the cost of incandescent bulbs, and, surprisingly, environmentalists.
It’s quite odd that environmentalists have embraced the CFL, which cannot now and will not in the foreseeable future be made without mercury. Given that there are about 4 billion lightbulb sockets in American households, we’re looking at the possibility of creating billions of hazardous waste sites such as the Bridges’ bedroom.
Usually, environmentalists want hazardous materials out of, not in, our homes.
These are the same people who go berserk at the thought of mercury being emitted from power plants and the presence of mercury in seafood. Environmentalists have whipped up so much fear of mercury among the public that many local governments have even launched mercury thermometer exchange programs.
As the activist group Environmental Defense urges us to buy CFLs, it defines mercury on a separate part of its Web site as a “highly toxic heavy metal that can cause brain damage and learning disabilities in fetuses and children” and as “one of the most poisonous forms of pollution.”
Greenpeace also recommends CFLs while simultaneously bemoaning contamination caused by a mercury thermometer factory in India. But where are mercury-containing CFLs made? Not in the U.S., under strict environmental regulation. CFLs are made in India and China, where environmental standards are virtually non-existent.
And let’s not forget about the regulatory nightmare known as the Superfund law, the EPA regulatory program best known for requiring expensive but often needless cleanup of toxic waste sites, along with endless litigation over such cleanups.
We’ll eventually be disposing billions and billions of CFL mercury bombs. Much of the mercury from discarded and/or broken CFLs is bound to make its way into the environment and give rise to Superfund liability, which in the past has needlessly disrupted many lives, cost tens of billions of dollars and sent many businesses into bankruptcy.
As each CFL contains 5 milligrams of mercury, at the Maine “safety” standard of 300 nanograms per cubic meter, it would take 16,667 cubic meters of soil to “safely” contain all the mercury in a single CFL. While CFL vendors and environmentalists tout the energy cost savings of CFLs, they conveniently omit the personal and societal costs of CFL disposal.
Not only are CFLs much more expensive than incandescent bulbs and emit light that many regard as inferior to incandescent bulbs, they pose a nightmare if they break and require special disposal procedures. Should government (egged on by environmentalists and the Wal-Marts of the world) impose on us such higher costs, denial of lighting choice, disposal hassles and breakage risks in the name of saving a few dollars every year on the electric bill? “” Steven Milloy publishes JunkScience.com. He is a junk science expert, and advocate of free enterprise and an adjunct scholar at the Competitive Enterprise Institute.