Tom Toles for January 17, 2014

Thanks Daddy Government for telling me what light bulbs I have to buy. Cars too!What’s next, telling us we have to buy health insurance?

Ironic how the biggest pigs just don’t like those “pigtail” bulbs.

Ahh yes, the Republicans, clouding over even the brightest sky.The party of “no.” As inspiring as a log jam. Unhappy people making tragically poor decisions. Where intellectual curiosity has gone the same way as concern for the poor and disadvantaged..Why is it that we don’t all aspire to be just like them?

I consider myself somewhat of an environmentalist, but I don’t like those pig tail bulbs because of the mercury they contain.

If an individual, with intent, did what “Freedom Enterprises” did to a state’s water supply, he would be called a terrorist, and go to jail. If a flesh-and-blood person did it by accident, it still might get pretty bad for him. But when the responsible “person” is a corporation, what happens? You think the controlling stockholders, or directors, are going to be ruined by this? Or only those with no real control over how the company operates: some low-level technician scapegoat, shareholders who will lose a bit of their investment, customers who will see their costs rise a bit, an insurance company have to pay out some damages, maybe. I don’t know. My question is, where is the hue and cry from the party of “personal responsibility”? More than a century ago, Ambrose Bierce defined a corporation as an ingenious device for accruing individual profit while avoiding individual responsibility. I’d be willing to try an experiment: we’ll eliminate all laws by which the government regulate business including those make possible that “ingenious device” the corporation. Every enterprise will have to owned by one or several actual persons who will be regarded as equal partners, and fully liable, “personally responsible” financially, legally, and morally, for the full consequences of everything their business does. If they screw up, they all lose everything and go to jail. Anybody in the “personal responsibility” camp, the “small government” camp want to sign up for that program?

I have a right to flammable clothing. How DARE the government mandate that those products can’t be sold? What gives them the right?

“Passion over enlightenment”

Choose LEDs.

Given the “Polar Vortex” that is probably a good thing…

Everyone who howls about more efficient light bulbs should also go ahead and trade their cell in for a candlestick phone and their car for a Model T.

“In the winter heat is a welcome by-product of light.”If you think the inefficiency of incandescent bulbs is a cheap way to add heat to your house, you might want to review your electric bill.

mercury is better for you than co2 [per epa]

I know about the Polar Vortex David. As for “…carbon footprints…” I can accept we need to change how we produce energy. We should be striving to do that first and foremost as cheaply as possible. If reducing carbon is the goal as well then the clear and overwhelmingly cheapest means to achieve that goal is to switch to nuclear on a massive scale and then use the cheap electricity produced to switch our portable fuel for things like vehicles to hydrogen and the fuel cell.That makes for a tiny carbon footprint unlike the massive one that remains from solar and wind which will NEVER become dispatchable base load sources because of their unreliable output. The incandescent light bulb in that scenario is an irrelevancy as is switching to CFLs or LEDs.

“You need a Driver’s License to buy Cigarettes, beer, liquor, guns, ammo, why not to vote?”Probably has something to do with the Constitution and related Supreme Court decisions.

“You need a Driver’s License to buy Cigarettes, beer, liquor, guns, ammo, why not to vote?”Probably has something to do with the Constitution and related Supreme Court decisions.

Temp of lighted incandescent = 335FTemp of comparable CFL = 131F Which is the more dangerous? Most CFL-generated fires are from use in unshielded torchiere lamps when contacted by flammable fabrics. The bulbs I use have ceramic / metal bases…haven’t had one “burst into flames” yet (5+ years, 30+ bulbs installed)…what about all those “Tray” fluorescents @ work, @ the stores, @ church…all enclosed, higher wattage (heat) than common CFLs…and just as full of Mercury…the ones everybody tosses in the trash dumpster out bacK ???…for the last 50+ years? Look stuff up, if you don’t know. Quit the “inflammatory” rhetoric.

If I don’t buy any of those, our government doesn’t fine me hundreds of dollars. I don’t drive, own my house outright and don’t need flood insurance.How bout that?

I got the Liberal point knucklehead.Maybe you should read the Declaration of Independence some time.

So you’re praising Bush now?

You may be thinking of LED bulbs. They still have some serious heat issues. CFLs don’t really get that hot. I’ve been using them in enclosed fixtures for years.