I just thought this was funny...and not to mention SPOT ON!

http://youtube.com/watch?v=e-LOtKIIKcg

Where is Jillian to tell us the "General Welfare" clause covers ordering us what light bulbs we can use? Never mind that the bulbs in question are actually DANGEROUS to our General Welfare.

__________________
The fact that an opinion has been widely held is no evidence whatever that it is not utterly absurd. Indeed in view of the silliness of the majority of mankind, a widespread belief is more likely to be foolish than sensible.

-Bertrand Russell

Facts are stubborn things, but statistics are more pliable

-Laurence J. Peters

I never said that you had no right to have an opinion. I just said that it was, in fact, worth nothing.

-Maineman ( on 12 June 2007)

He also left out the "rebound effect". Where consumers respond to a 10% lower electric bill by running their a/c 10% more, or by buying a 10% bigger house, or by living further from work and thus using more gas.

He also could have mentioned that the sponsor of the bill is beholden to phillips-magnavox, which sells the most CFL's, but I suppose that would have been impolite.

Or, he could have pointed out that CFL's are old and busted, while white LED's and/or OLED lighting is the new hotness. They are more efficient than fluorescents by about the same margin that fluorescents are more efficient than regular incandescents. Some of the OLED's in labs are 99% efficient. Yes, that's right--99%. You can touch them and they don't even feel slightly warm.

Flourescent bulbs also put out PINGS of energy that has been proven to cause problems with students in the classroom. The pulse of the lights mess with their eyes and alter attention spans and abilities.

Also I'm pretty sure that halogen lights will still be available. These basically do everything that incandescents do, a little bit better. A bit better quality light (no fluorescent flickering), a tad better efficiency (some of them, anyhow), and they last 2x or 4x as long, iirc.

Great. So you can still have all the things you like about incandescents. You'll just have to pay $4/bulb instead of $.25/bulb. What a scam. Thanks, light bulb company lobbyists and congress.