(eventhoughIonlyuseCFLs...)
But there are so very many GOOD reasons to oppose the ban. Is it really necessary to screech Every! Single! Time!
...As if somehow the fluorescent tubes we've all smashed in our garbage cans so we could get the damn lids on, DIDN'T contain mercury. And never hurt anybody.
Because seriously, every time I read that I want to go look at the header and ensure myself I'm not reading something from NPR.
12 comments:
I've been watching the Great Light Bulb Debate with interest. I think the law banning them is stupid and ill advised.
I guess I'm the only person on the planet who likes them. I've been using them ever since the price hit about 2 bucks apiece. They save me a non trivial amount on my electric bill even accounting for their higher price. I like the light they emit better than I like the incandescent variety and I really don't get wrapped around the axle about their environmental impact whatever it is. So sue me.
You're missing the point. The same people pushing CFL's on us and banning the light bulb have used the "mercury card" many times in the past. Can you say "hypocrite"??? That is the point. CFL's should be banned.
I've had to waste a lot of time dealing with RHoS compliance issues, so like Anon 7:10 I like rubbing the greenweenies' faces in their own "mercury is going to destroy the planet!" whining.
I used to like CFLs, because the very first ones I bought happened to last as long as advertised and had a decent spectrum. Since that initial batch, it's been hit or miss. Some crap out after a couple of days, some last a couple of months. About 25% of the time when they fail, it involves smoke and fire; I tend to see that as a bad thing. The CFLs with good color are more expensive. I don't like waiting as long as 3 minutes for the CFL light output to max out, and if I just leave the lights on I lose the touted energy efficiency value. My apartment has wired fixtures that aren't CFL friendly, so I either use the existing fixtures and increase the fail rate, or I spring for lamps; so much for that cost savings. Where I live it's illegal to simply throw away a dead CFL; you have to package it and pay a hazardous waste disposal fee. That kinda cuts into the cost savings, too (although I plan to shift some of that cost by mailing future dead CFLs to my congress-scumsucker who just voted against killing the incandescent ban).
CFLs aren't ready for prime time. Sadly, neither are LED arrays (which I think will eventually be the way to go until an even better tech comes along). But banning cheap, effective incandescents before an acceptable replacement has come along was pretty freaking stupid even for DC.
Oh, yeah. The old style fluorescent tubes...
Frankly, mercury poisoning from those things would explain a lot of managers I've had to deal with. [grin]
"But banning cheap, effective incandescents before an acceptable replacement has come along was pretty freaking stupid even for DC."
While banning them after an acceptable replacement came along would merely be unconstitutional and fascistic.
Before Congress decided they could twist the Interstate Commerce Clause into whatever balloon animal shape they needed at the moment, they at least had the decency to pass a constitutional amendment when they wanted to ban something.
I am have a simple way of disposing the piggy bulbs. I simply package them up and mail them to Ottawa. It is free to mail things to a member of parliament and I figure they put the laws in place they can dispose of them. I never put a return address on and drop them off at a postal box on my way into town.
Thats not passive aggressive is it?
Well, Tam, I was really addressing technical issues, but since you brought up the Constitution...
Since constitutionality hasn't been enough reason for people to start decorating lamp posts so far (despite little things like the Alien and Sedition Acts, Lincoln's income taxes, jailing political opposition, forced relocations, concentration camps, violated treaties, multiple undeclared wars, gun laws, the war on (some) drugs, free speech zones, and endlessly so forth...), why should the bulb ban be any different?
The Consititution was an interesting idea, and if effectively enforced would at least have been better than than how most countries work. But rthese days, I mainly point out Constitutional issues for the irony value, and to remind people what lying sacks of partial processed bovine excreta our "leaders" are.
I like CFLs they are good for some things. I like Incandescents, they are good for other things. I'll put incandescents away for the future there will probably be a nice black market for them. CFLs don't work well as outdoor lights in cold weather in my experience. Since they need to reach a certain tempature it takes them to long to light up. I don't like them for emergency lighting either. I do like them for putting our less heat. In a desert that is a plus. I do like the fact that they also put less wear and tear on my interior wiring. CFLs do not work in an Easy Bake Oven.
Pssstt....hey, buddy.....wanna buy an incandescent bulb*.....
*opens trunk of sinister large hydrocarbon burning car .
Buck.
"But rthese days, I mainly point out Constitutional issues for the irony value..."
Oh, personally, I pointed it out because I'm a naive idealist.
Well said Tam.
I am an idealist as well. {shrug}
It continually amazes me that so many folks [even of those who profess to value the ideals espoused in the Constitution] seem to think that the parchment itself is supposed to "do something" without any Personal Involvement on their part.
That rifle in the closet will not bring home an Elk unless one gets off the couch and gets their own personal boots muddy.
Ben Franklin said it clearly but most folks just don't Hear it.
"It's a Republic Madam, IF you can keep it."
As in ... YOU must be actively involved and engaged or the horse will take the wagon where the horse wants to go. It really is that simple.
Too many people just want that "G- D- piece of paper" to do all the work so they won't have to leave the couch and maybe miss the latest installment of whatever is playing on the Idiot Box these days OR to have to actually research the candidates and their positions OR to actually go do the job themselves.
We are in the position we are in because we [and most of our ancestors] have not held up Our End of the [so called] agreement.
But it sure is easier to blame a piece of paper [parchment] or some nebulous "Them" for the failures than to do our part which is to pick up the shovel and get started cleaning the barn isn't it? {rhetorical question}
stay safe,
gooch
PS None of this was meant to be pointed at You [Tam] personally. I am aware of your excellent efforts to awaken the sleeping sheep and to point out the blatant infringements of the PTB.
Hey, I think this bird's gonna crater in hard, but there's no reason not to poke buttons, twist dials and flip switches until it does. I mean, one of them might work and, if not, well, you were gonna crash anyway. ;)
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