Kiss your bulbs goodbye

Incandescent light bulb

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I've often said America faces danger from creeping fascism.

I said that not because, as Ron Paul might suggest, too many Americans are proud to wave their flag or say their prayers.

On the contrary. The real reason we face this danger is because the American people are just too willing to allow their corrupt and clueless elected leaders to pervert, distort and undermine the Constitution in ways that would have been unimaginable just a few short years ago.

A good example of what I mean is the energy bill passed by Congress last Tuesday and signed by President Bush Wednesday.

Among the provisions of this alarming piece of incoherent legislation that exceeds the Congress' enumerated powers in breathtaking new ways:

• The bill bans the sale of one of the greatest inventions of all time – the incandescent light bulb.

• The bill mandates 35 miles-per-gallon automobiles by 2020.

• Stickers on new cars will be required to tell you how much greenhouse gas emissions they produce.

This is command-and-control fascism worthy of the old Soviet Union and today's Cuba and Venezuela, not the United States of America.

It is unbelievable. I feel like I am in a dream, or awakening to the realization that I actually live in the Matrix. This couldn't be the land of the free and the home of the brave. We couldn't be this stupid, could we?

All of these innovations by government have one thing in common – as do all the other provisions of this hopelessly misguided piece of legislation. They are the result of panic sweeping over elected officials because of a mythical belief in man-made, catastrophic global warming – an idea totally unsupported, in fact, contradicted, by all good and sound science.

And, I fear, this is only the beginning.

Al Gore has said he wants us to completely reorder the world's economic priorities because of this phantom threat. And it looks like he is getting his way.

Why am I so worked up about light bulbs and fuel-efficiency standards?

Well, obviously, these decisions are going to cost us all much more – both in terms of what these mandates will do to the economy and the price of goods as well as the cost in freedom.

If government has the power to ban something so incredibly benign and useful as the incandescent light bulb, what doesn't government have the power to do?

No one has ever been killed by an incandescent light bulb. The billions of them that have been used around the world have done nothing they weren't intended to do. They produced light, efficiently and economically.

But they have been legislated away – without so much as a single public opinion poll to determine what Americans think about the idea.

And they will be replaced, by the way, by a hazardous alternative – one that will almost assuredly cost lives and hurt the environment. That may be the most amazing part of the story. The alternative to incandescent light bulbs is the CFL, or compact fluorescent, which contains mercury, costs far more and produces light many find unattractive and even unsettling. In fact, just wait to see how much the alternative bulbs cost when they are no longer alternatives, but your only choice.

Nevertheless, the nannies in Congress know what's best for you. And they've made their decision.

Where is the popular outrage?

Why aren't more of you standing up and fighting back?

Where are the voices of opposition to totalitarianism in this country?

If the oligarchs can get away with this, they can damn well get away with anything!

This is madness. This is not freedom. This is fascism. This is not the United States of America.