Dimwit Governments Dimming the Home Lights

The first known words spoken by the Creator were: “Let there be light”. The first cross-board edict forced on modern society by Big Brother government was turning down eye-saving light by banning the incandescent light bulb and replacing it with an inferior and more dangerous product.

This January 1st will not only ring in the New Year, but also the ban of Thomas Edison’s incandescent light bulb in the USA. The soft yellow halo of light society has depended on for more than a century will be no more, courtesy of government bans making the incandescent illegal. The last time we looked around the world had light, but darkness has been creeping in everywhere. “Brazil and Venezuela started the phase-out in 2005, and the European Union, Switzerland, and Australia started to phase them out in 2009. Likewise, other nations are implementing new energy standards or have scheduled phase-outs: Argentina, and Russia in 2012, and the United States, Canada,Malaysia and South Korea in 2014.” (Wikipedia).

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Cuba already has a total ban on incandescents.  India, the Philippines, Malaysia and Israel are all on their way to the dark via phase-outs. In the U.S., most people will have forgotten the 2007 law signed by former President George W. Bush, that signaled the swan song of the dependable incandescent light bulb. For governments to get away with it, they forced manufacturers to dramatically improve the energy efficiency of ordinary light bulbs. Now 40W bulbs must draw just 10.5W, and 60W bulbs, 11W--knowing ahead of the game that incandescents simply can’t do that. File this flimflammery under “Government Saving the God-Created Planet”. People who haven’t stocked up on incandescents before their last hurrah will grope through their nights under the insipid bluish light of the LED, or the UV-leaking, mercury-enabled CFL, both stamped ‘Made in China’. Interesting how at the same time society is being weaned off the welcome bright light of the incandescent, it’s lights off for private health insurance and lights on for the privacy that once shone the light of dignity on a society that took privacy for granted. Masquerading as “progressives”, Western governments are taking their countries backwards through time rather than forward. The same Big Brother governments who made mega-millionaires of global warming scam artists like Al Gore, are claiming that the LED and CFL replacements for the incandescent boast more energy efficiency. Only career politicians can hypocritically talk about the overblown necessity to minimize the carbon footprint while leaving the elderly and disabled vulnerable to inadequate lighting in their own homes. You don’t have to own 20-20 vision to know that government-imposed LED and CFL more than pale in comparison to Mr. Edison’s light bulb. History will record that genius entrepreneurship provided one, government regulation the other. In the past decade, the cost of electricity shot up 42 percent in the U.S. In Greece, where the cost of electricity has skyrocketed by 48%, people are burning furniture in their homes and apartments all to keep warm. Brits, who cannot afford their energy, are now worried about freezing in the dark over this winter. Caving in to environmental activists, governments are shutting down coal mines, putting the kibosh on oil exploration, writing off fracking and building wind and solar farms on prime agricultural land. People worldwide go hungry when farmers turn their fields over to the production of ethanol instead of grains, corn and other food crops. How the populations of entire nations got plunged into darkness by their own governments is a story that should be shouted from the rooftops. It will take time for the impact of being left in the dark to hit home. The impact will come when there are no incandescent light bulbs to be found anywhere. Ironically, the disappearance of Mr. Edison’s light bulb may be the main reason why the light will go on in society’s collective head: when it makes way for the new rallying call for real Hope & Change: “Our governments went and left us in the dark!“