Erm, About Those CFLs...

You remember - the toxic ones?

Well, it turns out that - on top of everything else - they're bad for your skin. (Their new selling point: "Not just killing your mood anymore!")

Here's a snippet:

Particularly for people with skin conditions such as lupus, eczema and psoriasis, it causes a lot of problem with burning.

I just have to say, no disrespect intended to people with skin conditions, but this is SO illustrative of big-government "solutions." (And yes, before the "it was GE, not the government!!!" cries start, GE is perhaps the most pervasive, behind-the-scenes-successful special corporate-machinery interest group in the country; who *makes* the light bulbs we all have to buy? And as a founding member of the United States Climate Action Partnership, they're far from apolitical.)

At any rate, I have sensitive skin. Hubby's skin is even more sensitive. And Kiddo's skin is uber-pale and uber-sensitive; he also has mild eczema, the poor little guy.

So... in the interest of saving everyone money in our upcoming utilitarian universal healthcare model (not to be confused with any Unitarian Universalist churches), I'm refusing to use CFLs.

Sure, I was already refusing, but now I have a legitimate health concern. And a ready-made excuse as soon as waivers are available.

I'll even fill it out in triplicate.

Check Another One Off

I just changed a light bulb in our hallway.

The flood of brilliant light was so refreshing - been waiting to change that for days while we've been stumbling and fumbling through the hall.

But it reminded me of how glad I am that we can still buy incandescent bulbs... and it reminded me to stock up.

Seriously.

I am SO fed up with the government mandating what we do in our homes. Shortly we will be forced to introduce POISON into every light fixture in every room in our homes, if we haven't already been badgered into it, and I'm not even being metaphorical. Yikes... and we worry about conserving water bottles and sorting the recycling? It just took an EPA team almost a week to clean up a mercury spill locally...

But let us be metaphorical for a moment: It's just one more straw.

Those Federal-friendly Light Bulbs

Not that it's the most pressing issue facing us, but in a nutshell, Congress and the President (long-ago) mandated that we all switch to "efficient" (mercury) lights by 2012.

There are several problems with this - and at several levels. But health and disposal hazards are the number one concern to most people.

Good thing government knows "what's best," eh?

And if that link I posted is the first you've heard of the dark side of CFLs, please turn off the evening news and hike over to Wikipedia or GE. Wikipedia actually has a teeny-tiny mention of hazards, after their unqualified claims of energy efficiency; and GE actually makes it slightly easier to find out how these CFLs may or may not help.

At any rate, this is yet another well-intentioned (?)-but-idiotic piece of busywork completed by our increasingly powerful government.

Let's think about (and act on) what we really want them to do, instead!