Ya Think?

"New Wave Bulbs"

"More than 100 years after Thomas Edison perfected the incandescent light bulb, two California lawmakers are pushing to make California the first state to ban it. Democratic Assemblyman Lloyd Levine said he wants to phase out the incandescent bulb in favor of the more energy-efficient compact fluorescent bulb. "They're cheaper for the consumer, they save the state money and they're better for the environment," Levine said of the energy-efficient bulbs. Republican State Sen. George Runner, however, said banning incandescent bulbs amounts to lawmakers dictating how people should live their lives." That's the "nanny state." They should have a plaque outside the state offices saying, "I don't like it. Ban it." What gives them the right to just ban things they don't like? I don't know of anything in ANY Constitution that gives ANY state (or the feds) that right, just because lawmakers don't like something. So how do they consistently get away with banning legal things, just because they don't like them? Their common defense to such questions is, "If it saves just ONE life, it's worth it." But it ISN'T. If they followed that reasoning, they'd ban the automobile, which has killed thousands of people every year. But they don't, because that would cause riots with them as the subject of the riot. So they just ban small things and hope more people don't care than do. If we ALLOW them to ban things, they'll continue. If we finally stand up on our "hind legs" and say, "NO MORE," maybe they'll stop, so they can remain alive. (Detroit News, 2/1/07)