Crazy Lady Corner--No CFLs for Me!

I hereby swear that I shall not abide by this mandate. Up the incandescent!

It may turn out to be lost cause, but as Mr. Smith who once went to Washington said, "The lost causes are the ones worth fighting for!" And this little cause I think is emblematic of the bigger one, the interference in every corner of our lives by our government. Interference in the form of laws "for our own good." 


For reasons that remain a mystery to me this eye irritating (in my ways than one) curly cue bulb, the CFL, has been pushed as somehow more environmentally favorable, when in fact if the darn thing breaks, it releases mercury. But even if it were the perfect manifestation of light bulbness, what right has a government to forbid the making, selling and having (wait that is coming, or you won't be able to buy a lamp that will take the old bulb) of Thomas Edison's transformative invention? 


If the idea is to protect us with all these laws, as appears to be the case, from being hurt--bad news people, we'll still get hurt and we still will die. You cannot legislate everlasting protection. And if you could, then why live at all? We could all sit in protective bubbles in our homes and then do you really think that will end the danger? A few years ago a small plane fell into the 16 unit building down the block. A man in bed died because of the crash. So much for safe places and things.


As for me, although the CFL lobby and makers leave presents of the bulbs in little plastic bags (which by the way are problematic according to the environmental oracles) on my door knob with all manner of praise, I don't intend to use them. Disclaimer:  I bought a lovely lamp at Cost Plus and when I tried to put my incandescent in it, I found out that it was not allowed--the lamp was made ONLY for CFLs. I sitll have the lamp. I hardly ever use it now, because of it.


I started hoarding the old fashioned light bulb long before it caught on for talk show hosts to rant about doing the same thing. I haven't got endless room, but I have an entire section of kitchen space full of them, and I will continue buying them until they can be bought no more, which I hear is very soon.


When I run out of the bulbs, I am going to start using candles at night, along with the happy glow of my computer screen. I don't use much light anyway, at night, raised as I was in a night club like atmosphere of amber ambience.

Laugh if you will, and I know some will. But freedom isn't lost in one fell swoop. It's lost in the little things, like what light bulb you can use.  No one notices these little laws that get passed, and then one day, a whole society is tied into totalitarian knots, what we can do, how we can do it, what we can speak, and how we can speak it.

Since I am a coward, no doubt when I feel real danger to myself, I will conform, but until then, don't tell me what light bulb I can use. And if candlelight was good enough for A.Lincoln, it's good enough for me. He managed to become president without a lightbulb in sight. And I still like him, even though he was a lawyer.