Once More Into the Breach: More help from Washington DC

Today we live under the curse Plato warned of.

"Those who are too smart to engage in politics are punished by being governed by those who are dumber."

Congress has passed an energy bill that will ban the incandescent light bulb by 2014. They great sages of Washington who brought us toilets that almost flush, compact cars that almost survive a collision and protected wetlands that are almost wet now want to make us use light bulbs that almost light a room. They have decided that those squiggly CFL bulbs that give off a weak unnatural light are just the thing for our homes.

I shouldn't complain. They do save on energy just like the toilets we have to flush twice save water. It will decrease our dependence on foreign oil just like the ethanol that is produced from corn, and has caused the cost of all foods to increase.

No mention of the problems of disposing of these silly looking things that contain mercury. They are not toxic until you break five of them according to Dr. David Ray, from the University of Nottingham.

"Mercury accumulates in the body – especially the brain," Dr. David Ray, from the University of Nottingham, told the BBC. "The biggest danger is repeated exposure – a one off exposure is not as potentially dangerous compared to working in a light bulb factory.

"If you smash one bulb then that is not too much of a hazard. However, if you broke five bulbs in a small unventilated room then you might be in short term danger."

"I don't think it makes them dangerous to the domestic user. They just have to take some reasonable precautions if they happen to break one."

Lightbulbs containing mercury should be disposed of separately from the rest of the household waste, in the same way as batteries containing mercury, and should not be incinerated, he added.

Great, so how many bins do we have to separate our trash into now? Didn't they ban lead paint because it accumulated in the brain? That is not the best part. Just like with asbestos, when people start to get sick the lawyers will pile on and the politicians will get all indignant. Laws and lawsuits will cost us all dearly.

Maybe the next thing will be a health care system that almost gives us health care.

Just think of the money we will save.