Hugo

Am I the only person worried about what’s happening in Venezuela? Hugo Chavez just got his legislature to grant him almost unlimited personal power — including the power to remove his Constitutional term limits, which of course he’s already talking about.

Hugo is following a well-trod path to dictatorship — precisely the same path followed by a fellow named Adolf Hitler, and very similar to the path followed a few years later by Fidel Castro.

But this time, the newly-minted dictator has been the darling of the American left (which is conspicuously quiet about recent developments in Venezuela) for the past several years. They didn’t stop toasting Hugo until last week, when he started talking about how he was about to nationalize the over $34B in American investments in Venezuela.

Oops. Looks like the left hitched themselves up to another bad boy…I wonder how they’ll wriggle out of this one?

But forget the petty politics for a moment. We’ve suddenly got a rather bad actor not far south of our borders, and he’s no longer got any internal restraints on his behavior. He’s got a lot of oil-generated wealth at his disposal. He has a substantial and modernly-armed military. He has a close and open relationship with Cuba, Iran, and Libya. He openly proclaims his objective of ridding the world of “American tyranny”.

What the hell are we going to do about this wacko on the Caribbean?

A prediction: Iran will build nuclear-capable missile sites in Venezuela.

What will we do about that?

And why aren’t we hearing much about this in the media? Hugo is a clear and present danger to the U.S. homeland — but you’d sure never get that from the news! What gives here?

Ban the Bulb?

Do I still want to live in California?

I actually asked myself that question after reading about the latest lizard-brained idea from Sacremento. One of our liberal, Democrat, environmentalist-wacko, Gore-infected legislators introduced a bill to ban the incandescent light bulb in California. The bill would phase in the ban, which would take complete effect in 5 years.

And the pundits say it’s likely to pass, and almost certain to get the Governator’s signature.

This is completely plausible to me. The sheeple of California (meaning the majority of adults of voting age: left-leaning, uninformed, and apathetic) will likely listen to the bleating about how incandescent bulbs are guilty of wasting an enormous amount of energy, about how compact fluorescent bulbs put out the same amount of light but use much less energy, last longer, and cost less. They’ll hear all that, and then like the unthinking, uninformed, and unobservant sheep that they are, they’ll say “Yeah, that sounds good!” and re-elect those same legislators again — those legislators that are, brick-by-brick, building a nanny state that is removing one freedom after another from us.

"What on earth is Tom ranting about now?", some of you may say. Well, for background, read this. But here’s the bottom line: incandescent bulbs are superior to compact fluorescent bulbs with respect to the quality of the light they emit. To use simpler words: our artificially illuminated world looks better with incandescent bulbs. But if the legislators prevail (as it appears they will), I will be forced to use inferior lamps, or risk criminal prosecution after the “light bulb police” catch me using bulbs I bought from another state.

The right way to handle this would be to allow the market to control the “problem”. Many people already choose to use compact fluorescent lamps — either as a replacement for all their incandescent bulbs, or only for those where the aesthetics don’t matter much. They do it, I’m sure, to save money. I do this myself in my home. The higher the price of electricity (and therefore the greater savings from compact fluorescent lamps), the more people will do this. That’s the right way — let each individual make up their own mind, based on the value of high quality light to them.

For example, when I’m working on my hobbies, the quality of the light is vital to me. Sacremento is going to tell me that I can’t have my halogen desk lamp. That means that I will either have to work on my hobbies only in daylight (doesn’t work well in the winter!), or I will have to become a light bulb criminal.

Or leave.

Enough of this sort of crap, and I am outta here. I wonder which state is the least likely to engage in this sort of nanny-statism?