2012.02.08
Your daily Letter to the Columnist — Feb. 8, 2012
ceridwen | Wikimedia Commons
She believes Va. lawmakers should be IQ tested
Hello, Dan;
Hey, what a FABULOUS column you wrote for today’s paper! You said it perfectly!!!!!
Aaaaaakkk!!!
Hunting in parks on Sundays, wasting energy with more incandescent bulbs in every household, and forcing more ridiculous anti-choice hurdles for women seeking abortions … Now there’s a mix to make you positively puke…
Perhaps we could impose regulations upon lawmakers who come up with these unbelievable bright ideas to undergo testing of their own … such as … hmmm … something involving IQ testing or CSQ (Common Sense Quotient).
Again, I say AAAAAAAAK!
Thanks, loved it, Dan,
Jane Hellman
BLACKSBURG
Hey Jane
Why stop with government mandated light bulbs? There are lots of choices the government needs to take away from us.
“Double ply” toilet paper is a huge waste. Think of all the trees that have lost their lives because the selfish choose cushy TP. We need lawmakers with “common sense” to outlaw wasteful TP for the sake of the environment.
Comment by terps — February 8, 2012 @ 2:48 pm
#$1 I can’t understand why the government won’t let us dump toxins and carcinogens straight into streams and the air, terps. It would be a WHOLE lot cheaper that way. And I’m not sure why they don’t just let us dispense automatic citizen justice on the streets. Think of all the prison and justice system costs we’d save.
Comment by gdad — February 8, 2012 @ 3:13 pm
I wonder if she read that before she sent it. She’s anti-choice when it comes to light bulbs and hunting while being pro-choice when it comes to killing unborn children.
Comment by Henry — February 8, 2012 @ 3:14 pm
@3 – tis a shame eh? Such cruel individuals in this world.
Comment by Uptheriver — February 8, 2012 @ 3:46 pm
GDAD
Do you seriously equate the lightbulb mandate with “dumping toxins and carcinogens” in streams? That is crazy.
Anyway, if the is any carcinogen scare it lies with the mercury in these new bulbs. Mercury is a proven carcinogen and what will happen when these mercury bulbs start populating are land fills and running off into our streams?
Comment by terps — February 8, 2012 @ 4:26 pm
Damn it! I need spell check. Above…if there….and our land fills.
Comment by terps — February 8, 2012 @ 4:29 pm
I doubt seriously if she reduced it down to that kind of jarring simple minded level Henry, but of course, I could be wrong.
Comment by Sandi Saunders — February 8, 2012 @ 4:40 pm
#1 & 3 Last time I looked anybody will be able to get most any light bulb they want, only more efficient. Don’t tell me both of you are uninformed enough to fall for that right-wing malarkey about incandescent bulbs being outlawed? Or are you knowingly passing the malarkey along. Come to think of it, that would be just like you, terps.
Comment by gdad — February 8, 2012 @ 5:04 pm
http://www.popularmechanics.com/technology/gadgets/news/is-the-light-bulb-ban-a-bright-idea-6459591
GDAD
Popular Mechanics is not exactly Fox News with a right wing agenda. See above. The law would have effectively banned incandescent light bulbs, but the REPUBLICAN congress moved to put the ban “on hold.”
GDAD, do you feel comfortable with the government pushing those mercury laden bulbs. Looks like something we may regret in 30 years.
Comment by terps — February 8, 2012 @ 7:09 pm
Separate but equal, right gdad?
Comment by Henry — February 8, 2012 @ 7:34 pm
I’m not sure if they make an IQ test that will register IQ’s that low.
Comment by dave — February 8, 2012 @ 7:48 pm
#2 gdad – Or how about the FDA with testing of drugs, or the local health dept. making sure that restaurants don’t store their rodent poison above the produce or the agency which prohibits the battery factory from discharging lead into streams upstream from the dairy farm from or the fire dept. making sure the emergency exits to buildings are not blocked…there are places where these things are not done and they’re called Third World Countries.
And this from an article I read about mercury in CFLs compared with that produced by coal fired electric plants:
“About 50 percent of the electricity produced in the U.S. is generated by coal-fired power plants. When coal burns to produce electricity, mercury naturally contained in the coal releases into the air. In 2006, coal-fired power plants produced 1,971 billion kilowatt hours (kwh) of electricity, emitting 50.7 tons of mercury into the air—the equivalent amount of mercury contained in more than 9 billion CFLs (the bulbs emit zero mercury when in use or being handled).”
Popular Mechanics
Funny how suddenly some folks are concerned about mercury emissions if they’re tied up with a government mandate but the far higher volume of mercury emissions from fossil fuel plants are just viewed as the harmless byproduct of doing business…
Comment by scott whitaker — February 8, 2012 @ 8:01 pm
A REPUBLICAN House and president enacted the “ban,” back in 2007 terps. The industry WANTED it enacted, and it made sense, and the effort was bipartisan. But we are beyond making sense now.
Can you cite any reputable sources for your statement that the link between mercury exposure and cancer is clear? Because while the metal is pretty bad stuff, the EPA doesn’t list it as a known carcinogen in humans.
Comment by Dan Casey — February 8, 2012 @ 8:38 pm
Hey gdad, I’m with ya on the street justice idea. I think they already made a movie about that though.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=itmNiTwHOsM
Comment by Chuck — February 8, 2012 @ 9:41 pm
I have a pool of mercury in my backyard that I relax in after work. I am developing a third eye, but other than that all is well. I also use to take dips in Onondaga Lake back when I was a kid. This may explain everything.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Onondaga_Lake
Comment by Uptheriver — February 9, 2012 @ 8:38 am
OK Dan
Lets be scientific about this. I am going to take your Obama Chia Head and put mercury on the vegetation. If the “hair” on Obama’s head shrivels up, can we agree that mercury is toxic?
Comment by terps — February 9, 2012 @ 8:44 am
#16 Sure it’s toxic, but instead of protesting about the relatively small amount of mercury in cfl’s, why are you not campaigning against the much higher emissions of that metal from coal fired generation plants? Using the mercury in cfl’s as an argument against the mandate is a red herring.
Comment by scott whitaker — February 9, 2012 @ 9:49 am
Scott
Because we need electricity, but we don’t need these stupid light bulbs
Comment by terps — February 9, 2012 @ 10:54 am
Light bulbs themselves aren’t inherently stupid..
Its just a handful of people who are
who try to screw and unscrew the hot ones.
Comment by Joe — February 9, 2012 @ 11:41 am
#10 That made no sense whatsoever, Henry. Care to try again?
Comment by gdad — February 9, 2012 @ 12:24 pm
#9 Repubs and industry wanted this originally. And, as usual, you’re spreading untrue right-wing talking points.
You’re probably still claiming that Roanoke Occupiers are defecating in Elmwood and driving families away.
Comment by gdad — February 9, 2012 @ 12:27 pm
Terps says:
“Because we need electricity, but we don’t need these stupid light bulbs”
Yet somehow, nearly every commercial building built since the 1970′s has used the same technology, just in a larger and more toxic format….
Wow. The ignorance on the topic of CFLs is so astoundingly large, I really should just write a lighting primer every time someone makes yet another uninformed post.
Comment by scott — February 9, 2012 @ 2:38 pm
I bet you that terps’ office uses the deadly light bulbs he writes about. I don’t know how he can sleep at night, potentially exposing all his customers and employees to those toxins. . .
Comment by Dan Casey — February 9, 2012 @ 2:41 pm
T5, T5HO, T8, T12 lamps all have the same Mercury and some older ones even have PCBs… a carcinogen.
Where’s the moral outrage over those the past 30 years? Oh that’s right because if they were incandescent instead, West Virginia would be as flat as Kansas from mining to power it all.
Comment by scott — February 9, 2012 @ 2:47 pm
GDAD
The OWS crowd in Roanoke are just a bunch of pitiful losers. I feel sorry for them. This country presents so much opportunity and they spend their time trying to punish the rich.
Go look at my posts. I clearly stated that the OWS defecator was in New York and I supplied the unpleasant picture at your request.
GDAD….isn’t there someone out there with cancer, disability or some problem that is not self inflicted where you can pour out your empathy and pity.These OWS folks are young, healthy people. They need to be told to go to work and they certainly do not deserve all of this pity.
Comment by terps — February 9, 2012 @ 3:13 pm
23.I bet you that terps’ office uses the deadly light bulbs he writes about. I don’t know how he can sleep at night, potentially exposing all his customers and employees to those toxins
Dan
The only recurring nightmare that I have is all of the libs on this blog simultaneously trying to pry money out of my wallet.
Comment by terps — February 9, 2012 @ 3:19 pm
#25 terps, I won’t spend the time looking back, I could have sworn it was you who told us several tings about the Roanoke occupiers that wasn;t true, like camping in the opark, trashing it, and scaring families away. And I thought you also accused them of going to the bathroom in public at Elmwood.
I do remember the photo you posted, which in fact did NOT show anybody defecating. There was also no evidence the guy in the photo had anything to do with OWS and in fact I know there was speculation it was a set-up photo.
If you look back, you’ll be hard-pressed to find ANY comments where I express empathy for the OWS folks. That’s one more thing you’ve just assumed. And you know what they say about that word.
Comment by gdad — February 9, 2012 @ 4:19 pm