Light Bulbs
As if Representative Steve King calling House office building janitors “Stasi Troops” for replacing the standard bulbs in his office with with more energy efficient bulbs weren’t enough, Mitt Romney weighed in on the alarming threat to your individual liberty via light bulbs. Yes, light bulbs. According to Mr. Romney, Pres. Obama has banned the use of good ole’ fashion Edison energy inefficient incandescent light bulbs. Except Edison didn’t invent the light bulb and President Obama didn’t ban the use of them. How this guy made a lick of money with Bain Capital is beyond us. But we digress. Even though what Mr. Romney actually refers to is legislation passed by President G. W. Bush, Mr. Romney went all in, declaring: ”The government would have banned Thomas Edison’s light bulb…Oh yeah, Obama’s regulators actually did”. This begs the question: When was the last time you personally visited a Wal Mart to purchase some light bulbs, Mr. Romney? We’d wager there’s at least one of the new more efficient light bulbs in at least one of his 6 residences. Mr. Romney pays the bills, he doesn’t do the chores. It’s beyond his pay grade and he has people for that, you know. Doesn’t everyone?
Aside from the fact that Mr. Romney is wrong, a trait he seems to be adept at being, what exactly does he and others have against the new light bulbs? Is that not what America is all about? Creating new, more efficient, i.e. better products? Aren’t these new light bulbs exactly a sign of American innovation and creation at its best? Someone made money with the development of these light bulbs and is that not a shining example of American capitalism and exceptionalism at its finest? The twisted logic that he and others use is that somehow your freedom to purchase what you want is being limited. Never mind that products like the New Coke, Harley Davidson cologne and perfume, Life Saver Soda, and the like come and go all the time, we will accept that. Go ahead, if you want to buy incandescent light bulbs, you can pay more in electrical costs, you can spend more money because they do not last as long, they are still out there but even they have been redesigned to use less energy. We replaced all my incandescent light bulbs with the new ones 8 years ago and have yet to replace a one of them. Sorry Mr. Edison. The light bulb you improved upon was an amazing product, but we gotta go with the new ones. We’re sure you understand. Good grief, Mr. Romney, on this one maybe you need to shake your etch-a-sketch again, and again, and again.
Orange Shirts
As if the state of Florida didn’t have enough to deal with, you can now be terminated in Deerfield Beach, Florida if you and other employees wear orange shirts on the same day. Why, you ask? 14 workers wearing orange shirts were called into a conference room, where an executive informed them of a protest involving the color orange and, since these employees in question were wearing orange, they all were fired. This is a law firm, for christsake. Even after the employees explained that it was a Friday and a payday and they were looking forward to a planned trip to a local drinking establishment for happy hour after work and simply wanted to look like a group wasn’t enough for those executives. After the executives conferred, bounced on the street the 14 went. And in Florida, unless the employee has a contract, employers can fire a workers ”for a good reason, for a bad reason or even for the wrong reason, as long as it’s not unlawful.” So says Eric K. Gabrielle, a labor and employment lawyer at Stearns Weaver in Fort Lauderdale. ”No violation of the law jumps out” in this case, he continued. No recourse. Nice, huh?
Other Tomfoolery
Did you hear about Missouri’s largest county caucus? It got shut down by police. Seems a few couple folks got a bit rowdy and refused to leave when the event was closed early and got themselves arrested. The St. Charles County caucus got off to a late start and then faced further delays when a caucus-goer refused orders to put down a video camera, and two Ron Paul supporters declined to leave and were arrested for trespassing. The shouting of “We make the rules” got so loud that they could not even elect a chair and many people got so frustrated they left. Margy Harris said, ‘we came here to do business, not this foolishness.” Of course Ms. Harris, a supporter of Mr. Santorum, probably just had a different idea of what foolishness she wanted to participate in.
Ain’t no April foolin’ here.
yours truly,
political ole lady
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