Another bright idea that takes away freedom.

Which of the following would you choose to light your living room? A light based on 19th century technology, that casts a pleasing light, lasts two or three years depending on how much you use it and costs about 69 cents? Or a light based on 21st century technology that uses less electricity, is said to last about five times longer,  casts a much less pleasing light to the eyes of some people, contains a small amount of a hazardous substance and costs $7.00?

If you chose either of the two, you chose incorrectly because you don’t have a choice, thanks to your nanny state government.

Your tried and true incandescent light bulb, cheap, easy to use and pleasing to the eye, is soon to be gone in favor of compact fluorescent bulbs that may or may not save enough energy over their lifetimes to make them economically worthwhile. It should be your choice but it’s not. That’s because the government doesn’t believe that you have the capacity to balance quality, safety, energy use and cost and come to a buying decision on your own.

Yes, I’m hoarding incandescent bulbs because I like them. But I’m also hoarding them so that I can hang on to the last shred of what it feels like to be in charge of my own life.

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Paul Gleiser

Paul L. Gleiser is president of ATW Media, LLC, licensee of radio stations KTBB 97.5 FM/AM600, 92.1 The TEAM FM in Tyler-Longview, Texas.

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5 Responses

  1. Rick Armstrong says:

    Can someone stop the madness? Please? I am so sick and tired of the Government sticking it’s nose into the way I light my home, what car to drive, how my healthcare is served up or the thousands of “choices” made on my behalf by some petty fool in the capital. Americans are rapidly becoming those robots we saw in Orwell’s movie 1984. So dependent upon the ruling elite for how we dress, eat,work and think that we are afraid of even having a free thought. Laugh? I wouldn’t until I had the courage to step back and take a real look at what is happening right now! We are lied to everyday by a group of nuts who claim the earth is warming and it’s our fault. We are told that we are better off without competition and capitalism. We are told that only the Government can save us from ourselves. We are told that we are no longer citizens of the good Ol’ USA but of a World Community and we are no longer unique. We are told that the fruits of our hard labor are not ours, but belong to the masses. Enough is enough…I did not spend two tours in a combat zone for anything other than the freedom guaranteed me in the Constitution. Progressive Socialist need to get out of our face, out of our lives and allow us to make our own life choices. Including our light bulbs.

    Ricko

  2. Linda E. Montrose says:

    Amen Rick. Couldn’t have said it better. I was never one to follow…sort of marched to the beat of my own drum, so this really rubs me raw! This is NOT the principles this Country was founded on! In fact, it is just the opposite. Isn’t this exactly what the REVOLUTIONARY WAR was fought for? FREEDOM TO CHOOSE? Life, Liberty and the pursuit of happiness is NOT the direction we are being taken. Maybe some people like being told what to do, but I was never one of them. I want to choose what to wear, what to eat, what to drive, what light bulb to use and right on down the line. I don’t want some government idiot telling me what I MUST do! They don’t know me and I resent the intrusion in MY LIFE! Any TRUE RED BLOODED PATRIOTIC AMERICAN should too!!!!

  3. C M Solomon says:

    We can complain about the oppressive nanny state ’til the cows come home and no one in real power is going stop the madness. Power and control over the population is the only solution the Left can accept.

    It is only going to get worse as long as the Socialists/Marxists are running this country at all levels. That includes the bewildering maze of bureaucracies they have put in place at the national, state, and local levels and the Left-wing judges in the Judicial branch of government over the last 50 years. Meanwhile, most of the American people have been the victims of 50 years of Left-wing propaganda from the media and government sponsored educational institutions. Most Americans have been subsequently lulled into an ambivalent sense of concern for the decline of this once great country. As long as the Left can profit from your property (anything you produce) via taxes, regulations, etc., they will never quit. This means that they have absolutely NO INTEREST in reducing the national debt or deficit as long as they can buy votes by promising the ever fleeting utopia to the dupes that can cancel your vote as a conservative. Everything they say is a LIE. The only truth they reveal is in their ACTIONS. Their utopia is NOT the increase in the well being of the maximum number of Americans (as they claim). Their utopia is the arrival of THEIR ABSOLUTE POWER over every aspect or your life because you are too stupid to voluntarily run your life for the benefit of THEIR GOALS.

    The weak Republican response to this erosion of our unalienable rights (since Ronald Regan) is proof enough that the Conservative cause doesn’t realize this long term vicious attack on our liberties. The old-guard Republicans are still looking for areas of compromise with the Democrat Left as we speak. The Socialist/Marxist Democrats are never interested in real compromise. They can increase the debt by trillions and claim they have accommodated the Republicans by cutting a few billions and our Republican dupes go home happy.

    The problem is not with the Socialist/Marxist Democrats. Their tenacity is the envy of the world. They stay on offense and are determined to DEFEAT Conservatives at all costs. They never accept defeat, themselves. The problem is the polite, so-called Conservative Republicans that have one-tenth the tenacity of the Democrat Left. They have little propaganda, tactical, or communicative skills, are easily intimidated, and are always on the defensive. I’m beginning to believe our Republican representatives have been partially corrupted by the 50 years of Left-wing propaganda and don’t really understand the forces of tyranny that the Democrats represent.

    We are in a losing War for the Soul of America. Somehow, we must create a virulent strain of Conservative Republicans that are capable of destroying the poisonous Democrat parasites that seem to have no known antidote. If Republican candidates for office don’t believe in drastic measures to reclaim our unalienable rights, then, don’t support them. I would urge you to encourage and support only those candidates that are willing to engage, expose, and defeat the Democrat Left and their tyrannical agenda without compromise.

  4. C M Solomon says:

    Sorry I misspelled the name of my hero, the last great American statesman, Ronald Reagan.

  5. L Miles says:

    Does anyone see the philosophical parallels among the following political/social systems or beliefs?

    Communism
    Emperor worship in WW2 Japan (State Shinto)
    Marxism
    Nazism
    Fascism
    Militant Islam
    Sharia law
    Socialism
    Secular Humanism
    Political Correctness

    Let me answer my own question. These systems share a belief that mankind was NOT “endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness”. Instead, the Rights of mankind (if any) come from their superiors (masters, rulers, kings, emperors, bureaucracy, etc.) as they deem necessary to guide and control the population for the benefit of the State (religious or otherwise).

    Essentially, the rules of proper behavior or conduct are not based on any absolutes of good and evil, right or wrong (such as defined by the Ten Commandments), but on the whims of the ruling class. In other words, you are FREE to live your life within the bounds of liberty as a subject and loyal servant of the government. History has proven that tyranny and corruption ultimately abounds in these systems. Where is America headed?

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