Let There be (Cold, Flickering, Dim, Toxic) Light

The United States Congress has seen fit to ban Incandescent Light Bulbs. Granted, they didn't call it a ban, since they did it with "Energy Standards", but the result will be the same. No more cheap, safe, bright lights for Americans. You see, light bulbs are inefficient. Like Al Gore's house, they just use too much energy for what they give back. That's because (also like Al Gore) incandescent lightbulbs are all heat but no fire.

While it's true that a typical light bulb may turn 90% of the energy it uses into heat, Compact Florescent simply SUCK. Spot has tried using them to light his meat locker, but they just don't cut it. You see, CFLs don't work when they are cold. That's just one of their problems, though. They also flicker, so they are ill suited for photography (not to mention color temperature problems). They need time to warm up, and if you don't leave them on for at least 15 minutes at a time, their lifespan may be drastically reduced. Oh, and Spot almost forgot -- CFLs contain toxic mercury! Mercury is not only very toxic, it also biomagnifies in the food chain (especially in fish) which worries Spot quite a bit (since he eats a lot of fish). Won't someone think of the environment!

While all this makes Spot very glad that he is only a temporary resident, it also presents a seemingly ideal opportunity for Spot to remind everyone that simply solutions usually aren't.*

*You might have been thinking that this would be an ideal opportunity for Spot to remind everyone that the marketplace is actually quite good at sorting out this type of efficiency problem (what with the high costs of energy and all), but that just seems so obvious.

Their Hypocrisy knows no bounds

Spot wasn't born yet when Gerry Studds (D-MASS) (no that isn't his porn name) was busy getting busy with a 17 year old Congressional page. That's right, a Democrat actually had gay sex with minor. You can be sure that the Democrat leadership kicked his ass just like they want to kick Mark Foley (R-FL). Spot was absolutely shocked to find out that after he ignored being censured, Studds (giggle) continued to defend the affair (yes, actual sex, ladies and germs, not IMs) and was even reelected!

What do these two faced shenanigans remind Spot of?

So, what really is the difference between Democrats and Republicans? Republicans (like penguins) take out the trash, while Democrats (like feral pigs) wallow in their own filth .

Nuttier than a bag of nuts?

Spot can't be the only one who thinks that Kieth Olbermann is the loon in "looney left". This guy seriously needs to up his meds. Spot is used to the detached-from-reality ramblings of looney lefties like Moore, Robbins, and Streisand, but how can anyone claim with a stright face that the media has a conservative bias when bottom ranked MSNBC still has jokers like Matthews and Olberman on the air? The former ESPN "anchor" is just too deluded for words. Sure, the guy has a following, but Spot thinks that proves his point. When you can't tel lthe difference between the loon's actual rants and the parodies skewering him, Spot is certain that is a sign of something.

Frosty Thinking

Martin Frost suggests that Congress could easily fund Katrina relief if they didn't care about being reelected[1]:

Congress could enact a one-time 10 percent tax surcharge (effective for tax year 2005) on all personal and corporate income taxes to help defray the cost of President Bush’s Katrina program. Current Congressional Budget Office projections for 2006 are that the Federal Government will collect $1,013 billion in individual tax revenues and $258 billion in corporate tax revenues for a total of $1,271 billion in total revenue. Ten percent of this would be $127 billion. Thus a 10 percent surcharge would pay for a little more than half of President Bush’s program.

Such a surcharge would be a flat tax…everyone would pay the same rate, no matter how much they earned. Also, it would represent shared sacrifice and would not be a permanent tax increase, but only a temporary one brought about by a truly unusual event.

Of course, anyone who has passed algebra (Spot got a B+) could tell you that a 10% surcharge on current tax rates wouldn't be any sort of a flat tax. Perhaps Frost meant to say something different, but you can see from his own math that he intends to increase everyone's tax burden by 10% of what they owe. Such an increase would actually make tax rates more progressive. Spot must admit that he's glad that Tom DeLay, "took Martin Frost out behind the shed," as Eric would put it. With his wizard math skillz who knows what kind of damage he could have done had he remained in office.

[1] Of course, Congress could accomplish a lot if they didn't have to worry about reelection, and frankly, Spot can't think of a better argument in favor of term limits.

The Pot Calling the Penguin Black

An impeachment is essentially the same as an indictment, although arguably an impeachment carries even more weight. For some reason, Spot can't imagine Nancy Pelosi saying, "The impeachment by the House of President Clinton is the latest example that Democrats in Washington are plagued by a culture of corruption at the expense of the American people."

If we remove all of the corrupt politicians from office, there will be no one left to run the country. Our Founding Fathers didn't give us permanent checks and balances because they were afraid there'd be a corrupt politician every once in a while. The bad news is that they are all corrupt. The worse news is that anyone we replace them with will be corrupt as well.

Panic Flight

Spot doesn't care what Ebert says, he wouldn't see Flightplan with rented eyeballs. This move has "stinker" written all over it.

Ho Chi Din(ner)

Spot is having Vietnamese food for dinner. We'll let you know how it is.