I cannot take credit for the post below.  It was written by Michael Farris, chairman of Home School Legal Defense Association (HSLDA), and one of the nation’s foremost Constitutional law experts.  I had to share this, though, because I absolutely agree!  I’ve been writing letters and calling congressmen for the past year over this.

The enviro-idiots have done it. I went to the store today and on my shopping list was “100-watt light bulbs.” There were none. There were no spaces for such bulbs. The incandescent 100-watt light bulb is no more–at least at that store. And it is on its way out everywhere.

There were some new halogen bulbs advertising that they give the same light as 100- watt bulbs with only 72 watts of power. The 75 watt bulbs were still in stock. They were priced on sale at 4 for 99 cents. The normal price was four for $1.69. That used to be the normal price for the 100-watt bulbs before Congress drove them out of existence. The cost of these new enviro-friendly bulbs? $9.99 for four. They are exactly 10 TIMES as expensive as the traditional bulb–at least when they are on sale, and more like 6 times more expensive when you compare regular price to regular price.

Congress hates the family when it makes us buy these enviro bulbs at, at least 6 times the cost of the traditional bulb. Congress also hates American jobs. The last American light bulb factory was located about 25 miles from my home in Winchester, VA. [Rachel’s note: For me, this is local.  Jobs in my town were lost because Congress got too big for its britches.]  It closed down several months ago because it would require expensive retooling to bring the old plant up to the task of making these horrible new bulbs. It was cheaper to build new factories overseas. Congress hates American families and American jobs.

And every bit of this is unconstitutional. The Commerce Clause does not give Congress the authority to regulate manufacturing of any kind. Nor does it give Congress plenary authority over the environment. At least this is true if we are following James Madison’s view of the Commerce Clause as opposed to Comrade FDR’s view of this provision of the Constitution. Commerce is shipping. That’s it.

I went to another store and bought all the remaining 100-watt bulbs.

It is time that we stop the dimwits in Congress (and their 25-watt cousins in the White House). I want to encourage everyone who believes in America, in freedom and in the Constitution to begin calling Congress.

202.225.3121

Call your two US Senators and your Congressional Representative in the House. The message: Give us back our light bulbs or go home. If they get 10,000 calls a day for a month or so, they will relent. Call and call and call. We will have to have 67 members of the Senate and 290 in the House to support our position because it will be necessary to override Obama’s veto. Stop the Dimwits in Congress. Turn the lights back on, America. Please help me make this message to go viral. Please like this [Rachel’s note: You can “like” this post with the button at the  at the top.  Also Stumble it, Digg it, Tweet it, Share it…] if you promise to let Congress know you do not want to descend into the dark ages of socialism.

[Final note from Rachel: These bulbs are also not comparable to incandescents.  CFL’s contain toxic mercury gas, which is dangerous if the bulbs break, and not environmentally-friendly to dispose of!  Halogen bulbs are, to the best of my knowledge, better, but none of these bulbs provide the same light quality as incandescent bulbs.  I suspect we will start to see new health problems chronically emerging if/as incandescent bulbs are replaced with these other types of bulbs.  I know that there are people who get migraines as a result of fluorescent light exposure.  The freedom to choose which light bulbs to buy/use is the point here.]