I would suggest George Will shove his incandescent light bulbs where the sun don't shine.

[kpete]

Is there anyone on the planet who is a bigger ass in a wig than George Will?
by Steveningen

George Will:

It's an exercise in self-esteem. I do not know how adults stand there, facing a camera and say, ‘Bring back our girls' Are these barbarians in the wilds of Nigeria supposed to check their Twitter accounts and say, 'Oh, Michelle Obama's very cross with us, we better change our behavior?'

Power is the ability to achieve intended effects. This is not intended to have any effect on the real world. It's a little bit like environmentalism has become. The incandescent light bulb becomes the enemy. Has no effect whatsoever on the planet, but it makes people feel better about themselves.

This noisome little arrogant man, who has been spoon fed events throughout his long life while sitting in the comfort of his chair, is going to lecture the world because they learned about these kidnappings through Twitter?

I'm in no mood to let that slide.

If I were to stand before this weasel tonight, I would suggest he shove his incandescent light bulbs where the sun don't shine.


MORE plus video:
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2014/05/11/1298698/-Is-there-anyone-on-the-planet-who-is-a-bigger-ass-in-a-wig-than-George-Will

[yellowcanine]

1. Only George Will would somehow find a way to talk about light bulbs in the context of kidnapping.

The man needs a logic transplant.

[CTyankee]

10. LOL. This is the guy whose wife threw all his clothes on the front lawn with a sign

reading "Take it somewhere else, buster!" when she discovered he was having an extramarital affair.

http://chickaboomer.com/2013/10/george-will-take-it-somewhere-else-buster.html

[n2doc]

2. My electric bills were cut more than 1/2 by replacing my incandescents

I will cry no tears when this gasbag finally takes a dirt nap.

[Swede Atlanta]

8. Agree........

I replaced all the bulbs I could replace with the new energy-efficient/non-incascents and my light bill went down about 15%.

So reducing the amount of electricity I use, most of which is generated by nuclear and/or coal, reduces the effects on the environment.

[REP]

20. Went CFL 7 years ago and now have all LEDs

Light bill just keeps getting lower I hope it makes Will cry.

[pokerfan]

31. Lighting accounts for approximately 15% of global power consumption

and 5% of worldwide greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. A switch to efficient on-grid and off-grid lighting globally would save more than $140 billion and reduce CO2 emissions by 580 million tonnes every year.

Few actions could reduce carbon emissions as cheaply and easily as the phase-out of inefficient lighting, making it one of the most effective and economically advantageous ways to combat climate change.

http://www.enlighten-initiative.org/

but George isn't interested in facts.

[Paladin]

3. George Will has attained David Brooks status---or vice versa.

Either way, columnists like Will and Brooks have become self-parodies---hardly anybody takes them seriously anymore. Leading female examples of this lowly status: Peggy Noonan and Maureen Dowd.

[randome]

4. The man has no style.

[hr][font color="blue"][center]Stop looking for heroes. BE one.[/center][/font][hr]

[MillennialDem]

5. I agree, we might find his head

[pipoman]

6. Oh it has an effect

The effect is that GE, Phillips, etc. have to actually produce a product that doesn't burn out in a week if they want to compete and the difference in price between the lighting giant's product and smaller competitors in the efficient lighting market is partially offset by a savings on electricity bills...something someone like Will, who hasn't personally written a utility check or changed a light bulb in decades, can't see.

[lighthouse10]

27. ...but not really....

Well, as it happens, GE, Philips and Osram/Sylvania jointly lobbied for the ban on simple patent-expired cheap and unprofitable bulbs.
GE CEOs Welch and Immelt advising successive US administrations, achieving an obligation to buy expensive patented products not otherwise bought, or a ban would not be "necessary".

Re saving on electricity bills,
the "expensive to buy but saving in the long run" in practice only applies to the most used of c.45 bulbs in US households, where many bulbs rarely used.
Even then, if utilities sell less electricity they could raise the price - regulators may not complain given that taxpayer subsidies to utilities to cover their possible losses already applies in California and some other states.

Progress is good but new bulbs should just be supported to market, without continuing subsidies.
Even if "targeting bulbs" was necessary, you could just tax some and use income to cover price lowering subsidy on others,
keeping choice, equilibrating the market, and achieving lower sales on politically "undesired" bulbs.

The energy savings are questionable in themselves, as may comment on separately.

[tridim]

7. I never understood how such a stupid man became known for his intelligence.

He is equally as dumb as any other RW numbskull on TeeVee.

I saw his light bulb comment and LOL'ed for a good while, because Kramer from Seinfeld thought he was an idiot too.

[MisterP]

9. the old "Barbara Streisand lethally-narcicisstic Bourgeois Bohemian green only in it for their own

ego" is so 2000s

[DirkGently]

11. A new day, more people not to give a shit about, eh, George?

[Capt. Obvious]

12. #BringBackOurLightBulbs

[lighthouse10]

25. :-)

Last edited Wed May 14, 2014, 02:15 PM - Edit history (1)

Captain's log coming?
https://twitter.com/search?f=realtime&q=%23BringBackOurLightBulbs&src=typd

[LeftishBrit]

13. Let's just say that George Will is not the brightest bulb in the box.

[Orrex]

14. Maybe he could tell us a baseball anecdote.

Go on, George. Dazzle us with your mysterious grasp of mysterious things.

[yellowcanine]

15. Or use a big word he just looked up for the occasion.

Will is a master at using obscure words not in common usage just to show that he is smarter than most of his readers.

[Orrex]

16. Yeah--he uses that word for a book of words that mean similar things

He's not just a tool; he's an intellectual snob and a tool.

[absquatulatewithme]

17. "Sports," say the ancient Greeks . . .

[msanthrope]

22. Video is private. nt

[spanone]

18. mr will is a desperate has-been journalist. fox is not journalism. neither is will.

[Skittles]

19. honestly, he is making a fool of himself

his dog-whistle racism is fooling no one

[JCMach1]

21. Ummmm my little LED's use just 2.5W

my other CFL's 10-15W...

That's a VERY big difference...

[Snotcicles]

23. "I would suggest George Will shove his incandescent light bulbs where the sun don't shine" He

would have to reposition his head to make room for them.

[GusBob]

24. You young whipper snappers and your confounded doohickies!

These guys are really showing their age. They seem to hate twitter

( please no ageist accusations am getting up there myself)

[ChairmanAgnostic]

26. hey, give him a break.

His Betamax just broke down, the tape got stuck on his answering machine, and he can't find his desktop calculator.

[lighthouse10]

33. still..

at least he could still use them if he wanted
not banned for manufacture

[Johonny]

28. barbarians in the wilds of Nigeria? What did Donald Sterling guest write George Wills column?

Nigeria is the 7th most populated country in the world. It has the seventh-largest trade surplus with the US of any country worldwide. I hate to break it to George but it has the Internet. Why is it I think George Will depicts Africa in his mind as if it is some place from a 1930s Hollywood Tarzan movie?

[TheBlackAdder]

29. I remember when FM radios were being installed in cars. Some fought that AM radios were better. nt

[lighthouse10]

32. ...but AM radios were not banned in favor of lobbying Big Business, as with light bulbs ;-)

True
But nobody banned AM radios.
Industry often changes standards.. remember 8-track players?
But that is different from Government regulation, which unfortunately supports Big Business by helping them sell new expensive products not necessarily desired by the American public (see other comments on the light bulb lobbying)

So, in my view, it is - or should be - also about supporting citizens versus business interests.

[TheBlackAdder]

34. But AM Radios also didn't take valuable power from the grid either.

On the east coast, a dozen NG to Steam generating stations were built over a decade ago with a life expectancy of 10-15 years in the hopes that alternate solutions would be found. We're already at the point of those generating system failures and still no alternatives were approved because of those beholden to Big Energy. That NG means extra Fracking and the radioactive fluids and waste materials which are literally killing the fracking well employees, let alone poisoning the water system, as the isotopic vapors tend to settle in valleys and lower lying areas.

Perhaps the wingnuts who can't adapt to light bulbs, will adapt... just like they love their flat screen LCD TVs, their cell phones, their iPads, etc... we shouldn't have to compromise our home heating systems for the sake of nostalgia or flat right obstinance.

It's funny that the same claim about LCD monitors and TV were made too. How they stunk.


==


When I changed the house to CFLs, I saved $20 a month on my electric bill, that's $240 a year just for changing some lights.

You can get CFLs at the dollar stores now--so they're no more expensive than what regular bulbs were.

[lighthouse10]

30. Let's hear it for George ;-)

George Will might like to shoot his mouth off,
but he's got a point about the pointlessness of the light bulb ban, as it were. For example:

The incandescent heat effect...
As per The Canadian Centre for Housing Technology (CCHT) and other studies, finding irrelevant savings on the incandescent heat replacement effect: when it's dark it's often cold and heating is on. Use with climate cooling is rarer for most North American states/provinces, and optional anyway.
Where electricity is already low emission, switching bulbs may ironically increase emissions if using ordinary room heating from polluting source.

Time of use...
Mostly after 7pm off-peak electricity, using surplus electricity supply = when often same coal (the main "culprit&quot burned anyway on minimum cycle operation - coal plants slow to turn down/up, operative wear and tear costs etc. on APTECH and energy commission data.

Life cycle energy/emissions...
CFLs, LEDs etc replacement bulbs are far more complex than simple incandescents - and use up rare earth minerals etc.
Hence, the energy and emissions of raw material mining, component manufacture before construction, assembly, recycling and transport in all stages, including bunker oil powered ships from China bringing most such bulbs
- comparatively easier to locally make simple patent expired incandescents by small or new companies.
As it happens, GE, Philips and Osram/Sylvania jointly lobbied for the ban (GE CEOs Welch and Immelt advising successive US administrations) to sell expensive patented products not otherwise bought.

All light bulbs have advantages and disadvantages, also on energy and environment - it is a spurious decision to ban what is arguably the safest and best known type.

[JI7]

35. maybe he was referring to our history and other things we have/have not done

as was the case with that other guy .