Nose

GOVERNMENT. Loves to nose it's way in and mess around in other people's business.

The California Energy Commission is scheduled to vote on Nov. 18 on a proposal that would limit retailers to selling only television sets that require less power than they do today. A full third less. This is, in particularly, going to harm the HDTV industry.

This would ban the sale of every single plasma TV over sixty inches, and ban about 25% of today's large screen TV's statewide.

Plasma offers the cheapest prices for 50"+ screen televisions. An energy efficient LED TV about the size would cost twice as much. The plasma would cost only 1,200$ online. For the same price, you could receive a 32-inch LED TV.

Meaning what? Well... no manufacturer will make what it can't sell, even if it's only one state. Eventually, due to the California law, we may see this issue across the entire nation.

Plasma Display Coalition president Jim Palumbo cited the California Energy Commission for "its flagrant misinformation campaign." Palumbo's group says the state's site has not been updated to reflect the fact that many newer TV models burn the equivalent energy of two 75-watt household light.

There is no reason for California to stick it's nose in the TV business. They need to address certain issues before they start nailing business from selling in their state. It is simply government meddling in places they have no reason to be in. Because, unfortunately, the CEC never gave any reason or justification on why they were doing this specifically.

I mean, we can guess that it was to save energy. But why start at TV's? If you want to save energy in California, why not ban celebrities?

For example, famous-for-nothing Paris Hilton has an enormously large mansion in the Hollywood Hills area. Perhaps large enough to keep at least 100 of those TV sets.

Or maybe, Oprah Winfrey? Apparently, no one actually knows where she lives. But a palatial mansion twice the size of Paris Hilton's is rumored to be it.

Hulk Hogan has TWO homes. One in California, one in Florida. Both at least the same size as Paris Hilton's.

What if we banned all the stars? For the following, I'm going to say that they could all save 50 TV sets. Ban Frankie Avalon, Harrison Ford, Mel Brooks, Julie Andrews (I heart Julie, but I can make the sacrifice), Ann-Margaret, William Shatner, Carol Burnett (100 TV's for two homes), Steve Martin, Steven Spielberg, Diana Ross, Jim Carrey, Roseanne Barr, Jay Leno, Shirley Jones, Chevy Chase, Bill Cosby, Danny Devito, Bob Dylan, David Hasselhoff, Ron Howard, Madonna, Gary Busey, Cher, Bette Midler, Eddie Murphy, Don Rickles, Julia Roberts, George Clooney, Bruce Springsteen, Tony Danza, Tom Selleck, Charlton Heston, Sylvester Stallone, Shirley Temple, John Travolta, Jane Fonda, and Jamie Lee Curtis. And I only named about a third of the stars who actually live in California.

By my estimations, without even seeing those stars homes, we saved the equivalent energy of 2250 TV sets. And got rid of a mess of pond scum.

Okay, okay. This isn't practical, and all these people have a right to live there, and blah blah blah, I know, I get it. But the point is that there are certainly other things the CEC could have done besides banning TV sets, even if blowing up stars homes wasn't one of them.

Whatevs... the fact is, it's just another place where the government stuck it's nose where it doesn't belong.