The Lemming Watch

. . .and TV sets

Ever alert for new ways to tax the citizen, California lawmakers (who never sleep while they look for new tricks to stick it to their constituents) seem bent on putting limits on the amount of energy a television set may use. This article describes the plans the Legislature has for doing just that.

Not a tax, you say? It really is. Either prices will go up when makers try to meet the rules, or people who cherish their large screens will pay more to get them another way.

. . .[T]he California Energy Commission is looking for ways to relieve the strain on the power grid. Officials say the standards, once fully in place, would reduce the state's annual energy needs by an amount equivalent to the power consumed by 86,400 homes.

It really never occurs to them to get out of the energy business altogether and allow industry to build more power plants. This would solve the power grid overload and, incidentally, lower prices for electrical energy in the home.

Americans are not going to go without their huge TV sets; and they’ll find a way:

. . .[T]he regulations could create a "gray" market, sending consumers intent on buying power-hungry models to Amazon.com and other Internet retailers based outside the state.

But, face it, it is our own fault for putting and keeping these pirates in office. We don’t seem to have the good sense or the guts to vote them out and end their mischief.

Taxing Cow Farts. . .

It was established long ago that cow flatulence results in huge amounts of greenhouse gases—primarily methane and ammonia. Additonally, the vehicles, plants, and farming processes required to raise and market beef also cause large amounts of CO2 emissions.

So now the EPA is considering levying a tax on cattle. Other livestock such as pigs and maybe chickens are also in the mix. This article states that this is a way to “battle greenhouse gas emissions.” That may be the stated reason, but it is farcical on the face of it; there is no way that taxing livestock production is going to battle greenhouse gas emission. The world just cannot give up meat, milk, and eggs. This idea really is just a way to collect another tax from Americans and fill the government coffers (and, not so incidentally, a number of people’s pockets).

Soon they will tax our breathing because humans (as well as livestock) breath out huge amounts of CO2 when we exhale. Come to think of it, they already tax us for breathing. Everything we do as living beings—earn a living, buy clothing, register a car, buy gasoline, eat a meal in a restaraunt, the list goes on—is taxed.

Of course, if the cow fart tax is enacted, the cost is just passed on to you the consumer in the form of higher prices (read ‘a tax’) for beef, milk, ham, pork, bacon, cheese, and other food products that ultimately are based on livestock.

What a novel way to pick our pockets.