From My Cold, Dead....Well, You Get the Idea
From the Office of Self-Promotion:
Every now and then, the folks who run National Review take my stuff and put it outside the paywall. For which I'm always grateful, because then more people get to read it and enjoy its healing power.
They've done it this week, with my recent piece on the War on Your Bathroom. It starts, as most things do, with a conversation about toilets:
Arriving late one night into Tokyo, I checked into my hotel room to discover the world’s most complicated toilet.
There were hoses and nozzles where hoses and nozzles probably shouldn’t be, and along the side there was an alarming set of button and switches, which made the entire contraption look like a neat freak’s electric chair.
But, you know, when in Rome, right?
It goes on from there. (The control panel of the toilet, by the way, is pictured above.) What I'm talking about is the assault of the eco-police into a room that most of us think of as a sanctuary, a place of repose. A place where civilization reaches its pinnacle, with toilets that flush (and do a lot of other stuff, too, especially in Japan) and showers that cascade warm water and bulbs that flatter us with brightness and color.
It's all going. Lightbulbs first. Then they came for the showerheads. And you know what's going to be next, right?
It’s all about less with them. As far as the environmental movement is concerned, we’re running out of everything — polar icecaps, sea turtles, crude oil — and the trick is to cut our appetites down to size, to stop wanting to stand under a gushing showerhead in a bright morning bathroom and think, I can handle what’s coming at me today.
It’s not about showerheads and wattage. It’s about optimism. Either you think a more prosperous world is a good thing — that prosperity and ingenuity can solve most of our pressing problems — or you don’t. Either you think that being able to afford an expensive showerhead is a component of a complicated web of incentives designed to inspire the next Thomas Edison to invent something useful — like, say, a battery-powered car or a brighter energy-saving light bulb — or you think that we’re done, we’ve invented everything already and we need to divvy up a shrinking pie. For the Left, there are no light-bulb moments in the future.
The whole article is here. Click away and then come back to tell me what you think of it. But also at least consider subscribing to the digital edition of NR -- I mean, in addition to becoming a member of Ricochet.
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Comments :
May '10
Re: From My Cold, Dead....Well, You Get the Idea
Rob,
You got the old kind. The new ones have more controls...
Jul '10
Re: From My Cold, Dead....Well, You Get the Idea
And in other news, Sun Chips is discontinuing their biodegradable bag.
Apparently it's very noisy.
Noise pollution > actual pollution.
Edited on Oct 5, 2010 at 4:23amSep '10
Re: From My Cold, Dead....Well, You Get the Idea
Low flush toilets means people flush their toilets more. Outlawed incandescents will just push people to increase the number of light fixtures. Low output showerheads will just encourage a black market (just like there is one now for old toilets.) And I'm sure ,as ususal, none of the ruling class will have to endure any of this.
By the way, the little music button is a little disturbing. Does that thing have a little telescopic book light that pops up over your shoulder as well?
Re: From My Cold, Dead....Well, You Get the Idea
I love it. Now, can't decide which outside-of-the-firewall piece I like more, this or this. As for paying to walk through the fire? Ain't happen'. Sorry. We just cancelled a cell phone, cancelled pizza Fridays, and, yes, really and truly DID drink the last glass of red wine at Sunday dinner. Sigh. Recession Bites.
Re: From My Cold, Dead....Well, You Get the Idea
The music button? Geez, the ones next to that are the ones that seem a little more "eye-opening." Being the pessimist that I am, I can only think of all the frightening ways this thing could malfunction. Sure it's soothing and "surprising" and all that, but what if the heaters and hoses and nozzles ... I don't know ... go off-script?
Jul '10
Re: From My Cold, Dead....Well, You Get the Idea
Somewhere in government it will have occurred to a planner that the terlet is the ideal appliance for the day's message. A sensor will respond to the pressure of weight and the admonitory or inspirational words will be spoken in a soothing voice. A harsh one if people have been bad or willful.
May '10
Re: From My Cold, Dead....Well, You Get the Idea
"They’ve taken our bulbs and our rain-showers, so it’s just a matter of time before they focus their regulatory powers on my toilet, with its delightfully surprising — but water-wasteful — nozzles and jets."
Rob,
WHEN they come for our toilets? Where have you been? They came for them long long ago. They implemented Low Flow Toilet regulation back in the Clinton Gore regime in 94. People were hoarding old good flush toilets and there was even smuggling of them from the Great White North for years after that debacle. And in the finest example of the Law of Unintended consequences they of course DON't do what they promised, ie reduce waste water as it takes 2 or 3 flushes to do the same job as one good flush on the old ones did. Of course the NEW Latest Great Thing that will Save Mother Gaia is the the Waterless Composting Toilet, a thing so disgusting I won't go into the details. Lets just say you WON'T want to eat the home grown veggies at Ed Begley's house if he invites you for dinner.
Jun '10
Re: From My Cold, Dead....Well, You Get the Idea
I'm inclined to side with Maggie Thatcher (as expressed by Claire) that capitalism is a superior moral system vis-a-vis a state-run, command economy. Whether you're an optimist or pessimist is merely tangential to the recognition that economic liberty adds to life, overall liberty and the pursuit of happiness. There is more at stake here than just material progress. Consider for a moment what economic liberty has done for us in areas like health, medicine, longevity, comfort, and leisure time.
The creepy thing about "going green" is that it's reactionary in the extreme. To accept the underlying premise is to submit to a green theocracy with the likes of Al Gore playing the role of pharaoh. The movement is dressed in the same religious robes that delayed the arrival of modernity for thousands of years. Been there, done that, no thanks.
We need to put "green" on the same hit list as public employee unions, diversity training, academic tenure, deficit spending, earmarks, and all the other plagues that have sprung from the Pandora's box of liberalism. Light bulbs are such an opportunity target that legislation to repeal should be HR 1 on the agenda.
May '10
Re: From My Cold, Dead....Well, You Get the Idea
Before we repeal the health care law, can we deal with the light bulbs?
Sep '10
Re: From My Cold, Dead....Well, You Get the Idea
A funny article, but this type of regulation pushes the Progressive agenda in several un-funny ways.
1) Enforcement of new rules requires hiring additonal bureaucrats. Each one is a potential new Democratic voter.
2) Industry is incentivized to pay bribes (I mean make contributions) to lawmakers in order to gain access to the rulemakers to twist the rules to the industry's ends. The complex rules then act as barriers to entry for firms wishing to enter the market which supports big business at the expense of startups.
As a policy prescription, Conservatives need to be more open to Pigovian Tax schemes to preempt the march of these regulations and keep market based mechansisms in play. No one likes new taxes, but the new taxes could be offset by tax decreases in payroll taxes so that the overall burden does not increase.
Wouldn't a water tax be better than shower head and toilet bowl regulations. Wouldn't increased gas taxes do a better job than CAFE standards?
Aug '10
Re: From My Cold, Dead....Well, You Get the Idea
If states were really serious about conserving toilet-water, they'd quit with those hypersensitive "hands-free" toilets at the state rest areas.
Some of them you only have to walk past to trigger. Nice if you want a 21-toilet salute, but I don't see how they can then complain that our nice, normal, manual-style thrones that flush only when asked are wasting water.
Also, those hands-free WCs sometimes go off in flagrante, goosing the unfortunate rest-area customer in a way neither ecological nor sanitary -- and far too "friendly" for a piece of plumbing.
I tell you, it's rampant government hypocrisy! State-owned toilets can flush whenever they feel like it, for no reason at all! But the poor private toilet, that flushes only when asked, is apparently too much?!
Now excuse me while I write a strongly-worded letter to my representative on squares of single-ply recycled bathroom tissue.
Aug '10
Re: From My Cold, Dead....Well, You Get the Idea
Ross Conatser:
As a policy prescription, Conservatives need to be more open to Pigovian Tax schemes to preempt the march of these regulations and keep market based mechansisms in play. No one likes new taxes, but the new taxes could be offset by tax decreases in payroll taxes so that the overall burden does not increase.
Wouldn't a water tax be better than shower head and toilet bowl regulations. Wouldn't increased gas taxes do a better job than CAFE standards?
Before we implement a Pigovian water tax, we might want to check whether water costs have been kept artificially low through subsidies or other state mechanisms. If that has happened (and it's pretty likely, ain't it?), perhaps the solution is simply to remove the subsidies and let water cost what it really costs.
Edited on Oct 5, 2010 at 8:44amMay '10
Re: From My Cold, Dead....Well, You Get the Idea
... and the frog continues to boil.
Re: From My Cold, Dead....Well, You Get the Idea
The first time I used one of those Japanese toilets I almost starved to death. After 3 days the rest of my band had to break down the hotel door to find out what I was doing.
Jul '10
Re: From My Cold, Dead....Well, You Get the Idea
~Paules:
We need to put "green" on the same hit list as public employee unions, diversity training, academic tenure, deficit spending, earmarks, and all the other plagues that have sprung from the Pandora's box of liberalism. Light bulbs are such an opportunity target that legislation to repeal should be HR 1 on the agenda. · Oct 5 at 6:03am
Just not tenure, thanks...
Aug '10
Re: From My Cold, Dead....Well, You Get the Idea
The loss of these "little" freedoms reminds me of the "broken windows" theory. Just as police targeted enforcement of petty crimes, perhaps we should target the repeal of petty regulations. Water usage, like schooling and so much else, should be a local issue. If my shower uses a lot of water, well then, my water bill will be higher than my neighbor's. If my town feels that people like me use too much water and they fear a shortage, then perhaps they institute progressive (forgive the word) pricing that escalates the unit cost the more one uses. Aren't prices supposed to facilitate the distribution of scarce goods?