US GOVERNMENT SAY BAH HUMBUG! to Christmas lights
The Comment period ends December 30th on the new regulations that will outlaw affordable Christmas lights including indoor and outdoor lighted decorations of any type. See link below.
From the Washington Times via Gail Combs:
Christmas lights have become so affordable that even the humblest of homes often are lit like the Star of Bethlehem. Federal bureaucrats are working to end this. They claim it will make us safer, but the facts don’t back them up.
It’s not uncommon to find strings of mini-lights priced at $1 for a hundred lights, sometimes even less. To cure this excessive affordability, the feds are rushing to save Americans from mass holiday displays. They seem to believe we all are like Clark Griswold, the bumbling father figure in National Lampoon’s “Christmas Vacation” (played by Chevy Chase), who nearly electrocutes himself, starts fires, falls off the roof and short-circuits power in his whole neighborhood as he tries to create a home display that would outdo Rockefeller Center.
The Consumer Products Safety Commission (CPSC) has created an example of regulate first and explain why later. In October they proposed new regulations to outlaw strings of bulbs, lighted lawn figures and similar items that would be declared as hazardous. The red tape deals with certifying wire sizes, fuses, and tensile strength of all “seasonal decorative lighting products.”
This includes Christmas tree lights, lighted wreaths, menorahs, outdoor strands, lawn figures of Jesus, Mary and Joseph, or Santa or Rudolph or Frosty the Snowman. Yes, Kwanzaa, too. CPSC is an equal opportunity Scrooge. The agency estimates that their proposed regulations will impact 100 million items per year with a market value of $500 million.
Of course, those items already are covered by safety regulations and also by industry standards and oversight. CPSC admits that 3.6-million unsafe lights were recalled under existing safeguards in place since 1974.
So what is CPSC’s justification for adding red tape to the red, green, blue, yellow, white and other colored displays? They report 250 deaths from fires or electrocutions by Christmas lights. That’s not 250 deaths per year; it’s 250 deaths since 1980. They had to add together 33 years of statistics to misportray danger.
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Is there anything left to regulate?
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ANSI/UL 588 is referenced by NFPA 70 and therefore has been part of the International Code Council standards since 2009. In PA the construction industry has been dealing with this type of over-regulation for more than a decade now. I have witnessed the increased cost of construction and renovation projects, the delays caused by incompetant and zealous government enforcement and the waste for example of documenting in triplicate type L copper pipe is approved for potable water. As approved by PA, Code Enforcement Officers can currently enforce UL 588 at your residence.
How does accidental deaths associated with Christmas lights compared to fatalities associated with other electoral appliances including regular light bulbs? Maybe home voltages should be limited to only 12 volts and all appliances requiring more than 12 volts should be banned for safety reasons. Maybe all electrical lighting including TV’s and computer displays are too dangerous for the public and should be banned.
It ain’t the voltage, it’s the current that kills you. 12 vdc would be a lot worse and much higher current flows are required and much larger wiring is needed. Space heaters would need power cables that you could use on welding machines. A 500 watt blender would need 8 gauge power cable (which is about what’s on your electric dryer.) Imagine most decent sized power tools, vacuum cleaners etc having cords the size of jumper cables. There are very good reasons to stay with 120vac or 240vac power systems, like P=IE.
“It ain’t the voltage, it’s the current that kills you.”
The resistance of the human body does not permit a high current flowing through it at 12 V. With U
= RI, the current flowing through you at 12 V is 9 times smaller than at 110V.
Trust me. I survived contact with 5V, 12V and 15V. I even handle 1.5V batteries while touching the poles.
It would appear negotiating with North Korea is taking its toll on The White House.
You are unfair to Mr. Scrooge. Like the Grinch, he reformed. The CPSC is rather like a theft, they steal joy, fun, lights.
This is the libbies reply to being ripped to shreds for global warming in “Interstellar.” Hee hee. One viewer said it was GW that caused the dust storms in the movie. I said it wasn’t GW but blight that caused the crop failures and dust storms as explained in the movie. But noooooooooooo. And it was interesting that a Dr. MANN made up HUGE ka-ka and was BS-ing NASA and stuck on an ice planet! I should watch the movie again to see if there is a hockey stick in there somewhere. LOL.
Reblogged this on Public Secrets and commented:
Well, thank God that Nanny State is here to protect us from the dangers of… Christmas lights. This sounds like a case of bureaucrats with too much time on their hands… and a good reason to get rid of the agency. Anyone know who financially benefits from these proposed regs? Like GE and the incandescent light bulb ban, I’m sure there’s someone, somewhere.
The trouble is that their goal is to create new regulations. As long as people are working there, that’s just what they’ll do.
There is a wider metaphor here and within it a dichotomy, and it is rather, nay – extremely ironic.
Progressives, believe that they are the new bearers of the torch of ‘enlightenment’ and yet what could be further away from the reality? As western nations and their inhabitants, the people, are coerced and forced by increasingly authoritarian governance – in the EU and now through the vehicle of Obama-autrocracy……..
The progressives invented their baby ‘the green agenda’ it is and will mean the end of cheap and inexpensive lighting for hundreds of millions of people – how UNenlightened – is that?
Secondly, In that the ‘progressives’ deem that saving mankind is their destiny and the green agenda can aid this march to the sunlit uplands of a Socialist Utopia and One World Government of course: in the natural embodiment of international Socialism.
Progressives believe themselves to the noblest of all and set themselves apart from the herd, the illusion is of light and making you build their tower of Babel.
Denying people access to cheap electricity in the northern hemisphere – kills the vulnerable, the sick – in hundreds of thousands. Across the globe, in underdeveloped regions; the biofuel experiment means >commodity prices and consequently – it thus follows that people who are unable to afford pricier foodstuffs – are starving to death. Depriving African nations plentiful and cheap fossil fueled power – stifles and hampers GDP growth – it is like binding a very young child’s limbs, it produces crippled adult feet.
AGAIN I ENTREAT: how unenlightened……….. and I posit that actually, the ‘progressives’ are the new luddites.
None of this matters as long as nuclear reactors are making tons and tons more cesium, plutonium, strontium, I-131, and a few hundred other deadly toxic deaths science has no disposal answer for. Until the reactors are nearly dismantled, and vast areas of the Earth have been sacrificed, forever, to hide our mistake, we will not survive nuclear power. Ask any California Sea Lion starving to death.
The only answer is much more drastic than the Xmas lights. Immensely expensive nuclear plants won’t shut down until forced rationing is demanded when humans can be convinced their children won’t survive the next generation of destroyed DNA. By then, it will be too late. Climate is the least of our problems.
http://enenews.com for the latest details…..like the 11 earthquakes YESTERDAY shaking Fukushima-Daiichi’s melted down reactors and no-water-we-explode spent fuel pools. If you think you’re immune, borrow someone’s pocket geiger counter and see for yourself…..
Larry, before we tossed the socialist federal government out of office in Australia, their common boast was how much legislation they had passed into Law. Now, after a year, the adult government of conservatives is still trying to unravel the socialist’s legislative mess.
Sorry Larry … that was meant for Cal.
This is getting bad … “David in Cal”.
Wow, you really want to work yourself up ? Think meteors.
What strain of shit have you been smoking? That is more toxic than anything you noted.
Larry Butler
December 28, 2014 at 5:05 pm
“None of this matters as long as nuclear reactors are making tons and tons more cesium, plutonium, strontium, I-131, and a few hundred other deadly toxic deaths science has no disposal answer for.”
How about waiting?
Larry says, “Ask any California Sea Lion starving to death.’ I live there, and have seen the Sea lion population increase quite dramatically over the decades.
Larry Butler,
I followed your link to http://enenews.com. I can now understand your concern that you are doomed. Toss in the apocalypse of frying in your britches from CO2 induced global warming and there is clearly no way out for you. It’s already too late. The end of time is near. Time to google the schedule for the next passing comet.
I tried their URL and got the message “Page could not be loaded.” I want to tell them to fire the asshole(s) who dreamed it up.
One thing being missed here is that these types of regulation (in reality) still exists as voluntary and manufacturers, when complying, add cost to the design, quality control and testing against that voluntary standard. One difference is that a lazy, ignorant or unknowing (and who in the world can remember to check all that they buy against UL or other voluntary standards) consumer(‘s) may get a non standardized and perhaps, unsafe product. The other difference is that adding these to formal consumer (required by law) protection codes to try to make sure that everyone receives the same product does increase the taxpayer cost somewhat. Assuming that the fed rules mirror the voluntary ones, the increase in reporting costs should be minimal. These types of consumer safety rules shouldn’t be confused with rules that are non-protective but exist solely for political reasons, like banning some types of incandescent bulbs or rules that don’t mirror UL (or other) standards like some of the required warning labels:
http://www.forbes.com/2011/02/23/dumbest-warning-labels-entrepreneurs-sales-marketing-warning-labels_slide_4.html
Yeah, just the beginning of the lame duck pen and phone revolt.
Just sayin……
“Tell him Yes on ! and No on 2”.
Set the EPA to work regulating the EPA. That will keep them busy until they have regulated themselves into a state of total paralysis.
The left wing war on Christmas and Christ centered everything continues. Funny there is this thing called the US Constitution which forbids any meddling in religious affairs.. Obama has already placed that document through the shredder… When are we going to get dam mad and deal with these clowns?
Let me quote the character played by Mel Gibson in Bravehart..
Ahemmm…
F R E E E E E E D O M M M M M M M m m m m m….
I thought it was George Bush jr. He has the same line in a similar movie I believe?
Perhaps it’s time for a little civil disobedience, the moment the “progressives” in government say we can not express our joy and Faith through the display of Christmas lights and decorations, we should display them. If it’s 1/15/2015 then we put the lights up and keep them up! This is a matter of Faith and free speech under the Constitution. I will not pay any fine, I will not comply with any regulation that violates my Faith or the Constitution. King George underestimated the American people during the revolutionary war, King Barach and his court jester the DNC have also underestimated the will of the American people. God is not dead!!! Nor is freedom, if we stand united!
These folks could be in for a rude awakening…
A marvelous tribute! The government bureaucrat that tries to take this patriotic and religious display ‘down’ will be in for the surprise of their lives.
I agree. If these regulations pass then maybe there will be a movement to get a display like this into every neighborhood across the country.
Spend a minute and make a comment. My humble 2 cents looked like this:
From your “Table 3” I see that the annual death rate (for the most recent 5 years) due to electrocution by seasonal and decorative lighting products is about 1.2 per year, or roughly 1 per 200,000,000 households. If this is essentially correct, it amounts to a personal risk level that is statistically zero.
Clearly an annual fatality rate of 1 person per 200,000,000 households is not “a substantial product hazard” under any stretch of the imagination. Indeed, I would say that it would prove that current industry self-regulation has been a resounding success as the already small number of deaths dropped by an order of magnitude over a 35 year period.
I would propose that any expense and effort taken to reduce the existing 1.2 annual electrocution deaths due to seasonal and decorative lighting products could be much more productively applied to other areas which currently cause many more deaths annually such as these examples:
Auto……………. 33,000 .. nearly 30,000 times more deaths
Stairs………….. 12,000 .. about 10,000 times more deaths
Drowning…………. 3,800 .. over 3,000 times more deaths
Falls from bed……… 450 .. almost 400 times more deaths
Lightning…………… 51 .. more than 40 times more deaths
Falling icicles……… 15 .. about 12 times more deaths
Since it is after Christmas all the stores have their Christmas decorations on sale…lights, deer, snowman, Santa etc. 50% or more off. I think I will go to my neighborhood ACE Hardware tomorrow and buy more lights. Kind of like ammunition…you can never have too much.
Instead of a hammer and sickle its a vest and hard hat. This is so far out of control it’s ridiculous.
How fun! Here in Norway our authorities are moralistic to a fault about anything concerning climate or energy. However, Norwegians are picking up the American habit of Christmas lighting, not just some simple and traditional window display or a glorified bush, but the whole catalogue. My oh my, our guardians are really way behind the trend! I wonder when this particular kind of Puritanism will come our way. Hopefully soon, it will be great fun to watch the moral battles being fought out in the spirit of the Christmas season. Maybe decorative lighting will only be allowed in daytime, so as not to offend the eyes of the righteous ones. That should do the trick, as days are rather short here (Oslo in the far south is on the latitude of south Alaska) and non-existing in the north.
The unintended goal of leftist ideology is to make life for everone (other than the ruling elites, of course) miserable….
It’s the petty tyrannies of a thousand arcane and unnecessary rules and regulations that wears out the body politic; like a thousand mosquitoes swarming upon a placid Caribou on the majestic Alaskan tundra, driving the poor beast insane…
“Socialism is a philosophy of failure, the creed of ignorance, and the gospel of envy, its inherent virtue is the equal sharing of misery.”~ Winston Churchill
I’m not at all sure that their goal is unintended.
The pope confirms global warming and attendant alarmism is a religious journey and only the UN can save us. Not since the immaculate conception has there been such a miracle of divine providence.
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/dec/27/pope-francis-edict-climate-change-us-rightwing
Surely the Grauniad would not make stuff up.
It is a match made in Heaven.
of course it is sheer stupidity…
but there is a point…a stupid one of course but…
Is the dark night a right?
let aside the tradition of christmas, if you neighbour uses powerful lights at night, or your city with public lights and you can’t sleep…is it a violation of your private property?
Well if your neighbour let trees grow in his property so that they shade your house..you will probably complain….
There are consequences to having neighbors. Their mowers roar on the weekends, their trash cans rattle on pickup day, they tinker with their hobbies in their garages, and soak their gardens with insecticides. Their children scream and giggle as their balls and planes and rockets and their soap bubbles sail over and onto your property. Their trees and flower beds shed a horrific concoction of pollens and sweet floral perfumes that stop up your sinuses, and their dog soils your drive. And once each year their holiday celebration lights blinker your sensibilities.
The solution for all of this is not more regulation; it is you accepting life as it is lived or you relocating to a place where life is more suitable for you because it is you with the problem, not them. But we’ve stopped teaching the concepts of self-responsibility.