The 'war' against your toilet

I had a chance to read Rob Long's article in National Review last night tying government regulation to light bulbs and toilets, and went scrambling for the link. Unfortunately, the story wasn't yet available online and I didn't have the heart to type up large chunks.

So much to my enjoyment, NR has now put the article online. Read it...NOW. Wait! But before you do, here is what stuck out to me.

Here's the gist: Long has a bathroom full of hot, bright lights, a waterfall-like shower shower head, and a toilet that uses enough water to put a Y2K reservoir to shame. As he says, "My bathroom, in other words, ... is an environmentalist’s nightmare."

Long goes on to detail the environmentalists' assault, using government regulations and under the guise of the "green" movement, on his personal bathroom choices:

The Department of Energy regulates showerheads. Some of them, apparently, are too wasteful. My sunflower-sized rainmaker is on the list to be banned, as are the kinds that squirt water in all directions (those seem nice) and the kind that emit a steamy fog. In other words, if it somehow leavens the act of bathing, raising it up from dull routine to a tiny glimpse of the spa lifestyle, well, the DoE is against it.

Manufacturers of such showerheads are being fined — this spring, the federal government fined four such companies a total of about $150,000, just for making a showerhead that people want — and stern warnings are being sent out on Department of Energy letterhead.

Long's thoughts jumped out at me when I saw the following commercial during yesterday's football games:

I laughed, chuckled, and then looked over my shoulder. Again, read the article.