Over the years a whole lot of people have heard me say that someday pretty soon, the government is going to come for your car, your furniture and your frickin' washing machine. I've taken a lot of flack over that.
Well my friends, today is the day.
Today it is announced that the European Union is going to ban the sale of "energy hungry" appliances. Like your ShopVac. All the people who've called me a paranoid Nazi freakshow over the years can start sending in the "you were right, damnit!" emails starting now.
The FAZ writes that not only light bulbs and vacuum cleaners are targeted for higher efficiency, but also an entire range of appliances. This is all in the wake of the European Ecodesign Directive, which will go into effect on November 1st for clothes dryers.
Yep. The EU will not allow the sale of vacuum cleaners rated at more than 1600 watts starting in 2014, and will ban models in excess of 900 watts in 2017. By 2020 your mum may be sweeping the carpet with a corn broom, just like the old days before Mr. Hoover's genius invention. Washing machines, dryers, refrigerators, AC and cooking appliances will all be under the gun in Europe THIS YEAR.
By the way, they came for your car in 1969 and nobody noticed. Then the car companies finally pulled their thumbs out, and for the first time since I was a teenager you can buy a car off the lot with 400 horsepower under the hood that doesn't say "Ferrari" on it. Look for the government to come for your car -again- in the next three years. You will be driving a three cylinder microcar that maxes out at 40mph by 2020. Oh, and you'll be paying by the mile for the privilege. Black-box tracking of every car on the road, that's the plan I'm hearing.
All we Boomer generation types need to do is sit back relax and go with the flow, and we will see the Western world return to the technology of the 1890s before we die. We will probably die of either starvation or exposure, due to the general famine and lack of heating in the winter that will be coming if the Greenies get what they want.
Just thought y'all would be interested.
The Phantom
Update: Welcome
Small Dead Animals readers! Go Kate!
Update II:
LA Times reports on the Black Box that the EPA and the IRS and California and probably Ontario wants to put in your car.
Okay, you were right. I never disagreed with anything you have said ... at least that which I have read.
ReplyDeleteSo my question is NOW WHAT!
Blogger after blogger brings this maddening shit to light day after day and it seems to get worse by the day too. However, no one can, or will do anything about it .... so again ... what now?
It would seem that our nanny governments have turned us all into a pack of fearful, ducking wimps who only push hard to get a better position at one public trough or another.
We have lost our dignity, our courage and our freedoms. THIS YEAR!
There ... I feel better now. I guess that is what we do about it now .... post an little angry typo-ridden rant on some obscure blog, then back to biz as usual.
Anything you say now about the demise of western civilization will be true.
So you will have much gloating to catch up with as it all unravels over the coming years.
Imagine .... the European experiment is collapsing under the weight of it's own socialism (just like Obamacare will) while the muslims sharpening their knifes in every corner of that conglomerate and what are they doing? .... planning a SWAT hit on your shop vac. Hahahahaha.
Death by a thousand bureaucratic edicts. The most frustrating part are all those who nod and say "good" at each no-flush toilet and coily bulb imposition.
ReplyDeleteIt's about as bad here in the US. I was in an appliance store a while back looking at refrigerators. The salesman told us that new models are only going to last about 10 or 12 years because the government-approved "freon" they use now doesn't lubricate the compressor like it used to. Fridges made back in the day would last for decades, but new ones are just disposable. Thanks, big government.
ReplyDeleteAs I tweeted today... black boxes to track miles driven.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.latimes.com/nation/la-na-roads-black-boxes-20131027,0,6090226.story#axzz2j1bb5pYD
Unbelievable.
MarkP, I added your link as an update.
ReplyDeleteIts not unbelievable, I must sadly say. Its already built in to your car if you have satnav or OnStar, LowJack or any of the other types of anti-theft tracking equipment. Its going to be built into -every- car starting in 2014 to 2015.
If you have Sirius radio your car can be hacked remotely, giving potential access to little things like the brakes, accelerator and transmission. Fly by wire, baby.
That's why I keep a car that was built in the 1960's. Hack that, beeotches.
Anonymous said: "The most frustrating part are all those who nod and say "good" at each no-flush toilet and coily bulb imposition."
ReplyDeleteYeah, those guys bug me. But those are your hard-core ecofreaks, you've got to expect that out of them.
The ones who frustrate the shit out of me are the ones who say "huh, what?" when the subject comes up. The oblivious assholes who seem to drift through life and don't even notice, as MKelley said, that their new refrigerator is going to cost twice as much and last half as long as the old one. Because regulations.
Its the dozy wankers who just keep voting for more and more of the same old shit that I can't stand.
The worst part is that one day, one day something will happen. One day, after its all far too late, these stupid sons of bitches are going to wake up. And they will all be shocked. And they will all yell. And I, I will be stuck saying "welcome to the party assholes, where were you in 2013?"
And then they will get mad at -me- for not warning them hard enough.
Ofay Cat said: "So my question is NOW WHAT!"
Well, I'm open to ideas. My answer is this blog, and posting all over the place on other blogs, and bugging my MP. As if an MP can do anything about this.
What has to happen is that Big Government bullshit becomes socially unacceptable. Culture shift must occur. Usually that requires a major war or other widespread societal catastrophe than can only be fixed by changing the culture.
That's what happened to the Soviet Union. Corruption finally crushed the machinery after almost 80 years of seeming invincibility, and people were left standing in the smoking wreckage wondering what the fuck just happened. They're still wondering, and its been 20 years already.
That'll be us in twenty years, unless we break some people's balls right now. Starting with the Big Media who keep all this stuck.
Changes needed: 1) Congress subject to all laws passed on the rest of us; 2) Term limits; 3) No Congressional pay if budget exceeds revenue (that'll get their attention); 4) exclude political contributions by all except individuals.
ReplyDelete