Okay, now I’m really irritated.

In my impetuous youth, as I was becoming a conservative, I remember a moment when I crossed a proverbial Rubicon. I suddenly realized the left isn’t just wrong about some things—they are wrong about everything. Week in, week out, I would learn of something else that the left espouses and how utterly wrong it is. Big things. Little things. Things that would surprise you, like their apparent love of catastrophic forest fires contrasted with their endless claims of loving trees.

We’ve known for a long time that CFL lightbulbs contain mercury that can be a real problem if the bulb breaks. (To say nothing of the problem that mercury poses once in the waste stream.)

The left demanded that we attack (the anti-scientific, made up threat of) global warming by making light bulbs more efficient. A law was passed (which Bush 43 signed, to his great discredit) requiring that bulbs meet efficiency standards that incandescent bulbs can’t meet, so we’re left with CFLs (and a few other technologies like LED bulbs, though those are still costly and in development).

So, in an effort to “save” the environment, the left foisted these mercury-filled monstrosities that require a haz-mat approach if they break in your home, and that have the potential to leach toxic chemicals once in the waste stream.

But it gets worse:

Energy saving bulbs emit cancer causing chemicals it was claimed last night as new fears were raised about their safety.

Scientists said they should not be left on for long periods of time or placed close to a person’s head because they release poisonous materials.

That’s great. And look, they release stuff used by the Nazis:

The harmful substances include phenol – a poison injected by the Nazis to kill thousands of concentration camp victims during World War II – and the human toxins naphthalene and styrene.

Tests showed that the materials used to make the lamps are probably responsible for their potentially harmful side effects.

Andreas Kirchner, from the Federation of German Engineers, said: ‘Electrical smog develops around these lamps.  I therefore use them only very economically.  They should not be used in unventilated areas and definitely not in the proximity of the head.’

I have one of these on my desk, for crying out loud! So does my wife.

Well, at least we did until about two minutes ago.