09/15/10

At Warning Signs Alan Caruba's Daily Blog


Turning Off the (Incandescent) Light of Liberty

 

I know I already did a page about CFLs, but Alan Caruba is an excellent writer

 

 

By Alan Caruba

What if the government banned air conditioning? What if flat-screen televisions were determined to use too much electricity and were ordered phased out of production? What if the use of all plastic grocery bags were banned? What if the incandescent light bulb, one of the greatest inventions of Thomas Edison in the 1870s was banned? Oh wait, it has been banned!

Read on...

 

 

Thomas Edison, Famous Inventor

 

 

Jeffrey Immelt, Evil Asshole

 

 
General Electric is also, in partnership with Rolls Royce, building the "Second Engine" for the new F-35 Fighter Jet. The engine is not wanted by the Department of Defense but could be worth a few billion to GE over the life of the contract.

"Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates's campaign to rein in defense spending was rebuked Thursday by the House, which approved an aircraft engine the Pentagon does not want despite the threat of a presidential veto."

"The primary engine for the Joint Strike Fighter is manufactured by Pratt & Whitney, while the second model is built jointly by General Electric and Rolls-Royce. The manufacturers have been engaged in an increasingly visible fight to win support on Capitol Hill and in congressional districts where parts for the engines are made. Both sides have media campaigns that include full-page ads in major newspapers, slots on radio programs and pushing their respective sides on blogs, Facebook and Twitter."

"One Pratt & Whitney ad reads: "This is the year for Congress to stop funding an extra engine for the F-35. For all those -- Republicans and Democrats -- who have talked about cutting government waste, here's your chance."

GE has fired back with its own ads. It also argues that its engine "provides competition that will lead to more than $20 billion in savings over the life of the Joint Strike Fighter program -- savings that equal the cost of producing 200 fighter jets."

The Pentagon has disputed those figures, calculating that it would cost taxpayers $2.9 billion more, on top of $1.3 billion already spent, in upfront costs to develop the second engine. Gates has also said that any potential savings from having a competition between contractors would be "theoretical."

 

Jeffrey Immelt is the military-industrial complex Eisenhower warned us about.