Say watt?...

From the "Glimmer of Hope" department, I saw the other day that a couple of legislators from South Carolina have introduced a bill that would allow people to manufacture and sell incandescent light bulbs in South Carolina. That normally wouldn't be such a big deal, except that a couple of years ago the federal government passed a law making incandescent light bulbs illegal starting in 2012.

You might ask just where the federal government thinks it gets the authority to tell us what kind of light bulbs we have to use. Good question. They'll tell you that the interstate commerce clause, which was inserted into the Constitution to prevent individual states from adopting protective tariffs, now gives the federal government the power to regulate everything from soup to nuts, to health care. Of course, they'd be wrong.

So if the bill in South Carolina passes, light bulbs made in South Carolina and used in South Carolina won't be subject to federal regulation on interstate trade, just as guns made in Montana and sold in Montana won't be subject to federal law.

Hopefully, if this catches on, we'll end up with all 50 states thumbing their collective yet individual noses at every over-reaching law or mandate Washington throws our way.

That would be a switch.