What's the item that will be on every one of my shopping lists from now till 2014?

President Bush signed a bill last month that will make it illegal to manufacture or sell the incandescent lightbulb by 2014.

But it won't be illegal to use them.

So, that means we only have 6 years to stock up on enough incandescent bulbs to last our lifetimes, and then some, so as to have enough to bequeath them to our children and grandchildren.

As my oldest daughter sagely said, when told of this new and very dumb law, "Does that mean there will be a black market in lightbulbs?" Well, yes, I bet there will be!

Truly, this is the stupidest bill ever passed. Well, that's a tough claim, as Congress has passed an incredible number of really stupid bills, but this is at least in the running for the Top 10 Stoopidest Bills of All Time.

The Weekly Standard did a great job of explaining why this is so dumb in last week's issue ("A Nation of Dim Bulbs"). A few points in order to educate yourself, your blog readers, your friends, and your family members:

• The compact fluorescent light (CFL) bulbs that we'll be forced to buy instead of incandescents are toxic; they contain mercury. If you break one in your house, you're advised to open windows and clear the area for a half hour or so. Reassuring, yes?
• They can't be dimmed or used with timers. Newer bulbs that can do these things require you to buy new dimmers and timers, at considerable expense.
• The quality of light is horrible. Sure, this is subjective. But the vast majority of people I've informally surveyed say that they greatly prefer incandescents. No, that's not true. What they say is something like "I hate those *&^# florescent bulbs!"
• You can't just turn them on and off, as you can a regular bulb, since that greatly shortens its expected life span. You're supposed to turn them on and then leave them on for at least 15 minutes. How convenient, especially if you're just turning on a closet light to grab your shoes. < /sarcasm off>
• They can't just be tossed in the trash when they burn out. You have to carefully (so as not to break them and poison yourself and the surrounding environment) take them to a special toxic waste disposal center, wherever the heck that may be. Most likely it's a considerable distance from your house which means you'll have to fire up your eeevilll internal combustion engine automobile to get there.

But there's more. According to a letter to the editor in this week's Weekly Standard, they also can be a fire hazard. The writer said that he had a CFL in his kitchen, which began to smoke and catch fire when it burned out.

Rich Glasgow has been all over this, with "Is it Time for a Light Bulb Tea Party?", "How Many Lobbyists Does it Take to Change a Lightbulb?" and "WND: 'Vacate Room When CFL Bulb Breaks'".

Read this, too, for more about the insane "energy saving" regulations Congress has mandated.

So, this week's shopping list:

• 2 gallons milk
• 4 loaves of bread
• 96 incandescent light bulbs