Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers, Washington Republican, observes: “History teaches us that the pharaohs drove Egypt to bankruptcy building the pyramids. At least they got pyramids.”
PRAY FOR HARRY
So is the Senate's esteemed chaplain, Barry C. Black, now offering up personal prayers for Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid while the Nevada Democrat legislates his way through the economic crisis?
On hand every morning to bow his head as Mr. Black convenes the Senate in prayer, Mr. Reid suspects that might be the case.
“Often, these prayers are directed, it seems, to me,” confesses Mr. Reid, who adds: “I guess that is what prayers are all about.”
OUTDOOR DIMMER
Additional energy-efficient legislation has been introduced by Rep. Jane Harman, the California Democrat whose revolutionary 2007 bill-turned-into-law bans 100-watt incandescent light bulbs by 2012, phases out inefficient bulbs by 2014 and requires bulbs in 2020 be at least three times as efficient as today's.
Now the congresswoman's new bill targets outdoor lighting, which she says is provided by “outdated and inefficient technologies.”
Rather than incandescent and halogen lights, her legislation would require “super-efficient light emitting diodes, or LEDs.” In addition, all outdoor lights would come with bi-level, or dimmer-switch controls, allowing users to alter the amount of light emitted.
“You don't need the same level of brightness at dusk as you do in the middle of the night,” she argues.
'WILLFUL' DELETION
It's been more than 50 years since a now-”antiquated” United States criminal code was revised to reflect the modern world, and now a Republican congressman aims to bring it up to date, cut its size by one-third and make it user-friendly.
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