Chuck Muth asks: Excuse me, but would someone please show me where the federal Department of Toilets and Light Bulbs is authorized by the United States Constitution?

That is an easy question to answer if there ever was such a thing. Article I, Section 8, Clause 3. The Congress shall have the power...To regulate commerce with foreign nations, among the several States...

Now, if you have a Toilet factory in your home state using only materials found in that state with local ownership and a local workforce and all of your water comes from a river or aquifer that is only in your state AND if your power is all locally generated from locally mined resources with lightbulbs that are manufactured with all local materials, local labor and local ownership then I would say you have a chance of challenging these laws on constitutional grounds.

Many constitutional scholars believe that there is evidence that the framers intended the interstate commerce clause to be a catch-all for expansive national power. They are probably correct.

Personally, I do not believe that the cause of liberty is aided by claiming that the current system is illegitimate or unconstitutional. Liberty is best supported as a positive virtue whose benefits are to be extolled rather than a golden age which must be restored - since most golden age claims are in fact dubious renderings of a past that never was.

Arguing that low volume toilets do not perform well is a much healthier ground than claiming some constitutional violation where there is none, especially since clean water is a publicly provided and shared resource. Also, one nice thing about the new toilets is that, barring serious operator error, they hardly ever overflow when clogged - which is worth the inconvenience of a second flush any day. As to light bulbs, the air that is not polluted by not building another coal plant is a shared resource and a matter of interstate commerce. Banning products subject to the interstate commerce clause which overuse these resources when there is an alternative also subject to the interstate commerce clause is a no brainer (unless you like changing light bulbs or have stock in an electric utility).

Michael Bindner