The bureaucracy can pry my gas oven from my cold, dead hands
Kaylee McGhee White
Government bureaucrats have to have one of the most miserable jobs in the world. Endless paper shuffling and tripping over the red tape they’ve helped string about — it’s no wonder that every interaction with a Department of Motor Vehicles or, God forbid, Internal Revenue Service representative leaves the unfortunate taxpayer with a little less soul left.
The bureaucracy’s misery also helps explain why they’re so determined to spread it to everyone else. Whether it’s California outlawing the sale of natural gas-powered heaters or California (again) banning the sale of natural gas-powered vehicles or California (starting to see a pattern here?) banning the watering of “non-functional” grass, it’s obvious liberal bureaucrats enjoy waging war on citizens’ everyday lives.
California is the best example of bureaucracy run amok, but what happens in the Golden State surely does not stay there. A desire to overreach and interfere and make lives harder is a common trait (and perhaps even a job requirement) in every single bureaucratic agency at both the state and federal levels.
Here’s another example. This week, the Consumer Product Safety Commission revealed it’s considering a nationwide ban on gas-powered stoves, citing several studies that purport to show a connection between negative health effects, such as respiratory illnesses, and gas stoves. Commissioner Richard Trumka Jr. put it this way: “This is a hidden hazard. Any option is on the table. Products that can’t be made safe can be banned.”
I don’t care much about the CPSC’s cited studies because, quite frankly, they sound just as absurd and unbelievable as the scientific community’s claim that a man can become a woman just by saying he is one. I do, however, care very much about Trumka’s trigger-happy attitude when it comes to banning things considered “unsafe.”
It should go without saying that most appliances we use every day are a little bit unsafe. Microwaves, for example, cause 4% of all cooking-related house fires per year, according to the National Fire Protection Association. Likewise, electric stoves are sometimes responsible for scalding burns on young children. Using Trumka’s reasoning, these should be banned too.
The fact is that gas stoves are no more unsafe than any of the other appliances sitting in our kitchens. Plus, they are much more efficient than electric stoves and are the only kind of stove you should cook on if you hope to make a meal and actually enjoy doing so.
I refuse to give mine up, and if the CPSC succeeds in banning them, I will be the first to join the gas stove black market. I’m sure I’ll see plenty of you there.