There's also the mercury in CFLs, which can contaminate huge amounts of groundwater if one breaks in an inopportune place.

Yes, there's a minuscule amount of mercury in a CFL bulb, but it's not in an organic form, which is the kind of mercury that poses the most danger (like you find in seafood, for example). Yes, if you shatter the bulb and dump it into your water supply that's probably not such a good thing. But I doubt many people are doing that.

Most CFLs will end up either recycled (IKEA happily accepts bulbs for recycle) or in a landfill. If they're recycled it's a non-issue. If they're tossed in the trash some mercury might escape into the environment on the way to the landfill or right after the bulb gets there, but stuff in a landfill gets buried - under more garbage or under dirt - pretty quickly. Landfills are sealed on the bottom specifically so they don't contaminate groundwater. Any mercury which ends up in a landfill is likely to be sequestered for a very, very long time.

On the other hand, if you use an incandescent lamp, at least here in the US, on average half the power required by that lamp will come from coal. Burning coal releases copious amounts of mercury into the environment. That mercury rains down on fields, streams, lakes and eventually pours into the ocean, contaminating everything with mercury along the way (I won't even mention all of the other heavy metals - including a lot of radioactive ones - which burning coal belches into the environment). Since CFL's can consume less than a quarter as much electricity as incandescent bulbs, and last for years, switching to CFL's can substantially reduce the amount of mercury - as well as other toxic heavy metals - being belched by coal fired plants into the environment. Even if you just chuck the CFL's into the trash when they're finally spent.

They can also save you a lot of money, but that's another story.

Why not just switch parties now? Maybe she can be part of a McCain/Clinton "dream ticket"

Wow! A ticket that would make me twice as likely to vote for Obama.

Maybe she could teach John a few tricks about dodging enemy fire . . .

McCain would mop the floor with Hillary. Her pandering Republican-lite act won't fool enough independents to carry the day. The right wing media has spent the past two decades painting her as a card-carrying Communist, leading Hillary to a series of increasingly bizarre political contortions, up to and including the co-opting of right wing hawkish talking points and truly asinine votes (the Iraq War being the most glaring example). She's a colossal phony, and lacking her husband's mesmeric charisma even casual observers can sense it.

Ironically, with the economy in the toilet thanks to Republican-lead deregulation and the Iraq War increasingly unpopular among independents, Hillary would have been better off remaining true to the "liberal" image the media had painted for her to begin with. The problem with the Clintons - now as in the '90s - is that there's virtually no limit to their willingness to pander and sellout their values (and the core supporters of the Democratic Party) in order to advance their short-term political ambitions.

When Hillary has the Bosnian Sniper Vote sewn up?

She knows that she can help this country and I believe her.

She also knows that she evaded sniper fire during her trip to Bosnia.

I'm finding it hard to put a lot of stock in what Hillary "knows". Like her "experience", it's turning out to be a lot of nothing at best, and a huge negative (like her pushing for NAFTA inside the Clinton White House) at worst.

But then, what do you expect from Madame de Wal Mart?

Hillary is a brilliant woman

If she's so brilliant, why can't she remember what actually happened on her trip to Bosnia? Or to Ireland? Or what happened to her billing records, for that matter . . .

I still don't know why Hillary apologized for her statements on Bosnia. She's on record, making observations about her landing in Bosnia, that are consistent with the facts.

Hillary claimed, on the record, that she was under the threat of sniper fire and raced from the airport. In fact, she landed with her daughter and freaking Sinbad, strolled out of the plane and was met by some kids. Unless those kids were packin' heat, Hillary was in no immediate danger. Either Hillary Gump's delusional, senile, or lying. None of them qualify her to be President in my book.

Maybe you Hillary supporters have lower standards. Or, perhaps in the grand tradition of her husband, you're now gonna quibble over the definition of "sniper fire" the way he quibbled over the definition of "is".

No wonder her negatives have reached an all-time high in the polls. Obama and McCain don't even have to throw mud - Hillary successfully buries herself under one mudslide after another. It's a gift.

We won't even go into her non-existent role in brokering peace in Northern Ireland, yet another false claim Hillary made.

This is between your elderly neighbor and the Oleander Queen of the Block. It has NOTHING to do with you and is NONE of your business. Your husband is right - let it go.

For all you know, your elderly neighbor likes the oleanders and thinks the Oleander Queen was doing her a favor by sprucing up the place.

Believe me, I've seen neighborhood busybodies do a lot worse than plant a hedge in someone else's yard. At least she didn't sic the city's goonsquad on your poor elderly neighbor and try to have the government force the woman to fix up her property.