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'You're Showering Too Long!' Barks Our Federal Nanny
Forbes ^ | April 2, 2015 | George Leef

Posted on 04/02/2015 10:45:23 AM PDT by reaganaut1

Comedy wouldn’t be funny if there weren’t a kernel of truth in it. Remember the 1996 Seinfeld episode based on the problem with the new, low-pressure showerheads that couldn’t rinse the shampoo out of Kramer’s hair? That led him to contact some Yugoslav black marketeers so he could buy and covertly install a high-power showerhead instead. (Naturally, that one proved to be much too powerful.)

Twenty years ago, Americans were already feeling the effects of nanny state regulations on their use of water and things have been getting steadily worse in that respect. That’s because it’s now almost impossible to keep politicians and bureaucrats from doing what so many of them love to do: dictating how Americans live.

In 1994, Congress mandated that showerheads deliver no more than 2.5 gallons of water per minute – hence the Seinfeld script. Why this busybody rule? Because some people with political influence maintain that we’re using too much water and it’s up to the government to prevent that.

Consider the argument advanced in this recent Washington Post article: If 20 percent of our shower water is wasted, “you’re talking about over 200 billion gallons, in a world where gigantic states (California) and megacities (Sao Paulo, Brazil) are suffering from drought and water scarcity problems are expected to become still worse in the decades ahead.”

(Excerpt) Read more at forbes.com ...


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Government
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1 posted on 04/02/2015 10:45:23 AM PDT by reaganaut1
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To: reaganaut1

California is sitting right next to the largest body of water on the planet.


2 posted on 04/02/2015 10:47:40 AM PDT by Slyfox (I tremble for my country when I reflect that God is just: that his justice cannot sleep for ever)
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To: reaganaut1

Most shower heads have a removable flow restricting gadget, from what I’ve seen.


3 posted on 04/02/2015 10:51:21 AM PDT by dainbramaged (Get out of my country now)
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To: reaganaut1
My parents installed a pull chain valve with a spring loaded return on our shower. Pull for a minute. Soap up pull again to rinse. The shower could only last until you got a cramp in your hand.

We eventually figured a way to wedge the pivot and keep it flowing. They announced our being discovered by shutting off the hot water valve mid stolen shower, going to full cold water. So we stopped that.

My parents also responded to high phone bills by putting one of those locks on the rotary dial phones we had in the house. I figured how to cheat that device too, but never shared it with my siblings.

4 posted on 04/02/2015 10:51:36 AM PDT by blackdog (There is no such thing as healing, only a balance between destructive and constructive forces.)
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To: reaganaut1

It’s really about this evil rich oppressor country having long showers and those poor oppressed people having to wait for it to rain to take a bath and having to share the bath water with the rest of the family and then use the water to make soup. It’s not about conserving water.


5 posted on 04/02/2015 10:51:41 AM PDT by I want the USA back (Media: completely irresponsible. Complicit in the destruction of this country.)
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To: Slyfox

Can I say it for FR, Jim?

FU leftists and your continual crusade to dehumanize us and quantfy our daily habits and “punish” us for effing profit!

Sick of their BS.


6 posted on 04/02/2015 10:53:35 AM PDT by jsanders2001
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To: reaganaut1

Vermont has an occasional bit of drought, but usually it is one of the country’s wettest states. That’s why it’s so green. There are ponds, lakes, and streams all over the place. So, I must say, it’s a bit crazy to make us buy low pressure shower heads, reduced flush toilets, low water washing machines, and all the rest of it, when the ground outside our house is squishy most of the time, and the underground water level is usually about an inch below the surface.

When we first bought the house, we had to dig drainage ditches all over the place. The barns were tipping over because the soil was soft under their foundations. The basement was flooded. Several apple trees pulled up their roots and fell over. And so on.

Then the gubbermint starts imposing regulations on us that we have to save water, even though its coming out of our ears. Oh, of course! Why didn’t we think of that?


7 posted on 04/02/2015 10:54:51 AM PDT by Cicero (Marcus Tullius)
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To: reaganaut1; Larry Lucido; F15Eagle

8 posted on 04/02/2015 10:55:27 AM PDT by Gamecock ("The Christian who has stopped repenting has stopped growing." A.W. Pink)
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To: I want the USA back
I'm pretty sure all families have a built in way to manage water use. AKA the hot water tank. Use too much hot water in the shower and you will hear it from one’s loved ones and promptly. So why is the state involved?
9 posted on 04/02/2015 10:55:29 AM PDT by Sam Gamgee (May God have mercy upon my enemies, because I won't. - Patton)
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To: reaganaut1

The oceans are full of water. Run some pipe and desalinate it.


10 posted on 04/02/2015 10:56:21 AM PDT by petercooper ("How To Destroy The Country In 6 Short Years" by Barack Obama & the Democrats)
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To: Cicero
Then the gubbermint starts imposing regulations on us that we have to save water, even though its coming out of our ears.

Like Obamacare, one size fits all.

11 posted on 04/02/2015 10:57:16 AM PDT by Senator_Blutarski
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To: reaganaut1
If 20 percent of our shower water is wasted,

Liberals enjoy being dictators and amplifying problems that were minor inconveniences before. Others are content with an extra couple of minutes in the shower.

Reminds me of when Algor was running for president. Then-NH governor/now US Senator Jeanne Shaheen authorized the dumping of millions of gallons of water from a dam so that candidate-for-president Algor could have a photo op in a canoe down river.

The region was experiencing scattered pockets of drought, and I wondered if that water couldn't have been piped somewhere to alleviate the shortage in an affected area, if the dam was indeed at capacity.

12 posted on 04/02/2015 10:57:34 AM PDT by Calvin Locke
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To: Slyfox

Recently read an amazing article about how Oregon could tap the Columbia river that could satisfy all of California’s needs. It wouldn’t harm navigation, fishing, or anything. Right now it all flows out into the pacific,,,
Oregon and Washington would get rich. Cali would have water.
But all three of the dirty hippies oppose it tooth and nail.

And California opposes massive desalination plants.
California turned the San Joaquin valley into a dustbowl so the water can flow out into the sea,,,,for a minnow.

Screw California. I am going to enjoy seeing them suffer the shortages and strict rules that the leftists cause everywhere they go.

Turning a land of milk and honey into a third world dustbowl.


13 posted on 04/02/2015 10:59:17 AM PDT by DesertRhino (I was standing with a rifle, waiting for soviet paratroopers, but communists just ran for office.)
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To: reaganaut1

What more can you do to appease these people?

Lo flo toilets. Lo flo showers. Yada yada.


14 posted on 04/02/2015 10:59:52 AM PDT by NormsRevenge (Semper Fi - Revolution is a'brewin!!!)
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To: dainbramaged
yep, I always remove them. Then I went a step further and bought a splitter and added a 2nd shower head. It's heaven :)
15 posted on 04/02/2015 11:00:46 AM PDT by TexasFreeper2009 (Obama lied .. the economy died.)
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To: dainbramaged
Most shower heads have a removable flow restricting gadget, from what I’ve seen.

A drill works too


16 posted on 04/02/2015 11:01:16 AM PDT by Buckeye McFrog
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To: DesertRhino

Screw California.

Bring It ON!!

Those of us behind the lines Salute You!

Bring some soap .


17 posted on 04/02/2015 11:01:25 AM PDT by NormsRevenge (Semper Fi - Revolution is a'brewin!!!)
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To: reaganaut1
If 20 percent of our shower water is wasted, “you’re talking about over 200 billion gallons, in a world where gigantic states (California) and megacities (Sao Paulo, Brazil) are suffering from drought and water scarcity problems are expected to become still worse in the decades ahead.”

Do these morons actually think water can only be used once?

18 posted on 04/02/2015 11:01:45 AM PDT by WayneS (Barack Obama makes Neville Chamberlin look like George Patton.)
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To: reaganaut1

Every conservative should buy a shower head splitter and enjoy your shower while sticking it to the liberals :)

http://www.showersplus.com/shop/


19 posted on 04/02/2015 11:03:54 AM PDT by TexasFreeper2009 (Obama lied .. the economy died.)
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To: Slyfox

They’d have enough water if they would have/should have:
* continued construction of water reservoirs and waterworks
* not sent water downstream for the sacred salmon and smelt
* not added millions of hispanics to the population


20 posted on 04/02/2015 11:05:10 AM PDT by tbw2
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