obamawatching

Ever since Pat_S posted Stay Tuned — Cameras In Cable Boxes Watching You,  I’ve been keeping an eye on my cable box.

Because I think it might be watching me.

Now, after reading the following article, I’m starting to watch my fridge.

Because I think it might be looking at me funny.

via Investor’s Business Daily:

Regulation: No longer the stuff of science fiction, a little-noticed change in energy-efficiency requirements for appliances could lead to government controlling the power used in your home and how you set your thermostat.

In a seemingly innocuous revision of its Energy Star efficiency requirements announced June 27, the Environmental Protection Agency included an “optional” requirement for a “smart-grid” connection for customers to electronically connect their refrigerators or freezers with a utility provider….

So far, manufacturers are not required to include the feature, only “encouraged,” and consumers must still give permission to turn it on. But with the Obama administration’s renewed focus on fighting mythical climate change, we expect it to become mandatory to save the planet from the perils of keeping your beer too cold….

We’re reminded that former EPA director Carol Browner was a big fan of the smart grid and its potential ability to monitor and control power usage down to the thermostat in your home.

“Eventually,” she told U.S. News & World Report in 2009, “we can get to a system when an electric company will be able to hold back some of the power so that maybe your air-conditioner won’t operate at its peak.”

The same year, President Obama, who had won election on a pledge to “fundamentally transform America,” signed a stimulus bill to “transform the way we use energy” with a smart grid that would abandon “a grid of lines and wires that dates back to Thomas Edison — a grid that can’t support the demands of clean energy….”

For those of us who were not part of the Obamination hysteria in ’08, I know were all very concerned when we heard his promise to “fundamentally transform America.”

But I guess none of us knew, at the time, that it would also include drinking warm beer, like the Brits.

Related:

Pat_S post from 2008: Meet the Smart Meter

 

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18 Comments | Leave a comment
  1. Cernunnos81 says:

    I prefer my Domestic brews at the proper 33-35 degrees, and my German and Commonwealth brews at the proper 50 or so degrees.
    I’ll keep them in the same Fridge and just let the Euro brew sit for 15min or so. This cools the air around the bottle, thus helping to reduce “warming” of the atmosphere.
    These people need to realize that this is a hoax and nothing more than a thinly veiled attempt to control the population. They’re just going to keep trying though and hope that the uninformed zombies will back them.
    Sadly those uninformed don’t realize that if they back this they’ll have the same issues as those who supported the Russian Revolution in 1917. After “The Party” came to power vast numbers of their supporters soon found themselves either laying in a ditch or taking a permanent “vacation” in Siberia and being called “Zek”.
    Let us hope that they get cured of their “Recto-Cephalic” disorder before they put us all in a ditch, eyes staring into the falling rain. Sadly, despite all the statements to the contrary, these things Could happen here.

  2. LucyLadley says:

    Thank you Shifra! America has been fundamentally changed for those citizens that think like those attempting to do the changing. But the citizens who put G-d first, remain on solid ground. We quit spending money on cable T.V. But, if coffee makers can spy on us, someone will be getting quite a show. The show at my house would probably resemble Laurel & Hardy in the piano mover story called The Music Box. Thinking of music, the song comes to mind, In Heaven There Is No Beer That’s Why We Drink It Here. Cheers To You Shifra!

    • Cernunnos81 says:

      O.o No beer in Heaven? Must be just Whiskey then. God himself Has to be a drinker, otherwise it would all go to vinegar and never reach the phase where it can be used for medicinal purposes and social lubrication. Just my personal opinion on that one. Moderation is the key brothers and sisters.

      Grab you Manny or your Mad Dog and hoist a mason jar with me in salute of Freedom. Shout your Slainte, Salud, Mazel Tov, or whatever your preferred battlecry and let’s knock a few back.

  3. larrygeary says:

    Reducing the voltage to an appliance so that it doesn’t work as designed makes it less energy efficient. This gives me more incentive to find a way to get off the grid.

  4. LJZumpano says:

    Well, Shifra, maybe we’ll have an early warning system. When they start pushing for a fridge which keeps the light on, even when the door is closed, we will know that Big Brother really is watching. Time to pullout the old fashioned icebox, and prepare for the iceman’s cometh!

  5. Alain41 says:

    Liberals used to rail against Big Brother. Then the fascists (today’s illiberals) realized that they could hide behind big business to control the people and that was ‘good’ because they (the government) would control big business through the regulators. Too many real liberals have retreated to silence because ‘it’s their guy’ and/or they don’t want to be called racist. Pathetic Cowards. And Pathetic Media.

  6. Kitten says:

    Ok, is anybody keeping a list anywhere of all the crap regulations these jackals have heaped on us since OBummer came into office? All the Obummer bots and minions got the memo: ”Tis the Season to poo on Americans, OBummer’s in charge now”. All a part of the fundamental transformation. Really, when the next Republican or Conservative President comes into office, it will take half the 1st term to reverse the regulation curse OBummer has wrought on the citizenry. It’s amazing that people like this Carol Browner exist, and that she thinks it’s perfectly correct to do this. Of course they do. I can see her in a dark smelly dungeon somewhere, hunched-back and rubbing her hands over and over with a white lab coat on and grey stringy hair. I don’t like her, I don’t like her at all.

    I get so mad when I hear about stuff like this going on. But then I think how glad I am to be a TAM and part of a fellowship that exposes and brings to attention things I know I wouldn’t be aware of otherwise. I was no kool-aid drinker to begin with, but my awareness of the nature of liberals has become much more… acute. Thank you, Tammy! And thanks for the post Shifra!

  7. Shifra says:

    ADDENDUM: I added Pat_S’s post from 2008. A must-read!

    • Kitten says:

      Those mandatory smart meters in Europe may have been at work when our Tammy was in France, with NO air conditioning! The big hotel was using way too much of the energy. Can’t have that.

  8. Dave says:

    For what reason could they possibly have to spy on us in the confines of our own homes? Why would they even bother to do such a ridiculous invasion of privacy? What do they want to know? What do they care? They’re trying to take all our assets, are proceeding to dictate almost every aspect of our lives from our diets all the way to the toilets where our dictated diets end up. They will not stop until we are all their slaves. Obama’s and Hillary’s great mentor dedicated his book, ‘Rules for Radicals’ to Lucifer(Satan). Why would Saul Alinsky honor the Devil, the rebel who wars against God and Heaven and all humanity? Simply to enslave and master the whole of earth and humans there in with the exception of the Jews who must be elininated. That is the whole ugly truth and always has been and will be until the end. All those bastards work for the damn Devil.

  9. strider says:

    Hackers must be champing at the bit to go online with the government’s more smarter grid.

  10. Maynard says:

    I’m a huge fan of energy efficiency, and I am strongly motivated to reduce my energy footprint to save the planet (the rise in CO2 is a valid concern), the nation (we’re broke!), and my wallet (I’m cheap). However, I hate coercion. I want to choose my righteous path, so I can then wallow in my virtue and lord it over the rest of you. I hate to be commanded to be good, and watch my master then claim credit for what I did.

    The Smart Meters have great potential for abuse of privacy. When you find your appliances “talk” to the smart meter, which then reports back to the central station, which then analyzes your activities and either reprimands you or directly takes control of your things — we have a problem.

    The obvious “good” use is to throttle down your climate control during peak hours, and prohibit non-climate control usage. I see the point, but still…

    Down the line: Ring, ring! Hey, this is central station! You have two TVs turned on to the same station. We’re turning one of them off. This is not farfetched.

    And eventually: Hey, your TV has been tuned to a Betty Boop marathon for over six hours; we see you have a problem and have assigned you a special counselor.

  11. Dave says:

    So what? Me and my Fridge have been watching football games together for years!

  12. Maynard says:

    By the way, I’m fighting global warming by putting my refrigerator in the backyard and propping the door open. It would be selfish of me to cool a few square feet of personal space when I can instead help cool off the entire planet!

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