I have a serious hate on...

Yeah, yeah, yeah.  I know.  They save electricity.  They are green.  Any person who cares anything about the environment has them, right?

Whatever.

I hate that they take forever to warm up and get to full brightness.

I hate that the colour choices are jaundice-yellow or operating-room-glare-white.  (Yeah, I've also heard that the colour has gotten better.  Unfortunately, hearing isn't the same as seeing).

I hate that they have mercury.  That it's apparently okay because it's such a small amount - but "small amount" x millions = "not so small amount".  And that "small amount" in my household doesn't take account the amounts required in the manufacturing process.  I'm sure the people who make them are exposed to much larger amounts.  Because....

I hate that they are made in China.  You know, that country that takes environmental and worker safety seriously.  The country that was so appalled at the whole melamine in wheat flour thing, which led to way too many pet deaths in North America, that it didn't go right out and put the same damn stuff in their own baby food.  Oh wait, it did just that.

I really do hate that most "green" choices, like all too many other choices, aren't simple.  I just, after over a year of living here, went out and bought 6 CFL bulbs, to replace some incandescent bulbs in hard-to-reach fixtures that had burnt out.  I know that LEDs are the next "in thing", but the cost alone at this point is prohibitive, and I'm sure there is some reason why they too aren't an "easy" green choice.

I swear, I'm going back to whale oil lamps :)