Wednesday, May 17, 2006
Sometimes, its tough to be Al Gore
The "liberal media" can mock liberal causes almost as effectively as it pillories conservative ones. It just does it by accident, as Al Gore must be thinking right about now.
This evening, while I was flying home from Las Vegas, Al Gore's climate-change documentary "An Inconvenient Truth" premiered in Los Angeles. The Associated Press dutifully recorded the wisdom of the attending celebrities, but when it came time to write the article that gives the reasons why we should all care about global warming, the wire service quoted only Olympian Shaun White:
Others attending included snowboarder and Olympic gold medalist Shaun White, who said was interested in global warming because he believed it had reduced snow pack.
"The lower elevation mountains are not getting as much snow," said White, known as the "Flying Tomato" because of his red hair.
White said the sport would suffer if "you can't go to your local mountain and ride."
There was nothing in the story about rising sea levels, growing deserts, the end of the Northern Atlantic salt conveyor, or the death of species. Just a concern that the sport of snowboarding would suffer if "you can't go to your local mountain and ride."
Now there's a reason to put an end to the American way of life.
Al Gore's PR guy had better start looking for another gig.
8 Comments:
By 
Ghost Dansing, at
Wed May 17, 05:08:00 AM:
Well, if one thinks that human waste emissions don't affect climate, and that humans should be better stewards of their habitat, then all environmental study is for naught.
The reason there is no "green" in the Republican constituency, is because the core political philosophy of modern Republicanism is corporatist in nature...with corporate profit margins being the only "gold standard" for public policy and law.
Resentments stemming from governmental intrusions requiring smoke-stack scrubbers, fuel efficiencies and waste run-off run deep, and are often camoflaged by the debunking of scientific efforts that support their worth.
Modern Republicanism is rotten at its core, and its constituents swim in a sea of propaganda pollution.
For Dick Cheney, driving an H1 Hummer for basic transportation is an American right that should be guarded at all costs. Some of the more traditional rights, found in the Constitution and Bill of Rights get somewhat less attention.
Dubya has slipped in one recent poll to a 29 percent approval rating. Frankly, that is difficult to believe.
Those polls can't possibly be accurate.
I mean, really, ask yourself: How could there still be 29 percent of the people who approve of this presidency?
By TigerHawk, at
Wed May 17, 07:07:00 AM:
Here I am trying to mock the MSM, and you guys go all OT on me.
There wouldn't be 29th percent who approve of this presidency if there was a total blackout of the Democratic leadership, and people were allowed to forget everything that John Kerry, Howard Dean, Ted Kennedy, Nancy Pelosi, Harry Ried and John Edwards ever said. With the loss of the conservatives, Bush's support almost certainly comes entirely from people who just cannot abide his likely replacements. I think of them as the "I just want to shoot myself" vote, and I indeed may be one of them.
By Admin, at
Wed May 17, 07:24:00 AM:
lol, tiger, i liked the post!
i do want to see this documentary, we are going to see a radical shift in populations as sealevels rise, just as we are going to see a radical change in the american way of life due to peak oil.
what we need to be concerned about is the depletion of the ozone layer. =)
By Dawnfire82, at
Wed May 17, 10:18:00 AM:
People have been screaming about the world running out of oil since the 1890s. Every time there's a price spike, people panic and make stupid claims. It happened in the 70s, it's happening now.
As I grew up, I was constantly told (and was convinced) that the world environment was in terrible condition and that the icecaps would melt by the year 2000 and the rainforests were only a few years from annihilation. Somehow, the Amazon is still there and Dallas is still landlocked.
In 2001, I was told that the passage of the Patriot act marked the death of American civil liberties and the installation of a fascist imperium. Oddly, said fascist imperium held free elections in 2002 and 2004 and, even more oddly, won them both.
There's a reason that doomsayers are consistently mocked throughout history.
By Gordon Smith, at
Wed May 17, 02:41:00 PM:
Fiddling while Rome burns.
I'm no doomsayer, but I know better than to shit where I eat. The ruling party doesn't seem to share that value with me. Whether it's Peak Oil, Global Warming, or the narrowing of our civil liberties, the conservative approach would be to err on the side of caution.
Others say, "Don't worry. Be Happy."
By Steve Burri, at
Wed May 17, 07:25:00 PM:
I think Teddy Kennedy is most concerned about the rapidly melting ice 'cause it waters down his Scotch faster. (I believe he has overcome this by preparing his 'Scotch on the Rocks' with real rocks.)
By 
, at
Thu May 18, 02:06:00 PM:
I don't know a ton about the group who did this study, but it points out the "inconvenient truths" about "An Inconvenient Truth." You'd think a guy with a credibility problem would have taken more care with the facts this time around...
http://eteam.ncpa.org/news/new-study-points-to-an-inconvenient-truth-about-global-warming
By , at
Fri May 19, 12:50:00 PM:
I'm all for environmental awareness, but it seems like Gore's film is more about his political placement for an upcoming campaign. It's irresponsible for Gore and his people to create so much fear just for publicity (in my opinion anyway), especially when he has such a history of exaggeration.
