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“THE EARTH HAS A FEVER”

Al Gore—charismatic star of An Inconvenient Truth and its upcoming sequel, An Inconvenient Truth: Tokyo Drift—weeps for little baby Earth:

The Earth has a fever and just like when your child has a fever, maybe that’s a warning of something seriously wrong.

It’s also kind of like when the Earth hammers down a load of booze then hits the road in its carbon-neutral Mustang. Or when the Earth gets baked inside a carbon-neutral Cadillac and sets off on a midnight drive without the aid of headlights (to save energy, probably). Poor Earth!

Meanwhile, global warming has quit molesting polar bears and is now turning alligators into Amway salesmen.

UPDATE. Via Mark Alexander, further childhood insights from Al Gore’s Earth in the Balance:

A developing child in a dysfunctional family searches his parent’s face for signals that he is whole and all is right with the world; when he finds no such approval, he begins to feel that something is wrong inside. And because he doubts his worth and authenticity, he begins controlling his inner experience—smothering spontaneity, masking emotion, diverting creativity into robotic routine, and distracting an awareness of all he is missing with an unconvincing replica of what he might have been.

UPDATE II. Huck Foley: “Ever watched a 10-year-old lying to a five-year-old? There’s Al.”

Posted by Tim B. on 06/24/2006 at 04:56 PM
  1. “Baby” Earth?? Whatever happened to that biatch, “Mother” Earth? Did she abandon the poor innocent waif? I’m beginning to think the whole family’s dysfunctional…

    Posted by AlburyShifton on 2006 06 24 at 05:11 PM • permalink

  2. Speaking of little baby Earth.

    Posted by El Cid on 2006 06 24 at 05:25 PM • permalink

  3. The Earth has a fever and just like when your child has a fever, maybe that’s a warning of something seriously wrong.

    I see Al’s still talking to us like we’re fucking kindergarteners. I’m getting flashbacks of the 2000 campaign.

    Posted by Dave S. on 2006 06 24 at 05:33 PM • permalink

  4. Er, shouldn’t that be “An Inconvenient Truth: Kyoto Drift”? Hrm. Just doesn’t have the same ring about it, somehow.

    Another thing; I think this post would be funnier without any links.

    Posted by James Waterton on 2006 06 24 at 05:35 PM • permalink

  5. Where the hell is Tipper? Why isn’t she going up to her wandering nit of a husband, taking him gently by the hand, and leading him back to his bed and strapping him down? The man doesn’t need anymore media adulation, he needs psychiatric help. Or else one of his offspring better start producing grandkids pronto. He seems to be suffering from Cute Helpless Infant Deprivation, and is starting to hallucinate. (I’m immune to this strange plague myself, but I have come to the conclusion that it is endemic in the richwhiteliberal community.)

    Posted by Andrea Harris, Administrator on 2006 06 24 at 05:39 PM • permalink

  6. Where the hell is Tipper?

    I imagine she alternates her time between frantic searches in the “personal hygiene” section of her supermarket and subsequent and increasingly desperate gargling over her bathroom sink, in a futile attempt to wash out the indelible remnants of that “kiss” in 2000….

    Posted by James Waterton on 2006 06 24 at 05:49 PM • permalink

  7. What’s with the shots of Gore’s son? Is your point that global warming and climate change are a vast left-wing conspiracy designed to destroy your fun with hotrods all because Gore’s son has a rap sheet?

    This really is a depository for the lunar right. How foolish you all look. Take a cold shower then take down this post.

    Posted by Miranda Divide on 2006 06 24 at 05:53 PM • permalink

  8. Personally, I think that global warming has a lot to do with the fact that so much hot air is spewing forth from the likes of Al Gore >grins<

    Posted by missred on 2006 06 24 at 05:59 PM • permalink

  9. Miranda - not the brightest spark, are you? Why not read the post again and see if you can spot the parallels. Idiot.

    Incidentally, it’s gratifying to hear that someone like Miranda thinks I look foolish. Guess that means I’m on the right track.

    Posted by James Waterton on 2006 06 24 at 06:01 PM • permalink

  10. miranda seems a few divides short of Carmen, no?

    Posted by El Cid on 2006 06 24 at 06:06 PM • permalink

  11. Oh, yes. I see now. I stand corrected. It all makes perfect sense. Well, and I guess this rules out Jeb for 2012, huh?

    Posted by Miranda Divide on 2006 06 24 at 06:09 PM • permalink

  12. See…just a few short hours ago, I complimented Miranda on her not engaging in stupid Gaia-trolling. And here she is, in a Gore thread, but managing to keep her trolling almost completely off-topic. I salute you, Miranda, whichever UN kleptocracy office you’re current hailing from.

    Posted by PW on 2006 06 24 at 06:13 PM • permalink

  13. Deductions for trying to tar Tim with something a commenter posted, though. I know you can do better than a Schembri rehash, Miranda!

    Posted by PW on 2006 06 24 at 06:14 PM • permalink

  14. Oh, yes. I see now. I stand corrected. It all makes perfect sense. Well, and I guess this rules out Jeb for 2012, huh?

    Er, no, Miranda. Seems you’ve completely missed the point. However, thanks for the link to Noelle Bush and her various - um - disagreements with the law. Congratulations. You’ve just sunk to the depths that you set out to criticise.

    Posted by James Waterton on 2006 06 24 at 06:24 PM • permalink

  15. That’s a bit of the old fire, Mirander. It’s almost the old you! Have you been taking your vitamins, then?

    Posted by Andrea Harris, Administrator on 2006 06 24 at 06:25 PM • permalink

  16. Oh, yes. I see now. I stand corrected. It all makes perfect sense. Well, and I guess this rules out Jeb for 2012, huh?

    When are YOU running for office, Miranda?

    Posted by AlburyShifton on 2006 06 24 at 06:26 PM • permalink

  17. Eeyikes!  An alligator knocking on the door?  Seems to me, Mother Nature is a little too robust these days, what with polar bears taking over towns, pandas doubling their numbers, and the baboon/flamingo wars.

    Ah, Miranda.  Missing the point as usual.

    Posted by RebeccaH on 2006 06 24 at 06:32 PM • permalink

  18. So this would be an awkward time to mention that Dean’s kid was busted for burgling a loquor distributor?

    Posted by richard mcenroe on 2006 06 24 at 06:33 PM • permalink

  19. So this would be an awkward time to mention that Dean’s kid was busted for burgling a loquor distributor?

    Booze makes them talkative.

    Posted by rhhardin on 2006 06 24 at 06:48 PM • permalink

  20. Don’t you just love the left’s high moral ground attitude? Remember how they were falling over each other to dish the dirt on the Bush daughters? Or how Bush’s own college antics were subjected to microscopic examination?

    Posted by AlburyShifton on 2006 06 24 at 06:54 PM • permalink

  21. Another Sequel:
    “An Inconvenient Truth: Fund Raising for Baby Earth at a Buddhist Temple”

    Posted by perfectsense on 2006 06 24 at 07:03 PM • permalink

  22. The earth has a fever, and the only prescription is more cowbell.

    Posted by Crispytoast on 2006 06 24 at 07:06 PM • permalink

  23. Crispytoast beat me to it by minutes!

    Posted by Jim Treacher on 2006 06 24 at 07:10 PM • permalink

  24. Every time you drive your car Gaia kills a kitten..
    So think of the kittens…...

    /Goreon off

    Posted by thefrollickingmole on 2006 06 24 at 07:19 PM • permalink

  25. #24 Gaia was once a *self-correcting World Person*.  Originally it was able to adjust to many big changes over eons, and still improve.
    But now it seems it all went wrong when real persons arrived on the planet.

    Even Gaia’s creator has lost faith in these persons, and in Self-Restoring Gaia, of which we are just a part.
    The loonies have the patent on humanising this big hunk of rock.

    Posted by Barrie on 2006 06 24 at 07:33 PM • permalink

  26. Apologies for being totally off topic, but can anyone suggest a blog about the soccer from an Australian point-of-view? Preferably a fairly knowledgeable one. My reason for asking is that I keep hearing about all the mistakes that Schwarzer has been making, but personally can’t see them - compared with Kalac, where I never felt safe when the ball came near him, I thought that only pretty good hits would get through Mark.

    Anyway, thanks for that.

    Posted by MB on 2006 06 24 at 07:46 PM • permalink

  27. BTW, An Inconvenient Truth appears to be tanking worse than the Syrian Army…

    Posted by richard mcenroe on 2006 06 24 at 08:08 PM • permalink

  28. BTW, An Inconvenient Truth appears to be tanking worse than the Syrian Army…

    Got a url for that? I always prefer to my gloating in front of a webpage…

    Posted by AlburyShifton on 2006 06 24 at 08:27 PM • permalink

  29. Is paco here?  I’m looking for paco, Stoop Davy Dave Huck Foley, and MarkL.  I gave them specific orders to join me at Top Secret Launch Location 10A10B (i.e., my basement) last Wednesday.

    I’ve spent the past three days digitally copying the forbidden section of the Secret Vatican Library, circa 960 AD, hidden in a Apennine monastery.  All by myself.  It’s fucking creepy there.  No electric lights, only candles.  The monks, they don’t talk.  Ever.  They just stand.  And stare at me.  With hoods up.  Like 200 Angels of Death.  Brrrrrr.  Oh, and mealtime sucks yak dongs big time.  Stale crusty bread.  Thin gruel.  Beer is good though.  At least, I’m hoping it’s beer.

    Look, I’ve set up the digital copiers in the scriptorium.  The monks are a bit shocked by the new technology and are asking questions.  But I told them to kiss St. Benedict’s ass and mind their own business.

    But it’s a dreadfully dull job.  So far I’ve copied the following:

    Book of the Covenant
    Book of the Wars of the Lord
    Book of Jasher (aka Book of the Upright, aka Sefer haYashar)
    The Manner of the Kingdom/Book of Statutes
    Book of the Acts of Solomon
    Annals of King David
    Book of Samuel the Seer
    Book of Nathan the Prophet
    Book of Gad the Seer
    Prophecy of Ahijah
    Visions of Iddo the Seer
    Book of Shemaiah the Prophet
    Iddo Genealogies
    Story of Prophet Iddo
    Book of Jehu
    Acts of Uziah
    Sayings of the Seers
    Chronicles of King Ahasuerus
    Chronicles of the Kings of Media and Persia
    Nazarene Prophecy
    Epistle to Corinth
    Earlier Epistle to the Ephesians
    Epistle from Laodicea to the Colossians
    Missing Epistle of Jude
    Lost New Testament apocrypha
    Book of spells of serpents
    Gospel of Eve
    Gospel of Mani
    Gospel of Matthias
    Gospel of Perfection
    Gospel of Thaddaeus
    Gospel of the Four Heavenly Realms
    Gospel of the Hebrews
    Gospel of the Seventy
    Gospel of the Twelve
    Grave-plate of the Apostles
    Memoria Apostolorum
    Portion of the Apostles
    Secret Gospel of Mark

    All with the librarian screeching about the precious codexes.  Hey, I’m just doing my job bub.  Leave me alone.  Sorry about the cigarette ashes. 

    Took three days.  I think.  This going back in forth in time, ferrying the copiers, the generators that provide electricity to the copiers (and my DVD player and TV which I keep hidden in my cubbyhole of a sleep place), the gasoline to run the generators, White Castle sliders, has made me lose track of time a bit.  Is this 2012 and have the oceans risen to flood California yet?

    Well anyhoo, next up are the lost magical texts.  The Book of the Dead.  The Forbidden Incantations of the Watchers.  The Sumerian Verses of the Seraphim.  That kind of shit.

    (cringes)

    Then the demonology texts.

    (cringes)

    That’s when, um, I’ll need someone, anyone, else to do it some assistance.  If anyone sees paco, Foley, or MarkL, point them in my direction.

    Posted by wronwright on 2006 06 24 at 08:30 PM • permalink

  30. Another sequel:
    An Inconvenient Truth: No Controlling Legal Authority.

    Posted by perfectsense on 2006 06 24 at 08:35 PM • permalink

  31. The Earth has a fever and just like when your child has a fever, maybe that’s a warning of something seriously wrong.

    ``It is clear that the world is purely parodic, in other words, that each thing seen is the parody of another…’’  Georges Bataille

    Who then discovers the source of the fever

    ``...the earth, by turning, makes animals and men have coitus, and (because the result is as much the cause as that which provokes it) ... animals and men make the earth turn by having coitus.’‘

    Global warming takes on a new and unsuspected meaning.

    Bataille adds, ``The sea continuously jerks off.’‘

    It’s a scientific consensus, recorded in tree rings

    Posted by rhhardin on 2006 06 24 at 08:42 PM • permalink

  32. I’m confused…....Is Futurama supporting or mocking Al Gore?

    Posted by Schizm on 2006 06 24 at 08:50 PM • permalink

  33. Funny…  My mom always made me go to school anyway when I tried to claim a fever of 2/10ths of a degree.

    Posted by Vexorg on 2006 06 24 at 09:12 PM • permalink

  34. #31 rhhardin  
    Ah such precision.  I learn more each day from reading this blog.

    Who then discovers the source of the fever

    “...the earth, by turning, makes animals and men have coitus, and (because the result is as much the cause as that which provokes it) ... animals and men make the earth turn by having coitus.”

    Global warming takes on a new and unsuspected meaning.

    Now this truly provides an explanation for a phemonon about which I have pondered for many years now.  However, I do wonder if Georges Bataille factored into his analysis the curved effect of the coriolis force which surely would have an impact on coitus, in turn affecting the earth’s rotation.

    But with this new groundbreaking evidence we may conclude that the real source of global warming is increased animals and human coitus, coriolis forces notwithstanding.

    The solution to the problem would then be an international Coitus Interruptus Campaign.

    [Of course we’ll need trillions of dollars for additional research into all these areas.]

    Otherwise we’re just stuffed.  Now I’m now deeply troubled.

    Posted by Wand on 2006 06 24 at 09:28 PM • permalink

  35. Drat for some reason the inserted link doesn’t work for Coriolis Force - copy paste whole link required… sigh
    http://ww2010.atmos.uiuc.edu/(Gh)/guides/mtr/fw/crls.rxml

    Posted by Wand on 2006 06 24 at 09:40 PM • permalink

  36. Tell me if I’m just being the world’s biggest cynic here:

    Follow the links over at the Inconvenient Truth website and you’ll come to the NativeEnergy website. Here’s where you learn how to become carbon neutral. And what a sweet deal it is…

    Here’s how it works: You calculate the annual “cost” of your personal CO2 emissions and transfer that amount to NativeEnergy which then purchases “Green Tags” from renewable energy projects on your behalf. When the energy generated by those projects is sold and delivered to the grid, the “associated environmental attributes” are “reserved” for you. You are now carbon neutral. NativeEnergy currently has two projects from which it “buys” Green Tags: a Native American wind farm in South Dakota and a family farm methane project in Pennsylvania.

    Okay, so let’s say I’m a Pennsylvania dairy farmer. My operating costs are killing me, especially the energy costs (it takes a lot of electricity to run those milking machines). Plus I’m up to my eyeballs in (methane-rich) cow poo which must be dealt with on a daily basis. What to do? I’ve got it—not only will I apply for, and get, government grants, but I’ll get a bunch of limousine liberals and carbon neutral kooks to buy Green Tags from me to defray the costs of building a methane generator. I won’t owe them anything (beyond perhaps a “thanks, sucker”) and once my generator is operational, all my energy and cow poo removal cost savings can go straight to my bottom line.

    Or, say I’m a Native American (or anybody else for that matter) who wants to get into the wind farm business. I need start-up money. The trouble is, venture capitalists expect a return on their investments and lenders insist on being paid interest. What to do, what to do? I know—I’ll get a bunch of limousine liberals and carbon neutral kooks to buy Green Tags from me thus defraying the costs of owning and operating my turbines. Since they neither will expect nor receive consideration for their “investment” beyond the “associated environmental attributes”, all profits will accrue to me.

    Now say I’m a wealthy liberal who uses an inordinate amount of energy maintaining my desired lifestyle. However, I also have an image as a responsible and ardent environmentalist to foster. What to do? I know—I’ll buy a crapload of Green Tags from some alternate energy company (doesn’t really matter who or what’s being done with the money) and, presto, I’m “carbon neutral”. And if you ain’t carbon neutral you ain’t carbon cool.

    Now, is this a brillant, innovative, everybody-including-Mother-Gaia-wins way to bring much needed sources of alternative energy on line; or is it a scheme (wish I’d thought of it) to (1) channel cost-free capital to favored (ah, Mr. Gore, might I have a wee peek at your portfolio?) for-profit enterprises and (2) allow people like Al Gore and Barbra Streisand to continue to heat and cool their 10,000sf mansions and travel by private jet in good conscience and with impunity? Or is it both? Or does it even matter?

    Posted by Kyda Sylvester on 2006 06 24 at 09:47 PM • permalink

  37. The Earth has a fever and just like when your child has a fever . . .

    Gaia is sick, and I know just where to stick the enema.  Bend over Al . . .

    Posted by gajim on 2006 06 24 at 09:49 PM • permalink

  38. Crikey—that wasn’t me, but I’ll try to close it.

    Posted by Kyda Sylvester on 2006 06 24 at 09:54 PM • permalink

  39. Take a cold shower then take down this post.

    Only if you join me, Miranda. I need someone to loofah my DMZ.

    Posted by Dave S. on 2006 06 24 at 09:56 PM • permalink

  40. Well anyhoo, next up are the lost magical texts.  The Book of the Dead.  The Forbidden Incantations of the Watchers.  The Sumerian Verses of the Seraphim.  That kind of shit.
      (cringes)
    Then the demonology texts.
      (cringes)

    Cringe all you want, whiner, but you’re not getting my paperbacks.  I made that mistake with Harlan Ellison and Ace Books…

    Posted by richard mcenroe on 2006 06 24 at 10:03 PM • permalink

  41. Miranda you tool:
    global warming and climate change

    Which one is it then that we should be cacking our dacks about?

    Oh, I see “climate change” is the fallback position when you have several centres in Australia from Perth to south-west Victoria to south-east Queensland in the past month recording lowest temperatures on record.

    Now, what’s Father Christmas bringing you?

    Posted by slatts on 2006 06 24 at 10:18 PM • permalink

  42. Kyda, Gore has been pushing that carbon-neutral nonsense for a while now. It’s the ecofreak equivalent of getting a plenary indulgence from the Catholic Church: be as bad as you like, but give us money, and we’ll bless it and you’ll go straight to heaven. What a marvelous scam! I just wish I’d thought of it ...

    Posted by Urbs in Horto on 2006 06 24 at 10:21 PM • permalink

  43. The idea that a multimillionaire like Gore could come within a light-year of “carbon neutral” is profoundly hilarious.

    Posted by Dave S. on 2006 06 24 at 10:35 PM • permalink

  44. Wand, your link still doesn’t work, probably because of script conflict between that site and this site’s code (it rejects urls with weird characters like question marks and percent marks), but it was your bad italics that were cacking the page. I have that preview button there for a reason, people.

    Posted by Andrea Harris, Administrator on 2006 06 24 at 10:36 PM • permalink

  45. O/T Not the usual kind of whinge about blogs.  Some good points here, I thought:

    http://www.christianitytoday.com/bc/2006/003/17.36.html

    Posted by Inurbanus on 2006 06 24 at 10:36 PM • permalink

  46. These “carbon-neutral offsets” - where you make up for your use of fossil fuels by doing something to “offset” it, like donating money to solar power research - are going to be a source of high hilarity if they catch on. Imagine the Sierra Club issuing gold-star bumper stickers for every $100 you contribute.

    One star? Stick it on your Prius, you’re absolved.

    Three stars? Take that Volvo to Aspen with a clear conscience.

    Ten stars? Plenty of room on that Escalade, Mr. DiCaprio! Enjoy!

    Posted by Dave S. on 2006 06 24 at 10:43 PM • permalink

  47. It is beyond parody.  Someone has finally come up with a way to profit from making people feel guilty about the act of existing and breathing air.  Kenneth Lay, look and learn.


    What does this say about those who proudly stand up and announce they are buying their absolution?  What are we to make of such an admission?  Are we supposed to find this kind of a depraved self-evaluation, arrogantly confessed, virtuous?

    Posted by saltydog on 2006 06 24 at 11:38 PM • permalink

  48. OT—wronwright… I hate to be the one to break this to you…

    You know the monk with the squint and the mole on his left cheek? That isn’t a mole. That’s a tri-vee camera. You have been blundering about on the set of Soul Brothers, a reality-3V extravaganza sponsored by Ebery, Inc [“The Aircar with Style!”], in which ordinary 23rd-Century Oceanians get to experience early-medieval monastery life. Hilarity ensues… But I’m glad you mentioned it. Your CD player has been interfering with transmissions, and the producers asked me to hunt down the source. Saved me a bit of trouble, it did.

    If you want images of the rest of the documents, let me know and I’ll have the props department whip them up for you. We’ll have to check around to see if we still have anything old enough to write a .jpeg, but maybe the museum has a Photoshop 25 or something.

    And by all means please stay if you’re enjoying yourself. It makes a nice puzzle for the rest of the cast, who sometimes get bored with cultivating cabbages and meditating, and therefore a more interesting show. In fact, the producer has authorized me to offer you scale if you have a VAG card.

    Regards,
    Ric
    Barton, Wu Ling, and Ahmadi Global Technical Service
    Routine and Emergency Timespace Repairs & Maintenance
    3.324895.2652201.20220203.9407450038 (any time, messages accepted)

    Posted by Ric Locke on 2006 06 24 at 11:55 PM • permalink

  49. #42: It’s the ecofreak equivalent of getting a plenary indulgence from the Catholic Church: be as bad as you like, but give us money, and we’ll bless it and you’ll go straight to heaven. This is not the way plenary indulgences work at all. But if you would like to give money, send it to me and I will see that it gets a good home.

    Wronwright: Old fellow. You are not in the Vatican Library, you have stumbled into the Italian Communist Party’s Adult Bookshop. Had you come within a hundred yards of the Vatican Library, you would have been skewered on the pike staff of one of those comic opera Swiss Guards. I advise you to decamp immediately before you become addicted to red porn and become vulnerable to manipulation by the Left; Karl wants you sticking with good, wholesome, all-American porn.

    Posted by paco on 2006 06 25 at 12:03 AM • permalink

  50. The Earth:

    I gotta fever! and the only prescription…..is Gore cowbell!

    Posted by Quentin George on 2006 06 25 at 12:36 AM • permalink

  51. I can never remember, is it “nuke a cold, burn coal for a fever,” or “burn cold for a cold, nuke a fever”?

    Posted by bobpence on 2006 06 25 at 12:42 AM • permalink

  52. Paco — One of those comic-opera Swiss Guards actually took out a Nazi officer who tried to force his way into the Vatican during the German occupation of Rome.  Apparently someone forgot to tell him he was only ceremonial…

    Posted by richard mcenroe on 2006 06 25 at 12:55 AM • permalink

  53. Ahhh ya bunch of buggers and your cowbells. I should surf at work with more frequency so I could at least have been first.

    Posted by rbresca on 2006 06 25 at 03:39 AM • permalink

  54. 3 Dave S

    I see Al’s still talking to us like we’re fucking kindergarteners.

    Boy howdy.  Ever watched a 10-year-old lying to a five-year-old?  There’s Al. 

    18 Ricky McEvil

    So this would be an awkward time to mention that Dean’s kid was busted for burgling a loquor distributor?

    Now see, it’s people like you who cause all the trouble in the world. 

    25 Barrie

    Even Gaia’s creator has lost faith in these persons, and in Self-Restoring Gaia, of which we are just a part. 
    The loonies have the patent on humanising this big hunk of rock.

    You dare not rest until you’ve wrested it BACK FROM them.

    Posted by Huck Foley on 2006 06 25 at 08:17 AM • permalink

  55. Remember when lefties used to think clitoris-chopping, theocracy-promoting muslims were repulsive and Christian cults predicting the Rapture real soon now were crazy? It seems so long ago.

    Posted by Jim Geones on 2006 06 25 at 09:19 AM • permalink

  56. #45, interesting essay.  I, for one, don’t expect things to stay this way forever.

    Posted by RebeccaH on 2006 06 25 at 09:23 AM • permalink

  57. #52: They were armed with machine guns during WWII. Incidentally, my comment was only a reflection upon their traditional attire, not at all upon their courage and competence.

    Posted by paco on 2006 06 25 at 10:19 AM • permalink

  58. Paco — After that guy.  He actually soured the kraut with one of those huge old muskets, IIRC.  The version of the story I heard had him being shot while he was standing his ground and reloading.

    Posted by richard mcenroe on 2006 06 25 at 10:23 AM • permalink

  59. Inurbanus: an interesting essay, though he seems not to have noticed that a number of blogs control the comments of the idiots by instituting moderation and registration systems. Then again, it’s not always obvious, and lots of bloggers still inexplicably think that the “opinions” of morons are just as valuable as those of people who have troubled to think their comments through and don’t put any regulation on their commenting system whatsoever.

    In any case, his observations seem to dovetail with mine; I have long since come to the opinion that most of the news and other information we get in the form of communications from the mass of humanity on the tv, websites, and what-have-you, is not only useless to us but is actively destructive of social relations and society in general. In other words, people in the past before mass communication was widespread may have been insular and prejudiced, but now that we know what everyone thinks I don’t see that the insularity and prejudice have lessened one whit; instead we have just added disgust for our fellow man (and the consequent unhealthy regard for our wonderful selves) to the mix.

    Posted by Andrea Harris, Administrator on 2006 06 25 at 10:44 AM • permalink

  60. RebeccaH #56 What changes do you see?

    Andrea #59

    Do you think that this may be because the media, like society at large, has become more fractured, ethnically, socially, politically?  We talk only to our own kind and build walls and those who cater to us, out of deference to their market, cater more exclusively to our prejudices and reinforce them?

    Posted by Inurbanus on 2006 06 25 at 11:13 AM • permalink

  61. Kyda, the Tennessee Valley Authority is also offering carbon indulgences.

    Green Power Switch

    How much does Green Power Switch cost?
    Green Power Switch is sold to residential consumers in 150-kilowatt-hour blocks (about 12 percent of a typical household’s monthly energy use). Each block adds $4 to the customer’s monthly power bills. Consumers can buy as many blocks as they like.

    Posted by Some0Seppo on 2006 06 25 at 11:20 AM • permalink

  62. Jim Geones, I too miss the old days when Y2K was going to allow Clinton to impose martial law and send all the Christianist rednecks to concentration camps, so we had to lay in supplies of water and food and guns…now we have to lay in thsoe supplies for bird flu.  Or the imposition of Sharia.  Or a war with China.

    I kinda like this “Christianist” thang that wacky fellow, Andy Sullivan the Single-Issue Man, came up with.

    Posted by ushie on 2006 06 25 at 11:37 AM • permalink

  63. #58: Bravo, the Swiss Guards! They are, indeed, legendary for their courage. I recollect, incidentally, that they perished virtually to a man in defense of Louis XVI.

    Posted by paco on 2006 06 25 at 11:41 AM • permalink

  64. Inurbanus: I have no idea. The study of market forces bores me; in any case if you ask me the market seems to be aiming most of its products not at all individual groups but at a subset of the groups out there—mostly those who have the most money to pay. So most ads are aimed at young people with more money than sense, and older well-off upper-middle class people going through a midlife crisis and needing products to shore up the emptiness of their fading years. Oh, did I just write that? Substitute “who have plenty of leisure time and want to enjoy it” after “upper middle class people”.

    Posted by Andrea Harris, Administrator on 2006 06 25 at 11:50 AM • permalink

  65. I forgot to add, “and so is the media.” Except at least the ads don’t preach at us. Well, except for the pathetic “let’s all go to the cornfields” BP ads attempting to promote ethanol. Those commercials are stocked with Cute Young Things with trendy hair looking all Fresh and Vital and Concerned, running around with yellow t-shirts. It makes me want to run out and buy the biggest, most gas-burningest SUV on the market.

    Posted by Andrea Harris, Administrator on 2006 06 25 at 11:53 AM • permalink

  66. #32, On Futurama: Al Gore is a friend of the show. Horrible details here.

    Despite this, it’s really cool that Comedy Central ordered 13 new episodes.

    Posted by Brian O'Connell on 2006 06 25 at 12:13 PM • permalink

  67. At least, SomeOSeppo, those TVA customers are buying, and using, “green” power that has been generated by TVA green power projects and delivered to TVA’s grid. The rest of these yahoos continue to burn, with indulgent abandon, good old-fashioned fossil fuels. I think if my utility company offered such an option, I might take it.

    Posted by Kyda Sylvester on 2006 06 25 at 02:00 PM • permalink

  68. Beware the man who attempts to summarise enormously complex and barely-understood processes (the earth’s long term climatic cycles) with simple analogies (“the earth has a fever”).

    Such a man is almost certainly selling something.

    Posted by James Waterton on 2006 06 25 at 02:27 PM • permalink

  69. #60, I believe that we’re still in the infancy of what we know of as the internet.  In the future, given nanotechnology (OK, I’m an instadisciple), it will be so interactive as to be considered as real as “real life”.  Not a blank screen and a keyboard, but virtual interaction.  It will still be easy to withdraw into enclaves, if you like, but it won’t be as easy to throw out idiot opinions without having to back them up to somebody who’s virtually sitting in the room with you, and it won’t be as comfortable for slandering and insulting your opponent.  I also think it will be available with the touch of a button or the voicing of a keyword, and not dependent on lugging around a machine.  If that happens, there’s no telling what society will become.  It could be the next evolution of dissemination of information and the human mind, or it could be total chaos, but I’m betting on evolution.  Maybe this is just fantasy thinking on my part, but I believe it will happen ... just maybe not in my lifetime.

    Posted by RebeccaH on 2006 06 25 at 02:37 PM • permalink

  70. Okay, that was pretty chaotic itself, but my point is that in such a future, I don’t think it will be as easy for people like Al Gore to generate hysteria based on a cherry-picked construct of semi-facts.

    I’m going to go and see if I can relieve some of this hot air now.

    Posted by RebeccaH on 2006 06 25 at 02:40 PM • permalink

  71. “It was wonderful,” said Deborah Jeannette, a local kindergarten teacher. “Surely America, we’ve got the best minds and the brightest engineers, we can do better (by the environment).
    “I think (the film) is extraordinary. I wish Metro Schools would have this for all the children to see and the parents, too. I encourage everybody to come see it.”

    What do you say to that?  <bigalgore sigh>


    “Rachel Moxley of Nashville from staying to support Gore and his message.
    “He’s very courageous,” Moxley said. “We haven’t taken (the environment) seriously.”“

    What the hell is wrong with these people? In this country, do they not know what the difference is in air quality between now and 20 years ago?  Water quality?  How toxic waste is disposed of?  Trash dumps?  Idiots.

    Posted by jeff mccabe on 2006 06 25 at 03:17 PM • permalink

  72. #52, 57, 58, etc.—Is there a link for that?  It sounds like an interesting story.

    Posted by Achillea on 2006 06 25 at 04:18 PM • permalink

  73. What the hell is wrong with these people? In this country, do they not know what the difference is in air quality between now and 20 years ago?  Water quality?  How toxic waste is disposed of?  Trash dumps?  Idiots.

    Jeff, you seem surprised that these numbskulls do not have a memory of anything that happened before last week. That’s a requirement of being a lefty or a lefty dupe.

    Posted by Dave S. on 2006 06 25 at 04:22 PM • permalink

  74. The Swiss Guards may have been brave but they sure were stupid.

    Standing out front blocking the Germans while the Big Cheese was by the back gate hustling in the Croatian Jew-killers.

    And dying for Louis XVI is kinda dumb, too, wasn’t it?

    Posted by Harry Eagar on 2006 06 26 at 01:15 AM • permalink

  75. A rather cavalier cavil at true chevaliers, M. Eager.

    (note to self: do not engage M. Eager for any position of trust)

    Posted by MentalFloss on 2006 06 26 at 01:42 AM • permalink

  76. #75: Well put, Mental Floss; I can’t improve on that at all.

    Posted by paco on 2006 06 26 at 06:35 AM • permalink

  77. I second that, Mental Floss!

    Posted by ushie on 2006 06 26 at 11:14 AM • permalink

  78. 75 What he said!

    69 RebH

    it won’t be as easy to throw out idiot opinions without having to back them up to somebody who’s virtually sitting in the room with you, and it won’t be as comfortable for slandering and insulting your opponent.

    It won’t what!?  Wait!  Hell with THAT!  I already don’t like it.

    29
    Has Wronwright gone mad, and if so, only recently?
    Where did all these books come from? 
    If he’s got a high-output digital copier, and knowing him, he’s probably got the GOOD tv in there, and yeah… he’s probably got a degibbericizer; at least, I’ve seen him conversing with the monks.  HAW!  I’ve seen their monkish pantomime of that walk of his, too, but never mind that ... what’s he up to with all those books?
    Something bad, I’ll bet.  I’d better eavesdrop…

    I’ve set up the digital copiers in the scriptorium.  The monks are a bit shocked by the new technology and are asking questions.

    Ha!  Set the degibbricizer to 10th century Apennine monasterian Latin, and out comes

    I’ve set the thaumaturgic engines in the scriptorium.  MwaHaHa!  The monks are a bit shocked by this clear evidence of necromancy and are asking questions

    Hmm… let’s see if I can find a use for this tape… heh heh heh…

    Posted by Huck Foley on 2006 06 26 at 08:34 PM • permalink

  79. Yikes!
    Thank you Mr Tim.

    Posted by Huck Foley on 2006 06 26 at 08:36 PM • permalink

  80. Page 1 of 1 pages

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