Last night, Al Gore's global-warming documentary, An Inconvenient Truth, collected an Oscar for best documentary feature, but the Tennessee Center for Policy Research has found that Gore deserves a gold statue for hypocrisy.
Gore's mansion, located in the posh Belle Meade area of Nashville, consumes more electricity every month than the average American household uses in an entire year, according to the Nashville Electric Service (NES).
. . .
Gore's extravagant energy use does not stop at his electric bill. Natural gas bills for Gore's mansion and guest house averaged $1,080 per month last year.
A real journalist would love this story; a leftwing activist would hate it. (For links to some examples of that hate, see this post.) If either newspaper publishes it, we can conclude that they still have at least one real journalist; if they don't, well, you can draw your own conclusion.
(A great journalist would publish the story — and include this information about a house in Crawford, Texas.)
Update: Had to close this post because several comments had gone too far. (And I'll be deleting some later.) I don't have time this afternoon to police the comments to this post..
Posted by Jim Miller at February 27, 2007 07:25 AM | Email ThisLook most of the readers here (including me) will NOT voluntarily change so WE have to be cajoled and bribed and see personal economic advantage in changing our ways.
The issue is one of large social readjustment and NOT one of personal virtue. As Bucky Fuller said, "Reform the environment, not the individual."
Posted by: David Sucher on February 27, 2007 07:38 AMWant to make people stop cutting trees, invent the "endangered" spotted owl; want to make people "get out of their cars", stop building roads and create light rail; want socialism, create another victim class to "share the wealth".
Gore is irrelevant, it is where he gets his message and why he gives his message that is. This group wants the USA to stop manufacturing--to allow China, India, etc, to catch up so we are all "equal".
Over 17,000 scientist say man is not the major cause of Global Warming--it is animals, swamps and the sun! By creating a problem, a few more democrats get richer while the rest of us stop charging our cell phones when completed and drive electric cars that get 20 miles per overnight charge.
After all this is the "Democratic" way! (Grin)
Posted by: Ken E. on February 27, 2007 08:07 AMGo to this website if you are not afraid to read papers and real science that might persuade you with facts, instead of allowing politicians to force you to accept emotional pleas to a crisis.
Posted by: Jeff B. on February 27, 2007 08:15 AMAnd the Oscars and Hollywood really sold themselves down the river in awarding that Oscar. It was supposed to be for a nonfiction documentary that even the Gore admits is a little ambitious with the truth (i.e. it is more fiction than non-fiction).
Posted by: swatter on February 27, 2007 08:16 AMThose "credits" are not available to ordinary homeowners, only industries with active pollution permits. What you end up doing is paying money to a "broker" who goes out and buys credits that are traded in a kind of credits market by industries that produce environmental pollution. And they are very costly, probably only within reach of wealthy individuals.
Posted by: Interested Observer on February 27, 2007 08:35 AMhere's a review from National Review
God's Gift to Man
ROGER KIMBALL
In 1988, the British historian Paul Johnson published a slim volume called Intellectuals. What is an intellectual? Johnson defined the beast as "someone who thinks ideas are more important than people," and proceeded to take readers on an entertaining, though decidedly unedifying, tour of typical intellectuals from Shelley and Karl Marx to Bertrand Russell and D. H. Lawrence. My, what an unlovely tribe! Self-absorbed, hypocritical louts, most of them, infatuated above all with the thought of their own higher virtue.
(Remainder of comment deleted so as not to infringe on a copyright. -Jim Miller)
Posted by: JDH on February 27, 2007 08:39 AMI'll follow the advice that I gave in that post: Thank you, Mr. Sucher, for tacitly conceding my point.
Now back to the questions posed in the post: Should the Times and PI publish this article? And, if they don't, what does that say about their editorial standards?
(By the way, I would appreciate it if Sucher would email me, privately, and tell me whether he used tha old trick to try to derail a discussion deliberately. If it wasn't deliberate, then he owes us an apology.)
Posted by: Jim Miller on February 27, 2007 08:46 AM"The best sermon is a good example." BF- Poor Richards Almanac
Posted by: Andy on February 27, 2007 08:49 AMThey don't believe in global warming, but you want everyone else to. Why should I?
Posted by: Orrin Johnson on February 27, 2007 08:53 AMMust be those 2 Rovers we sent.
Or, could it be the sun?
Posted by: Keb on February 27, 2007 08:59 AMCome on dave, this is your number one Earth guy.
Speak up david. Tell us how Al Bore is going to save us again. LOL
Should he do a movie on his own house!
The Global Warmers have their own form of indulgences which they like to call "Carbon Credits". Mr Gore, and other high polluters, can simply pay/donate to organizations that support their cause. Then they can claim that they do more good than bad.
Posted by: Seabecker on February 27, 2007 09:16 AMYes even I have my evil side.
Posted by: Army Medic/Vet on February 27, 2007 09:20 AMAllow me to summarize: "I have enough money to make other people live with even LESS than zero net carbon output. I hate the greedy elitists who try to buy their way out of guilt, unless those people are me, and then they're noble oracles of disaster. Besides, I'm, like, really important. I NEED two mansions, and once I'm living with the resources I need, then my guilt is assuaged. Don't believe me? Doesn't matter - I have an Oscar that proves I'm right!"
Posted by: Orrin Johnson on February 27, 2007 09:31 AMDo as I say, not as I do.
Typical.
Yep that's how to become a DEM. It's never YOUR fault.
Posted by: Army Medic/Vet on February 27, 2007 09:44 AMThe result was the most disastrous crop in the history of Russia, nearly wiping out millions due to famine.
Al Gore and his poli-scientists are a very sick bunch of people, and their media manipulation for personal gain is reprehensible.
I implore people to read and find the facts...in the real scientific press.
No it's not. Gore goes around preaching that everyone else change their "evil" ways, and yet his are far worse than most. He flies around on private jets, probably gets chauffeured around in limos and SUVs, and lives in a giant mansion that uses more energy in one month than most use in a year... and tells everyone else to change their ways when they aren't nearly as bad as him. It makes you wonder how serious he really is about the cause he's championing. If he isn't that serious about changing his own ways... are things really as bad as he makes them out to be?
Posted by: Mike H on February 27, 2007 09:49 AMThis was the second fictional propaganda "documentary" that has won recently - Fahrenheit 9/11 being the other one. Seems like a trend - create a piece of fiction with the political topic du jour in Hollywood and film it like a documentary, win an Oscar.
As for Gore, he's a typical liberal elitist. Do as I say not as I do (unless you can afford to buy expensive "carbon credits" like me, then you can do whatever you want). No, thanks.
We conserve and recycle because we want to, not because Gore tells us to. But, as with anyone with kids can attest, we're not trading in our SUV for a Prius anytime soon. Deal with it.
Posted by: Palouse on February 27, 2007 09:53 AMThese hypocrits don't realize that it's going to take nothing short of renouncing all of their material wealth and living in a hut to bring them inline with their nilhilist ideology.
Posted by: Jeff B. on February 27, 2007 10:58 AMWhat needs to be widely discussed here is how many secular progressives opposing school choice are sending their kids to private schools? Whose relatives and political payoffs are on the public payroll and in top union slots? How much viaduct/tunnel money will be channeled to top contibutors? How much money channeled from secular progressives like Soros/Lewis is funneled to Sharpton/Jackson to support their lifestyles?
Al Gore, like Leona Helmsley, thinks rules are only for the little people. Many secular progressives feel the same way about those they term as "flyover America."
Posted by: WVH on February 27, 2007 11:06 AMGeo Thermal power is a neglected renewable power source that needs to be encouraged. Nevada and Utah have many geo thermal possibilities that need to be tapped.
Posted by: Marge on February 27, 2007 11:12 AMSo typical.
Posted by: Michele on February 27, 2007 11:27 AMI would officially classify all this talk regarding Al Gore's lifestyle as "Much Ado About Nothing".
The environmental movement is bigger than one person, even someone as distinguished as Al Gore.
If you want to criticize Al Gore, you are allowed to do so.
Posted by: David Mathews on February 27, 2007 11:38 AMThank you for permission to criticize the obvious. How is the air conditioning, electric lights, web access and all the other modern conveniences in your world? How quaint that you enjoy this modern society. I would have thought you would want to live by candle light in a cave in the 13th century with bin asshole and the Isalmofacists you admire.
Posted by: WVH on February 27, 2007 11:43 AMI feel so much better now that David Matthews has given us permission to criticize Algore.
Posted by: Mike H on February 27, 2007 11:47 AMGood. Then I will go about doing whatever the hell I want, and continue to ignore Al Gore. I mean, if the so-called 'leader' of this movement can do what he wants, then why not me?
That sound about right?
Al's no different than you, David. You preach, castigate and berate people for not doing what you think they should do ... and then turn around and do whatever the hell you want yourself.
Turn off your computer, David. You're wasting precious energy and are hastening the demise of the human race. Especially those violent Christians.
Posted by: jimg on February 27, 2007 11:49 AMSo typical.
Posted by: Michele on February 27, 2007 11:53 AM> Then I will go about doing whatever the hell I want, and continue to ignore Al Gore. I mean, if the so-called 'leader' of this movement can do what he wants, then why not me?
Undoubtedly, Jim, you are inclined to do whatever the hell you want regardless of Al Gore's lifestyle.
This is the reason why Homo sapiens are in an utterly hopeless condition. Humankind has become addicted to a whole set of unhealthy activities and nothing whatsoever is going to break these addictions until Nature herself begins depriving humankind of the resources that make this lifestyle possible.
The United States of America is behaving very much like the Ferrari driving so well at 190 mph that the driver fails to notice the brick wall straight ahead. You see, no matter how well built a Ferrari the brick wall will stop it, and once the brick wall has stopped the Ferrari it ain't going to drive ever again.
The Ferrari is America's economy. The 190 mph is the great engine of economic growth. The brick wall is the unmoveable force of resource depletion/environmental degradation.
The United States of America will collapse and all of these things will come to an end. Americans will have no choice except to abandon their addictions. Americans will become impoverished, too, and the scale of suffering will vastly exceed all of the horrors of the 20th century.
Enjoy the good life while it is still possible. The United States of America is going to experience its own apocalypse and then Americans will have an entirely new lifestyle and new values to accompany the ner reality of extreme poverty and deprivement.
The Goracle is bigger than one person.
If you want to criticize Al Gore, you are allowed to do so.
Guess we can get rid of the 1st Amendment, we have DM's permission to speak.
Posted by: Obi-Wan on February 27, 2007 12:09 PMYou can hope for wealth, JDH, if you wish. But the prospects of Americans becoming wealthy in the future have dimmed considerably, and they will continue to diminish with each passing day.
You can hope for wealth but you ought to plan for poverty.
Posted by: David Mathews on February 27, 2007 12:37 PMTalk about delusional. The leftie blogs do nothing but come up with baseless smears about the President and various members of the cabinet not to mention whatever talk radio hosts they hate, any op ed journalists like Mark Styn, any Hollywood actor/actress who has the temerity to say something conservative for a change, etc.. And they are generally quite adept at including foul langage in just about every sentence as well. Far cry from the typical blogging of the right.
Posted by: ferrous on February 27, 2007 12:50 PM(Of course, it probably has something to do with utility monopolies, and governments allowing this to go on.)
Posted by: Ted S on February 27, 2007 12:53 PMYep the rules are good for me, but not dave.
Pound sand Dave. The light is shinning on you and AL Bore. LOL
Put up or shut the hell up.
Posted by: Army Medic/Vet on February 27, 2007 01:00 PMGore is a very public figure and has spoken on how us peons should live our lives. Are you of the secular progressive moral relativist school who says that public figures should not have their pronuncements examined to see how the accord with how their lives are being lived?
Many anti school choice people send their kids to elite private schools and the argument is and has always been that it is a personal choice.
My argument with many of the deconstructionist types is the form is always more important than the substance. It doesn't matter that Gore is a hypocrite, it only matters that his energy bills were made public. Most of us peons do not take high profile positions on GW and are not leaders in that movement. Gore is.
Posted by: WVH on February 27, 2007 01:06 PM
Care to explain dave?
Thanks Michele.
Dave don't go away mad just go ( heck you know the rest)
Posted by: Army Medic/Vet on February 27, 2007 01:17 PM> Now isn't it a bit odd. david says pay no mind to Al Bore and his power use, yet if I drive my SUV which I need in my job. Dave has a fit and I'm killing his world.
> Care to explain dave?
I have not suggested at any point in this discussion that Al Gore is above criticism. What I am suggesting is that criticism of Al Gore's lifestyle does not constitute refutation of the environmental cause, nor does it minimize the threat of global warming.
As to your SUV: The collective actions of 300 million Americans are a great deal more harmful than the sins of Al Gore.
I am not going to get caught up in people. If you want to criticize Al Gore, I invite you to do so.
I certainly do not disagree with your criticism of Al Gore. Al Gore is a millionaire who lives a millionaire's lifestyle. He should stop, but whether he does or not the American problem still remains.
Posted by: David Mathews on February 27, 2007 01:27 PM> The rest of the nation is not going to see the paper print that type of story about Agore ...
Now you are speaking in an absurd manner, PC. Al Gore's electrical bill has received nationwide attention. But this is not a front-page story.
Al Gore is a sinner. Why should this news astonish anyone? We are all sinners.
The pollution problem is a national and global problem. It is bigger than Al Gore. We are all involved in this sin.
Posted by: David Mathews on February 27, 2007 01:31 PM(Remainder of comment deleted so as not to infringe on a copyright. -Jim Miller)
Do you even have any idea how much fuel a jet burns by AL Bore and his gang of Hollywood green fools? Shall we talk about their HUGE houses built on the beach that they try to make dang sure NO-one enjoys the shore line except them. Even though the laws says they cannot.
As we all have said, it's ok for you and your type to tell us how to live but not yourself.
You've been outted dave.
Go to some Watermellon site that loves you. LOL
Green Bigots International
by Thomas Sowell (December 16, 2004)
First they destroyed the gasoline station, so that you have to drive miles out of your way to get gas. Then they destroyed a parking lot. Now they want to destroy a dam and a reservoir that supplies more than 2 million people with water.
(Remainder of comment deleted so as not to infringe on a copyright. -Jim Miller)
Posted by: JDH on February 27, 2007 01:36 PMOh really, you do realize that his energy use was 24 times that of the average household? I think that the numbers are against you DM.
Posted by: TrueSoldier on February 27, 2007 01:37 PMSweet - imagine Jesus giving the sermon on the mount while smoking a joint, listening to gangsta rap and beating a 'ho...
Posted by: thecomputerguy on February 27, 2007 01:42 PMBono, Who Preaches Charity, Profits From Buyouts, Tax Breaks
By Richard Tomlinson and Fergal O'Brien
Jan. 26 (Bloomberg) -- During the final concert of U2's world tour on Dec. 9, Bono, the Irish rock band's lead singer, launched into ``One,'' a song about a love affair gone sour. ``Did I disappoint you or leave a bad taste in your mouth?'' he sang to 47,000 U2 fans at Aloha Stadium in Honolulu.
(Remainder of comment deleted so as not to infringe on a copyright. -Jim Miller)
Posted by: JDH on February 27, 2007 01:44 PMRemember his Chevy SUV when asked why he was driving it and not a small eco car. O-it's my wife.
Posted by: Army Medic/Vet on February 27, 2007 01:44 PMI bet she's whipping slaves.
I heard she asked Barak Obama to park her car on a recent capitol hill visit. She told him that if he scratched it, she'd have him reassigned to a banana boat in Guinea-Bissau.
Posted by: Rey Smith on February 27, 2007 01:50 PMChicken. LOL
Posted by: Army Medic/Vet on February 27, 2007 01:54 PMI see that this discussion has degenerated a great deal. You people are talking a lot but saying very little.
Rey Smith really does hit a low point in his egregious racism:
> I heard she asked Barak Obama to park her car on a recent capitol hill visit. She told him that if he scratched it, she'd have him reassigned to a banana boat in Guinea-Bissau.
Racism is a honored trait among conservatives, isn't it? Bigotry is a small thing among people who would rather not think about the consequences of their actions.
Don't you know that George W. Bush has murdered more civilians than Osama Bin Laden?
George W. Bush has also violated the constitution, authorized torture, and generally speaking behaved as a pawn of the oil corporations.
George W. Bush's sins are greater than Al Gore's and John Kerry's combined. George W. Bush has created a tinder box in the Middle East and it is poised to explode at any moment.
Do you know what is going to happen to the price of gasoline once bombs start falling upon Tehran?
Not that any of these things matter to you. You love your racism, your love your obesity, you love your addiction to consumerism, and you love your pollution.
The United States of America is poised to suffer collapse and you obsess over Al Gore as if he really matters. 3,161 soldiers have returned from Iraq in body bags but you don't seem to mind.
I have already said that Al Gore is worthy of criticism. But Al Gore's sins don't serve to justify America's gluttonous morbid obesity.
Posted by: David Mathews on February 27, 2007 02:31 PMIt's fine to post a link, and a paragraph or two (except for poetry, where the rules are stiffer), but let's respect other people's property and not post whole articles.
(If you don't know how to insert links, it's actually quite easy. Here's the basic pattern, except that you would use the angle brackets above the comma and period instead of parentheses:
(a href="URL")article name(/a)
For example:
(a href="http://www.seanet.com/~jimxc/Politics/February2007_4.html#jrm4915")Direct Instruction(/a)
Just don't forget the closing (/a) and check with preview before posting.
For all except the shortest URLs, I use my browser to copy and then paste the URL into place. Typically, you can do both with right click menus. Or, most operating systems let you copy and paste with the Ctrl/c and Ctrl/v key combinations.
Posted by: Jim Miller on February 27, 2007 02:37 PM