<p>Opie, I didn’t take it as a personal attack in any way. You laid out your position politely and clearly. Nothing wrong with that. I just happen to disagree. But please do know that I was an admirer and supporter of Mr. Gore from his Senate days, so I don’t have a personal animus against him. If guilty of anything, it would be that I am disappointed that he hasn’t held himself to a higher standard. His response to the charges make it pretty clear that what was reported is true.</p>
<p>“His response to the charges make it pretty clear that what was reported is true.”</p>
<p>Which ones are you seeing? What I’ve seen is about buying alternate energy blocks (wind, solar, etc) as part of his utility usage. Solar panels being installed on the home in question. All things that tell me he is trying to walk the walk. Now is he Ed Begly Jr. or my personal favorite Bill Nye the science guy? Nope not even close. Ed’s been a greenie for along time and Bill Nye, a northwest guy, is just cool and is into greening his life. </p>
<p>And you do probably like Gore more than I do. 
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<p>If a fat person begins to diet and change their ways… do we encourage or discourage the change? If they have a “blue moon” day do we call them a failure or liar? </p>
<p>I encourage his efforts to go green… his past is a reference point to compare his progress, has he processed? that’s all that matters. If he is using green energy to power even a portion of his home, when 10 years ago he maybe didn’t, is he a fake? </p>
<p>See where I’m getting? What is he doing now and in the future? The past is a benchmark to compare with.</p>
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<p>I’m not bashing Gore, I’m pointing out the hypocrites in Hollywood. </p>
<p>If one more highschool graduate or GED earner gets in front of Congress to talk about scientific issues, I’m going to puke! They obviously are good at learning their lines - watch ER or Grey’s Anatomy, just because they are spouting medical gobbledy gook doesn’t mean I want them to operate on me.</p>
<p>Brad Pitt said in an interview a few years ago when asked about his opinion on something, “Why are you asking me? I’m a guy who puts makeup on and reads someone else’s words.” </p>
<p>Now, he and Angelina are doing great things with their money, opening up clinics in impoverished areas, etc. I can respect that. But, Leonardo Decaprio speaking to me about global warming, like he has been trained as a climatologist is more than I can abide. He drives a prius - good for him…</p>
<p>Opie, I was referring to Mr. Gore’s spokesperson’s refusal to dispute the usage numbers because they’re taken from the public record. I finally figured out what’s bothering me about this (remember, this is my PERSONAL opinion, no one has to share it, but it is my opinion and I am entitled to hold it). The whole thing reminds me of Catholic dispensations and, as a Protestant, I find that whole concept icky. I think Mr. Gore should have been on the solar panel bandwagon and I do question the timing, knowing that this info would be coming out. Did everyone but me know that the stars at the Academy awards received coupons for offsets in their goodie bags?</p>
<p>Unlike Kermit the Frog, it’s easy being green when you’ve got millions like Al does. </p>
<p>Use as much energy as you want and just buy the carbon offsets! It’s really as simple as that. I don’t begrudge Al buying a 10,000 square foot house if he wants too. Go for it. </p>
<p>But it’s analagous to Bill Bennett writing the “Book of Virtues” and then admitting that he has a gambling problem. Your side loved that. Ted Haggard too when he not only admitted to committing adultery - but he did it with a guy!</p>
<p>Al is personally using an obscene amount of energy, yet he wants the little people to be driving around in hybrids. That’s why this is such a fun story. Hypocrisy on display.</p>
<p>“Hypocrisy on display”</p>
<p>So, will you show him, and move towards a more green lifestyle yourself? </p>
<p>Or is that another type of hypocrisy? </p>
<p>“he’s not really going green so I don’t have to.” </p>
<p>If anything, if it gets you “aha” folks to look at your own lifestyle and see where you can green it up, the message is successful. What do some of you critical folks do from your end to green up things? Maybe there’s a good idea or two you’d like to share.</p>
<p>
…not a bad idea…as long as the people on your side can make a commitment to not having adulterous same-sex affairs based on the lessons you should have learned from the Haggard fiasco–I mean when the laughing was over.</p>
<p>–deal?</p>
<p>FF–My problem with our current hypocrites is that I see Iraq as an extremely bad, irresponsible, dangerous, immoral, and unnecessary decision on the part of this administration. Not all wars are “created equal.” I had no problem with going after the Taliban in Afghanistan post 9/11 or with Bush I’s defense of Kuwait and oil sources in the first Gulf War. But when the guys in charge of the Iraq debacle started looking around for other worlds to conquer, it terrified me in every possible way. The fact that they themselves never put their own lives on the line is a relatively minor thing; but that combined with their apparent eagerness to launch an unjust war in which we’re now probably STUCK forever … I find extremely hypocritical. … As for John Edwards not serving in the military. He was born in 1953; his Vietnam draft lottery was in February of 1972. Nobody in the '72 lottery was called up. … As for Hillary Clinton and her non-military status. Who cares. She has supported the Iraq war and I wouldn’t vote for her if my life depended on it.
I will not defend FDR on WWII or failing to serve in WWI. He was, however, a very good president in other ways, as in helping millions of Americans up and out of the Depression.</p>
<p>If “the little people” should be driving around in hybrids, is Al Gore’s heating bill somehow relevant? Maybe I missed the logic lesson which explained what a true statement is made less true if the person who says it is fat or has a beard.</p>
<p>From my perspective, a politician being “green” means enacting (or “taking the initiative to create”, if you prefer) laws and programs which enable the other 300 million of us here in America to live comfortable lives without wasting as much energy and contributing less to global warming. Checking a box on a form that says that “your” electricity comes from windmills instead of coal doesn’t actually do anything for the environment. Putting money into transportation alternatives to SUV’s, implementing programs and policies which increase power production from non-carbon sources, etc. - you know, boring “governmental” work - actually accomplishes something.</p>
<p>Attacking individual spokespersons is a slimy, backhanded way of delegitimizing a valid issue. It’s why Cheney wanted to attack Joe Wilson through his wife: arguing that the Iraq WMD story was bogus wasn’t going to work, so you attack the messenger instead. And not straight on, by calling him a liar, but in a gutter-level attack “He was just sent on a junket by his wife.” Attacking the need to do something about global warming and other environmental issues by getting snarky about the size of Al Gore’s house is just plain dumb.</p>
<p>kluge, tell us what you really think ;)</p>
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<p>Kluge,
-no deal, eh?</p>
<p>As a conservative person, I don’t care what Al Gore does with his money. It’s none of my business, and I value the freedoms in this country that allow that. But for him to live the lifestyle he does while lecturing the rest of us to live a lifestyle with a smaller carbon footprint irritates me. How I live is none of his business, either. It reminds me of Marie Antoinette – he’s living high on the hog while the “little people” are supposed to turn down their thermostats and use fluorescent light bulbs.</p>
<p>Just for the record, as a frugal conservative we do use fluorescent light bulbs, turn off lights, keep the thermostat below 68 degrees and consolidate trips to save gas. That’s just the way we live because it makes sense to us. (besides, we have to pay for college somehow!) I just recent someone else telling me that that’s how I HAVE to live, especially when he doesn’t do it himself.</p>
<p>I guess I missed the part where Al Gore was telling you how you HAVE to live. I thought he was just spreading the word about what will happen if we don’t make major changes across the board, and what those changes would entail.</p>
<p>As a liberal person, I accept that there will always be more and less affluent people in our country - and that the more affluent will consume more, including more energy. That’s one of the rewards for being economically successful. The message is (I think) that we need to get moving in the direction where everyone uses less fossil fuels. That doesn’t mean that everyone has to shiver in the dark, or that everyone has to lower their consumption to some equal and arbitrary level. Just lower it across the board, though increased efficiency, conservation, and alternative energy sources. Which means a rich guy in a 20 bedroom mansion is still going to use more electricity than I am, but by installing solar panels, fluorescent lights, paying attention to insulation, etc., he’ll consume less fossil fuels than he would have otherwise.</p>
<p>It’s not really very complicated, unless you’re being distracted by people who want you to ignore the underlying problem, and focus on paparazzi-level “analysis” - i.e.: “Al Gore’s a big fat energy hog, so forget about what he has to say.”</p>
<p>P.S. I live in an affluent area of sunny Northern California. I know lots of people with five-figure annual utility bills - and they don’t have 20 Bedroom mansions, either.</p>
<p>"long as the people on your side "</p>
<p>I have a side? </p>
<p>“long as the people on your side can make a commitment to not having adulterous same-sex affairs based on the lessons you should have learned from the Haggard fiasco-”</p>
<p>I’m conflicted here… what if the affairs produce offset “green” energy? </p>
<p>Do I have gay sex or not? What if it’s good for the environment? </p>
<p>Any ideas on the enegry savings of same sex sexual relations?</p>
<p>“It’s why Cheney wanted to attack Joe Wilson through his wife:”</p>
<p>Well, that didn’t happen.</p>
<p>sjmom–As an extremely frugal liberal (with two in college next fall), I do pretty much the same things you do in order to conserve energy. Except that 68 degrees. You’re a brave woman. … Now I feel guilty. Maybe if I just bundle up in layers, I could deal with 68! Why does 68 feel so glorious outdoors yet so cold inside a house? … Seriously, I do think Al Gore has a good message to convey, even if he himself may not be as personally consistent with his advice as he could be. It sounds like you’re doing your part just as I am trying to do. … Even though I’m not good about the thermostat, I recycle like crazy. Do I get points for that?</p>
<p>point of clarification, Dot. Is an extra-marital affair adulterous if samesex? just seems like it should be considered differently. you know how when you put the AA batteries inside those little chambers and you have to squint to see where to load the ‘x’ and where to load the ‘y’ and if it doesn’t match, the flashlight or gamecontroller or whatever just won’t perform the function for which it was designed, but each battery has an ‘+’ at one end and a ‘-’ at the other, or is that a chromosome, I’m all confused. Just seems awful to punish someone for cheating on a wife with a husband. can you clarify the morality here?</p>
<p>“How I live is none of his business, either.”</p>
<p>I guess it would be a yes/no if we change his to anybody’s… </p>
<p>Yes, it’s nobody’s business to concern themselves with your personal/private life. What you do in your privacy is and should be private. However, let’s say you or your neighbor decides to burn old rubber tires in the backyard. SMOKE and toxins fill the air… Do they stay on the property or go elsewhere? You’re a dairy farmer and your poo lagoon is next to a creek that flows through the city park. Everyso often, your poo pond overflows into the creek, raising ecoli bateria levels in the creek, which kids wade in in the city park to extremely hazardous levels, are you responsible to others for how you live? </p>
<p>"Just for the record, as a frugal conservative we do use fluorescent light bulbs, turn off lights, keep the thermostat below 68 degrees and consolidate trips to save gas. That’s just the way we live because it makes sense to us. "</p>
<p>Fantastic!!! I commend you. However brethren on both sides of the political parties, don’t. So a documentary like this one at least gets people to think and review their own situations. Even you’ve reviewed yours and realized “hey, what I’m doing makes sense.” cool. </p>
<p>“I just recent someone else telling me that that’s how I HAVE to live, especially when he doesn’t do it himself.”</p>
<p>I don’t think he was saying you have to live a certain way. I think he was pointing out how a certain lifestyle would benefit the environment. You looked at yours and went “hey! I’m doing more than you.” Again cool. </p>
<p>It’s fine that his message seems stupid or offensive to you becuase you are doing something. The question remains how many aren’t? Should the message end because some people get it? or should it continue so more people get it?</p>
<p>“I just recent someone else telling me that that’s how I HAVE to live, especially when he doesn’t do it himself.”</p>
<p>This reminds me of my dear brother telling me how to raise my children when he didn’t have any of his own… yet. Now I just sit back and grin.</p>
<p>hindoo, I have my house set to 56 degrees. yes 56. but more for saving the buck than the earth. we like to huddle round the ole wood stove and rub our hands together and it’s a huge house that to heat to your comfort standard would keep 100 al gores in hardtack, tobacco and whiskey for 1000 years. and those are statistics you can take to the worldbank.</p>
<p>We have a five figure energy bill and don’t keep the heat anywhere near as high as 68. Or live in a McMansion.</p>
<p>We do all of the things SJ does, including the low watt lightbulbs (hubby proudly told me the other day that we will save several hundred dollars a year with those…woohoo!), driving less frequently (we only recently even purchased a second car, since H took public transport). </p>
<p>I think the point is that <em>everyone</em> has to do his/her part. Gore too. While there would be no political will to enforce higher taxes for drivers of big honkin’ Suburbans or Hummers, it should behoove people to think about the function or need of such a vehicle to drive around their one or two kids. </p>
<p>But as long as there is plentiful money for gas, and no sorts of limits on overconsumers, I am certain there will be those who consume double, triple, quadruple…more…what others do. It’s the American way!</p>