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July 10, 2006
WB: An Inconvenient Al

Billmon:

In my darker moments, it sometimes seems as if the entire world is in the middle of a fierce backlash against the Age of Enlightenment, the Scientific Revolution and the ideological challenges they posed to the old belief systems. The forces of fundamentalism and obscurantism appear to be on the march everywhere – even as the moral and technological challenges posed by a global industrial civilization grow steadily more complex.

Climate change is only one of those challenges, and maybe not even the most urgent one – at the rate we’re going, civilization could collapse long before the Antarctic ice shelves do.

An Inconvenient Al

Posted by b on July 10, 2006 at 04:49 UTC | Permalink
Comments

So I see fauxreal took Moon of Alabama off her blogroll…
Geez, fauxreal Erleichda-lighten up!
On the mantlepiece, next to Kudra’s beloved silver teapot, a word had been written in the dust! Yes, someone using a fingertip as an implement, had plowed a graffito on the surface of the marble, where the dust lay thick as fur….The word was a transitive verb, an exclamation, a command, of which an exact English translation is impossible. The closest equivalent would be the phrase: ‘Lighten Up!’ Lighten up, indeed … Erleichda … lighten up!
From ‘Jitterbug Perfume’ by Tom Robbins
Is it not possible to agree to disagree, and move on to other things of merit? With out trashing the whole enchilada?
I for one respect your views on many things. We are all just people, ya know?
Come on I’ll buy ya a drink and we can dance on the bar… 😉

Posted by: Anonymous | Jul 12 2006 7:25 utc | 101

Al Gore my be playing the Adlai Stevens mime, looking to be “our” progressive canadate, or maybe not. But good grief Charlie Brown, would’nt the freepers love to listen in on this conversation, knowing how Lucy will pull the football back at just the right moment — and yank the national consciousness back to important things like “national security”, flag burning, and gay marriage. Least a politician like Al Gore dare to define, perhaps the most important issue (the enviroment) today, ahead of his possible canadacy — seeking to make that issue trump the others, in urgency. I suppose it has’nt occured to anyone (here yet) that out of a platform of enviromental activitism and necessity flows a natural raison de’tre for (corporate) re-regulation, a resurgence of analytical scientific rational, a re-thinking of foreign, and domestic cooperation and a de-bunking of the unilateral way. Hey, even if he’s not running, what he seems to be trying to do is to re-calibrate the national dialogue — in a way that progressives, are the natural beneficiaries. And givin the current dilemma, thats got to be worth something, if not a lot.

Posted by: anna missed | Jul 12 2006 7:58 utc | 102

fauxreal,
I apologize again if I caused trouble. The Internet is special to myself and many. The American people are going to be shortchanged, precisely because the Internet was never mandated (created/regulated) properly. It needs to be a utility with a Federal Program to bring optical fiber to us all. We don’t have 3 different sewer lines or telephone pole lines going by our house by 3 different corporate companies do we? Well that is what we got now with the Internet – a mess. The latest protocol has not been implemented yet.
This is serious, and previous U.S. administrations bear blame.
PS. your posts are always good and thoughtful. I wish I could write as well.
I’ll buy your drinks anytime you wish.
Again, sorry for all the posts (and yeah, I know some weren’t the most intellectual either – I got to quit this late night bar action…2nd night in a row of junky posts on my part.)

Posted by: Rick Happ | Jul 12 2006 8:09 utc | 103

@ Rick Happ
Gore told the audience how much he valued Chambers and one of the products Cisco produced. But he mispronounced “routers” as root-ers.
I am not sure where you are trying to go with this but I will tell you that it is pronounced in that way throughout Europe. Even in US English you have the choice of saying route and route(root) so therefore router or (rooter) are both correct. in response to the article I would have to say BFD…big effen deal.

Posted by: dan of steele | Jul 12 2006 8:57 utc | 104

The “created the internet” flap is so indicative. Gore clearly meant that he was instrumental in the legislation that created the Internet and that is 100% correct as even vin cerf agreed. The repukes created a theme that Gore was particularly dishonest and bolstered their theme with a variety of up front fabrications, distortions, and creative misinterpretations. This successful advertising campaign was happily swallowed by many, including the so-called progressives.
Hey Dove soap is actually milder, Al Gore is unusually dishonest for a politician, and Budweiser is both better tasting and less filling. This stuff WORKS, especially on people who think they are too smart to be affected by it.

Posted by: citizen k | Jul 12 2006 9:12 utc | 105

I was going to say something rude but instead I’m going somewhere else where my time won’t be wasted by this inane discussion.
I don’t know why or how but this is a complete waste of time.
Buh-bye.

Posted by: jonku | Jul 12 2006 9:28 utc | 106

just to reiterate, its not the man, but the idea. and this idea has legs.

Posted by: anna missed | Jul 12 2006 9:31 utc | 107

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