COLLECTIVE MADNESS


“Soft despotism is a term coined by Alexis de Tocqueville describing the state into which a country overrun by "a network of small complicated rules" might degrade. Soft despotism is different from despotism (also called 'hard despotism') in the sense that it is not obvious to the people."

Monday, February 26, 2007

EB Primetime Tonight - Reporting Religion

The crowd looked on in adulation as "An Inconvenient Truth" was awarded an Oscar last night.

The entertainment industry loves the former Vice-President and current Environmental Evangelical. He was accorded "Rock Star Status" at the Grammy Awards and if his reception at the Academy Awards was any indication, he will soon have a Star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

It is said that after the 2000 election, the "broken man" went off into the wilderness for forty days and forty nights where he found spiritual direction and renewal. Now he is back with a message of hope, action and renewal. From center stage of the Kodak Theatre, Mr. Gore shared his message with the gathered multitude:
"My fellow Americans," Gore said. "People all over the world, we need to solve the climate crisis. It's not a political issue, it's a moral issue. We have everything we need to get started with the possible exception of the will to act. That's a renewable resource. Let's renew it."
It's not a political issue, it's a moral issue. So says the Chief Priest of the New Church of Environmental Redemption. Climate skeptics are sinners, huh? Well then, before the Green Blue Laws are passed, let's sin a little...

12 comments:

  1. He could easily be the Dems candidate in '08.

    Ms Clinton begins to fracture when Geffen mentions her husband. If Rudy is the GOP candidate, Marc Rich becomes fair game. Advantage Rudy.

    Obama has little chance of being the headliner. Not really.

    Al Gore, he won before.

    Has a bumber sticker ring to it.

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  3. DR said, Al Gore, he won before. Has a bumber sticker ring to it.

    Losing the electoral college has a big stigma attached. The last time someone lost the Presidential election but later went on to win the Presidency was Nixon, 1960, 1968, and you have to go back to the 1800's to find another case. Al Gore is too fuzzyheaded to repeat the Nixon trick.

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  4. Ahh, the only other President to win with a minority, John Q Adams, son of a President, John Adams.

    Now the opponent that came back to beat John A, the man from Tennessee, Old Jickory.

    Not a perfect analogy, but a story of American populism that rings true. Gore as the common man.

    Who else is there, for the Dems?
    Ms Clinton against Rudy, with Marc Rich thrown in the mix, to sweet to contemplate.

    Al Gore vs Rudy, now that would be a race worth watching.

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  5. Jan Bey twice found herself in the hospital emergency room, her throat constricted, unable to breathe. But her persistent sinus and breathing problems ended when she moved out of an old rental unit and into what is considered one of the greenest buildings in America.

    ...

    The green building movement expands on the 1970s solar-energy craze, when drastic oil shortages spurred interest in sun-powered homes and President Jimmy Carter installed solar panels on the White House (later removed by Ronald Reagan). More than a million young people stoked on hippie idealism went “back to the land,” homesteading in rural cabins, often without running water or electricity... and most soon abandoned the discomforts and headed back to where they came from, Eleanor Agnew writes in her book Back From the Land.

    ...

    Green construction often adds less than one percent to the cost of a conventional building, but the payoffs can include energy costs cut by one-third, says Gregory Kats, a principal with alternative energy advisors Capital E. Among buildings he’s studied, the typical payback is three to four years.


    Buildings that Breathe

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  6. In a disturbing trend, two chlorine trucks were detonated in major population centers over the past week in an attempt by insurgents to demonstrate a 'chemical' capability. A truck carrying chlorine gas was detonated at a gas station near Taji, killing five and sending 140 to hospital, while another was detonated in southwest Baghdad, killing five and wounding 75 in the resulting explosion.

    Coalition forces later discovered a chlorine bomb-making factory during a raid in Karma (near Fallujah).

    The uptick in mass-casualty suicide bombings and chemical attacks was not unexpected. The immediate objectives of al Qaeda in Iraq are to discredit the security operation and to incite
    Iraq's Shia militias--which had largely laid down their arms--to rejoin the fight.


    Roggio Report

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  7. sam - that story interested me as well.

    we previously discussed this kind of scenario at EB; in the context of influencing a change to more agressive ROEs

    this caught my attention today -

    Monday, February 26, 2007

    U.S. military banking on Turkey for Iran, Iraq access

    WASHINGTON — The U.S. military has sought to significantly expand operations at a key Turkish air base.

    Officials said the Defense Department has been negotiating for an increase in U.S. air operations at the Incirlik air force base in southern Turkey. They said Incirlik would be used for operations in northern Iraq as well as reconnaissance in neighboring Iran.

    "I wouldn't say that we have to [use] Incirlik to conduct operations in Iraq," U.S. Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. Michael Moseley said. "I would say we are honored to be able to operate from Incirlik with our NATO partners because it makes all operations easier and it maintains that strategic partnership that we all value so much."
    At a briefing on Feb. 20, Moseley said Incirlik has been a key asset for Central Command, Middle East Newsline reported. He said Incirlik could facilitate U.S. operations throughout the Middle East, Persian Gulf and South Asia.

    Previously...

    January 10, 2007
    (by Lieven Dewitte)
    Squadron of 16 US F-16s lands at Incirlik AB, Turkey

    After an absence of 3 years, sixteen US F-16 block 50s landed at Incirlik yesterday, reinforced also by an early warning system AWACS airplane,
    ...as well as tanker airplanes meant for mid-air fuel replenishing

    Twelve of the jets belong to the 22nd FS "Stingers", four from the 23 FS "Fighting Hawks". Both squadrons are part of the 52nd Fighter Wing at Spangdahlem AFB , Germany.

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  8. Wonder if Frum will bring the 12th imam along with him.

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  9. “You’re gonna run, right?” asks a worried farmer. “Don’t let us down.”

    “I won’t,” promises Giuliani.

    Then the former mayor of New York, standing in a California farm field surrounded by tractors and a two-story-tall thresher, pulls out a Sharpie, and signs a few more autographs.


    Rudy Tuesday

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  10. Elijah said, U.S. military banking on Turkey for Iran, Iraq access

    Apparently, even in the wake of the 4th ID debacle, the DoD never heard the adage, "Fool me once, shame on you, fool me twice, shame on me."

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  11. re: Turkey

    If anything, Turkey has become even more fundamentalist since its 2003 betrayal of the United States. But who's counting?

    I feel, therefore, it is.

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