Al Gore’s purchase of a near nine million dollar Montecito mansion with an almost comical carbon footprint (nine bathrooms!) probably means that he has given up on the global warming movement and decided to become a Hollywood producer (not that he ever made much of a distinction between two).
Montecito is where the creme of the Hollywood creme go when Beverly Hills gets too crowded and nouveau riche. Among others, Michael Douglas, Kevin Costner, Christopher Lloyd, Dennis Franz and Oprah have homes there – and they don’t even have Nobel Prizes. (Douglas and Costner do have Oscars though.)
No word on whether Al is giving up his Nashville manse… or his houseboat. This is turning into opera bouffe. But Al always was a man of appetites. If, as La Rochefoucauld famously said, “hypocrisy is a sort of homage that vice pays to virtue,” then Al is paying more homage on the environment than all the sinners combined paid to all the medieval Popes for all their perversions, real or imagined.
Well, maybe not quite that much, but Al is not alone and we could go down a long list of rich enviro-phonies who, added up, would easily reverse AGW, assuming you believe it. But I have a different suspicion. Most of them don’t believe it anymore. They won’t admit that, of course. But Lindsey Graham’s withdrawal from the latest iteration of cap-and-trade is just a signal of what’s ahead. Get out while the getting is good. And make sure you get out the side door, if possible.
And for Al that means forgetting how things look anymore – not that he ever seemed to care that much in the first place – and cashing in. After all, his buddy Richard Sandor – one of the more, shall we say, complex figures of our time – has just sold his controlling interest in the Chicago Climate Exchange (CCX) for 606 million. According to the Chicago Sun-Times: Sandor will sell his 17 percent stake. ICE, which already owns 4.8 percent of Climate Exchange, said other large shareholders also have agreed to sell.
Does that include Al Gore? Don’t know. Via Glenn Beck, a number of interesting figures are involved in CCX. In any case, Al has ponied up nine million (or some down payment thereof), not to mention whatever expenditure for all the “green” retrofitting he plans to do (at some point), on his new Italian mansion by the ocean. But who can blame Al? No offense meant to my Tennessee friends, but Montecito is paradise. Perfect weather, stunning views of the dolphins – and no humidity.
UPDATED: It has been reported that CCX is a LLC registered on the Isle of Man, a noted tax haven. If this is true, Sandor’s 606 million was tax free – as would be any profits made by our former Vice President. This would make CCX one of the great rip-offs of all time. If there is anyone out there who can confirm this, please do so via “News Tips for PJM.” Anonymity will be respected.
Evidence of Isle of Man registration here.
The WSJ has a report of the sale of CCX here.
MORE: One of the remaining questions is why ICE decided to buy CCX for six hundred and some million. Was this a fire sale price? It would seem so, but I don’t have the expertise to say so definitively. Perhaps some reader does. ICE seems to have a monopoly on European carbon exchanges, which have evidently become a cesspool of corruption.
Incidentally, PJTV and PJM will be covering the Heartland Institute’s 4th International Conference on Climate Change, May 16-18 in Chicago. We will be looking into the affairs of the Chicago Climate Exchange at that time.
AND MORE: This may be the new Montecito Gore digs. (Awaiting confirmation)
If Al Gore was any slimier he would slide uphill in a light breeze.
If Al Gore was any slimier his head would catch up with his burger-binging belt-line.
I know you are waiting confirmation as to the house in Montecito. Call the real estate agent to ask him if this is the house Al Gore purchased.
http://phototoursidx.com/sb/details.php?mlsid=20081105202049463483000000&index=48&propClass=Res&cid=7
Time to trot out Al Gore again to kick around. Haven’t brought him up in a while. OK, easy laughs. But let’s look at what’s happening in the Gulf right now. How about talking about ways to break our dependancy on fossil fuels? We’re fighting wars over this. We’re destroying our beautiful, productive coastlines. Many countries are developing new technologies, leaving us in the dust. Any constructive ideas?
Please address this, kind sir/madame:
http://pajamasmedia.com/blog/environmentalists-prevent-cleaner-power-plant-construction/
Al Gore is pond scum. Agreed.
Now what?
Here’s a number you need to keep in mind: 3 Terawatts. That’s about how much power we’re using in the country right now. If that were used for 100W incandescent bulbs you’d need 30 billion bulbs. There’s no way renewable energy is going to come close to that. That would require over 2 billion square meters of 100% efficient solar panels, that’s about the same area as all the land in Rhode Island (real solar panels are about 25% efficient so you’d need to pave Delaware’s land as well). And of course solar panels don’t do too well at night, so you’d need to at least double that area, that brings us to the land area of Hawaii, plus you’d need a way to store around 40 TWh’s which simply doesn’t exist. And all that ignores factors such as clouds, dirt, animals, etc.
So what about wind? The most powerful wind turbine today is ~7 MW, so we’d need around 500,000 of them. They have a rotor diameter of 126m, so they’d have to be at least 65m apart. That means they’d take up 6 billion square meters, about the same as all of Delaware. I can’t imagine it would be good for anything flying. Now this is the peak power, so we’d have to factor in all the time that the wind isn’t blowing hard enough, or when it’s blowing too hard. Again we need a storage system for mind-boggling amounts of energy. Also, has anyone looked at the climatological effects of taking 3TW of convective energy out of the atmosphere?
Both solar and wind suffer from a fatal flaw: They can’t be controlled. Grid operators can’t dial supply up (we can somewhat do down) to meet demand, and when you’re talking about the electric grid either you balance it or it balances itself…usually in some exciting manner.
Hydro’s pretty much tapped out in the country, not to mention ecomentalists flip their shit whenever someone mentions building dams. Same thing with geothermal, unless we want to start drilling in Yellowstone.
Nuclear could do it, but whenever you mention it the ecomentalists set a record in going from zero to stupid.
That leaves fossil fuels. There’s nothing else. Especially when it comes to moving stuff. We have nothing that comes close to the power density of hydrocarbons when it comes to mobile applications, and hydrocarbons are the only energy source that’s suitable for mobile applications. Everything else (e.g. hydrogen and ethanol) are just ways to make electricity mobile.
You want an alternative to fossil fuels. I want to motorboat Scarlett Johansson. It’s good to want things, keeps us hungry.
Correct. Most people haven’t a clue as to how the national power grid works. We have the best electric power delivery system on the planet and right now it is humming along just fine. That won’t be the case if the science challenged green nutjobs have their way.
Sweet bacon wrapped ham at a Bar Mitzvah, I kneel before the might of your mathiness.
I knew this stuff was rubbish but I never saw a mathematical illustration of how little power they generate.
“That leaves fossil fuels. There’s nothing else.”
Actually, there are other alternatives. You mentioned nuclear, of course, and I reject the environmentalists’ rejection of it as an alternative
Other alternatives? We can dramatically reduce the energy demands of all humans by eliminating such things as computers, TVs, refrigerators, cars, airplanes, and the like.
Another alternative: dramatically reduce the size and impact of humankind, by such things as mandatory birth control, forced sterilization, one-child-per-couple policies, or genocide.
The more I listen to the scope of the arguments of the most forceful environmentalists, the more I’m convinced they actually secretly advocate the latter two alternatives as sound policy.
I would love to see an expansion of nuclear power. For one thing it would mean I could make obscene amounts of money as an operator. For another it’s the perfect solution to this country’s electricity needs: Dense, controllable, and with a proper reprocessing chain able to supply our needs for centuries without imports.
I admit that I made a major oversight in my analysis by rejecting those solutions that would kill people. Mea Culpa. In all seriousness the modern environmental (emphasis on the mental) movement is the philosophical child of the Luddites. People who can’t hack the modern world and would rather kill people than admit their inadequacies.
Precisely my point for years! In the 1970′s, I recall a radio program in which an environmentalist stated that the only way the earth could be saved was to eliminate people and then proceeded to advocate it. You first, buddy.
Liberals break their arms patting themselves on the back for their intellectual superiority (meh) and yet they offer no solutions of their own. A two year-old can say ‘no’.
Excellent post, and so very correct. BTW, any wind generating equipment will be manufactured in China. As to solar energy, we have a very long way to go before getting more bang for the buck.
The answer now is clean coal electrical plants and/or nuclear generating plants. more drilling is also needed. However, with the current incident in the gulf, maybe we need to use US manufactured oil rigs. They do seem to be better.
My response is based on being around the oil industry for more than ten years. Which prompts the question why the automatic shutoff did not function.
Where do you find these 25% efficient solar panels? The commercial grade ones that I’m familiar with are closer to 5 to 10% efficient. And that’s only when they are brand new and with the glass clean and unscratched. The collector itself degrades over time.
Well, moderato, assuming you’re really interested in an answer, I don’t think we can possibly break our dependence on fossil fuels for many years to come – so, even though horrible things will happen such as the GUlf disaster, I think it’s better to depend on our own fossil fuels as much as possible. So we should drill. Naturally, I also favor research and development on alternative energies, (I happen to drive a Prius, in case you haven’t read my posts on the subject). I support subsidies and, most of all, tax incentives in this area. And, perhaps the most of all, I believe we should go heavily into nuclear the way the French and Japanese have. These smaller plants just coming on line seem promising.
As for Mr. Gore, I think is not an environmentalist at all. He is a self-promoting pompous ass and deserves to be skewered. He is not, in any sense “a friend of the Earth.” His blind promotion of AGW without having the scientific background to examine his sources has ended up a tremendous detriment to the scientific community. History will not be kind to Al.
On target but for one thing: Saint Al did little damage to the scientific community. Damage incurred there is the fault of that part of the community unable to separate science from political activism. Scientists are all too human. In discussions with colleagues, I’ve always advised not mixing public policy activism and science: the science always suffers in the mix. Always.
The tragedy of the environmental movement is that their strategies seem tailor-made to ruin the environment.
Many of the greatest triumphs of humanity were ultimately driven by economic growth: the end of slavery, expanded civil rights, the huge progress in environmentalism made so far, our vastly extended life expectancies, and greatly reduced poverty. It’s our huge per-capita income, not Michael Pollan, which is driving the organic foods movement, and our ability to buy Priuses, and to install solar panels, and to pay a little more for an eco-friendly product at the grocery store every week. It drives our ability as a nation to leave vast swaths of land undeveloped for the sake of the turtles, or the snail darters, or just because the scenery looks nice. Do you think we could afford that if people were dying like they were a hundred years ago? As Niven & Pournelle put it, you have the morality you can afford to have.
The Left has always argued that we can afford to sacrifice some portion of this growth to achieve some social goal. I’d argue that they’ve got it backwards, but this new eco-thinking is infinitely worse. Now, instead of using some of this growth to pay for their latest social project, they’d have us shrink our economy and give us nothing in return. This new asceticism says, “forget the distribution of wealth, wealth itself is the enemy!”
If they were serious about helping the environment, they’d be scheming and scraping to squeeze one more half-percent of annual, sustained GDP growth. That’s what will keep species from going extinct, what will feed the poor, drive education and keep the air and water clean. It’s the coin with which we buy gay rights, women’s rights, fight ethnic cleansing, and fight famine. Sadly, none of this is apparently a priority for the Left anymore, except as a cudgel to beat their domestic political opponents with.
“forget the distribution of wealth, wealth itself is the enemy!”
Excellent statement. A Govt. jerk talking on the TV today about keeping the “boot on the neck of BP”? I am appalled to live among and for this government.
The eco-nuts are very much against fertilizers, bug and weed killers, and genetically modified plants.
All of these things have allowed farmers to increase the amount of food produced per acre by more than 10 since the 1800′s. If we were to get rid of them, as they advocate, this would result in a need to increase the number of acres being farmed by a factor of 10. Pretty much eliminating most of the wild land in the world.
The left just never bothers to think through the consequences of their policies.
This is an excerpt from my book Hypocronance and it details my thoughts on Al Gore.
The charade of increasing moral value was imbued by a former vice president. His theft of an idea promoted by scientists studying the climate was the proverbial calling from a soap box, the base of want to be do-gooders known as crisis fomenting environmental stewards longed to hear.
You know the guy; he gave up on the idea that he created the Internet. Yep, Al Bore Gore. The only other guy I know as good at hood-winkin’ the generally ignorant public as this guy was none other than Michael Moore.
These two dopes rallied the nitwittery in not only our country but around the world to focus about things they couldn’t possibly control, but could exploit and those things are natural laws.
Roger, Please answer me as to what have subsidies produced as far as energy is concerned other than to prop up failed technologies like Ethanol? Once government money is involved, the only thing the so-called scientists are interested in is to make sure the money keeps coming (i.e. the crisis formerly known as “global warming”). Additionally, due to the need to mine for the metals in a Prius’ battery pack and the need to replace such packs, the Prius is not a very “environmentally friendly” car. However, it you goal is to save money, I would suggest you look to buy a Honda Civic HX.
War for oil, eh? So where is it? I mean this in all seriousness. If we invaded Iraq to get our hands on their oil, why isn’t every well being developed by an American company — or even the U.S. government? Why is the price of gas at the station on the corner down the street from my house $3.23 today instead of $1.50?
At some point, you lefties are gonna have to let that meme go.
Ever think the Gulf disaster (O’s Katrina, the MSM doesn’t say)started with an “explosion”.
Was the “explosion” a Bolshevik action to stiffen the AGW resolve.
Follow the money, the consequences.
So what’s your solution? We have no new or green technologies that can fuel our society right now. You want to stop civilization in its tracks? No? PROVE IT. Stop the snark and get serious.
This post is not about environmental catastrophe (although Algore absolutely qualifies as one). It’s about the supreme hypocrisy and GREED of the envirophonies. Most of us live very modest lives. Being constantly lectured to by those whose profligacies and indulgences absolutely dwarf the rest of us is why this movement is self-destructing and why the Dems are self-immolating. Europe has already jumped off the AGW bandwagon. Our problem here is we have some uber-regressives in power in this country determined to continue the fallacy of Climate Change while they deny the truths of the ClimateGate scandal and work to destroy this economy and society. We. Have. Had. IT!
nuclear power
Al Gore should be pushing nuke powered energy for all electrical energy. Oh wait, we can trade invisible gas instead and make at least $300 million dollars. Where is Iceland getting the carbon credits to to offset the volcano?? From Al Gores tradinng company? Al Gore feeds people BS and some fools lap it up.
I don’t think global warming caused the rig accident.
Anne,,,,, but GLOBAL WARMIST’S could have.
Green war-n Peace perhaps.
So, Mr. Moderato, here are some ideas for you:
1. Destroy your cars. Don’t sell them: they would go back to creating pollution. Recycle, them. Today. They are evil and use that icky oil stuff.
2. Disconnect your house or apartment or tree house or whatever you live in from the electric grid. Pull the plug. Electricity is bad. We need to make and consume less of it, right? What’s better than a compact fluorescent light bulb? No light bulbs at all.
3a. Stop watering your outdoor landscaping and any indoor plants. Just stop. It’s not necessary.
3b. Take a shower once a week. Never take a bath.
3c. Wash your clothes in a tub in a couple gallons of water and hang it on a line outdoors to dry. No wasteful washing machines and dryers. Don’t use any detergent.
3d. Certainly do not heat any of the water, except by solar.
3e. Get rid of indoor plumbing. It only encourages you to use and waste water. Bring any water (cold, of course) into the house via a bucket. If you had to carry the water, you’d use less.
That water does not get to you without serious energy consumption. And most of it goes down the drain anyway.
4. Unless you mow with a manual push mower, stop mowing your grass. For you, that probably also means firing the gardener.
5. Stop heating your home. Blankets and heavy jackets should do fine. You can have some sort of solar solution, but no central heating. Oh, and make sure the “solar solution” does not consume energy in its manufacture and installation.
6. Stop cooling your home. Nobody had air conditioning before 1920. Get rid of the AC. (Of course, since you already disconnected from the grid up at Point #2, this is moot.)
7a. Move into a small apartment. 850 square feet should be enough. Two bedrooms and one bath. Plenty of room for two adults and two kids. You won’t need a garage since you’ve already destroyed your cars, right? Personal single family homes are too extravagant. High rise apartment buildings are the most efficient.
7b. Assuming you live in a single family home, tear it down and allow the land to lie fallow. No construction. It should be declared a wilderness area. You, by the way, should bear this cost. Still owe some mortgage on it? Keep paying it. It’s your duty and a small price to pay.
8. Use nothing but public transportation. With your once-per-week solar-powered bucket-fed shower, you won’t notice the smell.
9. Divest yourself of all electronic gadgets: phones, computers, stereos, TV, blenders, microwaves, dishwashers, food processors, electric can openers, power drills, power saws, sanders, flashlights, refrigerators, electric lights, stoves. None of this existed a hundred years ago.
These are all things you, yourself, can actually do.
These are things Al Gore and Barack Obama and Barbra Streisand and Tom Brady want us to do, even as they fly from mansion to mansion and from fundraiser to fundraiser consuming unimaginable amounts of energy, driving via fleets of armored cars and watering their acres of lawn on their multimillion dollar estates.
You can, personally, go back to 1850 energy consumption.
“At some point, you’ve used enough energy.”
Koblog,
You have written a litany suitable for an Anglican service. Tears came to my eyes as I imagined, at each step of the litany, how an environmentlist could feel the evil flowing from him/her as he/she embraced the sacrifice of each element of the power grid and, ultimately, stood naked before Mother Earth. What a beautiful service. Thank You.
Many countries are developing new technologies, leaving us in the dust. Any constructive ideas?
Sorry, Mr. Moderato, self-appointed discussion leaders don’t get no respect either. In fact, the lack of support you give the ‘leaving us in the dust’ assertion is pretty fatal to your qualifications.
You might, however, restore your position by furnishing some practical constructive ideas of your own.
What in blue blazes does the platform accident in the gulf have to do with Gore or his anthropogenic global warming fraud?
“How about talking about ways to break our dependancy on fossil fuels?”…”Any constructive ideas?”
Moderato turning off his energy consuming computer might be a good start.
Um… NUCLEAR! Been screamin’ it since the ’70s. But no. The left won’t have it.
Name one, you imbecile.
At present, there is no way. These mythical technologies only work when funded with massive amounts of other people’s money.
As to the accident in the gulf, perhaps if the govt had allowed more drilling, the existing platforms wouldn’t have to be run at 110% capacity, 24/7 …
Al Gore almost certainly has not given up on the global warming nonsense. He simply feels entitled and can offer countless excuses to justify this large mansion and an overall lavish lifestyle. Were you not aware of the suffering of Gore on our behalf? My guess is that he also pays his employees far more than the going rate. They are subtly ordered to agree with everything he says. The world of Gore does revolve around him.
Since he never gets called on his past statements by the big media outlets, why shouldn’t he think he can do anything he wants — remember, we’re only three years away from the 2013 date Al claimed would be when the polar ice caps would melt away during the summer, and virtually all of the major domestic media players still haven’t say word one about that whopper. I’m only surprised the fat fraud has yet to weigh in on the Gulf oil spill and how somehow all that leaking oil is going to contribute to climate change.
Utopian elites almost always feel entitled to a lavish lifestyle. As matter of fact, I am unable to point out even one exception. The price tag for their theories are to be paid by the unwashed masses.
“There was no controlling legal authority.”
Gore is not giving up. He’ll be here in Manila a few weeks from now, where the searing heat brought by the El Niño phenomenon will be a perfect backdrop for his global warming talk.
I heard ticket prices are very exorbitant! But I’m sure Gore’s going to rake in it here, as almost all of Manila’s upper crust from political, showbiz, and established media spheres will jam themselves in the venue just to be able to get the chance to hob-nob with him.
Brace yourself, Willie. Manila is about to get its first snow storm. It’s called the Gore Effect. Everyhwere he goes, unseasonably low temperatures ensue. Gaia is mocking him.
I was hoping for something like that to take place after Gore’s appearance. No, wait! For best effect, it should be *while* he’s delivering his talk.
If it’s going to be while he’s talking, a hailstorm would be better. The noise of all the hail stones pinging off the roof will cause maximum disruption.
If this event is like other ManBearPig sightings, the press will be barred.
Given up, Roger? Heaven’s no! After ceaseless labor of a decade spent acquiring the stature and recognition of a true greatness denied so cruelly in 2000; after the just rewards of Oscar, Nobel, and wealth, in the pursuit of noble truth and the betterment of mankind, the great man is now to embark on a well earned rest, leaving his legacy to the legions youth to follow in his magnificent wake and continue the greatness of his work.
Great post, RLS. And good skinny on the fire sale going on by the founding fathers and large shareholders of the Chicago Climate Exchange (CCX).
Pressing question: To which suckers are they selling? And if Sandor sold his shares for a cool (heh) $606 million, what was his entry price? I’m guessing it was well south of that figure. The global warming traders are coming up strong on the outside, gaining on Oil-for-Food as the biggest scam in the last 100 years.
An interesting comparison to Oil-for-Food, Jim Lakely, because some of the same folks are involved… notably Maurice Strong.
Why does that fact not surprise me (or you)? Keep on, keepin’ on, Roger.
Unfortunately Jim,
The suckers will probably be a lot of regular folks whose retirement fund managers have put their money into things like CCX. Didn’t I read somewhere that state and federal pension funds are heavily invested in this stuff?
Does that mean we get to bail them out when the exchange funds go bust? I KNEW the American taxpayer would be on the hook somewhere.
Nine bathrooms! However, for those who have colitis or Crohn’s, that’s Nirvana! Maybe that’s what he’s all about; he’s full of crap anyway and has to get rid of it somehow. Better on a Cali hillside than on national TV (sorry for any visuals that conjures up).
I just read Iowahawks Citizen Kane parody of Al Gore and his “Monticeto Mansion” and found it rather amusing. Remeber folks we won’t always have Al to kick around. We should all be thankful for the internet that he gave us. He never realized that his marvelous invention would be turned on him to reveal his true self as a bloviating bag of shit.
an energy guzzing mcmansion is hardly a new thing for the oracle. Just look at how much energy his long owned and resided upon diggs in Tennesee requires.
Well,it certainly comes as no surprise to me that anAL GOREtentive would need a house with 9 bathrooms
In a relatively unknown novel, James Hogan’s The Mirror Maze, a Supporting Cast character opines that everywhere and everywhen, “the big wheels own the big houses.” That is: If you want to know who’s really running things, look for the largest domiciles and compounds in the country and find out to whom they belong.
Now, this thesis might not be perfectly accurate, but let’s imagine that a goodly fraction of the “aspiring elite” believe it. One of the patterns we humans follow is our tendency to emulate those we believe to be more successful than we are. So: If an aspirant to high-elite status believes that “the big wheels own the big houses,” and that the possession of a huge estate is part of the price of admission to that circle, he’ll buy one whether he needs it or not — regardless of whether it serves any other purpose.
Al Gore was bred to be President of the United States. He missed it by a hair and has smarted over his defeat ever since. The only other high-elite circle to which he can aspire today would be that of the international climate junta. All the same, that sort of bestriding-the-world stature is what he wants and believes he deserves. Perhaps the new mansion is just one more offering in that direction, even if it appears to contradict his insincere “convictions” about environmental matters.
http://wattsupwiththat.com/2010/04/29/virginia-attorney-general-goes-after-mann-and-uva/
Algore may be giving up on AGW, but AG Ken Cuccinelli of Virginia is pursuing the work of Michael Mann back during his days at the Univ. of Virginia. He has subpoenaed a lot of records from UVA and is investigating whether $500K in public funds were used to fund misleading research
For the millionth billionth time, Al Gore is a hero. Californa-i-a is just the place he otta be, for “where your treasure is, that’s where your heart is.” Making movies that will educate the stupid, dumb masses of Americans about their need to turn over their finances, freedom and lifestyle to a tiny cadre of Hollywood activists, producers and Harvard lawyers is the very thing Plato envisioned in The Republic. Plato even said a few small, innocent lies are sometimes necessary by the elites to the betterment (esp. Progressive betterment) of the public.
When you think about it, Montecito is about the only place a guy like Al Gore can go and still believe in his fantasy. He is surrounded by other narcissitic millionaires who agree with him and tell him every day how right he is.He doesn’t have to confront ordinary people who believe their lying eyes and are the ones on whom the burden of carbon taxes would fall.
Among the triggers of the Christian Reformation was the wretched excess of the leadership of the Roman Catholic church. Their ‘life style’ and exercise of power was blatantly inconsistent with the message of the religion. Let’s just hope the nastiness that accompanied the challenge to their power won’t be a repeat in history with this religion.
Science you can (or cannot) believe in, isn’t. I think it’s beyond him losing the faith, it’s more that when everything is outrageous, nothing’s outrageous. He can get away with it, like the elite always do in turbulent times.
Christopher Lloyd as “creme of the Hollywood creme?!”
Rev. Jim?!
Doc Brown.
Energy Density.
Humanity has moved in a straight line progression to the greatest density of energy.
Human power.
Animal power.
Wind.
Hydro.
Wood.
Coal.
Petroleum.
Nuclear fission.
Nuclear fusion.
Greater Energy density, coupled with greater reliability of production and delivery, leads to greater and more effective utilization.
Al Gore’s plan would move in the opposite direction and would be accomplished if the public is willing to pay a greater price for energy that is less reliable, but the only benefit to be derived is that of self-satisfaction of the morality of the public decision – a choice that is only available to a rich society.
Al Gore’s plan would lead not to greater wealth and prosperity but to higher energy costs and a poorer society. Some would benefit; most would suffer as they fall into poverty.
Al Gore will NEVER give up on climate change. There’s $10 trillion (annually) at stake in trading carbon credits. Lindsey Graham isn’t retreating either, as he most likely has a stake in the Chicago Climate Exchange as do the majority of high-level dem politicians including President Easy Bake.
Buying a mansion in Montecito isn’t giving up; it’s just continuing the hypocritical behavior the left is known for.
Palintologist, one way to interpret this is that Sandor no longer believes this market is work that $10 trillion.
Al Gore is tired of all this, time to move on.
The fat weary carbon elf tires of Middle Earth and heads into the West.
Paraphrasing Harrison Ford…”Al Gore will live in a modest home when everyone lives in a modest home”.
…(Sandor) has just sold his controlling interest in the Chicago Climate Exchange (CCX) for 606 million.
Maybe Al’s buddy figured out that the Chicago Climate Exchange Inc., an “artificial government mandated carbon trading market” could go south in a manner that would make the Fannie/Freddie débacle look like a cakewalk.
Obama’s participation in the genesis of the Chicago Climate Exchange should force him, as President, to recuse himself on anything even vaguely related to it.
Instead, it looks like he is using the Bully Pulpit to clandestinely promote it and would be thrilled when an EPA or Congressional induced “cap and trade” will cause citizens’ home energy costs to “necessarily skyrocket”.
Carbon credit trading schemes are, apparently, about enriching the schemers, wherever they’re found. Heck, even China is participating, while continuing, unabated, to pollute the hell out of the planet.
Somebody, in the name of sanity, needs to cry foul on all this crookedness, which Glenn Beck undertook to do on his show last week. (federal government as a “criminal enterprise” ?)
… all the “green” retrofitting (Gore) plans to do (at some point), on his new Italian mansion by the ocean.
Maybe he’ll put in some of those curlicue fluorescent light bulbs (lousy light plus mercury ?) like he bragged about doing in the Tennessee mansion.
Uncle Al don’t do homes. He has real esatate investments.
Like father like son, I suppose. Numerous reasons have been given for the late Al Gore, Sr.’s defeat as senator: (non-existent) support for civil rights, actual but cynical opposition to Vietnam, and so forth. The real reason was much more mundane and typical Gore. Sr. had come under investigation for taking bribes. It was really a trashy way the cash exchanged hands as well. Gore Sr. would do someone a political favor, and a Carthage, Tennessee, livestock auction barn would announce the sale of his cattle at double or triple the market price. The cattle, if they existed at all, would be sold soon thereafter, sometimes in the same day, for actual market price. The buyers at the earlier, higher price had been recipients of Gore Sr.’s favors. Rumors of a pending indictment permeated Sr.’s failed re-election bid but this little saga has received almost no media attention.
Gore Sr. also had a very lucrative business relationship with Armand Hammer, in which he was paid staggering sums to do much of nothing discernible. History has revealed what the relationship between Hammer and the Soviet Union actually was, and how the industrialist used political influence to shape a more favorable relationship between the United States and the USSR. While no criminality has been proved in the relatonship between Hammer and Gore Sr., the dots are readily drawn.
As for junior, his first attempt to profit from his stint as vice president came in a crusade to “restore the American family.” He and his wife Tipper were placed on numerous family reasearch boards. When their joint, ghost-written book “Joined at the Heart” failed miserably and landed in bargain bins a week after publication, Al Jr. moved on to bigger and better things. Not a particularly bright individual, Jr. did receive enough corruption genes to realize most people were as ignorant about AGW as he was and apparently still may be. It was the cash cow of cash cows, and a helluva ride.
As folks strain to read with dim bulbs as lighting, the dimmest bulb ever to strike it rich basks in golden sunlight. This man should ben an encouragement to every divinity school flunky and third-rate intellect with a propensity for graft.
By Al Gore’s behavior, he never DID believe in – nor even understand the science of – global warming. His comprehensions of ‘science’ was not even up to Readers Digest standards. Mansions, constant jetting around, refusal to debate his environmental convictions. A small-town opportunist, in beyond his intellectual depth, but politically connected enough to take a flyer when the investment looked good.
He doesn’t make the ‘political class’ look any better.
Y’all are missing a big point here. Will Gore change his legal residence to CA and pay CA taxes? Or will he maintain that he is still legal in TN to evade the CA taxes? Aren’t the poor and illegals of CA entitled to have some of Gore’s wealth spread there? Or is that just for little people?
“Their ‘life style’ and exercise of power was blatantly inconsistent with the message of the religion.”
Great point on the religious angle and Big Al. Since this is Sunday it seems worth exploring that. In Matthew 7:1 Jesus warns not to judge because God will judge you. However this reads not just judge you, but judge you *in the same way*. People often pull the first part of this verse out of context to deflect objections to their bad behavior (You can’t judge me!) but Jesus makes it clear that the point is not the judging but how you do the judging. The next couple verses clarify this point with the classic phrasing about not pointing out the sliver in others eye while you have a log in yours. It’s the hypocrisy (in His time of the Pharisees) that Jesus concerned himself with here. And it’s the hypocrisy that is the point of Mr. Simon’s post and why Al is just not worth listening to. It’s not just annoying, it’s sinful. Sorry to use the S word but it just fits too well.
To Peg C.
We do have green technologies that can end our dependence on fossil fuels right now – sixth generation nuclear power plants. They are tested, they are much more efficient, they produce much less waste, they do not generate easy to use fissile materials so they can’t be used for bombs and are not a proliferation risk. All the waste for 50 years of use is stored on site, or reprocessed.
The nuclear power plants of the 50s and 60s are like Ford’s Model T in comparison to the tight, efficient Toyota Camry-like nuclear power plants we can build today.
Did any of you think that maybe there is a innocent reason for the Montecito manse? Maybe Al is going to be called to Eloi heaven soon? Maybe the property is for a Lenin style Mao-seleum where prostrate acolytes can grovel up a thousand steps to see His Waxness?
Too bad Roger can’t follow the PJ comment rules when posting his to the right-of-center screed. His post is full of fallacies of relevance including ad hominem attacks. This is what passes for Web journalism.
Really like that Kool-Aid, don’tcha?
Where to start… First I don’t believe Roger has ever claimed to be a journalist, I believe he claims to be a writer, and a good one. Roger? You’re welcome to correct me on that if you like.
Second the piece was about the hypocrisy of Al Gore, rather difficult to point up the man’s hypocrisy without, oh I don’t know, attacking the man?
Third, this piece also doesn’t make any claim to journalism, it’s a column. You know, Roger’s opinion?
As far as the man being right of center, um, have you looked around? This is a conservative blog.
Now, you say your name is God, as such one would think you would have the necessary knowledge to refute the things Roger said.Please do so, I know we’re all waiting to hear from the Most High.
The truth is an ad hominem?
The Goracle is a sad-sack of a man – plodding along like an automaton with a goal. He doesn’t hear the snickering and name-calling behind his back – he’s become desensitized to that. The goal is to make himself rich(er) and beyond rich – admired and respected as the savior (Messiah complex?) of the planet.
How he has planned on getting those riches is the sad part – bilking (for lack of a better term) Americans rich and poor alike does not concern him. He would willingly place dire economic constraints on millions of Americans who already see The American Dream slipping out of their grasp.
The Goracle is like the fish salesman who’s offerings are many days past fresh – and everyone can smell the rot – everyone but the fish salesman.
The question, “Are they giving up on global warming?” depends on another question: “Do they have something to replace it?” The global warming meme serves some purpose (mostly, justifying government interference in the economy, I suspect). It won’t be discarded until something else that serves the same purpose is available.
Global warming may be threadbare, in fact always was, but it won’t be discarded until a newer blanket is in hand.
I will say this flat out: If we don’t throw the Democrats out come this November, it is over for America.
Obama has something like 135 czars appointed to various government positions who are using their unelected positions to wrap the tentacles of progressive power around every facet of Federal Bureaucracy they can.
No – this won’t be over until Obama is tossed in 2012 and we reverse that dastardly deeds that are being perpetrated upon us. We then need to educate those who will – and force feed those who won’t – about the evils of Progressivism once and for all.
I doubt Al thinks he’s made enough money.
I consider Gore’s swindled, carbon-spewing wealth an equitable trade for his failure to become U.S. President. America dodged a bullet with this conman, albeit an expensive one.
Dear Roger and/or the Button Guy,
I’m pretty good at this. I’ve been doing it, since Big Al invented the thing. I cannot seem to get anybody to make comments on my blog, so I comment on other’s.
Please let some of my comments stay up. I promise not to take over the discussion.
I DO, however, have a tendency to END the discussions.
The Left is on an Unholy Jihad against us, and has been, since Comrade FDR, gave Eastern Europe to his Uncle Jo Stalin, at Yalta.
Yes, he is an easy target.
And the other idiots like him that stopped nuke power cold back in the 1970s.
Now instead of Nuclear power we have drilling rigs set up around our coasts to produce oil, natural gas, and other needed energy products.
Oil companies made a fortune off of environmental idiots,
and now we have a natural devastation because of you.
It doesn’t even compare to the Exxon oil spill-
how many people visit/live on the beaches of Alaska?
And, BTW…Something that’s always bothered me about the Glow Ball Warning Hysteria..
CO2 is a GAS. Carbon IS NOT!
A dreaded Carbon Footprint, is analagous to The Patriarchy, Nazis, Fascists and CEOs.
Let’s be a little sensible here. Carbon isn’t a gas per se, but CO2 is made partly of carbon. In any case, the “carbon credits” are an artifical thing that equates any of six greenhouse gases to artificially-computed equivalent amounts of CO2.
Chuck,
Do you wear a little propeller beanie? Glow Ball Warning, is a RELIGION! So is, Abortionism, Suicidal Pacifism, America Hatred, General Phobia and Marxist Class Envy.
The SKY IS NOT FALLING. I DO NOT CAUSE BAD WEATHER…THE OBAMESSIAH DOES NOT CAUSE SUNNY DAYS. Try to grow up a little, M’kay?
(1) “Charlie”, not “Chuck”.
(2) Go read any of the dozens of pieces I’ve written for PJM on ClimateGate before you make a fool of yourself.
Sorry sir,
It just seemed that you were giving an explanation for the insane gobbledegook, the Enviro-Weenies, live and die for.
It’s mass hysteria. An NvireMENTAList, is a FeMARXIST, is a Suicidal Peace Creep, is an envious Hippie hater of anybody, she deems to have MORE than she has.
http://www.dadi.org/hysteria.htm
While Narcissism seeks to kill the G-d of our forebearers, Hysterical Feminism seeks to kill the cultural traditions of millenia. Both are goals that rival Genesis, and yet both are succeeding. From clinical experience I have learned, never underestimate the power and determination of pathology(EVIL.) Remember Faust.
Explanations of lunacy, make me crosseyed.
Bottom line; Narcissistic, Marxist/Stalinist, Flower Children Of The Damned, worship everything that is unnatural, and that brings death.
While they loathe anything natural and life giving.
They especially hate Dad/God/Yang/Light…
Sometimes it happens this way. You had Gerald Ford in the 70.s, then Bush (one) later on. The person filling in, supporting the top of the ticket is actually better than his boss. This was true of Al Gore, he became a leader through losing an election and a “thoughtful statesmen” after he left office. Yes, he is an easy target, but then, those that stand up for what they believe in, usually are. For whatever reason, the Democrats have always seemed to be packed with good talent, almost to a fault. I do not know why, but the Republican Party seems rudderless, but who knows eh? Maybe the Republicans will find someone soon….Good Luck to them.
For whatever reason, the Democrats have always seemed to be packed with good talent, almost to a fault./i>
Who exactly would you be speaking of? Obama is a lightweight political hack. Pelosi is arguably so stupid it’s a miracle she remembers how to breath. Biden is der gaffemiester, Reid is about as stupid as Pelosi.
So what good talent would you be speaking of?
Man, the delusions run deep in the you, don’t they.
Bush the elder better than Reagan? In what alternate universe.
Al Gore a leader? ManBearPig, a leader, of what?
Do you have any evidence that he actually believes the nonsense he has been using to make himself rich? He hasn’t even turned off the heater for his pool that is bigger than most people’s house.
Come now, Roger, I used to live in Santa Barbara County – admittedly rather distant from fabulous Montecito – but surely you realize that Algore will need far less air conditioning and heat there than he will in his home state.
No doubt that he can justify the new acquistion on the basis of reducing his overall carbon footprint as compared to sole use of the Gore Mansion, which compares unfavorably to a Super Wal Mart in terms of energy use.
You can add to that he can still file his income taxes in Tennessee where taxes are much lower while living on the California coast. Its what Hollywood does.
I love these hypocritical politicians. Do you guys actually think that he gives two hoots about what’s going on with global warming? I’m guessing it was just another foolish attempt at trying to raise his political career.
His mansion probably spews out more C02 than common cars.
“Giving up”?
More like cashing out.
Seeing the proverbial market drop, its time he sells his shares.
Will all of the “good environmentalists” at UCSB hold demonstrations to immobilize AlGore’s Gulfstream at the next-door airfield in Goleta?
I had the ‘pleasure’ of visiting a few Soviet satellites before they collapsed under the weight of central planning. In doing so I was able to see the ‘green’ future advocated by socialists, that existed more from reality than any Utopian dream. For instance, in Prague, one would turn the light on a stairway (the elevator was usually broken) with a timer on it. If you were on a floor below four you had enough time to get to your apartment, break out your key, and open the door. Anything four or above, and you’d have to break out a match or lighter to see your way in. The People knew this wasn’t green energy. They knew it was the poverty of the soul that came with being everybody’s ‘comrade.’ And the examples of hypocrisy were legion. Just like the Nova Huta steel plant outside Brackow, where the stream that ran by the road was a combination of yellow and ooze. Oh yes, the ‘leaders’ of the revolution even had their own lanes for driving. So much for Al Gore and his vision. Let us not forget, his family wealth was originally grub staked by not-so-secret Soviet agent, Armand Hammer, CEO of Oxydental Petroleum.
Well, with just a little luck, when the seas rise, hw’ll be swept away.
I’d love to get off the oil standard, but not without a competitive alternative. No matter what environmentalists say, we’re still quite a ways from a competitive alternative. Many have proposed taxing oil to make it easier to compete with. This is the worse kind of stupidity. If we tax oil, we’re taxing industry. Industry will become less competitive, lose customers and be forced to outsource manufacturing to countries that not only have cheaper work forces but cheaper energy. That will only export oil consumption and lower Americans standard of living because more disposable income will be spent on fuel and because we’ll have less disposable income because our jobs will be outsourced.
He’ll be back. One of my friends recorded a very nasty, patronizing NPR show, where they wondered aloud how people could possibly not believe the “climate scientists” who are all, still in full consensus that global warming is severe and caused by people. They drew a snide psychological profile first, saying that people who don’t want the government to tell them what to do are going to pick and choose what they want to believed based on what they don’t want to do or be required to pay for. Then they they claimed that the people who dispute the claims of the global warmists are non-scientists who do not follow the issues, are not climate scientists. They said that all the climate scientists agree. THEN they said that climategate is nothing important, and no effect whatever on scientific conclusions, it’s all unimportant, the overwhelming evidence is that globe is warming and it is caused by people.
Many of you can count the falsehoods. All I am saying is that your taxpayer money is funding this crap.
NPR needs to be de-funded. Their standards for truthfulness are too low, and they wouldn’t recognize a scientific inquiry if it hit them in the face.
Go get all the free carbon offsets you want:
http://www.freecarbonoffsets.com
Have a laugh at Algore’s expense.
with all the inteligent people who post here im really surprised that no one has mentioned zero-point energy, or quantum flux field. this technology takes the limitless energy of the “ether” that most describe as being void of energy. rememeber, energy can never be created or destroyed…. so where does all the light and energy from stars go??? the quantum flux field. my friend and i are making a small prototype as we speak. magnetics… come on you guys… quit thinking in the box. the government is running laps around the public with their technology. these guys have been using electrogravitic and antigravitic technology since the 50′s. much of this has been DISCLOSED. which means im not a conspiracy theorist, im a guy who does his research. i have to, its part of my masters program.
That’s because the really smart people who post here are used to dealing with reality.
From the pictures of Owl Bore’s new beach house, it doesn’t appear to far above the high tide line. Does this mean that he no longer believes the oceans are rising?
And MTG,
How about Evilbush and his Satanic, Infernal Cataclysm Machine? You KNOW, Bosh caused the oil spill.
http://www.commondreams.org/views01/0429-03.htm
Published on Sunday, April 29, 2001 in the Chicago Tribune
Bush Loves Ecology — At Home
by Rob Sullivan
The 4,000-square-foot house is a model of environmental rectitude.
Geothermal heat pumps located in a central closet circulate water through pipes buried 300 feet deep in the ground where the temperature is a constant 67 degrees; the water heats the house in the winter and cools it in the summer. Systems such as the one in this “eco-friendly” dwelling use about 25% of the electricity that traditional heating and cooling systems utilize.
A 25,000-gallon underground cistern collects rainwater gathered from roof runs; wastewater from sinks, toilets and showers goes into underground purifying tanks and is also funneled into the cistern. The water from the cistern is used to irrigate the landscaping surrounding the four-bedroom home. Plants and flowers native to the high prairie area blend the structure into the surrounding ecosystem.
so… im not smart because im working on a device that creates energy using magnetics? i would also like to add that if people decide to describe themselves as great are more than likely compensating for something. tell me mark the great, are you currently working on a solution to the problem or just bitching about it?
Pointing out the ridiculous is not “bitching”.
Zero point energy? If you want to discredit yourself, I can’t think of a better way of doing it.
Anti-gravatics?
Man, you are a riot a minute.
Neo Marxist/Stalinist/Maoists,
You ALL have a mental and Spiritual disorder called, Narcissistic PERSONALITY DISORDER. When linked with Hystrionic Personality DISORTER. ,you end up with what’s called Cluster B.
M. Scott Peck, called you EVIL.
EVIL: No one wants to talk about it. But if they do, the talk is of Hitler, torturers, child rapists. (Christians, Bible Believing Jews, CEOs, The Infernal Combustion Engine, Red Meat, Dirt, Cooties, Ad Hooooommmmmiiiinnnnneeemmmmmmsssss, ANGER(=Violence,)REALITY and TRUTH, Fascists, whatever the eff THEY are, etc., etc.)
Part of your maniacle makeup, is to have OCD, like Howeird Stern, How-wad Mandel…Chairman How of The DNC…I HATE REPUBLICANS AND ALL THEY STAND FOR.
You blood thirsty Ghoul/Zombies, can spray paint somebody like Sarah Palin and her entire family with venom and vitriol, and plaster your 15 year old Subarus with PEACE AND LOVE BUMPER STINKERS.
You are always in a seething, murderous rage, blaming OTHERS, for your psychotic delusions.
You FEEL so bad for SLAVES, that were owned by Demon-O-Crats, who also founded the KKK. You detest Republicans, who abolished slavery. “Lincoln was a RACIST and GAY!”
You fairly swoon, when somebody like Fidel Castro or Ahmadinejad, come to this country.
Demonic Cuckoo Clock, Gnome Chompski, is a Deity to you.
NvireMENTALists, actually mourn OLD GROWTHS. Seem my linque.
Abhor-shanists, are your clergy. They’re WIMMIN’S HEALTH CARE PROVIDERS.
Sadly, people on my side, seem to hate it when I am MEAN to you. When, you would slit their throats in a nanosecond.
Neo Christian Pacifists, are about the worst. I’ve actually been called, SATAN, by a couple of them
http://www.narcissisticabuse.com/evil.html
Is it evil to belittle, denigrate, scapegoat, and make fun of someone until they are demoralized, subjugated, and traumatized? Is the verbal and emotional abuser who keeps his victim in suspense and fear an evil person? Is the person with the need to control others evil? Y-E-EFFING-S!
So, everything thing that you obsess about, and do RELIGIOUSLY, IS A RELIGION! Compulsive hand washing, WORKING OUT, EATING HEALTHFULLY, WORRYING AND FRETTING ABOUT PEOPLE YOU HAVE NEVER MET, AND NEVER WILL MEET AND SATANIC COMMUNISTS AND JIHADISTS, IN LIEU, OF THEIR VICTIMS.
Peck said that your narcissism is so severe, that you are actually AUTISTIC. Not only can you not concede a point to me, I do not even EXIST, to you.
Hmmmmm…..why does the picture of rats deserting a sinking ship immediately jump to mind.
With all due respect to rats of course.