Quite right, quite right folks.  Critical thinking of the masses would help and could help even those who are posting right here on this thread as well as on all the other Truthdig forums.  As a former professor who taught the subject for almost a decade, it isnÂ’t that difficult a thing to teach or to learn.  It is merely, and yes I say merely because it is not such an arcane subject to learn how to think critically, it is merely learning how to evaluate what is presented in daily life so that one may make “informed” judgments.  It is a matter of being conscious of alternatives and learning how to avoid being deceived and victimized.  But simple as it is on the face of it, it takes minimal commitment. 

So letÂ’s turn a mental flashlight on here just a bit before any more back patting goes on.  Please just imagine an emoticon of your own.

A brief description of critical thinking for those who have never been taught how to think for themselves and are continuously being duped (dupe – a person who is easily deceived; a person who functions as the tool of another person or power, a patsy, a sucker, a sitting duck): 1) Recognize what is being claimed (to do that you need to understand definitions of words and the kinds of meanings made when they are strung together, particularly when meanings are subtle; 2) Evaluating what has been claimed with three outcomes:  accept the claim as true, reject the claim as false, suspend judgment until more information is gathered (then repeat the process).  Of course there is an entire edifice upon which those thinking skills are based.

There is a ton more of stuff to learn to keep from being The Chump; whole semester classes in philosophy are taught (beginning, intermediate, and advanced) and elegant steps of reasoning such as being able to make distinctions, really fine distinctions, really precise distinctions that presupposes a knowledge of how to obtain experiment results, what are compound claims, what are counterarguments, fallacies (last count of major fallacies – 42), how to use analogies to determine the truth, how to reason about cause and effect, what are necessary and sufficient conditions for cause and effect; how to analyze for cause in populations, how to use models, using statistics, yada yada yada in a nutshell. 

Now of course there are those of us who do that.  But very few.  It is delusional to think that entire populations can become that competent, literate, and practice analysis of any and all information presented to them let alone the entire world of people.  Should everybody be able to do that?  ThatÂ’s a no brainer.  Ambiguity is the nemesis.  The new idols of relativity and multiculturalism is the cancer of thought.  Not being able to determine the essences of things because everybodyÂ’s view is valid.  WhoÂ’s to say what is true?  Throwing absolutes out with the bath water.  You know, give us a living break. 

It is blind altruism, the idea that massive diversity is the way to find the truth, that is truly an emotional disorder.  Furthermore, it is quite egotistical to think this is the responsibility of public education, although there is a big responsibility there. It is mandatory of all other social segments of life, family, religions, politicians to offer alternatives for thought.  It is one thing to sit and moan about the state of non-critical thinking humans in our society, and think it can be changed magically with the wave of a some wand of insight to make people engage in that kind of thought when opinions are profusely offered and alternatives to thought are not.

Re:By Peter Rowlands,

Dear Dr. Plant ecologist. I hear ya, (IÂ’m just 2 UC campuses up the road from you).

•  “..And this, I think is the crux of the problem, the way people are taught to think—non critically—from the gut…”

This pretty much sums it up DrÂ…definitely an excellent diagnosis of the problem,

•  “..I fear that no amount of well-reasoned appeal can overcome this kind of public “mental inertia” based on wishfull thinking and lack of training in critical analysis…”

And, I fear the same. So, our excellent diagnosis here is not so different (sad as it is to say) of that of an oncologist confirming a diagnosis of a particular form of cancer. ItÂ’s diagnosed, but rarely is there a cure available. Sometimes, maybe. Most of the time, not.

•  “..When faced with decisions that require critical analysis, most members of the public fall back on stereotyped, often wishfull types of thinking they have learned as children from the adults close to them. Learned experts and enlightened laypersons cannot compete…”

Not only can learned experts and enlightened laypersons NOT complete..they are frequently lynched and/or drug over the hard jagged stones (at least euphemistically) just for TRYING to share the info. ThatÂ’s why there is rarely a cure.

The sadder thing about it though, is that ‘curing’ the ignorance, in so far as teaching or encouraging the skills of critical thinking, is far more available and accessible than a cure for most cancers. But, the patient cannot be treated if they don’t wanna be.

But, for those who wanna be saved or otherwise cured, some forms of education, (even the conventional with a few adjustments) can certainly help. And, I say this not only in connection with the subject at hand, (the environment, the drilling, and the consequences involved) but with every other thing as well. Critical thinking is the key, and I only wish I could make multiple copies of that key, and give one to every single being. Of course that’s wishful thinking on my own part.

Thanks for your excellent input.

I honestly can’t believe someone would suggest Mexico as a shining example of what we should do in the USA.  Yeah, it’s worked so well south of the border that millions are all but selling their souls to get out of there.

It’s almost amusing (almost) how so many on this thread have either villified one political party or placed others on some kind of pedestal (next to themselves of course).  Anyone who thinks Al Gore is doing this because he’s the savior of the planet is simply fooling themselves.  The guy is charging $175,000 per speaking gig where he will tell you what we already know, throw in a few half-truths, then recommend his books and movie to rake in some more cash.  Has to pay for the mansions and condo, you know, not to mention rocketing himself from a net worth of $1-$2 million in 2000 up to over $100 million today.  He is the epitomy of hypocrisy when it comes to sustainable living.

I also find it interesting that throughout the entire petroleum debate, nobody is talking about agriculture.  According to Michael Pollan’s book “The Omnivore’s Dilemna,” the USA consumes approximately half of its total petroleum through the agricultural industry.  This includes fertilizers, pesticides, equipment fuel and lubricants, and transport.  Instead of cracking down on the USDA, which has exacerbated the problems, many are calling for yet more governmental involvement and taxpayer-funded subsidies.  If you really want to put a dent in our reliance on petroleum, change our agricultural practices.

It is a blindness jackpine savage to think in this day and age that anything of a global nature can be done without the benefit of a politician.  What was Gore doing 10-15 years ago?  Why the same thing you were doing about it!  Bravo you ride a bicycle.  Get the city politicians to make riding bicycles safer to ride with the PorscheÂ’s and Beemers and low riders scudding along at the highest velocity that would put a comet to shame it might just be that more and more bicycles would be used.  Yeah, it would be healthier for the human bodies too, a by-product of saving the world.  How funny.

Yeah, I have a problem with hypocrisy too, and self-delusion as well.  And it is obvious who are self-deluded.  Yeah, Al has a lot.  Well you try getting around to as many places as far and wide as he does to spread his message of doom-if-you-donÂ’t-do-anything-about-it-NOW.  At least he is spreading his wealth however he came by it to do some good, at least as far as he can.  I am really sick of whiners who sit in their comfy homes here in the safety of the West and looking for some earthly god to solve all perceived problems.  Sometimes enlightenment comes on just one dim lightbeam at a time, which sometimes happens to those in “the elite power structure.”  But it does come to some, and it doesnÂ’t matter to me if the gd buddha is rich or not or rides a bicycle or a gd fastjet.  WTF.  Yeah, the Earth will take itself back in spite of humansÂ’ idiocy.  It does not care one whit, it just does not care.  The Earth will recover long after humans depart to their rightful and permament place in Hades. 

Are you trying to tell me you donÂ’t know what to do at a “fundamental” level?  That is just pure rhetorical bunk.

You know Gandhi never “laid out the details” either.  He just said “resist.”  He was the model for total non-violence and advocated truth.  Starve yourself until you make Them bend so that They will be ashamed if you die on Their watch.  But that was not a plan for humanity to act as individuals or even as a group.  He represented humanity.  And by that united the masses.  In his own meager, by your standards, way, since he is not a god as was Gandhi, Gore has the benefit of his money (our god) to do his “visionary” thing.  This non-god advocates non-violence and truth.  What does it really matter that it is “a bit late?”  We are a bit late at the gate ourselves.  GandhiÂ’s non-acts got him killed by a fanatical extremist.  Those who criticize Gore are sore that he didnÂ’t do more a decade ago and metaphorically assassinate him with their bitter deep-seated ill-assessment.  Well, positioning is a large part of success.  (And by the way, it was not his administration.)  It is so easy to criticize, isnÂ’t it?  But it is comical in the face of GoreÂ’s sheer intelligence, and guile if you insist.

Ok, Shenonymous, i’ll bite…

The climate “crises” (quotes because it may well only be a crises for us humans and the Earth that we know, and it may well be Nature’s way of finally getting rid of us) is not new.  Every thing that we are dealing with now was as plain as the red on a baboon’s ass 10, 15 years ago.  What was Al Gore doing about it then?  Well, nothing.  That’s my point.  He had the opportunity; we had the opportunity to make changes all along and didn’t do it.  Our dependence on foreign oil is only different than it was during the Clinton administration because it costs more.  Did said administration do anything at all towards changing the situation? (had it done something we might not be in the dire straits we are today)

I don’t give a rat’s ass if people make bundles of money from renewable energy…more power to them.  I simply want the renewable energy. 

I do have a problem with the hypocrisy.  I ride a bike to work…look at the size of Al, someone’s driving his ass around everywhere.  Multiple houses, jetting around the world to tell people to straighten up…and making it all ok by planting trees in Africa.  That was the Willie Nelson point.  When you walk the walk it becomes worth listening to you talk.

Of course, all politicians are crooked and dirty…it’s axiomatic.  And this is why i don’t want a politician leading the environmental cause.  Please don’t do the “look, see, Bush is worse” routine…that’s axiomatic too.  But it is no excuse for bad behavior.  And in some ways Bush isn’t worse because anyone with half a brain could see that he’d bend us over and not even give us a kiss.  It’s supposed to be different with the “good guys”, isn’t it?

And finally, Gore’s pronouncements are full of omissions, lies, and half-truths.  His “generational challenge” op-ed repeats the lie that oil prices are high because of decreased supply and increased demand.  That is but a small part of the equation.  He complains of offshoring, failing to his responsibility for it.  And the worst of all is that he speaks glowingly of “science”, but will accept no criticism…any science that might call his assumptions into question is dismissed out of hand with “the debate is over”.  Sorry, Al, in science the debate is never over.  That is not an excuse to do nothing, only that if we are to be guided by Reason then we can’t discard it because it might pose inconvenient truths.

Oh, and by they way, he never lays out details, only grand, visionary “plans”.  Moreover, note that he never, ever suggests really changing how we do things at a fundamental level.  He never talks about decentralization, because he’s part of the elite power structure…and he has no intention of giving that up.  Not for you, not for me, not for our grandchildren…not even if Earth is in the balance.

Here let me help you out, since Klein is being used as a resource for argument…
Iraq isn’t the only country in the midst of an oil-related stickup. The Bush Administration is busily using a related crisis—the soaring price of fuel—to revive its dream of drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR). And of drilling offshore. And in the rock-solid shale of the Green River Basin. “Congress must face a hard reality,” said George W. Bush on June 18. “Unless members are willing to accept gas prices at today’s painful levels—or even higher—our nation must produce more oil.”

...If there is one thing we can predict from the oil marketÂ’s recent behavior, it is that the price is going to keep going up regardless of what new supplies are announced.

Here is the crux of the matter.
What is driving the ANWR push is not facts but pure shock doctrine strategy—the oil crisis has created the conditions in which it is possible to sell a previously unsellable (but highly profitable) policy.
—newsletter from Naomi Klein (Shock Doctrine), July 7.

I believe what she says is true.  Mainly not because she said it, but the principals themselves, George Bush and the Iraqi National Oil Company (INOC) who is under the constant thumbscrews of a country in disaster created and kept there by the West, said it.  One only has to take the political wax out of the ears to put the logic together.

Being vilified by those who have Republican corporate oil bile in their veins instead of human blood, we have here Al Gore proposing a plan to produce solar or wind power, which essentially are free renewable energy sources.

By the way, for those whose only incentive in doing anything is making money, with investment in the machinery to produce the means to create that kind of “free” renewable energy, that would be incredibly lucrative investments.  Free because once the machinery is in place, only the cost of maintenance of the hardware is all that would be needed for the resource that supplies the energy, which by the way, again, would in itself be a lucrative multi-million dollar business. 

To sum up:  We, meaning the world, would not have to go looking for energy reserves anywhere and there is still a gigantic amount of money to be made.  Go figure.  And let’s not forget the real estate involved in developing a free energy source resource to provide energy.  Wind energy will take lots of real estate, but that is real estate in wind belts that is not where people want to live, even animals do not live there except those who live underground, which would not anywhere near be as destructive as drilling for oil or mining tar sands would be.  Nevertheless, somebody will make a killing kaboodle in real estate. Solar energy that would provide enough to power a city will also take fields to set up, another monolithic amount of real estate.  But here is the catch, once these land masses have been prepared, to keep supplying the energy units no further search for energy needs to be done.  Now seems to me like Al Gore is offering investors a big new save the earth industry in place of a big old destroy the earth industry.  Is it so hard to make a choice here, with our eyes wide open?  Now you all have thought of all of this already, right?

By bonany, July 21 at 8:21 pm #

Yes, Yes, I am almost to the point of ordering Klein’s book as I am close to finishing the 2 books I am now reading. But having seen some interviews and read some articles about this ‘shock’ phenomenon by her it just beomes another one of those things or piece of the puzzle that fits so nicely or not so nicely.
Which as I have been pondering the neocon think tanks and their agendas and schemes they have been hatching and plotting since the slick dick nix years, that has be a long time for people-STOP this is the best place to just say when a person or group becomes engaged in an idea, illegally, to take over a system or an institution, well that will require a certain amount of intelligence to work out a plan, provide for contingencies and prepare for unforseen problems for it to be successful which shows that they are smart- now back to a long time planning their schemes to what end. To me it is plain old robbery with murder mixed in but it just can’t be a hit the bank and run so they put in the quiet control and compliance of the military to set up the much sought after and lusted for imperial empire for not just a larger haul but a LONG term dominance and sustained hegemony of the world, no small partial empire for these folks at all.
And when I read and heard about how these folks were planning the invasion of Iraq and to get an approval from the people to do so there needed to be an event that would stun the populace and leave their defenses down and open for any kind of claptrap dribble for these crooks to invade Iraq, I just knew this was all interrelated and just seeing the bit about naomi’s book ‘shock doctrine’ that piece fell into place neat as neat.
Which really makes it a very necessary thing for the whole 9/11 event to be very closely investigated and action taken against anyone involved as this had to be more than a group of disgruntled muslims retaliating for some western injustice visited on them. And coming to grips with a true picture of how and why this happened will bring an understanding as to what these traitorous think tanks are capable of doing.
And now that the hopeful end of the w & dick reign of terror should come in January, oh please let it, there is a possiblity of something else or some other event to ‘shock’ us again because I don’t believe these neocons have played out their last card and your description of the high oil prices/bubble just may be part of another phase of what these devious bastards have planned.
Call it conspiracy nutism or what but when a group or anyone does what has been done in our country and this world, I can not look at it as anything else but a declaration of war on us and that is very serious business.

If you want to see just where and how this came about, read Naomi Klein’s book “Shock Doctrine”. For decades now the powers have used disasters, real or imagined, man-made or natural and accidental or manufactured (and believe me, this gas price dodge is manufactured) to ram through the types of legislation they could never, never get passed under normal circumstances. This is a classic example of it.

LetÂ’s clear the air a bit.  First off, it is stipulated that jackpine savage has no love lost on Al Gore.  And quite frankly Scarlett, I donÂ’t give a damn.  All that notwithstanding, it is difficult to see exactly what jp s is really complaining about with respect to GoreÂ’s efforts to stave off a disastrous energy crises with a viable plan that will go into effect in 10 years.  jackpine savage ought to name another politician, running for president or not running who is doing anything remotely close to that!  And he ought to also tell us what politician has not been associated with some corporation or another and has not received campaign funding from the same at some time or another.  It is a fact of life that politicians will be courted and bedded with corporate power of some sort.  Water continues to run through the Ganges.  And who has fared worse, the country under Jimmy Carter, or the country under George W. Bush?  If you want to talk about hypocrites…well all right.  Who has a huge stake in the oil industry?  How about the Bush family and their oil transport companies.  Shall we talk about Neil Bush?  Or how about grandaddy Prescott?
http://polidics.com/president-bush/where-did-the-bush-money-tree-come-from-the-hilter-connection.html
So you think there is money only in crude oil?  Oh yeah.

Besides driving a bio-fuel bus, what else has WillieNel done to better the environment?  Big deal, get real.

I’ll tell you what the motivation for lifting the off-shore drilling ban is: giving control of the land to the oil companies.  They’ll begin signing perpetual leases for these areas at a pittance.

And i’m still not backing Gore.  He did the same thing with Indian burial grounds in California for Occidental Petroleum (long family connection to the firm) when he was VP.

Shenonymous, he’s in a venture capital group that is establishing the carbon credit scheme.  Has anyone ever looked at his “inconvenient truth” website where there are tips for what you can do?  It’s all a rehash of what Jimmy Carter said to do.

He tells us to eat local, but his administration made it all the more difficult for small farmers to succeed.  He tells us to eat less meat (never mind addressing environmentally sound methods for raising livestock), yet his administration happily helped out meat packing giants like Tyson.

Maybe if he had spent less time collecting campaign contributions from the Chinese government and more time working on what he truly “believes” in we would have been better positioned for the situation we are in now.

I hear a lot of self-aggrandizing talk but don’t see much walk from the man.  Willie Nelson makes his travels with a bio-fuel bus; Al needs a private jet.  Who’s the better environmentalist?

ThereÂ’s nothing wrong with a “re-run” of the 80s for the demand for alternative fuel efficiency.  Yeah, tell us, what is wrong with that?  And it is nothing new that the Japanese auto industry will kick American auto makersÂ’ asses….again, they simply make better cars.  The fact is, the Japanese are smarter at it.  And they have incredible incentive if there is an American dollar they can abduct.  And maybe the price of oil will drop…a smidgen with all the insane jockeying going on to try to save GWBÂ’s legacy ass.  There is no way that gas will become cheap again. ItÂ’s over.  The curtain has fallen and the shoe has dropped on that little ruin-the-planet drama.  Even if, which isnÂ’t going to happen, the US were to pull out, there will be no peace in the Middle East as long as religious and ideological perspectives differ as they do.  It no longer has anything to do with balls and the problem of war in the world is beyond oil reserves.  It has to do with the evolution of consciousness.  To miss that is to willingly to be sightless. 

It is hysterical to keep calling for main stream media (your darling MSM) to be “made” to do anything counter to their corporate agenda.  Laughably, one of the posters thinks its a problem of language, as if only a rephrasing will break the spell.  Another offers an adolescent challenge (if it can even qualify as that) to Al Gore to reconfigure his house, now how really helpful is that when nothing constructive has really been suggested!  LetÂ’s get really real.

jibbguy has the right attitude.  At least there is the offer of some real possibility (regardless of how improbable it is because “everyone” just wonÂ’t do it).  He also offers an awareness of how devious “they” are, you know who “they” are, those perennial but unnamed “powers-that-be” b#@*&%rds).  Why it is even possible to power an automobile completely with solar energy by building solar cells right into the roof of the damn vehicle.  And since even batteries are recyclable, well you do the math.  Why years ago a race car driver named Ron Moody invented an engine that would run a car a hundred miles on a gallon of gas.  He designed the Moodymobile.  But Detroit bought the plans and burnt them.  So, yes, there has been a corporate conspiracy to keep the gas guzzlers as emperors of the road.  I mean there is a lot of industries involved:  steel, upholstery, glass, electronics, you know all the stuff it takes to build big phallic cars, not mention all the dyemakers of the parts, oh yeah, the parts industry, it is staggering when you really think about the auto industry, and you think itÂ’s only about the shareholdersÂ’ profit.

Here we have a guy, Al Gore, the only politician, who by the way is not running for political office, (who the hell cares if he is a Democrat? except rich oil slathered Republicans), who is raising the consciousness of viable alternatives and we have numbnuts here deriding his efforts because they “suspect” he wants to line his own pockets.  LetÂ’s see…does he have stock in wind energy or solar energy corporations?  Why doesnÂ’t somebody check that out?  Maybe…just maybe his ten-year plan will work!  Maybe clean energy for hundreds of millions of people throughout the entire world is possible with just some human ingenuity and courage.  But Nibelungs are clawing at holding on to their own treasure chests, and you can hear them here on this forum.

By cyrena, July 20 at 3:48 pm #

The only thing I could hope to come close and it still doesn’t make sense is that if we keep importing oil, hell the price it only enriches the oil robbers, then maybe a long term strategy would be oil would become scarce with the added comsumption of the indias, chinas and other major importers that all of a sudden, voila!, we would possess the largest reserves of oil. This is a bit weak because I am addressing the inhome fields already tapped but not producing and leaves w’s opening the offshore stuff to wonder about, which could be part of a neocon trick to make congress deny offshore drilling but whatever, it still contains a hint of the control and dominance the military industrial quacks have on their minds.
And this agenda which can easily be considered a conspiracy may have implications with gore’s attempt to do something about our insane energy programs. And I don’t know what it would be. Maybe something to do with stopping gore’s initiative from even getting off the ground by making a move that would not allow a tranfer of power in January?
Herein lies the problem of the neocon’s think tank years and NO monitoring what a small group of people were plotting for this country. Terribly evident now that it is in large a threat to the security of the USA as we knew it. I hope all their plans and schemes are petering out(literally) but who knows. If we get to January 21, 2009, with an new president and congress, I will fell better and maybe with a little hope of gaining control of another catagory 5 hurricane headed out way.

By samosamo, July 19 at 6:58 pm

Ya know what Samosamo,

I honestly have NOT figured out what the hidden agenda is, in lifting the ban on off-shore drilling, because itÂ’s totally irrational. ItÂ’s already been noted that it will NOT increase the availability for us here. (I canÂ’t remember the explanation on that, but somebody provided one here on this forum a few weeks back).

The other issue, that IÂ’ve heard more recently coming from members of Congress, is that these f%@#kers ALREADY HAVE hundreds of leases all over the country that THEY ARENÂ’T EVEN USING!!! In other words, they have the rights to drill, (sewn up) and they arenÂ’t drilling!!! WTF is up with that? Megalomania greed? I mean, it doesnÂ’t get any crazier than that. ItÂ’s destruction for the sheer purposes of destruction. In short, they want it because ITÂ’S THERE. It would do ZILCH to solve the alleged crises that we face now.

And of course this didn’t just start. Here in California, it’s been a fight with Dick Bush since they took over the country. They fought with Gray Davis about it, before he was recalled, (which was the same time that Enron was ripping us off) and since then, they’ve continued harassing even the pin head Schwartzie. (who probably would have gone along with it, if the California repugs had been OK with it, but even they aren’t). Not because they care about the environment or the long lasting damage, because I’ve long ago realized that none of these people give a rats ass about anything that happens once their dead. W said that long ago, in reference to the whole global warming issue. Seriously, he said ‘who cares, we’ll all be dead anyway.’ If that’s not a socio-path, I don’t know what one is. No, it’s just because they don’t want ‘their’ coastline to look like the US Gulf Coast. Like Houston and other places down there. That whole area is ugly enough to make a person suicidal; at least any view of the gulf will do it. It smells too. These people destroy anything they put their hands on.

And of course the price of gas doesnÂ’t go down. Premium is $5.04 a gallon here, as of today. In my area, itÂ’s been on an average of .23 a gallon more than everywhere else in the country, for over 3 years, which is why I havenÂ’t owned a vehicle in even longer. I used to use the only Citgo in my immediate area whenever I rented a car, but that was closed down a few years ago. There one day, and gone the next. No surprise. Eventually they all disappeared. Even the ones downtown.

Anyway, I agree that Al Gore has been the chief for addressing this problem, because nobody else has been willing to let it hit the light of day. It’s not that we haven’t known all along, just like it’s not that we haven’t had access to alternative (renewable) fuel sources all along. Every time in the past 4 decades that somebody has come up with a plan for solar or any other kind of energy, the oil robber barons have snuffed ‘em out.

So, weÂ’ll see. The technology is there, the will is there, and we have the brain power too. It would provide millions of jobs, and we could rebuild this long decayed infrastructure at the same time.

If more Americans had ANY idea, just how ‘3rd world’ we are, compared to so many other modernized nations in the world, their bubble of illusion about the supremacy of America would burst, and quite messily.
The most noticable part of it for me (at least initially) was just the transportation systems. Ours is about as antiquated as any 3rd world country, compared to China, Japan, many European nations, and I could go on.

But…I won’t. I’ll just go eat my spinach.

If you believe anything that E. J. Dionne writes consider this jewel of omission: “The United States is now at a disadvantage in the global economy because we use disproportionate amounts of energy. According to the International Energy Agency, Americans use nearly twice as many tons of oil equivalent per person as do the Japanese and the Germans, and more than double that of the Swiss.” For crying out loud, how many aircraft carriers, other surface ships, and submarines does the Swiss navy have? How large is the Swiss air force? How many tanks does the Swiss army have?
Dionne is not fooling me nor can he make me feel guilty for driving my car and heating my home because he is remarkably silent on the fact that the largest American user of crude oil is our armed forces and not the car-driving civilian public. Why are he and Gore, mum on that fact? Because both are genuflecting establishmentarians in the final analysis. My advice: stop reading Dionne, or else stop believing anything that this MSM cypher produces.

By cyrena, July 19 at 10:17 am #

I watched his speech and am impressed in that being a positive plan about doing something about the current and long and drawn out corrupted energy policy the current administration keeps throwing in everybody’s face as the ‘only’ acceptable policy.
Any thing, almost, to counter w & dicks’s criminal actions at our expense.
I hope what gore spoke of will be set into motion because the action of doing nothing is worse that letting the current cabal continue with their ‘grand theft auto’ plans already in action.(I had to take that from w’s little snips about going to war against Iraq..uh, saddam. And from a democracy NOW snipet of w explaining that he his dropping the ban on offshore drilling and that the ball was in congress’ court to proceed onward to help in our energy crisis and any failure to proceed would be their fault. But NO WORD from w about the costs coming down which is the hidden part of his little charade to appear to have the answer to all our energy needs but the prices won’t be coming down, how else would the big oil boys be able to cash in on the current prices. What a dip.
Speaking of which, as I have noted even on some msm sites that the price of oil has dropped now by $14-$16 a barrel in the past several days for reasons I can’t be sure of but the price of gas has not come down, as a matter of fact, around here is has gone up which will I feel sure to be explained away as ‘that oil has not made it to the refineries yet’, just another corporate delay for maintaining high prices.
But thanks to gore, there appears to be a plan that if followed through with could take a big unjustified burden off of not just the people in the US but the rest of the world.

The current hangup with “dependence on foreign oil” ignores the real possibility that we will soon also be “dependent on foreign plastics.” Russia which has the world’s largest natural gas reserves may eventually corner the market on production of cheap plastics to which we will then become addicted for sure. Plastic production requires vast amounts of hydrocarbons. The Russians have them, we do not or apparently not.

jibbguy, July 18 at 12:57 pm #
•  “LetÂ’s look at that this way: Unreasoned skepticism based on ignorance of the subject is not only unscientific, but it hardly rates serious consideration.”

I’d say it rates NO consideration, and is a complete waste of ‘energy’. (pun intended).

•  “Or are you knee-jerk disÂ’ing out of conditioned reaction?”

You hit the nail here jibbguy. ItÂ’s conditioned reaction.

In fact, I’d go as far as to suggest that MOST of this unreasoned skepticism and hostile cynicism is a result of conditioned reaction. After 8 years that have resulted in the Greatest Heist of the past many Centuries, and an intentionally cultivated ‘class war’ between and amongst all of the victims of the Heist, as well as the ‘us against them’ brainwashing, that’s what it’s come down to.

In other words, EVERYBODY is ‘suspectÂ’ if theyÂ’ve got more than two nickels to rub together, or if they ever had a connection to the political apparatus. So scientific facts, or any new information is totally disregarded in preference for maintaining this visceral conditioned reaction. I actually know academics whose thesis and dissertations are based on their visceral hatred for ‘the middle classÂ’. Now you KNOW that if they hate the ‘middle classÂ’ that much, itÂ’s impossible to describe how much they hate the real crooks, even if they were able to distinguish one from the other. (but mostly they arenÂ’t)  And, that very huge lump of emotional shit/resentment that they carry around, obstructs any possible opening for a new plan or a new view.

Anyway, thanks for the comments. I would like to toss in that there actually ARE a few universities very much involved in making this information known, and utilizing it. In fact, in my own community, regular folks actually discuss this stuff, and NOT in a political context. Regular folks such as me and the cab driver a few weeks back. He was a Japanese fellow, and while I don’t know what his ‘day job’ happened to be, he was very much ‘in the know’ about these things, and probably not ONLY from listening to Al Gore. (in fact, Al’s name didn’t even come up).

Now I’ll agree with Purple Girl again on the part about this being a repeat of the 70’s and the 80’s, but only to a degree. Back then, this information, and any efforts to come up with alternative RENEWABLE fuels were indeed thwarted by those who had figured out they could make a killing off of it. And, they have. And, they have continued to buy off, kill off, or otherwise prevent this obstruction to their path of trillions. It’s really that simple. I can’t even begin to cite the numbers of individual and group efforts to produce these alternative and RENEWABLE sources of energy that have been squashed, by the evildoer robber barons. (however, they ARE ‘citable’ for anyone wishing to do the work).

But, that was then, and this is now, and a whole lot more is at stake at this point. Like Aergus, I believe it to be enormously beneficial that Al Gore, OR ANYBODY, is bringing this to the attention of those who need to know, and arenÂ’t likely to blow it off, based on unreasoned and unsupported skepticism.

Anyway, I posted the link to the entire speech on another thread, before realizing that EJ had addressed it here. ItÂ’s in video form, and semi-lengthy, and very much worth viewing in its entirety, because I donÂ’t think that EJ had the space here, to do it justice.

~~~~~

Watch this speech. Get the big picture.
It’s truly a remarkable speech. Be sure to see it for yourself:

http://www.moveon.org/r?r=3945&id=13269-9244030-m9.46Qx&t=3

Wecansolveit.com

Meantime, thanks for the links to your association.

RE:  Mighk, July 18 at 7:08 am #
How about this version:

Gore, Pickens et al need to be phrasing it this way:
“Why would you continue sending $700 Billion per year overseas to buy oil, when you could spend $700 Billion per year and make us bloody rich!!!?”

^ thatÂ’s a more realistic assessment of the situationÂ…

They are pushing for the mandates that will force you, the taxpayer, to fund the investment while they, Gore Pickens et al, reap all the rewards. When they say things like “wind power is the new oil” to the investment groups, they are referring to the windfall profits enjoyed by the select few during the oil boom. They have you all juiced up on the global warming kool-aid to a point where you are ready to hand them the keys to the treasury- no questions asked. Its a perfect time for them.

Political party does not matter here. Its all about greed.

Following the golden rule of “never invest with your own money”, Texas just handed over a 5 billion dollar investment of taxpayer money for a power system that might deliver 100% reliable electricity 10% of the time.
When its up and running, they receive huge tax credits and be able to charge you a premium for the electricity. What more could they ask for - you pay twice and you paid for the damn thing!

This scam will be far more profitable then oil ever was. its a very sad time to watch this unfold…

Sorry, Aegrus, having watched the Clinton administration (with Mr. Environment, Al Gore as VP) do absolutely nothing about this issue for 8 years was bad enough.  But to then have both of them strutting around now, telling us how we need to clean up our act rubs me in the worst way.

And i agree with another poster…too much of Al’s spiel seems targeted more on making Al rich and famous than it does actually addressing the issues.  Moreover, the carbon-credit thing is a scam.  At best it is a way for wealthy people to ease their conscience.

The old story of the ant and the grasshopper comes to mind, with a couple of prominent politicians playing both roles when it suits their personal needs.

What we need is someone who isn’t a politician speaking about these issues.  We the People need to be talking about these issues, because as popular as Al is with the Left, he’s equally unpopular with the Right…which means that only half the people are listening to him.  Sure, he’s popular in the rest of the world, but they’ve mostly been working on this issue for a long, long time.  They’re the people who signed the Kyoto Protocol (something that the Clinton administration didn’t feel was worth spending political capital on…probably because it wouldn’t make any of them rich.)

Let’s look at that this way: Unreasoned skepticism based on ignorance of the subject is not only unscientific, but it hardly rates serious consideration.

Do you know something about this subject you would like to tell the rest of us? Site a scientific study that debunks them perhaps?

Hmm, i thought not because they do not exist… Subjects that are rigorously suppressed and not studied by U.S. Universities do not have any studies to site either way, because they were never done…. And that’s the problem, and the point

Or are you knee-jerk dis’ing out of conditioned reaction?

BTW: Here’s some friendly advice for you : Intimidation via derision doesn’t work unless A) You know what you are talking about… And B) The target could possibly be intimidated by such tactics in the first place.

There are many technologies, such as using water as a fuel via plasma ignition which “explodes” tap water enough to power an modified internal combustion engine.. And “magnetic motors” which use magnetism as the prime motive force… Which could eliminate the need to use oil as a fuel. No more filling stations, no more electrical grid.

But no one is telling you about them. Wind, solar, and pressure-stored hydrogen are OK but all are conveniently less effective or cost-efficient than oil… What we need is de-centralization of energy production, everyone producing it themselves at home or in-vehicle… Ending pollution, ending poverty, ending war, ending hunger, and ending the concept of control via scarcity. This IS within our means, the science is there…. But when you follow the money, is there any surprise you haven’t heard about it yet?

Well, we in the Open Source Energy movement are telling you now….

http://www.opednews.com/articles/Free-Energy-and-the-Open-S-by-Steve-Windisch—ji-080718-824.html

Part 3 of the series “Free energy and the Open Source Energy Movement” examines Cold Fusion, Dr. Eugene Mallove, and the non-profit organization Panacea-BOCAF which is working to get these technologies into the mainstream. If these subjects interest you, check out the many links at the end, and the previous articles in the series.

You may be amazed at all they haven’t told you… And how there is real hope for our world via the implementation of new free energy technologies.

Barack should ask Al to be his running mate. As vp and with a democrat congress, he would certainly follow through on his ten year energy independence concept and be able to get something done as the obstructionist repugs would be in the minority.
This would also give him small measure of justice being served after having the 2000 election stolen from him by the James Baker/Suprememe Court cabal.

Somebody must have run it by the electorate that drilling in Anwar will, in some, hopefully forseeable future reduce the price of gas at the pump by 4 cents/gallon -  of course that’s assuming that the 4 cents won’t end up on the profit side of big-oils’ ledgers.

I really don’t care about the many perceptions of Al Gore’s motives, or about whether or not he is practicing precisely as he preaches. What I do care about is his extreme popularity, and his ability to keep this issue in the faces of the American public as well as the rest of the world.

Sometimes, words are extremely powerful. It’s pretty important to also realize how few people, who may or may not be more qualified than Al Gore, actually get a forum to discuss environmental issues in the context that he is. Be thankful someone is doing it, and stop moaning about the man instead of activating on the issue.

I have my own challenge for Al Gore: Stop profiting off the fear of a global warming crisis and lead by example.  He can start by powering his enormous house with with wind and solar energy instead of his “carbon credits” charade, which has served to put even more dollars in his pocket while doing nothng to reduce emissions or consumption.

Don’t give examples of what we could do and how we could do it. Just say “alternative sources” and magically, our problem with producing energy will be solved.

This is a Re- run of the ‘80’s. when we start demanding alternatives and fuel effiencency the price of oil will drop. Deja Vu all over again. The Oil Royals are getting nervous again- just like the ‘80’s. The japanese are beginning to kick the Big 3 asses again. So the price of gas will drop so that neither industry will lose their power over the World Economy. Make gas cheap again and the Big 3 can start rolling out the Gas guzzlers again.
WE progressed beyond Whale blubber and Ricshaws, We can move beyond Oil and SUV’s. Peace in the Middle East will come when their resource has no value. When you don’t have the world by the balls you must begin to make friends, otherwise you end up back in the Stoneage.