Please, Al, Run!

The Assault on Reason. Al Gore's chief complaint about the Bush administration is summed up by those four words.

Mr. Gore’s central argument is that “reason, logic and truth seem to play a sharply diminished role in the way America now makes important decisions” and that the country’s public discourse has become “less focused and clear, less reasoned.” This “assault on reason,” he suggests, is personified by the way the Bush White House operates. Echoing many reporters and former administration insiders, Mr. Gore says that the administration tends to ignore expert advice (be it on troop levels, global warming or the deficit), to circumvent the usual policy-making machinery of analysis and debate, and frequently to suppress or disdain the best evidence available on a given subject so it can promote predetermined, ideologically driven policies.

The Bush admin never lets facts get in the way of its opinions. Maybe it should try blogging! But Gore, as noted by Time's Eric Pooley, is the "perfect stealth candidate for 2008."

An Inconvenient Truth About "An Inconvenient Truth"

I'm an old fart. I spend most evenings at home, guzzling coffee and assailing poor newspapers editors, reporters, and local politicians with snotty emails. Most are never delivered; they're intercepted by the devil. Yes, the devil exists. On the Internet, the Evil One is called the Mailer-Daemon, and he regularly blocks hundreds of my instructive emails. But a few get through, and so the battle rages. Last weekend, however, I suspended hostilities to see "An Inconvenient Truth."

Now, this movie is coming to Allentown's 19th Street Theatre on July 15-29, but I had to see it now. Let me explain why. First, those I know who've seen it have all raved about it with frightened looks in their eyes. Hmmm. Second, taking a lady to see that flick would definitely impress her with my sensitivity to our environment and all that crap. I might even get lucky. It was a win win situation, so we shlepped on down to Doylestown's County Theatre, plowing through the mud left by floodwaters along the Lehigh Valley's river roads.

Have you ever been to Doylestown on a Saturday night? I felt like I was on another planet. I was with the artsy-fartsy crowd - the hottsie-tottsies, the foo-foo lovers, the intelligentsia, the upper middle class, baby, and lovin' it. I even wore clean sneakers. And Doylestown is totally off the hook. (I heard that expression this past weekend, too). I parked right next to a store that sells nothing but organic soaps. I walked past another that sells nothing but all these exotic coffees and has its own gigantic roaster. Beat that, Starbucks!

My companion suggested we get seated early, so we walked in. Instead of the usual popcorn and candy, this place was serving Pellegrino, cappucino, and every kind of 'ino you could imagine. There were biscottis, veggies, and gourmet chocolate instead of nachos and that gooey cheese I use to cement things together when I get back home. And while we waited for the movie to start, the theatre had a local art slide show and ads for all kinds of local artisans.

The movie started with the voice of Al Gore, talking about a river or something. He's the star! But he didn't sound at all like the automaton who was once "the next President of the United States." He was very much alive, alternately amusing and quite passionate. He demonstrated unequivocally, with power point presentations and monitors, that we're heading down the path to perdition. We're in a world of hurt. Had Gore acted like this during his presidential campaign, he would have won. Oops. I forgot, he did win.

At various points during this riveting movie, the audience reacted visibly. When Gore presented a graph showing that American cars have lower fuel standards than cars anywhere else in the world, the audience gasped in disbelief. People were visibly upset at the sight of polar bears, swimming mile after mile for ice to keep from drowning. What's really depressing is that we have the technology and means to stop global warming, but just don't seem to care.

At the movie's conclusion, the audience applauded, although I don't really know why. And here's the inconvenient truth about "An Inconvenient Truth." The movie ended with example after example of steps we could take, on our own, to reverse global warming. And this is when the artsy-fartsy crowd left. No one in that crowd, it appears, is interested in actually doing something about the problem, even individually. Too inconvenient.

And by the way, in case you're curious, I did not get lucky. My companion has decided to follow Al Gore and all my emails to her have been blocked by the Mailer- Daemon. And so the battle rages.