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March 1, 2007Gore’s religious hyperbole threatens a free pressAl Gore says governments haven’t done enough about Global warming because the media is too balanced, and that balance brings a bias. Got that? He’s telling the media they have to stop asking questions or reporting dissenting views and simply fall in line. He wants them to “report the consensus.” Except - once again - there is no consensus about global warming, or its causes, there are only people who won’t allow the other side to be heard and then TELL you there is a consensus. And you’re supposed to just believe it. Take it “on faith.” Kind of like, “Comrades, today is another glorious day for the proletariat…while you’re standing in line for shoes, potatoes and toilet paper, rejoice in the defeat of rank capitalism and individualism by the enlightened and benevolent leadership. Be sure to wave at them as they drive by you in their hybrid limos. Thank you, Comrades, for keeping it real! And Gaia blesses you!” Gore’s Shark-jumping line: “I think if it is important to look at the pressures that made it more likely than not that mainstream journalists in the United States would convey a wholly inaccurate conclusion about the most important moral, ethical, spiritual and political issue humankind has ever faced.” I thought it wasn’t a POLITICAL issue, Al? I thought it was a moral one…now it’s SPIRITUAL, too? The BIGGEST one? EVER, EVER, EVER? Gore would like that. He wants you to take it all “on faith.” And he wants the press to just write what he tells them to (and some of them seem more than happy to do just that) and reap the whirlwind. That’s not leadership. That’s not even salesmanship. That’s the sort of strong-arm tactics we had to beat back in Europe - several times - in the 20th century. I note that Gore’s suggestion that journalists and editors stick to his version and forego telling any others is exactly what so many on the left have accused the Bush administration of doing on…oh, pick a subject. Over and over we watch the left project their means and manner onto the opposition, and it seems to be effective. I distrusted the “global warming is going to kill us all unless you do exactly what I say NOW” schtick before…now I’m starting to develop a real animus toward it. Especially since I saw a commercial last night advising us that we had “thirty years.” (Got that? They’ve finally decided that we have exactly thirty years) to “fix” global warming. The press has considerably less time than thirty years to ably turn around their relentless acquiescence to a movement. They’ve invested vats of their own credibility into Gore and into a theory that has not managed to move beyond hypothesis into demonstrable scientific truth. In a little while they’ll have no choice but to fully cave in to his demand for selective reporting and suppression of balance, in order to protect that investment. Journalists will have to embrace a weird paradox that “saves” their credibility by giving up their constitutional freedom of free expression. I know a lot of people in the press think I hate them. They’re wrong. As I’ve said often, journalists were my first heroes, and I am watching them wrecklessly, unthinkingly throw themselves and their rights away. And ours, too. James Taranto writes:
Honestly…I’m really starting to think it can’t be bias. I think even a biased journalist can appreciate when his turf is being intruded upon and trampled by a marauding politician. I think - or maybe I simply want to believe - that the journalists just aren’t paying close enough attention. Perhaps they’re so busy making sure that evil Bush is not infringing their work in any way that they’re simply missing what Gore is doing. That’s what misdirection is all about, isn’t it? Getting you looking in one direction, while an illusion is being worked in the other: It is true that there are many illusions in the world. And on the world stage there stride some masters of the sleight-of-hand and the misdirection - you can recognise them because they are all of a mind, and of a piece, and they are all working different parts of the same trick. But if you can recognise a trick for what it is, you can prevail against it. In the commercial I mentioned earlier, a man stood on railroad tracks as a speeding train headed his way. “Thirty years,” he mused, “then I don’t have to worry about it!” He steps out of the way, and of course right behind him is a child who will be mowed down by the train. How subtle. Children with daisies, children asking for more arsenic in the water, children living in a post-Reagan apocalyptic nightmare, children being run over by out-of-control trains. It’s always ok to exploit a kid, as long as it’s for the right cause…you know…this year’s most important moral, ethical, spiritual and political issue humankind has ever faced.”. I’m 48, and I’ve lived through one “most important moral, ethical, spiritual and political issue humankind has ever faced,” crisis hype after another. Enough. And besides…I have to worry about the global warming on Mars and how that happened. Kobayashi Maru has more thoughts. And you’ll find some interesting calculations over at Protein Wisdom. Lorie Byrd has some fun suggesting some additional offsets but she is making a serious point at the core of this piece. Bill Hobbs has lots of information on carbon offsets and is beginning to smell snake oil. More here, and here. Reihl writes of Inconvenient Loot. Canadian nonsense here. Doug Ross has printable carbon credits http://theanchoressonline.com/2007/03/01/gores-religious-fervor-goes-hyperbolic/trackback/ 43 Responses to “Gore’s religious hyperbole threatens a free press” |
March 1st, 2007 at 4:21 pm
Amen Anchoress,
Here we have Gore and company pegging the end of the world as being very near. Strange bedfelllows: the rapturists and the global warmingists. Pretty soon we’ll see bumper stickers stating: “This car will become unoccupied when Global Warming is through with us.”
March 1st, 2007 at 4:23 pm
This now is so over the top there has to be more to it. I heard a caller on Catholic Answers yesterday suggest the hype is for “population control”-the demographic suicide thing. I still think it’s marketing genius and would take on a bet with anyone that Al Gore is going to run in 08. I predict it will be announced after his Nobel prize out of ‘alturism’. One down (the Oscar), one to go, just when we are all sick to no end of Hillary and Obama going at it-when we only ‘think’ it couldn’t get worse!
Kia
March 1st, 2007 at 4:28 pm
I’m 61, maybe not old in absolute terms, but I’ve been around long enough to have seen all this before. Back in the 1970’s it was Global Cooling and the next ice age. Then we had the Club of Rome and the dire predictions about how the global economy was going to collapse by the year 2000. Then add in Paul Ehrlich and his “Population Bomb,” in which we were all going to starve in 30 years. It seems that someone somewhere is always trying to frighten the rest of us into doing what they want and this whole “climate change” is nothing more than the next population bomb. It’s interesting how they always use the 30 year time frame. It’s close enough to be scary, but far enough away that they won’t be held accountable when their horrible scenario doesn’t materialize.
March 1st, 2007 at 5:16 pm
“And the left always exploits children when they want to hammer you into submission.”
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This is coming from the same group that thinks Dakota Fanning acting in a simulated rape scene and a 12-y.o. Jodie Foster acting as a prostitute is “Art.”
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And they want ME to trust MY children with them in THEIR village?
March 1st, 2007 at 7:01 pm
This type of radical environmentalism is a form of neo-paganism where the Earth is worshiped. Al Gore is one of the high priests of the cult and those who speak against the orthodoxy of global warming speak against the religion and are vilified. There can be no thoughtful debate under such circumstances.
http://www.wyszynski.net/wordpress/?p=327
March 1st, 2007 at 7:55 pm
[...] The Anchoress (who else?) got me started on today’s linkfest. Check it out, and follow as many of the links as you can. Lamentable reading. [...]
March 1st, 2007 at 8:19 pm
I’ve observed over the years the delight with which some of those among the younger set who dwell on the Right discover Red-baiting, seemingly unaware that this was discredited as a rhetorical device back in their grandparents’ day, but you, esteeemed A, are old enough to know better. As to some of the other issues raised, well, perhaps in some sidebar yet to come.
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cordially,
March 1st, 2007 at 9:39 pm
Anchoress,
As a Roman Catholic, I wonder how aware you are of the entire cottage industry within Protestantism, that grew up, and unfortunately is still going strong, around the Hal Lindsey “Late Great Planet Earth” books. You know, Jesus is returning within the current generation that saw the establishment of the state of Israel in 1948. (It’s getting to be quite a long generation, isn’t it?) This movement kind of locked arms in common cause with the “left behind” folks, but has a somewhat different focus.
Having had past association with churches that indulge these movements, The parallels between the ringleaders of the end timers and the Global Warming folks is striking, almost creepy. All the same elements are there: rapidly approaching doomsday predictions based upon very selective readings of applicable texts, the need to take specific prescribed actions, and a whole cast of characters ready to sell the related goods and make their nice living. Not to mention re-writing the story every time that actual events break the current model. And of course, lots of dedicated followers that refuse to address the illogic of their beliefs.
Anyway I think it’s interesting.
March 2nd, 2007 at 12:03 am
Rand, I alluded to both communists and fascists in the piece, so I can’t exactly be charged with “red baiting.” And I’m disappointed that you would make that charge, as it is one calculated to reduce my thoughts and concerns to some sort of rhetorical game. It’s meant to “label” my argument and thus negate it rather than consider it.
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I assure you, I’m not playing a game here. Gore is literally telling the press to follow his script, only. If they do it - or continue to NOT ask questions until it becomes too late to ask any without looking very foolish, then we will have finally lost our free press. That, to me, seems like it should be the concern of every intellectually honest person who wants to continue to be free to think what he or she wishes, without fear of reprisal.
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I know some would like to paint my concerns as a “conservative smear,” but the things I am bringing up are real issues, not illusions. Gore is putting one thing on the world stage, living something very different (in at the very least TWO of his properties) - he’s proposing an idea that will affect economies, industries and private lives, and which will fall hardest on the shoulders of the non-elites, and the press is not doing its job. It is certainly NOT doing the job of investigation it would be doing were Gore a person with an R after his name.
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Anyone who has spent any time reading me knows that my concerns about the freedom and integrity of the press trump nearly every other political issue, and I’m not exactly a bandwagon jumper.
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I’m not a “red-baiter,” either. But I’ll be damned if I am going to watch a politician - any politician - tell the press that it mustn’t present an opposing view and not call that what it is. There is a name for it. We’ve heard the word flung about recklessly for 5 years and now we’re numb to it.
March 2nd, 2007 at 12:14 am
Global warming is front and center right now….
….so it’s good to get opposing viewpoints even as Al Gore insists that
March 2nd, 2007 at 2:52 am
lol
here i am sending you a note about this story, and you are way, way ahead as usual.
best wishes…
March 2nd, 2007 at 2:56 am
THE BIG GREEN SWINDLE
If you are planning to ’save the world’, you should at least inform everyone, you are going to financially benefit from your efforts.
March 2nd, 2007 at 2:58 am
Al Gore has always been a nut. I remember his and Tipper’s crusade in the 80’s and thought he was way over the top then…was willing to reserve judgement in 2000, but frankly, he’s never been the best side of liberals.
March 2nd, 2007 at 6:13 am
Print out your own Carbon Credits!
Carbon Credits aren’t just for Al Gore and the filthy rich any longer. Even the rabble — yes, you and me — can have access to these incredible investment vehicles…
March 2nd, 2007 at 6:22 am
Rightosphere Temperature Check: Polling Right-Of-Center Bloggers On Key Issues (1st Quarter, 2007)
Right Wing News emailed more than 240 right-of-center bloggers and asked them to answer 8 questions. The following 63 blogs responded, Aaron’s CC, The Absurd Report, David All Group, The Anchoress, Argghhhh!, AtlanticBlog, Atlas Shrugs, Babalu Blog, B…
March 2nd, 2007 at 8:29 am
Free Press Threatened?
By Gore’s religious hyperbole and by telling that the media should “stop asking questions or reporting dissenting views and simply fall in line” says The Anchoress. Meanwhile, Bill Hobbs and Dan @ Riehl World View look at the carbon offsets…
March 2nd, 2007 at 8:46 am
A-
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Please indulge this Protestant as two comments have been made about the Rapture and “the end of the world”.
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I am a rapturist. No, the word doesn’t show up in the Bible, but Paul told us Jesus would return for His Church in a twinkling of an eye. That includes all Christian churches. The dead in Christ shall rise first then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up…
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This is the Scripture on which we base our faith in the Rapture. I don’t know when it will occur. Even Jesus said no one knows the day or the time but the Father Who is in Heaven.
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The 1948 scenario is also from the Bible if the interpretation is correct. Jesus spoke of the fig tree, the symbol of Israel and said the generation that sees this come to pass (Israel re-gathered as a nation) shall not pass away before He returns.
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Israel became a nation again in May 1948. I was born in 1947 and am 59 years old. What I believe is that the last person born in 1948 will not die before the Lord returns for His Church. Or maybe He was speaking in terms of a generation being 20 years, which would start the clock in 1968.
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People live to be quite old these days so I don’t see time running out, but if I’ve interpreted it wrong who am I hurting? It just means I’ll die and go to Heaven instead of going directly there while still alive.
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Contrary to what some posters have led me to believe it will not be the end of the world at that time. Satan has to have free reign for a time with the anti-Christ and false prophet before the Battle of Armageddon.
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It’s amazing that just the spoken word from Jesus will destroy all the evil armies of the world.
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We then go into a thousand years reign by Jesus after the sheep have been separated from the goats, and Satan will be bound during that time.
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After the millenial reign of Jesus Satan will be let loose for a time and then comes the Final Judgment and then a new Heaven and a new Earth. It’s all in that wonderful book we call the Bible.
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This has nothing to do with Global Warming. If man is responsible for global warming then why is Mars also warming? Do they have cars and planes on Mars?
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At any rate, we should all be acting as though Jesus would return at any minute and we would not be ashamed to be in His Presence. How nice if we did.
March 2nd, 2007 at 9:30 am
I don’t remember who said it or the exact words, but I remember someone saying that Man is made to worship, and if he will not worship the true God, he will find something else.
In a culture that has systematically destroyed any kind of true worship, what can we expect? Next Mr. Gore will be declaring himself divine.
March 2nd, 2007 at 11:07 am
Web Reconnaissance for 03/02/2007
A short recon of whats out there that might draw your attention.
March 2nd, 2007 at 1:44 pm
[...] out related thoughts from The Anchoress. Posted By: Sister Toldjah in: Global Warming | EMail This Post | Print This Post | [...]
March 2nd, 2007 at 2:02 pm
Well, I guess ol’ AL better figure out some way to discredit THIS:
http://www.oism.org/pproject/s33p37.htm
Heh….
March 2nd, 2007 at 3:03 pm
I thought I would add this I found as a comment elsewhere:
“All the carbon indulgence sites I’ve visited tell you how to pay for your excess use of carbon, but non tell you what is the baseline carbon footprint (above which is excess and below which means you are using less than average). None of these sites mention how you can sell your carbon credits if you are below baseline.”
Makes you think doesn’t it? I am just waiting for the good Rev Gore to run for ‘08. Just one more “ticking time bomb”. This is THE biggest fraud ever perpetrated on the environmentally “gullible” WORLDWIDE. Gore and his friends will be multi-billionaires, while those of us who WORK for a living will be shamed and taxed into submission to a socialist state!!
Folks, we are about to be HAD if we do not wise up and throw these parasites off our backs!
Carol
March 2nd, 2007 at 4:29 pm
Jeannette,
I stand corrected on my Rapturist characterization. I apologize. Thanks for the clarification.
Pete
March 2nd, 2007 at 11:32 pm
[...] man made consequenses, that is causing the Earth, and Mars, to be going through a warming cycle. The Anchoress has a rather long post about this today, in which she writes: I distrusted the “global warming is [...]
March 2nd, 2007 at 11:43 pm
[...] seriously consider home-schooling NIH must re-instate Priest fired for being too Catholic Gore’s religious hyperbole threatens a free press But don’t call her a “fringe liberal” A lifestyle making a comeback Melinda [...]
March 2nd, 2007 at 11:56 pm
Global warming on Mars? Gosh, that couldn’t *possibly* be due to the fact that Mars has the same kind of climatic cycles as Earth, *could* it? And besides, everything we send there is solar operated and leaves behind no so-called “greenhouse gases” - cripes, the atmosphere there is mostly CO2 already -and our missions there have been so few and far between, there’s no possible WAY we could have caused this! Besides, I seem to recall that, just about the same time the so-called “authorities” were warning us about a coming Ice Age, Mars was experiencing *growing* polar ice caps, when we hadn’t even started sending anything out there yet. Go ahead, pin *that* one on us - or maybe I shouldn’t dare them like that; they’re sure to find a way.
/
Sheesh!
March 3rd, 2007 at 12:33 am
It’s just too bad that it’s gotten to this point that this issue is just another one that’s been hi-jacked by the political extremes. Thus, you have to be totally on one side or the other, and unconditionally oppossed to the side you are made to feel compelled to choose against.
There’s no such thing as a sensible middle ground any more, if you even think of trying that then you are accussed of being in the “mushy middle”, or compared to a dead skunk (the only thing that belongs in the “middle of the road”, you see).
Maybe I should pick a side, I would have more friends, and maybe even make some of all that money being thrown around.
March 3rd, 2007 at 12:01 pm
Great Heading for this post. Truly, Algore has attempted to make this into a religion.
Understandable, I suppose, if you remember that he flunked the study of God at Yale.
As an aside, I’ve always wondered how one could do that. He is undoubtedly smart enough to remember factual historical events for recitation back to his professors on exams. The rest is close to supposition - who among us can factually define God? So, who can say anything is a wrong answer - especially in the liberal land of Yale.
I suppose he’s feeling the need to find a religion - something to cling to to make sense in his life. I guess, to him, Global warming must seem as good as any other secular religion out there.
And, in light of past relevations about his energy usage, I guess one is safe to say that he’s a sinner along with the rest of us.
March 4th, 2007 at 12:39 pm
[...] of the growing intimidation of skeptics by financially conflicted globaloney globalarmists (HT Anchoress), it seems quite timely — indeed, important — to post this quaint little reminder: [...]
March 4th, 2007 at 4:27 pm
[...] if Al Gore wins his war against common-sense thinking and is able to cow the media to report only the news he believes fit to print, will the 17,000 plus scientists using actual [...]
March 6th, 2007 at 8:47 am
[...] Gore’s religious hyperbole threatens a free press [...]
March 8th, 2007 at 1:39 pm
The middle ground? We are witnessing normal climate variability. Sounds a lot like what the Anchoress is saying, doesn’t it?
Call everyone that disagrees with the Left an extremist. Define the middle ground as one the agrees with the Left. Only post these “truths”–warnings against extremism– on sites that disagree with the Left.
March 12th, 2007 at 10:39 am
[...] I’d seriously consider home-schooling NIH must re-instate Priest fired for being too Catholic Gore’s religious hyperbole threatens a free press But don’t call her a “fringe liberal” A lifestyle making a comeback Melinda [...]
March 19th, 2007 at 4:11 pm
[...] he has refused debate in the past, and - as we also know -Gore does not want the press to report anything that deviates from his script. Since it’s a religion he’s peddling, this savior wants you to take it all on faith, [...]
March 21st, 2007 at 12:30 pm
[...] Al Gore over at Sister’s site and marvel at the Adam-and-Evie paradise that will come about if only we obey the Book of Gore. I’m not watching today’s media-event, but many are, and Sister has good links. Doug [...]
April 4th, 2007 at 5:15 pm
[...] in the realm of politics, in education, medicine, economics, social mores, spirituality, the environment, community…it almost feels like the world is giving up and saying, “screw this, it’s all too [...]
April 25th, 2007 at 2:34 pm
[...] and we’re being told that in thirty years our children’s planet will die unless we unquestioningly accept the unproven scientific premise that “human activity is warming the planet and this is bad…(but you can save the planet [...]
April 30th, 2007 at 2:24 pm
[...] the door to the press, refuses to take part in debate before the press and dictates to the press what they should and should not cover according to his lights, I can’t understand why the folks in the MSM keep fawning over this [...]
May 16th, 2007 at 12:30 pm
[...] Ah, it’s always nice to see a smart guy come upt to speed on an issue which clearly threatens liberties as well as the economy. Particularly when it’s an issue based on dubious models. And by the [...]
May 17th, 2007 at 3:38 pm
Thursday Links…
Rudy Giuliani might not be your favorite candidate, but he is an impressive, likeable, and engaging communicator. Watch. It is quite amazing that the Repubs have such a deep bench. Lots of folks I’d happily vote for, and no-one is ever perfect. Rudy…
May 25th, 2007 at 1:50 pm
[...] Not too long ago, Al Gore initially agreed to, and then refused to sit for a joint-interview/debate with noted environmental scientist (and global warming skeptic) Bjorn Lomborg. He also made some statements to the effect that the press should report on the issue of global warming without publishing dissenting views. [...]
August 2nd, 2007 at 12:14 am
[...] was bad, would you need to go around calling for peoples jobs if they disagree or telling the press only to print your version? anthropogenic co2 global warming gods politics greenhouse gas h2o heidi cullen hybrids [...]
October 4th, 2007 at 3:59 pm
[...] Maybe I should start listening to him and his friends about “manmade” global [...]