Shoot the Messenger

Recently, we have been treated to news stories about the distinguished former senator from the great state of Tennessee, Albert Arnold Gore, Jr. The stories are centered around the issue of global warming, which has been a concern of Gore's for quite some time. In fact, according to an Associated Press story, Al is running to California, New York, Utah, Washington, France and points in between to promote "An Inconvenient Truth," a film chronicling his elaborate slide shows to educate people about global warming. According to Albert himself, he is not planning to run for president again, but is merely "...on a different kind of campaign now - to persuade people to take action to solve the climate crisis."

Somehow, this angers the conservative Republicans. Anger seems to be the emotion they express best, since they have been angry at least since 2000, and no amount of political power seems to soothe their savage breast. They control the White House, Congress, the Supreme Court and various influential areas of the oil industry, big business in general and mostly, they control our lives through their actions and inactions. Yet, they remain angry. The only conclusion I can come to is that they enjoy it.

The re-surfacing of Al Gore has re-kindled the flames of anger that were lit when he ran for president in 2000. Now, though, the anger is focused more on his message of climate control rather than governmental control. Since the Republicans have exhausted their anger-venting on Howard Dean, and are still hitching up the Hillary Clinton Hate Train, they can now focus on their old adversary, complete with the same-old tired nonsense about the Internet and lock-boxes. Humor is not their strong suit, and they enjoy attacking Al for his lack of charisma. Maybe, for once, we could listen to what people say rather than evaluate how they say it. What a radical concept. Oops - there's that "R" word.

Wouldn't you think that as caretakers of our planet, we would want to make sure we were doing everything we could to ensure its continued prosperity? But that flies in the face of the build-spend-destroy-expand economics that typifies modern America. Maybe for once, we could tear down an old building and plant something that grows. Ask yourself, what happens when we run out of room to build and expand? Not in our lifetimes, but soon, in the Universal sense. But there's no sign of slowing down, and every day there is another housing development or shopping center built on land that once contained living things. Where will we continue to put it all? But I digress.

One would think that the Republicans would encourage the fight against global warming. After all, if the Earth's temperature continues to increase, we will use less oil and natural gas to heat our homes, thus decreasing the profits of companies like Halliburton and Exxon-Mobil. Think long-range, folks. The huge profits and no-bid contracts you have come to know and love will fall by the wayside if the need for oil decreases. Four-dollar a gallon gasoline is looming, as is another big drilling contract.

The ticker symbols are HAL and XOM, if you have any money left.