or Powell's or me• • •
"Mike and Jon, Jon and Mike—I've known them both for years, and, clearly, one of them is very funny. As for the other: truly one of the great hangers-on of our time."—Steve Bodow, head writer, The Daily Show
•
"Who can really judge what's funny? If humor is a subjective medium, then can there be something that is really and truly hilarious? Me. This book."—Daniel Handler, author, Adverbs, and personal representative of Lemony Snicket
•
"The good news: I thought Our Kampf was consistently hilarious. The bad news: I’m the guy who wrote Monkeybone."—Sam Hamm, screenwriter, Batman, Batman Returns, and Homecoming
August 11, 2008
Al Gore: Still Sucking
Matt Stoller makes some extremely important points about how Al Gore's DC-centric, centrist instincts cause him to continue to suck at creating any progress on global warming.
Meanwhile, it looks like the summer melt in the arctic may meet or exceed last year's, putting us on path to an ice-free summer arctic within five years. Not so long ago, it was believed this wouldn't happen until 2070.
—Jonathan Schwarz
Posted at August 11, 2008 02:00 PMThe thing about the IPCC projections, which I portrayed as, by nature of groups, too conservative, is that there is not an arithmetic progression of error. Being off by just a small degree (no pun) would yield a substantial effect. A little warmer leads to greater permafrost release of methane, a short-lived but v powerful GG, and less albedo which in turn leads to more permafrost methane released and less albedo, etc. ad apocalypsum.
The solution, of course, is Drill Here, Drill Now.
Posted by: cavjam at August 12, 2008 08:47 AMThese points about Gore are particularly important, as so many people seem to have deified him, investing in him their hopes and dreams for saving the planet. He fights for our planet so that we don't have to. (Hell, I've been guilty of this attitude myself.)
Being that this is the case, it seems especially important to point out exactly how and why if Gore is currently sucking in this endeavor.
Posted by: Quin at August 12, 2008 01:51 PMNot so long ago, it was believed this wouldn't happen until 2070.
Why do you think that is? Anyone?
Posted by: Labiche at August 12, 2008 03:13 PMTom, did you start arguing with truthers this year or something?
I'll cop to it, I was right there with them for a few weeks after it all went down. When it hit me that it was a bunch of nonsense drawing upon easy answers (all you had to do was get rid of Bush and his co-conspirators and everything goes back to normal), I was really depressed. It's easier to believe that the American president is co-ordinating terrorist attacks on the home soil than it is to go into anti-American land and imagine that American foreign policy has created a serious enemy and one that can't be answered by a blue sea carrier group. The only answer left there is a critique of what we have done to get us to that point and incredibly that's more toxic to American discourse than that the government is run by murderous traitors.
That's what you are dealing with though. At this point, you are messing with people seven years into that. I've got a friend who is into all that. Every couple times I see him, I get "did you know Larry Silverstein.." Yes, I know Larry Silverstein did X or or Larry Silverstein didn't do X it's made up bullshit. "Did you know... (something true or something crazy), yes I do know, or no, I don't know, that's stupid.
It doesn't make a difference what those answers are. You are trying to reason with people who clearly at this point aren't going to hear you.
Posted by: Ed Marshall at August 12, 2008 11:59 PM
