Credibility, Part I

I've been working far too long on a larger post about credibility, relating the the Bush Admin, James Frey, Truthout.org, and bloggers in general. Alas, it always gets too long winded, so I'll keep it down to occasional brief posts...

I saw An Inconvenient Truth. I thought it was pretty good. I also followed up by surfing the net to back up the some of Gore's claims. My largest problem is his insistence, along with his supporters, that there's nothing to debate: global warming is created by humans, it will destroy the earth, and its up to us to stop this from happening.

I find it insulting when anyone says there's "nothing to debate", which discourages people from looking deeper into the issue. While I don't think this is a political tactic, as some right wingers insist, but is just Gore being overzealous with his research and beliefs.

However, I find this recent critique by the US Senate Committee on Evironment and Public Works to support Gore's view that humans can destroy the environment more than the pieces intent to partially discredit Gore.

Gore’s claim that global warming is causing the snows of Mt. Kilimanjaro to disappear has also been debunked by scientific reports. For example, a 2004 study in the journal Nature makes clear that Kilimanjaro is experiencing less snowfall because there’s less moisture in the air due to deforestation around Kilimanjaro.

In short, it isn't emissions that are altering the enviornment, but the chopping down of trees.

Why Bill O'Reilly Lost My Respect

I think I've mentioned this before - I used to respect Bill O'Reilly, even though I disagreed with him often, until this interview with Jeremy Glick. Any other news network would have fired O'Reilly for the way he treated this guest.

The video enough is bad alone, let alone O'Reilly later spinning/lying about what Glick said on the program:

"on this program, Glick said President [George W.] Bush and his father [former President George H.W. Bush] were responsible for his [Glick's] father's death. He said George W. Bush pulled off a coup to get elected. He implied the U.S.A. itself was a terrorist nation. And he called his father's death at the hands of an Al Qaeda "alleged assassination." He said America itself was responsible for the 9-11 attack because it is an imperialistic, aggressive nation. Glick was dismissed from The Factor because he was completely off the wall. Security actually had to take the guy out of the building, he was that out of control."

Glick never said the U.S. was a terrorist nation or even came close. And O'Reilly's view that Glick was a madman is rather ironic, considering Glick remains amazingly calm throughout, while O'Reilly appears to be about to jump across the table and launch a preemptive strike of his own on Glick.

Will Blog for My Soul

Once again, I pipe in to point out that I am, indeed, blogging quite a bit... albeit at blogging.la.

I recently added a tool bar on the right that offers an easy way to see my most recent posts there. The Los Angeles-centric, but sometimes still fun. And if they inspire you to come visit, all the better.

I'm particularly proud of my most recent entries, part of a series called "Six Six Six Days of Satan" that focus on Satanism in Los Angeles and the impending date of 6/6/06 -- which is tomorrow. In short, the Dark Lord will rise from the Abyss, spread Hellfire, destroy us all, make sweet love to Sadaam Hussein, and then have a latte.

That said, if the prophecies are all correct this will be my last post. So, hugs and kisses to everyone.