Bloggers on the Left, Attack!

It looks like the story about Al Gore’s Carbon Casa has hit a nerve. Witness this outporing of reasoned argument and refutation of fact from the HuffPuff.

Actually, let’s start with a more basic question. Who are these people? Well , a quick check of Alexa reveals their web site gets no traffic. Are they legitimate? Well, again, they claim to be non-partisan but only link to far-right and conservative groups so regardless of what their status is with the IRS, this is a conservative, strongly-leaning Republican organization.

We will be digging through IRS documents tonight because if you follow the money, you always find the answers. We will let you know who their donors are as soon as we can.

…

But guess what? We’re going to fight back. All of us.

Why? Well, first of all, Al Gore turning his lights on doesn’t make him a hypocrite, it makes him a human.

Second, we’ve seen this game a few too many damn times. The trick is for them to create doubt and distraction. They need to create doubt all around the country about Al Gore. But there is no doubt.

Actually, fellas, yeah. It does make him a hypocrite.

I actually hope these two actually read this post so they can get a big dose of real up their snoots. Here’s the deal, guys. “Turning his lights on” is not what Al Gore’s house is all about. It’s about dumping over 230 tons of CO2 into the atmopshere every single year while lecturing the rest of us about our much smaller emissions. It’s about living the high life while badgering anyone else who aspires to such a station. It’s about living in a house for years, making millions upon millions of dollars, and not even bothering to retrofit your house to use less electricity or natural gas.

Here are the facts, still not in dispute: 1) Al Gore’s Nashville mansion used almsot 221,000 kWh of electricity last year, 2) That is twenty times more than the average American home; 3) He spends about a thousand dollars every month on natural gas; 4) his electricity use has gone up since his movie was released.

They they are. Who released them is irrelevant. They exist and you both either have to accept or deny them. If you deny them, you’re going to have to demonstrate exactly how they are incorrect. If you can do that, I will certainly correct myself and apologize to you both and to Al Gore. If you cannot, then you owe it to yourselves to consider how these facts color your view of your hero. Plenty of people worship heroes with feet of clay. If you can keep doing that, can swallow his hypocrisy and keep on going, then good on you. Just don’t demand that the rest of us do the same.

Here’s the real game: Al Gore says climate change is a crisis but he doesn’t live like it. Either he’s full of beans and it’s not a crisis at all or it really is a crisis and he doesn’t much care. That is not a “doubt or distraction”. Those are your choices. I understand it’s an inconvenient decision for you both to take, but playing the angry denial game doesn’t answer the questions. It doesn’t make the facts go away any more than the Church could make Copernicus’ truth disappear by attacking him.

In the end, thoughthe Church exacted a great price from him, the Earth was still not the center of the universe.

And neither is Al Gore.

I await your response.