{"id":733,"date":"2006-05-19T00:43:00","date_gmt":"2006-05-19T00:43:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/americanbuddhist\/2006\/05\/politics-president-gore-and-more\/"},"modified":"2006-05-19T00:43:00","modified_gmt":"2006-05-19T00:43:00","slug":"politics-president-gore-and-more","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/americanbuddhist\/2006\/05\/politics-president-gore-and-more.html","title":{"rendered":"Politics: President Gore and more"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

So I\u2019ve only had one (I think) post on politics ever since I added it to my topics list (way back in February I think). So here\u2019s a bit more\u2026
\"\"Al Gore was on SNL last week (I didn\u2019t see it on TV, but did find a clip at crooksandliars.com<\/a> Video<\/a>-WMP Video<\/a>-QT ). It\u2019s very much worth watching \u2013 though I wish Al would take some speech coaching from John Stewart<\/a>, his timing is terrible.<\/p>\n

The address goes as follows:<\/p>\n

\n

President Al Gore:<\/p>\n

Good evening, my fellow Americans. In 2000 when you overwhelmingly made the decision to elect me as your 43rd president, I knew the road ahead would be difficult. We have accomplished so much yet challenges lie ahead. In the last 6 years we have been able to stop global warming. No one could have predicted the negative results of this. Glaciers that once were melting are now on the attack. As you know, these renegade glaciers have already captured parts of upper Michigan and northern Maine, but I assure you: we will not let the glaciers win. <\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

Right now, in the 2nd week of May 2006, we are facing perhaps the worst gas crisis in history. We have way too much gasoline. Gas is down to $0.19 a gallon, and the oil companies are hurting.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

I know that I am partly to blame by insisting that cars run on trash. I am therefore proposing a federal bailout to our oil companies because \u2013 hey if it were the other way around, you know the oil companies would help us. (<\/em>more here<\/em><\/a>)<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

It was a fun poke at the failures of the Bush administration, and he managed to address many of them in a short time. But I\u2019m not sure how much it will do in the long run. <\/span><\/p>\n

More pressing, I think, will be the impact of the release of An Inconvenient Truth<\/a> \u2013 the Paramount Classics movie documenting Gore\u2019s crusade to stop Global Warming. They have a \u2018pledge\u2019 counter on the site, trying to reach 1 million before the opening weekend. But my pledge (including bringing two friends) only brought them up to 74,420\u2026 They have only 8 days to spread the word, to get 1 million people to pledge to go see this film. <\/span><\/p>\n

For comparison\u2019s sake, how did films like The Passion of the Christ<\/strong> and Fahrenheit 9\/11<\/strong> do? Well, nobody count\u2019s actual humans it seems (it\u2019s all measured in green paper these days), but The Passion took in just shy of $84 million<\/a> in its first weekend and Fahrenheit 9\/11 smashed documentary records with about $22 million<\/a>. Even if An Inconvenient Truth<\/strong> garners 500,000 folks, which I\u2019m doubting, it would pull in only (at $8 a ticket) $4 million<\/strong>. Maybe I\u2019m wrong, but I don\u2019t see the groundswell of support (or controversy) that these other two films had. Prove me wrong \u2013 sign the pledge<\/a>\u2026 <\/span><\/p>\n

For more (and better) commentary on politics and contemporary culture \u2013 check out Nacho\u2019s \u201cWoodmoor Village<\/a>\u201c<\/p>\n

And also worth visiting is the relatively new blog by an extraordinary young Tibetan Buddhist<\/a> practitioner (and fellow scholar) living in Brooklyn: http:\/\/samsara-politic.blogspot.com\/<\/a><\/p>\n

That\u2019ll be all for me for now on politics\u2026 more philosophy tomorrow though \ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/div>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

So I\u2019ve only had one (I think) post on politics ever since I added it to my topics list (way back in February I think). So here\u2019s a bit more\u2026Al Gore was on SNL last week (I didn\u2019t see it on TV, but did find a clip at crooksandliars.com Video-WMP Video-QT ). It\u2019s very much […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":118,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-733","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\nPolitics: President Gore and more<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"So I've only had one (I think) post on politics ever since I added it to my topics list (way back in February I think). 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