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[MJZ]

LOOK OVER THE DESCRIPTIONS OF THE FOLLOWING TWO HOUSES AND SEE IF YOU CAN TELL WHICH BELONGS TO A TRULY COMMITTED ENVIRONMENTALIST.


HOUSE # 1:


A 20-room mansion (not including 8 bathrooms) heated by natural gas. Add on a pool (and a pool house) and a separate guest house all heated by gas. In ONE MONTH ALONE this mansion consumes more energy than the average American household in an ENTIRE YEAR. The average bill for electricity and natural gas runs over $2,400.00 per month. In natural gas alone (which last time we checked was a fossil fuel), this property consumes more than 20 times the national average for an American home. This house is not in a northern or Midwestern "snow belt," either. It's in the South.



HOUSE # 2:


Designed by an architecture professor at a leading national university, this house incorporates every "green" feature current home construction can provide. The house contains only 4,000 square feet (4 bedrooms) and is nestled on arid high prairie in the American southwest. A central closet in the house holds geothermal heat pumps drawing ground water through pipes sunk 300 feet into the ground. The water (usually 67 degrees F.) heats the house in winter and cools it in summer. The system uses no fossil fuels such as oil or natural gas, and it consumes 25% of the electricity required for a conventional heating/cooling system. Rainwater from the roof is collected and funneled into a 25,000 gallon underground cistern. Wastewater from showers, sinks and toilets goes into underground purifying tanks and then into the cistern. The collected water then irrigates the land surrounding the house. Flowers and shrubs native to the area blend the property into the surrounding rural landscape.



HOUSE # 1 (20 room energy guzzling mansion) is outside of Nashville, Tennessee. It is the abode of that renowned environmentalist (and Oscar-winning documentary filmmaker) Al Gore.


HOUSE # 2 (model eco-friendly house) is on a ranch near Crawford, Texas. Also known as "the Texas White House," it is the private residence of the environmentally conscious President of the United States, George W. Bush.


So whose house is gentler on the environment? This is yet one more story you WON'T hear on CNN, CBS, ABC, NBC, MSNBC; or read about in the New York Times or the Washington Post. Indeed, for Mr. Gore, it is truly "an inconvenient truth."

[HWYMAN1]

MJZ,
Great post. Funny how things are not always what they seem ( especially in the realm of politics!) john

[Midnight Rider]

Please see this for the complete story:  http://www.snopes.com/politics/business/gorehome.asp

In addition, this or any other story does not negate the absolute truths brought forth in the film.  Whether a person likes Al Gore or not, and whatever his personal practices, the facts in the documentary film speak for themselves.  It is alarming, to say the very least.

Further, it can also be proved beyond any doubt that the "Liberal" press is anything but.  On balance, the press is neutral, or in many cases, lean more towards the conservative side of the spectrum.  Anyone can pick and choose certain stories to support their position of believing the press is "Liberal".  It is simply not true.  In fact, when the presidential race between George W and Al Gore was going on, the "Liberal Press" actually was instrumental in helping King George get elected, by reporting the half truths of stories like Gore "invented" the internet.

I am also not defending Al Gore, but I'll have to say that I don't think anyone could have done a WORSE job than the man who has the job right now.  Apparently, a majority of the American People must think the status quo needed some shaking up, judging from the recent elections.

If the only side of the story you get is from The O'Reilly Factor, you're getting about 1/10th of the truth, and in most cases, outright lies.  It's always funny to me that the obviously right wing, ultra conservative "press" is so quick to point out the "liberal" bias of the mainstream news organizations, but never criticizes themselves or other obviously biased conservative rants.

If anyone is really interested in hearing both sides of a news story, I would recommend listening to NPR or watching PBS.  Generally speaking, they always present both sides of important and controversial news items. 

[SPIDERMAN]

MJZ,
 Funny how things are not always what they seem

I agree and everybody's got an agenda to push so the " facts " become a matter of what we are told they are I'm just a wee bit skepitcal of anything coming out of 1600 Pennsylvana Avenue these days. Maybe it's just me, but their track record on veracity is not good. As to the other guy, who really cares ?  Stuff like this post gives him more credit than he deserves. You know in today's PR world, it's not the truth that counts, but how much the issue is in the public eye. With the country still divided between Red and Blue, 1/2 the people will read the above post and believe it, 1/2 won't but the real issue is that Gore is back in the public eye. Stuff like this causes debate and he ends up being viable again because of it whereas before all this he was marginal. No matter who you support try to remember that bashing the other guy only gives him and his supporters the opportunity to get in front of a camera. The best thing you can do for the people you believe in is talk them up and IGNORE the other side. If no one's talking about them then the media has no interest in writing about them and they go away after a bit. Hillary is a candidate because the Republican right made her one in their constant bashing of her. The democrats don't talk about her 1/10 as much as her detractors do. Conversely, the RNC was headed to handing the nomination to McCain but Guiliani's supporters have talked up Rudy without talking down McCain and look who's leading the pack for the Republicans. Rudy made people forget about McCain because he didn't talk about McCain. Morale of the story is, if you want someone to go away, then don't talk about them. After a while they become a non person in the media and without press, you're dead.

Just my $0.02

B B

[Rhino]

I agree with AL.   Just do in the motorcycle emissions last.  I think we paid for the Texas Whitehouse upgrades recently, didn't we? How much did that cost US?

Rhino

[iski]

Oh, goody, a political thread!

Every board, every where, eventually I suppose......

After reading "Earth I'm Unbalanced" by Al Gore, I decided that his "I'm Incontinent, and That's the Truth" movie was not for me. Or maybe Al called it "The Truth for Me is Inconvenient"?

Any time any politician from ANY party uses a phrase including "truth" it is much better to watch what they DO, and not what they SAY they do.

[RedDevil]

To quote an anonymous source:  "How is the world ruled and wars started?  Politicians tell lies to the press and then believe what they read."
Just my view on politicians...no matter what the party, they're still politicians.
Cheers ,
 

[Coolbreeze]

To quote an anonymous source:  "How is the world ruled and wars started?  Politicians tell lies to the press and then believe what they read."
Just my view on politicians...no matter what the party, they're still politicians.
Cheers ,
 

That is propbably the single most truthful and poignant thing I have heard or read for many years.  Thank you.  You are now my philosopher of the year...

[SPIDERMAN]

Oh, goody, a political thread!

Every board, every where, eventually I suppose......

After reading "Earth I'm Unbalanced" by Al Gore, I decided that his "I'm Incontinent, and That's the Truth" movie was not for me. Or maybe Al called it "The Truth for Me is Inconvenient"?

Any time any politician from ANY party uses a phrase including "truth" it is much better to watch what they DO, and not what they SAY they do.

So what should we infer from this post ?   That 35 posts in you're telling the rest of us what we can and can't discuss ?

B B

[iski]

So what should we infer from this post ?   That 35 posts in you're telling the rest of us what we can and can't discuss ?

B B

Where did I say that?

Perhaps you enjoy placing words that are not there in other poster's posts?

[SPIDERMAN]

Interesting thing the English language. When writing it, it requires the use of puncuation to convey to the reader one's intent. If a question is being asked, the sentence is ended in a question mark. Questions are usually answered by statements ending in a period as opposed to another question mark.

I asked a question Dude. What was the intent of your comment about this being a political thread ?

B B

[iski]

You did not answer my questions, yet you expect an answer to yours, when it is already in my first response in this thread.

Weird.

[Ceej]

Call me a moderate, indecisive or middle of the road, But I detest the DNC and RNC right now. Both parties are corrupt because the system is corrupt. No way in heck Teddy Kennedy or Robert KKK Byrd, molesting scum Foley, $90,000 in the freezer Jefferson or many others in office should be in office let alone reelected. But since the system is screwed up it won't change til there's a viable third party. That said, letting these sell out scumbags dictate policy is a joke. The people of this country want immigration reform and believe illegal alien is just that - illegal, so says poll after poll - yet our government refuses (Dem or Rep) refuse to deal with it - heck they're getting ready to let tens of thousands of Mexican truckers to roam the country freely next month without even a background check or drug test.

So when one of them, Al Gore in this case, says the earth is warming, I question his motives.  Since the first reliable temp data available -1880-til now earths temp rose 1 degree - Yeah but Al remember the 40's, 50's, 60's and 70's? in fact 1940-1980 the earths temp fell each of 4 decades in a row - in the 70's there were impending Ice age warnings from guys like Al - not global warming!

Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Neptune's Moon Triton, Saturn, even the non planet Pluto are showing warming signs also, Most more extreme than here on earth. So Maybe we should call it Galactic Warming, not sure what would cause that, these planets don't all have cars and factory's in common, - Though I hear there may be a Martian HOG chapter starting soon.

Have ya heard? Arctic Ice sheets appear to be growing thicker, steadily since 1993 according to 2006 studies that aren't being reported very widely (heck some sources blame this on global warming too), underwater volcanic activity is being discovered that could be raising the ocean temps.

I don't know about global warming, but todays cars are way cleaner than those of the 40's, todays factories are cleaner, todays oil wells cleaner and safer, nuclear power cleaner and safer, oil and gas cleaner etc. etc. etc....so if we caused it, it didn't happen overnight todays enviroment is probably related to the actions of our grandparents. So our actions today will improve the world for our grandkids. It will be ok, I hope, and I'll do my part, and I believe in the goodness of my fellow man, as long as he's not a congress-man.

 

[Travelinshoes]

If anyone is really interested in hearing both sides of a news story, I would recommend listening to NPR or watching PBS.  Generally speaking, they always present both sides of important and controversial news items.

I'm not trying to start an altercation here, but were you kidding when you said this? 

T

[SPIDERMAN]

You did not answer my questions, yet you expect an answer to yours, when it is already in my first response in this thread.

Weird.

Hang around awhile, it'll get a lot more weird than this believe me. And don't be so sensitive. I was just seeing if I could pick on a newbie without gettin my hand slapped by a Mod. Nothing personal, you were the first newbie I came across yesterday. Now you're a Jr and open season, so it's not as much fun. Welcome to the site.

B B