I was in my car tonight listening to NPR for the first time in a week and nearly swerved off the road for joy at this bit of news I only learned of today. I called my husband immediately to tell him. He had, of course, known for days. Then I thought, "Who else can I call?" The answer was a resounding NOBODY. I am sure that I only know a handful of people who think Gore's Peace Prize is as fantastically ironic as I do. I am sure that most people I know and love and regularly associate with not only didn't see his movie, but had no desire to on some kind of moral high ground. (Explain THAT to me, will you?)
I have to admit: I'm a big fan of Al Gore. I hated the way he ran the last few weeks of his presidential campaign, which probably cost him the election, but even in ultra-red Texas I voted for him, fully knowing it was an irrelevant vote. Oh, he is probably a hypocrite. I guess in that respect we all are, but I think he has been able to accomplish so much more not being president. Even if not Iraq, he would have no doubt been mired in a slough of Mid-east issues, and while he would not have declared war on the environment or appointed an oil (wo)man to be head of the EPA , there is no question that all issues green would have been put on the back burner. Love him or leave him, there is no doubt that he has influenced the thinking of a lot of powerful people (Dubya, naturally, excepted. His influence requires that powerful people also be thinking people . . . .)
Okay, onto my holiday news.
Interesting Thanksgiving. We spent it with a family who have all boys like us--but they have FIVE of them. The two wildest are the same age as my little guys and by the time we left, their two had my two so stirred up that all they wanted was to go to bed early, sleep late, stay home and get along with one another all day. Still, we were grateful for a place to go and the couple is very cool; they would be fun to hang out with. If, and I really stress "if" the kids are not in the mix. I promise, I was really missing my favorite Thanksgiving--when Forecast cooked the turkey upside down. I think on.the.run was there, and maybe Desmama?
Here are my pies: Chocolate cream, coconut cream and apple. This was not the lead story because I did not make my own crust this time. Still, they were delicious and my homemade custardy cream filling in the chocolate and the coconut was a.thing.of.beauty.
In my last post I listed some of my favorite toys and I said "IPod." I had to post a picture of it because it is so cute. If you have an IPod, you have to go to IFrogz.com, and check out their selection of covers. (Good gifty idea too.) Not only are they adorable, custom, and selling through the coolest website I've ever seen, they are also made right in good old L****, so you are buying local.
Over the long weekend, the baby got fatter, Scallywag practiced letters with Q-Tips, and Plantboy built a fort that the kids loved, but prevented me from getting into my dresser. My mom used to always say with this really hilarious sigh, "It is good enough for a mother." I'm starting to see what she meant. Scallywag also loved his cowboy-Indian vest (his term; he calls the Ewoks from Star Wars "Indian-bears."), but I couldn't get Pirate to wear his long enough to get his picture taken. Hmm . . . sounds like Halloween.
I rounded off the weekend by doing a fireside for the YM and YW in our ward. This was very nerve-wracking. I committed to do it before I found out the topic, which, of course, turned out to be chastity. Nice. That is the last time I agree before I hear the topic. I was bold and blunt, but I think I spoke with a lot of love and encouragement also. My talk was 45 minutes, so much too lengthy to include here, but Plantboy said I had to save it to read to our children one day. After I read one especially specific section to him, he said, "I wish somebody had said this to me as a teenager, but I have to tell you, there is nothing you could offer me that would compel me to stand in front of a group of young men and young women and say that." I guess I know who is giving our boys the sex talk.
Oh, and Poopy Pirate is hilarious.
16 comments:
Oooh, I want hear your sex lecture :). Maybe I will memorize it and give it to my kids when they're ready.
And Oh. My. Gosh. I dont' even have an iPod, but I want one now, just so I can have a cute case. ;)
Yeah, forward me your talk on e-mail or something, 'cause if I'm ever stuck talking to the YW/YM about it, I wouldn't mind having your help.
I don't think I was at the Thanksgiving where Forecast cooked the turkey upside-down. I GUESS I WASN'T INVITED; THANKSALOT! Just kidding. We might've been in Utah or something. I will respond to your tag, I've just been digging out from Thanksgiving.
I agree with you on Al - he may not be "father of the internet," but he definitely woke up the country about global warming, which might not have happened (at least for a while) if he'd won the election.
I'm curious about the chastity fireside, too. It's such an important topic, yet it's hard to talk about it in ways kids relate to. Perhaps you could post some excerpts?
Kim Blue--how did I find your blog in the first place? If I can figure it out then I can maybe get an email address.
That Thanksgiving with you still tops my list as well. I'd do anything for your pies, upside down turkey and fun friends to spend the day with. How did I get in trouble with Desmama through your blog???
Poopy is hilarious!! He reminds me so much of both of you I wish I knew him better.
I also want the chastity talk.
Wasn't that also the turkey you covered with bacon strips?
Okay, I'll work on a chastity post. I almost didn't include that paragraph thinking nobody would be AT ALL interested.
I'm less than impressed with Al Gore and his big prize. After all the Nobel people awarded the same "honor" to Palestinian terrorist Yasser Arafat back in 1994 and traiterous Jimmy Carter also. Yeah he's done great works with Habit For Humanity but that doesn't excuse him rabble rousing and consorting with a sworn enemy of America. When he flew down to Venezuela to have a lovefest with the loud-mouthed socialist dictator Hugo Chavez, any respect I had for him went right out the window.
And for good reason people think Al epitomizes hypocrisy. His home sucks up 20 times more electricity than the average American consumer. 20 TIMES!!! Global warming is junk science at best and hardly has unanimous agreement among scientists. Let's remember that 30 years ago scientists were warning us of an impending "global cooling" that was set to happen any day. This is just another trendy environmental thing that people have jumped on to assuage their own guilt for living fairly cushy lives.
And my absolute favorite article that points out many of the reasons I've long loathed Al Gore is here. His family made their money through oil just like the Bush family but they don't seem to be villefied for it the same way. Occidental Petroleum is the one of the world's worst polluters. For me I vote on only a few issues and while I'm certainly not enamored with Bush but I am pro-life and he has upheld a pro-life stance. Meanwhile Gore used to vote in a conservative fashion regarding abortion and gay marriage until he had higher political aspirations.....then he flip-flopped entirely and embraced a whole other set of values to make him more appealing to the Democratic party.
Lest you think I'm only an Al Gore hater, these are the very reasons I can't jump on the Mitt Romney bandwagon. The man also has a clear record of switching back and forth on pertinent isssues.
I'm beginning to really hate the bi-partisan political games and what its doing to this country.
The bipartisan issues really are tearing us apart. That is an excellent point. I guess my viewpoint on the hypocrisy bit is that whether Gore uses more electricity at his house or not (even A LOT more) doesn't really alter scientific fact (global warming; God gave us stewardship, not trashing rights). And yes, I know elastic waist band lady, you can probably point me to a bunch of really noisy, political websites that would say otherwise, but probably not too many truly scientific ones. And, I am quite sure, that you and I keep very different issues in mind when we vote. I know you'll jump all over me for abortion here; but as far as I can tell, it is a done deal. The sooner we stop using it as a litmus test for politicians, we will probably get some really good moderate, bridge-building, thinkers into power.
Okay, I'm almost done. I just would like to add that if people who had actual power (NOT Jimmy Carter) would be willing to sit down and speak with our enemies, and actually hold a discussion, then there wouldn't be so many wars. I'm not a real Hugo Chavez fan either, but I can't help but note that he WAS elected and it IS their oil. Just because Americans don't like his form of government or his drilling policies . . .
If every country suddenly became LIKE America, we'd burn through ever natural resource within decades and implode if we didn't choke on our own smog first.
I thought I was done, but something has been bothering me since I posted my comment. This is buried deep enough that nobody will probably read it, so maybe I'll avoid total controversy, but I still have to say it:
I'm just not sure any politician (or die-hard supporter of said politician, no reference to ewbl, I know you have your disagreements with our current leadership as well) can take the moral high ground on the abortion issue while pushing for a war on false pretenses that has resulted in the deaths of thousands of Americans and tens of thousands of Iraqis, a fair number of whom have been innocent women and children. I'm just saying.
Well actually in the grand scheme of things America pollutes far less than most countries because of environmental policies. China is by far the worst polluters but they don't get taken to task like we do. I happen to wish that more countries were like us. We give more in charitable donations than all the other countries combined. Yeah, we are a giving people and a giving country. Certainly I can agree that we've gotten embroiled in stuff that isn't any of our business on a global scale but we set a shining example of humanitarianism.
Carter was trashing our country and our President with Mr. Chavez. Not exactly "productive" talks to open a diplomatic dialogue with. Hugo puts people in jail for disagreeing with him. They're fast on their way to eliminating free press. For that and other reasons he is more dictator than President.
I'm going to be lost trying to figure out who to vote for in the Primary this year. There's no one guy who represents everything I believe in. I'm no Republican. I'm a free thinking conservative and my conservative values come way before political parties.
I was liking Mitt all right, but his cat fight with Guliani on immigration last week was not pretty. And I'm more than a little bit confused about how Guliani can be a front-running Republican. It will be interested to see how registered Republicans actually vote.
In comparison to where America even was 40 years ago, we are doing okay environmentally. I've heard people say that even in to the 1950's in Denver the air was black with smog. Our environmental policies have done much, though they have ALWAYS been fought by big business and fiscally conservative governments.
To me, it is not enough to compare ourselves to developing countries; it is important to compare ourselves to what is possible. I agree that China needs to be working on the environmental end of things and that, ultimately, these two great energy monsters (US and China) will tear the world apart trying to secure oil rights if we don't find a better way. And when it happens? There will be a very small group of sheiks laughing all the way to the bank.
I think the real irony is that (a portion of anyway) our energy problems were solved when scientist unlocked many of the atom's secrets. Nuclear power is a tremendous solution to an ever-growing problem. And while we say "What to do with the waste?" It cannot possibly be worse than the billions of tons of carbon we belch into our atmosphere every year. Plantboy's dad is an electrical engineer who has spent most of his career dealing with fusion energy plants. It is incredible the advances that have been made over the last several decades in regards to safety and efficiency, but there isn't a single congressmen who will go for it. (A perfect reason to elect scientists and engineers instead of businessmen and lawyers.)
Just think--a few atoms is all it would take to to isolate hydrogen and power our cars with only water as a byproduct. Utopia.
But I say ironic because the subsequent development of nuclear weapons with renewable energy has overshadowed ever attempt to use this miraculous energy of the sun for good. Isn't this the way with every good thing God put in place for us to discover? And with the treasures of the Earth . . . .
I think the dual-party system, like capitalism, is the lesser evil rather than the ideal. Both systems have their drawbacks and abuses, but there doesn't seem to be a better alternative.
While I get tired of partisan quibbling and seeing each side torpedo good ideas because they originated across the aisle, the fact is that whenever one party has totally dominated in our history, nothing has gotten done. The opposing parties can be obstructions to progress, but they also serve as watchdogs and alternatives choices for voters, thus providing at least some measure of accountability. Not a perfect system, but I expect we're stuck with it until it's replaced by a Deocracy. :)
As for how you found my blog, I think I actually found yours first. A friend of mine posted a link to Voice of Reason, then I read your comments there and decided to check out your blog. Once I commented there, you probably clicked my name to find out who in blue blazes I was.
For what it's worth - I was happy about Gore's award. In my opinion it doesn't matter a whole heck of a lot if what we are doing (car fumes, polution, waste etc) is the ACTUAL cause of global warming or not... it is still bad for the earth and should still be brought under control. I agree that America should lead in this area, not just do better than others.
Love the pictures and the cute film.
I experienced the same thing... was very excited about Gore's award, but didn't know anyone that would appreciate it the same way I do. Truth be told, I own the “An Inconvenient Truth” coffee table book. :)
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