Oh, the Irony!

In Al Gore's "The Assault on Reason," Gore begins his book, "Fear is the most powerful enemy of reason. Both fear and reason are essential to human survival, but the relatinship between them is unbalanced. Reason may sometimes dissipate fear, but fear frequently shuts down reason." Oh, the irony of this statement coming from Al Gore, whose version of environmentalism is pure fear-mongering. He points out, correctly, that our Founders "knew that, under the right circumstances, fear can trigger the temptation to surrender freedom to a odemagogue promising strength and security in return." Isn't that exactly what Gore has been doing? Is this a confession piece? The first several pages could be read as, "And this is why I use fear when talking about the environment."

I particularly love this line, which is true, by the way: "Demagogues have always promised security in return for the surrender of freedom" (25). Bush is promising security from terrorists. HIllary Clinton is promising security from material wants and personal responsibility for our actions. Lou Dobbs is promising security from illegal aliens. And Al Gore is promosing security from global climate change.

ANother great line is this, which, again, I completely agree with: "When errors of fact and judgment are no longer caught and neutralized by the nation's immune system, it is time to exampine the problem and to work toward good health in our political discourse." I love that ths observation is coming from someone who recently has a judgment against him regarding "errors of fact and judgment." They were caught, alright, but sadly, not neurtralized. Nonetheless, I would like to welcome Gore to a new, small part of the nation's immune system. I'm sure he will not be pleased.