I just read your article that included a slam against Newt Gingrich. I have been reading his ideas for about two years and don't find anything erratic about him or his ideas. He is on a steady track to produce solutions for American problems. As far as I can tell, he doesn't qualify as "seedy." He returned legal money that was a book advance. Have there been any legal scandals connected to him? The only problem has been his girlfriend/wife situation. I don't know the details, but it does go in the direction of tacky.
He is a very brilliant man who has a great way of looking at the problems in the USA. Please get over your liberal viewpoint and watch his June 8 speech on the American Enterprise Institute Web site.
Donald Salisbury
After he engineered the dazzling success of the Republican takeover of Congress in 1994, Newt Gingrich began to drift. It was his fellow Republicans, not Democrats, who found his stewardship erratic. Gingrich talks a good line. In fact, that's basically all he does -- talk. Gingrich could not consolidate the Republican gains, and he was eventually demoted as a party leader. His lack of managerial skills and consistency would make him a poor choice as a presidential candidate.
Yes, there have been unsavory reports about Gingrich's callous behavior toward his ex-wives, but that's not why I called him seedy (a physical description of his damp look and shifty-eyed manner). After squirmingly watching and listening to him for years, I find him to be overall a depthless thinker, spewing out an endless stream of bright but disconnected "ideas" whose main function is to advertise his own putative brilliance. He's showy and narcissistic, with a smirky adolescent precocity. I love eloquence but despise glibness -- in politicians or professors.
However, if you find stimulation and value in Gingrich's books and speeches, then nothing I say should dissuade you!
I was reading your article on Al Gore and thought you might enjoy a pic I Photoshopped a little while ago. It is on my Web site here.
Paul Atroshenko
Sydney, Australia
This is wonderful! I burst out laughing at the self-divinizing apotheosis of that egregiously pulpit-pounding, wannabe preacher, the Rev. Al Gore.
Subject: Al Gore Warm and Fuzzy
I am a nuclear engineer with 25 years' experience in nuclear operations, design and calculations. I am very versed in atmospheric computer modeling (radio-nuclide release constituent decay and dispersal is one of my bailiwicks). Based on similar parameters found on Mars, I fully believe that the Earth is in a solar-induced warming trend.
I too felt that the rumbling for "run, Al, run" from the Democrats' primary wonks is a reflection of the suspicion that their sanctified candidates have little chance of winning against the "I can nuke Iran in three notes" Republicans. I have seen the enticements for Big Al to run in everything from bar bathroom graffiti to the exalted Nobel Prize committee.
Now on to Al (financially convenient lies) Gore and his hijacking of an unresolved scientific problem for his own political purposes. I firmly believe that his folly (along with the U.N. stating that the science is settled) will, in the very near future, wipe the slate clean of left-wing candidates off of our dear departed mother Earth -- most of them flattened by embarrassment and ridicule for perpetrating a hoax and attempting to gain further control of industry and hard-earned capital via CO2 penalties. Except of course in Kookville, where the bigger and more obvious the lie, the greater the glory. It's very sad to see one of the parties in this two-party system making a fast exodus to that vicinity.
Let me now introduce you to the skewers that will likely slay the CO2 piglet running amok:
First up, there's logic: 95 percent of the Earth's greenhouse gases is that ethereal substance known as H2O. Peek out your window -- you might be able to see a little bit of it. Without it, the Earth would be a balmy zero degrees F (ice skating galore). Of the remaining 5 percent greenhouse gases, 4.5 percent is attributed to CO2. Of this 4.5 percent, only 0.3 percent is caused by human activities such as burning fossil fuels, mowing Al Gore's lawn, belching, etc. The remaining 4.2 percent of CO2 emanates from the Earth itself. If 0.3 percent sounds insignificant, it's because it is.
Faults in the convenient references: Al Gore (and the U.N.) exclusively use Antarctic ice-core data of ancient air bubbles supposedly trapping the precise amount of CO2 that existed then versus now. This data set has recently been shown to be flawed by experiments proving that those ancient air bubbles did not encapsulate the CO2 but allowed some of it to escape, thus making the data look as if modern CO2 readings are significantly higher (20 percent) than in the past. More reliable proxy indicators for CO2 such as ocean sediment do not show a significant increase due to human activities.
The onset of global cooling: As the word cycle suggests, there will be a downside to the Earth's warming cycle. Most analysis indicates that in five years' time the warming peak will be over and any left-wing environmentalists left standing will have to find a new donkey to ride into the wallets of industry.
Let me finish by saying that the prior and coming relegation of the Democrats to a kook fringe is in no one's best interest. Although a conservative on defense and economics, I tend to be socially liberal and have an innate fear of a one-party state, even if that party is the one I usually vote for (I amaze my friends by telling them how I voted for Ed Rendell here in Pennsylvania).
Innocenzo Iannuzzi
Pittsburgh, Pa.
Bravo for your invigorating deconstruction of current propaganda! I too am very concerned about the potential damage to Democrat credibility coming from the grab-bag Gore crusade, with its wild exaggerations and hypocritical sanctimony. It does make liberals look like ditzes -- the last thing the party needs in a presidential campaign where no-crap national security issues will be paramount. Environmentalism is of vital importance to our future, but it cannot be based on lies.
Next page: Do we really want a nation wedded to suspicion and paranoia and armed to the teeth?