james t kirk

6 fireplaces, 5 bedrooms, 9 bathrooms and he will arrive by private jet

Laureate Al Gore purchased a $9 million mansion in the luxurious hills of Montecito, California, recently, and with the exception of the Los Angeles Times and Fox News, America's media couldn't care less.

You think it might be because the Gore-loving press wouldn't want people to consider the possibility that all of his global warming hysteria was really about lining his wallet and not saving the planet?

Formulate a response to that question as you look at what all that money the former Vice President is making off of spreading this myth can buy (h/t Doug Ross):

Sweet, wouldn't you say? (Readers are encouraged to view more pictures of this fabulous estate here.)

Certainly not bad for a guy who supposedly was worth between one and two million dollars in 2000.

Were the "Always Fascinated by the Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous" press interested?


Read more: Stunning Pictures of Al Gore's New $9 Million Mansion Media Totally Ignored | NewsBusters.org


Without a doubt - Hypocrite of the year. What a complete and utter phoney.

uncle phil

oh, canada...

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We will leave you your small joys and smaller troubles."
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Jinn

These arguments are a bit like 'evolution is false because Darwin did X'. A vocal proponent who suffers from the human condition does not undermine the theory. I have mixed feelings about Gore himself, but there is no question that global warming is anthropogenic. Well, no question for most. Him making money on it really doesn't have any relevance. I thought that was the goal of capitalism, anyway?

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dogzilla

Al Gore lost any credibility with me when it made the news a few years ago that his monthly electric bill for his home in Tennessee was over $10K per month. This is just another case of the liberal attitude of listen to what I say, don't look at what I do.

Al Gore and the global warming crowd didn't do themselves any favors with their climate summit in Copenhagen with so many private jets that they had problems parking them, and so many limos that there was a limo shortage in Europe.

I may not be a liberal, but I at least try to help the environment by driving a 15 year old Geo Prism that gets 40MPG, keeping lights off when I don't need them, keep my heat between 60 and 65 in the winter, recycling, etc.

Baraka_Guru

Each one of us is a cause of global warming, but each one of us can make choices to change that with the things we buy, the electricity we use, the cars we drive; we can make choices to bring our individual carbon emissions to zero. The solutions are in our hands, we just have to have the determination to make it happen. We have everything that we need to reduce carbon emissions, everything but political will. But in America, the will to act is a renewable resource.

-Al Gore, concluding remarks, An Inconvenient Truth

He might be a hypocrite, but does that invalidate his fundamental message?

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Humankind cannot bear very much reality.
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Manic_Skafe

Where's Stretch Armstrong when you need him?

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Shauk

I consider myself a liberal but Gore can go fuck himself. I'm not even convinced he would have been a better president than Bush had he won that last state simply because he's got such a crooked hypocrisy that he's obviously just a politician.

while he preaches the liberal agenda, he lives a selfish one i'd expect from the fat cat right wingers who love money more than people.

Ourcrazymodern?

He's a fucking politician - they aren't required to stand behind what they say. If he bought the line he's been mouthing he wouldn't have bought another house.

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dippin

Whatever Gore's character flaws are, it really isn't relevant to the global warming debate. If every time someone exploited a theory, idea or cause for personal gain we discredited the idea, we'd have nothing left.

Charlatan

This is the message that you all need to take away from this thread.

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james t kirk

There's no "might be" in there. He IS a hypocrite of the worst kind.

In my opinion he should walk the walk. Frankly he is a very poor spokesman for his fundamental message and though his hypocrisy does not invalidate the message - it certainly invalidates him. I'm all for success and reaping the rewards of your hard work, but does one really need a house with 9 bathrooms? For that matter, I believe this is Gore's 3'rd house. I seem to recall he had a 14,000 ft2 mansion in Tennessee and a house in NY somewhere that was about half the size. Now this makes 3 houses at virtually the 3 corners of the United States. I somehow doubt he rides a bicycle to commute between his palaces.

The cynic in me would say that Al is just an opportunist like so many other sleazeballs, whoops, I mean Politicians. He simply figured out a way to become a spokesman for an industry and make a shit load of money for himself in the process. In the end, that's what it comes down to with Gore - money and lots of it.

Cynthetiq

I don't have to change, YOU have to change.

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genuinegirly

I really don't understand the fascination with mansions. Does he really do that much entertaining? I hope he realizes the damage this does to his credibility.

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Charlatan

I have no problem with someone profiting from the green movement. The whole point is that there is a business model to be exploited. Remember that he has also invested time and money into Current TV and other enterprises beyond just his speaking.

That said, it's disappointing that he can't practice what he preaches. As a spokesperson for a movement, you really need to set an example.

__________________
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- Old Man Luedecke

Baraka_Guru

He could have at least brought over a bunch of German architects and contractors and built a zero-emissions/carbon neutral mansion.

Then he could say: "See! It is possible!"

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Knowing that death is certain and that the time of death is uncertain, what's the most important thing?
—Bhikkhuni Pema Chödrön

Humankind cannot bear very much reality.
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roachboy

i really don't see the point of this thread. i don't see the logic behind the op. you imagine that democrats are not representatives of a faction of the dominant financial oligarchy because they speak a different rhetoric than do the republicans? if you think that then you don't know the first thing about us politics. and if you don't know the first thing about us politics, it really is of no consequence what you think of al gore.

personally i see him as having done some useful work in raising awareness about climate change. past that baraka guru and charlatan have summarized what i think a reasonable position is.

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it make you sick.

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Charlatan

rb... Al Gore matters beyond the US borders. His message is a global one. He was just here giving a speech that received a lot of local press. What he says and what he does is important in that he is seen as the figurehead of a movement.

I am not surprised that he continues to live a lavish life. I'm just disappointed that he isn't showing good leadership.

__________________
"My hands are on fire. Hands are on fire. Ain't got no more time for all you charlatans and liars."
- Old Man Luedecke

Baraka_Guru

Gore should have built a house like David Shepler's of IBM Research:

__________________
Knowing that death is certain and that the time of death is uncertain, what's the most important thing?
—Bhikkhuni Pema Chödrön

Humankind cannot bear very much reality.
—From "Burnt Norton," Four Quartets (1936), T. S. Eliot

Wes Mantooth

Being a hypocrite absolutely and completely destroys his message. He's asking us to change how we live our lives for the greater good of the planet and yet he himself either can't or wont make those same changes? His inability to lead by example is really telling us that while his message is important, living a green lifestyle is too difficult, inconvenient and hard to put into practice, so give it a shot but when it proves to be to hard you can just give up or make excuses. In other words "Meh, saving the planet isn't all that important after all".

I don't know maybe I'm being to harsh perhaps I'm missing Al Gores point, its been awhile since I've seen his movie. Maybe he's telling us that saving the planet is great but private jets, gas guzzling limos, and houses that consume more energy then some small countries are even better! After all the important people can't be expected to be inconvenienced by saving the world...but if you aren't a jet setting, international global warming superstar then you should do the right thing and buy that electric car. Al Gore is super cereal about saving the environment as long as it doesn't make his life any more difficult. Excelsior!

In all seriousness I actually like Al Gore but failing to set an example really castrates his message to the point of near absurdity. People just aren't going to take him or his crusade seriously until he walks the walk and shows the world that it really works, is possible and everyone can do it.



.

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dippin

First, it isn't "his message." He didn't invent environmentalism, the idea of global warming, or any sort of "living green" philosophy.

Second, is one hypocrite enough to destroy any message?

dogzilla

If Al Gore says that the environment is being damaged, that global warming is a problem, and that we need to cut back on energy usage, then proceeds to buy another huge home which uses lots of energy, why would I believe a word that he has to say about the subject. He has absolutely no credibility on the subject.

Now, since there are other people making the case for global warming, Al Gore alone does not destroy the credibility of the warnings about global warming. However, get enough hypocrites like him speaking out and the message might be distorted or diluted.

roachboy

all of which presupposes that this "hypocrisy" nonsense has some meaning.
gee, a national level politician in the united states is wealthy. what a fucking shock. and he disposes of his wealth in a way that were gore a conservative rightwingers would defend.

it's funny that this non-story is floating about now and apparently getting some traction in the rightwing press. it's certainly easier to froth about on this vital matter of infotainment---the Important Question about climate change of course being how al gore lives his personal life----given the disaster that's unfolding in the gulf of mexico, which seems to maybe---just maybe---have punched some holes in conservative anti-green posturing.

folk need to learn to recognize triage memes when they see em. this is about giving conservatives something to feel put upon about concerning "the environment" at a moment when their message, such as it is, has been atomized by reality again.

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spinning dog. such faithfulness it hear

it make you sick.

-kamau brathwaite

ratbastid

You know what happens if you go out on the street to notice red cars? Even if you just say "red" to yourself before you leave the house. It's absolutely shocking how many red cars you see. It's like every red car in town lines up to drive past you that very day!

Baraka_Guru

Let's pretend Al Gore had a similar message but a number of decades ago. Let's pretend he had all this evidence that smoking was bad for you, and until then people didn't really know otherwise. Let's pretend he made a sensational film about it in an attempt to mobilize the world against the dangers of smoking. Let's also pretend that not only does Gore chain smoke but that he recently bought shares in Philip Morris.

Would that change the fact that we should probably quit smoking, that we should quit smoking around our children, that pregnant women probably shouldn't smoke?

Okay, he's a fucking hypocrite. But does that mean we should let him ruin a movement toward more sustainable global lifestyles?

I mean, should we let ourselves be bratty about it?

Are we just jealous of his wealth?

Okay, so Gore has failed to live up to his own words. He doesn't practice what he preaches. So tell him to fuck off. He failed to get his own message. Maybe his wealth was like a drug and he couldn't resist. So be it.

As for me, I'm going to continue to be concerned about out little biosphere. I don't know about you, but Gore's actions are of little consequence to my own thoughts on the issue.

__________________
Knowing that death is certain and that the time of death is uncertain, what's the most important thing?
—Bhikkhuni Pema Chödrön

Humankind cannot bear very much reality.
—From "Burnt Norton," Four Quartets (1936), T. S. Eliot

Cynthetiq

I don't know about "one hypocrite" being able to destroy a message, but one individual can convince individuals to change, can also lose that ability for one reason or another.

See Tiger Woods for examples.

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dogzilla

Actually, it does. I've had discussions with people about low gas mileage cars and SUVs. Their comments to me were that as long as limousine liberals like Al Gore insisted on flying around in private jets and owned multiple large homes with huge energy budgets, they saw no reason to give up their cars or otherwise try to conserve energy.

Al Gore can spend his money however he likes. However, by doing things like this, he loses any credibility that he has. He's no different than any other shyster who tries to separate people from their money. In the interests of full disclosure, maybe Al should disclose how much money he's made off investments in energy conservation. Because, as far as I am concerned with Al, he's in a position to get publicity for his statements, and can steer people into whatever direction suits his interests.

For me, Al Gore has had nothing to say of value about the environment for several years, since it was disclosed a few years ago about his home in Tennessee with a $10K/month + utility bill. This isn't new news.

Maybe we would have a few less oil wells in the Gulf of Mexico if Al Gore and his peers weren't flying around in private jets and otherwise wasting energy instead of conserving it.

roachboy

right. because al gore is personally responsible for the kind of levels of petroleum consumption that is built into the economic model that conservatives are cheerleader for the waste built into which props up an oil industry that is amongst the republicans bigger backers at whose beck and call the right has been ideologically on environmental questions for many years.

and because in the la-la land of the right, it is the democrats who are some Persecuting Elite. i forget about that particular aspect of rightwing paranoia in the fabrication of al gore as Persecuting Other. a bad bad man who is associated with the bad bad man bill clinton. bad bad bad.

if you want to play this game, i suppose we could also talk about people like koch industries and the other deep pockets whose money explains the continued presence of conservative-specific anti-climate change nonsense and whose infrastructure explains the circulation of this particularly pathetic bit of conservative meme triage.

how is it that we are not being treated to stories about how the koch brothers dispose of their massive incomes in their private lives. o wait: the koch brothers and their ilk have no political interest in exposing themselves to scrutiny. they just want to buy the capacity to direct it at others when it serves some political advantage. no problem with that. there can't be a problem with that. the koch brothers are conservatives.

__________________
a gramophone its corrugated trumpet silver handle
spinning dog. such faithfulness it hear

it make you sick.

-kamau brathwaite

Wes Mantooth

Guys, it doesn't change the overall message that global warming is a man made catastrophe and we need to take steps to fix it. It does by proxy of Al Gore being a poster boy for global warming severely weaken the message when its de facto spokesman not only doesn't live by his own word but also apparently goes out of his way to leave a larger carbon footprint then he really needs too. He's begun sending the message that global warming just isn't worth the effort to fix, and if something isn't worth the effort then how important can it really be? It provides fodder for global warming detractors and makes people on the fence about issue continue to question their position. If he's not destroying his own message he's certainly severely hobbling it.

To a lot of people Al Gore has become another greedy politician/businessman exploiting a tragedy for his own personal gain and until he starts to live by his own words people just aren't going to take HIS global warming message that seriously. If he really wants to help he either needs to change how he lives or step down and let somebody else move into the limelight. Personally I think global warming is a man made catastrophe and I try to do everything I can to help. I think Al Gore did a lot with his movie, his books, his lectures and he should be commended but at this point he's starting to cross the line into hurting his own cause and quite frankly becoming a bit of a joke.

__________________

Cynthetiq

rb, this is how I see it. This isn't anything more than the conservatives saying anti-gay things and finding them with men. It's not much different than that.

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roachboy

cyn---i'm not sure i understand your point.

i should say as an aside that i don't particularly care for al gore. i find him astonishingly wooden. one of those folk that makes me cringe just a little that he's on my side. or i am on his. whatever. on this issue anyway. what i'm reacting to in this thread really is the ad hominem character of this whole thing. and it's timing, which seems more than passing strange. but mostly the former. and there's little comparison between the tactics used by the american right insofar as sustained personal attack as a way of trying to delegitimate a political message is concerned.

__________________
a gramophone its corrugated trumpet silver handle
spinning dog. such faithfulness it hear

it make you sick.

-kamau brathwaite

Baraka_Guru

I just realized that Gore has nearly twice as many bathrooms than I do rooms.

For the record, I've been listening to the messages of David Suzuki long before I even knew who Al Gore really was.

__________________
Knowing that death is certain and that the time of death is uncertain, what's the most important thing?
—Bhikkhuni Pema Chödrön

Humankind cannot bear very much reality.
—From "Burnt Norton," Four Quartets (1936), T. S. Eliot

Wes Mantooth

I agree and at that point whatever message the homophobic congressmen had built a career spewing out is pretty much moot when it comes from him. Are his followers really going to continue taking his anti gay message seriously when he makes a speech about it in the future?

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Cynthetiq

This is pretty much what I mean:
How about the preacher/politician saying family values only to be caught with a mistress?

rb is this something that you don't see the hypocrisy? It's schadenfreude at minimum, hypocrisy at maximum.

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I don't care if you are black, white, purple, green, Chinese, Japanese, Korean, hippie, cop, bum, admin, user, English, Irish, French, Catholic, Protestant, Jewish, Buddhist, Muslim, indian, cowboy, tall, short, fat, skinny, emo, punk, mod, rocker, straight, gay, lesbian, jock, nerd, geek, Democrat, Republican, Libertarian, Independent, driver, pedestrian, or bicyclist, either you're an asshole or you're not.

Wes Mantooth

Yup same idea Cynthetiq, did anyone take Jimmy Swaggart seriously after he was caught in a hotel with a prostitute? That level of hypocrisy is hard to recover from.

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Lindy

A big plus one Cynthetiq.

Al Gore to earthlings: Follow my instructions, not my example.
If everyone else would change, I could be an even bigger hog.

And speaking of ad hominem:
Maybe we all need to pass some kind of examination before our opinions matter.

Lindy

roachboy

how is this the same?

the guy bought a house. a house is not a belief that is at cross purposes with stated positions.
for all you know it's the greenest of green houses with swedish toilets that use no water and passive solar heating.

what you're reacting to is the number of bedrooms. and the price. what allows you to connect that to climage change is some notion that dealing with climate change will involve renunciation as if the current petroleum-crazed was of doing things is absolutely necessary and no alternatives are imaginable so if that way of doing things is creating problems the response is necessarily to subtract elements so make do with less not develop alternatives (think o i dunno the idea that youd have to do without cars as opposed to the idea that a system-level response to climate change might be to underwrite the development of solar-powered cars or something)
so the idea is that you cannot imagine an alternative set of consumer lifestyle possibilities to what exists now. and you imagine that sustainable practices involve sleeping on planks and wearing a hair frock while you eke out some miserable existence.
i have no idea at all where that stereotype---if it's even that--comes from.
but it's clear that it's a conservative mythology that functions to delegitimate concern for the environment by setting it up as a way of being that wants to take something away from righteous amuricans.

from there the link is in your head to al gore buying a house. but unless you accept the implicit characterization, the connection is arbitrary.

so this is nothing like the attitudes of a homophobic conservative congressman or the special problems created by jimmy swaggart employing hookers.
unless you assume that conservative packaging of "environmentalists" as persecuting Others represents some kind of fact about the world.
which i think ludicrous.
and so's this "controversy"

__________________
a gramophone its corrugated trumpet silver handle
spinning dog. such faithfulness it hear

it make you sick.

-kamau brathwaite

dogzilla

Sure. And all the trees used to build this house were cut down by had so no hydrocarbons were consumed, that all the trees that were cut down to build this mansion were replaced with equal or better quality trees. All mining of concrete and steel was done with carbon-neutral technology. He's flying around on a solar powered private jet Right.

The amount of resources consumed in this mansion are far beyond what most people use.

If Al wants to be an environmentalist, let him live the lifestyle to the hilt. If he wants to be a wealthy hypocritical limousine liberal then let him live that lifestyle.

He can't be both.

roachboy

dogzilla proves my point, in case there was any doubt.
thanks for that.

__________________
a gramophone its corrugated trumpet silver handle
spinning dog. such faithfulness it hear

it make you sick.

-kamau brathwaite

Cynthetiq

I don't know rb, Ed Begley Jr. seems to do just fine walking the talk. He's a point of view that I can respect and understand. He's not just talking it, he's living it.

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roachboy

you know what i think is hypocritical?

conservatives whose political machine carries shit for agribusiness and petrochemical concerns acting as though green politics are something inflicted on them by some "liberal elite."
so money is somehow associated with greens and not with the conservative political machinery that's been paid for by agricorporations and petrochemical concerns.

well, that's a kind of structural hypocrisy really.
i don't see individual conservatives as hypocrites on this.
i see them as chumps.
that's different.

to be clear, i don't care about al gore one way or another. he has not been constructed for me as a boogeyman by some combine that fabricates political viewpoints so you don't have to take the trouble to think things out for yourselves. what i object to is the logic that underpins this entire thread.

__________________
a gramophone its corrugated trumpet silver handle
spinning dog. such faithfulness it hear

it make you sick.

-kamau brathwaite