Fearless on my breath...

Brad at Sadly, No! points us to this coverage of Al Gore's presentation to the Congress:

The reviews only grew more savage when Gore crossed over to the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee in the afternoon for a second hearing. “You’ve been so extreme in some of your expressions that you’re losing some of your own people,” announced Sen. James Inhofe (Okla.), the committee’s ranking Republican and the man who has called man-made global warming “the greatest hoax ever perpetrated on the American people.”

Inhofe informed Gore that scientists are “radically at odds with your claims.” Displaying a photograph of icicles in Buffalo, Inhofe demanded: “How come you guys never seem to notice it when it gets cold? . . . Where is global warming when you really need it?”

No, really, an elected official actually said this. Brad adds:

And that’s about it, folks. Because it’s cold in Buffalo during the winter, global warming can’t be real.

There are times when I think we just deserve to die off. This is one of them.

However, just when you start to lose all hope you read the rest of the story:

Barton informed Gore that some of his ideas “are just flawed.” Under Gore’s plan, Barton said, “we can have no new industry, no new cars and trucks on the streets, and apparently no new people.”

But this was no match for Gore. “The planet has a fever,” he lectured Barton. “If your baby has a fever, you go to the doctor. If the doctor says you need to intervene here, you don’t say, ‘Well, I read a science fiction novel that tells me it’s not a problem.’ If the crib’s on fire, you don’t speculate that the baby is flame-retardant. You take action.” [Editor's note: Day-um! Can I just once again say how very much I heart Al Gore?]

The audience laughed. Barton started reading the newspaper, then discovered he wasn’t getting much support even from his own side. Bob Inglis (R-S.C.) admitted he paid to see “An Inconvenient Truth.” Roscoe Bartlett (R-Md.), implicitly rebuking flat-Earth colleagues, said: “It’s possible to be a conservative without appearing to be an idiot.” Barton flashed a grin of annoyance.

I'd like to think Mr. Bartlett is correct about this, I really would, but I can't really find any significant factual basis for his argument. Although I have to say that I admire the hell out of anyone who can make it as far as Congress while sharing the first name of the mildly evil and mentally challenged sheriff on "Dukes of Hazard".

Over on the Senate side, Inhofe was determined to avoid a fate like Barton’s. Given just 12 minutes to question Gore, Inhofe warned him that “I want the same ad-lib time that you have.” When Gore didn’t answer his questions succinctly enough, Inhofe ordered: “I’m going to ask you to respond for the record in writing.”

“Well,” said Gore, “if I choose to respond to you verbally here, I hope that’ll be okay, too.”

“If it’s a very brief response,” Inhofe directed, then declared that Gore could not answer any questions until Inhofe had finished his allotted time.

Boxer broke in. “You’re not making the rules,” she said, raising the gavel. “You used to when you had this.” The hall filled with applause.

If she'd added "bitches" to that final statement I'd seriously start worshipping at that woman's feet.

I give you, Her Royal Highness Peggy "Magic Talking Dolphins" Noonan on global warming:

During the past week's heat wave--it hit 100 degrees in New York City Monday--I got thinking, again, of how sad and frustrating it is that the world's greatest scientists cannot gather, discuss the question of global warming, pore over all the data from every angle, study meteorological patterns and temperature histories, and come to a believable conclusion on these questions: Is global warming real or not? If it is real, is it necessarily dangerous? What exactly are the dangers? Is global warming as dangerous as, say, global cooling would be? Are we better off with an Earth that is getting hotter or, what with the modern realities of heating homes and offices, and the world energy crisis, and the need to conserve, does global heating have, in fact, some potential side benefits, and can those benefits be broadened and deepened? Also, if global warning is real, what must--must--the inhabitants of the Earth do to meet its challenges? And then what should they do to meet them?

You would think the world's greatest scientists could do this, in good faith and with complete honesty and a rigorous desire to discover the truth. And yet they can't. Because science too, like other great institutions, is poisoned by politics. Scientists have ideologies. They are politicized.

Some of my favorite responses:

If only science had some sort of method to discover the truth. If only they could measure temperatures and shrinking glaciers.If only peggy Noonan could understand that method.
Gary Buell

Shorter Peggy Noonan:
If only Daddy Reagan were still here, he'd make the nasty noisy men go away and everything would be all nice and he'd sit me on his knee yes and we'd play pony yes and his knee would yes bounce up and down yes and he'd hold me under yes my arms yes and yes and yes yes...
The Dancing Cavalier