The American Spectator

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(Page 3 of 13)

Meaning no slight to the estimable Jay D. Homnick -- who once called my home to thank me for a pithy little play on words I had submitted (pardon my lisp, BTW) -- I can foresee a veritable torrent of indignant e-mailings from Gore supporters "correcting" (what they have perceived to be) Mr. Homnick's "misstatement" that Albert Gore, Jr. doesn't have a college degree.

My own educational background is checkered, but part of it was with the Good Jesuit Fathers. And, prior to that, I was under the stern tutelage of Sister Mary Holywater and Sister Diesel Locomotive -- both of whom wielded a wickedly-effective 18-inch ruler. I was force-fed sentence structure until I could diagram sentences in my sleep. That being the case, I am fully aware that Mr. Homnick employed "science" as an adjectival modifier of both "background" and "degree." Unfortunately, it's like that the Gore crowd will read an "a" into the space between "or" and "degree" -- and, subsequently, will holler "foul!"

Take heart, Mr. Homnick -- some of us get it!

p>BTW, did you hear the story about how Mrs. Gore, early in their marriage, took up bird-watching? On a day trip, she had observed a nest of raptors and was very excited by her find -- so much so that she prevailed upon Al to drive her and the kids to the site so that they, too, could enjoy the soaring birds. Like all children, the kids soon grew weary of the coloring books and started the usual "are-we-there-yet?" pester-ploy. Finally, after one of them had demanded "why is it taking so much time , Daddy?" Al was forced to reply -- and he sang "It's a long waaaay...to Tipper'r aerie!" (I'm leaving now.) br> -- David Gonzalez br> Wheeling, Illinois /p>

It is sad to see Mr. Homnick, the eminent Human Events humorist, remonstrate with the worthy Rep. Reichert for failing to keep faith with his publication's views on geophysics, which one gather's are slightly to the underside of Rush Limbaugh's. It seems to vex Homnick that Reichert has been looking at thermometers, and accomplished practitioner of forensic science that he is , has decided to be governed by what they say, as opposed to what Senator Inhofe and the staffers lent him by Rush believe. His eminently reasonable view -- according to his website -- is that he will pursue "an environmental and energy agenda that assumes global warming is affected by man’s activity" and that he "will continue to aggressively pursue and advocate for an environmental agenda that assumes it is caused by man’s activity and works to counteract it."

Whisked into the deep rose tinted twilight of Homnick's scientific high spin zone , this comes a out as: "Unfortunately the politico-cultural winds blow in such a way that Reichert is embarrassed into backtracking and double-talking. In twenty or thirty years from now, Gore and his ilk will be exposed as charlatans and mountebanks of the first order.... It is time for Republicans to find the courage to scoff at the likes of Al Gore, who persist in warming the globe with their hot air."

p>This is pretty sophomoric stuff . Before continuing, perhaps Homnick should catch up to Reichert, by reading a freshman atmospheric science textbook, perhaps the very one Al's mentor Mike McElroy has been drilling into him for the last decade. Not that all of it has sunk in ( I have plenty of unkind things to say about Al's film in this month's American Interest ). But alas for the nation, unlike Homnick and his ilk, the well-tutored Gore at least got the sign right on climatic bracket creep, and has had only to stick to his guns and let the neocon ascendancy shoot itself in the foot for the last decade running. What you hope to accomplish by passing them yet more ammunition eludes me.

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