Who is the Real Environmentalist?

Read this and decide who is the "real" green person concerned about the environment.

HOUSE # 1:

A 20-room mansion (not including 8 bathrooms) heated by natural gas. Add on a pool (and a pool house) and a separate guest house all heated by gas. In ONE MONTH ALONE this mansion consumes more energy than the average American household in an ENTIRE YEAR. The average bill for electricity and natural gas runs over $2,400.00 per month. In natural gas alone (which last time we checked was a fossil fuel), this property consumes more than 20 times the national average for an American home. This house is not in a northern or Midwestern “snow belt,” either. It’s in the South.

HOUSE # 2:

Designed by an architecture professor at a leading national university, this house incorporates every “green” feature current home construction can provide. The house contains 4,000 square feet (4 bedrooms) and is nestled on an arid high prairie in the American southwest. A central closet in the house holds geothermal heat pumps drawing ground water through pipes sunk 300 feet into the ground. The water (usually 67 degrees F.) heats the house in winter and cools it in summer. The system uses no fossil fuels such as oil or natural gas, and it consumes 25% of the electricity required for a conventional heating/cooling system. Rainwater from the roof is collected and funneled into a 25,000 gallon underground cistern. Wastewater from showers, sinks and toilets goes into underground purifying tanks and then into the cistern. The collected water then irrigates the land surrounding the house. Flowers and shrubs native to the area blend the property into the surrounding rural landscape.

HOUSE # 1 (20 room energy guzzling mansion) is outside of Nashville, Tennessee.
It is the abode of that renowned environmentalist (and filmmaker) Al Gore.

HOUSE # 2 (model eco-friendly house) is on a ranch near Crawford, Texas. Also known as “the Texas White House,” it is the private residence of the President of the United States, George W. Bush.

So whose house is gentler on the environment?

Yet another story you WON’T hear on CNN, CBS, ABC, NBC, MSNBC or read about in the New York Times or the Washington Post.

Indeed, for Mr. Gore, it’s truly “an inconvenient truth.”

If true, indeed, inconveient for Algore.

Summer Recess

Aaaahhhh!

Congress is out of town for the month of August so I can breath easier for a few weeks. No threats to raise taxes, no political high jinks, no publicity stunts, no mad rush to the TV cameras, and praise be even if it is only for a short month.

I wish Congress would take more time away from Washington. Why do we, the American people, need Congress in town for months and months? If Congress fulfilled its basic duties and stopped the silly partisan games, the American people might think more highly of it. Last report I heard Congress's approval rating was 18. President Bush's rating was 31. Thirty one is higher than 18, at least using old math.

So Congress, do us a favor and stay away.

Predictions

Want to make a weather prediction?

Go ahead. Do it.

When it comes to predicting hurricanes, your guess (why not just write numbers 1 -20 on paper, put them into a pot, and select one) is as good as the experts. And perhaps more accurate.

Last year some expert "predicted" a total of 17 or 18 hurricanes based on his scientific knowledge of weather patterns and his feel for political correctness. Last year not a single hurricane touched the United States if my old memory serves me correctly.

This year the "expert" predicted 17 hurricanes with a likely five being severe storms.

As of today -7 August 2007- not a single hurricane has been sighted in the western hemisphere.

Where did they go?

Maybe the hurricanes did not get the memo from Algore saying global warming causes more hurricanes and more "severe" hurricanes.

I predict the sun will rise tomorrow.