Hollyweird - Al Gore won an Oscar for his global warming documentary, "An Inconvenient Truth". This is really of no surprise whatsoever. Left wing movies have a huge advantage in the Oscars competition, particularly in recent years. In fact, Michael Moore won an Oscar in the same "documentary" category, and that piece of work certainly stretched the boundaries of what constitutes a documentary. What is so interesting about the Gore win, however, is that some media cheerleaders have taken this as a sign that Mr. Gore needs to run for president again. "AOL News" is blasting a "Should Gore Run?" headline on its main page and certain broadcast outlets have been hinting along the same lines since Gore took the prized statuette, despite the fact that Al Gore announced some time ago that he would not be running for president in 2008. It is interesting how some people see a victory in The Academy Awards as any kind of indicator of success in a presidential election. As far as I understand it, the Academy Awards voters are a relatively small group of individuals who bear little resemblance to the actual electorate of the country. Winners of an Oscar are not necessarily popular or generally electable for anything, let along president. If Gore would have lost this award to another nominee, would he be deemed any less likely to run for president? Why is the Oscar win even relevant?

More Media Shenanigans - A former head of the ACLU, Charles Rust-Tierney, was arrested last week for the possession of child pornography. Apparently, among the material found in Mr. Rust-Tierney's home were videos of little girls being violently raped by adults. This story is disturbing to say the least. Child pornography has nothing to do with freedom of speech and those who are addicted to it would seemingly not be too far removed from acting on it in some way or another with a real live child. What is interesting about this story is how few in the media actually chose to cover it. As of this time, The New York Times, NBC News, CBS News and CNN have all ignored the story. Of major media outlets, only ABC and the Associate Press have covered it and the story still has appeared in very few major newspapers. I would not have heard of it, other than through a media watchdog website, http://newsbusters.org/node/11089 . If the person charged with possession of child pornography were the former head of a large right wing organization would the media be so apparently disinterested in it?

More Al Gore - Our former vice president, who has taken on the role of global warming czar, is reported to have one of the worst offenders to the environment in his own possession--it's his home in suburban Nashville! The Tennessee Center for Policy Research, a private think-tank, has reported that Al Gore's utility bill totaled $30,000, or more than twenty times the average annual charge for that area. Gore's people are not disputing the information, but are countering that this is just a desperate attack by the last vestiges of the "nonbelievers" in global warming. Regardless of where this "attack" came from, it would seem that any environmental crusader would make doubly sure that he has his ducks in a row, just for the sake of appearance if nothing else. The "do as I say not as I do" attitude might work on a child, but this is someone who is essentially advocating major lifestyle changes for all of us to combat global warming, and he has been doing so for years. Certainly, there has been plenty of time for adjustments to his own home and lifestyle. One wonders if Gore has any other "inconvenient truths" hiding in his immense closets.

Stock Plunge - The Dow today had its largest one-day drop since 2001, roughly 3.3 percent or 416 points. These large one day movements are always over-reported as if the world has come to an end, probably because it represents easy drama, and the press loves drama. The stock market has been on an upward run for quite some time, one which cannot go on forever, and it was due for some kind of correction. Whether this drop represents all of the correction or just the start of a longer term trend remains to be seen. Still, anyone who remotely follows the market knows that the upward momentum has been slowing somewhat. This has little, however, to do with the fundamentals of the economy, which some voices are saying, and more to do with the market getting too ahead of itself. Over the short-term, the stock market goes up and it goes down, how much and how often this happens in either direction is anyone's guess. One thing for certain, though, the stock market has always gone up over the long term and I'm betting this trend will continue. Don't believe the naysayers, who have ignored the run-up in value over the past four years or so, and only mouth off when something like this inevitably happens.

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About the author: Ed Abraham is a concerned citizen living in flyover country, U.S.A., who happens to be truly disgusted by the loss of common sense in our society and is doing all he can to try to reinstall it.

Email: eabra@myway.com

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