by JAMES TARANTO
Tuesday, February 27, 2007 2:50 P.M. EST

Your Feet's Too Big
"An Inconvenient Truth," Al Gore's global-warming horror flick, picked up an Oscar the other night for Best Documentary. Yesterday the Tennessee Center for Policy Research issued an inconvenient report on Gore's own personal "carbon footprint." The center obtained utility records from Gore's mansion "located in the posh Belle Meade area of Nashville":

The average household in America consumes 10,656 kilowatt-hours (kWh) per year, according to the Department of Energy. In 2006, Gore devoured nearly 221,000 kWh--more than 20 times the national average.

Last August alone, Gore burned through 22,619 kWh--guzzling more than twice the electricity in one month than an average American family uses in an entire year. As a result of his energy consumption, Gore's average monthly electric bill topped $1,359.

Since the release of An Inconvenient Truth, Gore's energy consumption has increased from an average of 16,200 kWh per month in 2005, to 18,400 kWh per month in 2006.

Gore's extravagant energy use does not stop at his electric bill. Natural gas bills for Gore's mansion and guest house averaged $1,080 per month last year.

The Tennessean reports, however, that Gore is buying his indulgences:

Gore purchased 108 blocks of "green power" for each of the past three months, according to a summary of the bills.

That's a total of $432 a month Gore paid extra for solar or other renewable energy sources. . . .

"Every family has a different carbon footprint," said Kalee Krider, a spokeswoman for Gore. The Gores' 10,000-square-foot house on Lynnwood Boulevard has a large one.

The Green Power Switch program isn't all that Gore and his wife, Tipper, are doing, Krider said.

They use compact fluorescent light bulbs and are in the midst of a renovation project that includes having solar panels installed on their home to reduce fossil fuel consumption, she said.

Their car? A Lexis [sic] hybrid SUV.

"They, of course, also do the carbon emissions offset," she said.

That means figuring out how much carbon is emitted from home power use, and vehicle and plane travel, then paying for projects that will offset that with use of renewable energy, such as solar power.

Not every wealthy politician lives in a vast private mansion, and TreeHugger.com reports on one who lives more simply:

Is it possible that George Bush is a secret Green? Evidently his Crawford Winter White House has 25,000 gallons of rainwater storage, gray water collection from sinks and showers for irrigation, passive solar, geothermal heating and cooling. "By marketplace standards, the house is startlingly small," says David Heymann, the architect of the 4,000-square-foot home. "Clients of similar ilk are building 16-to-20,000-square-foot houses." Furthermore for thermal mass the walls are clad in "discards of a local stone called Leuders limestone, which is quarried in the area. The 12-to-18-inch-thick stone has a mix of colors on the top and bottom, with a cream- colored center that most people want. "They cut the top and bottom of it off because nobody really wants it," Heymann says. "So we bought all this throwaway stone. It's fabulous. It's got great color and it is relatively inexpensive."

Of course we don't begrudge Gore his life of luxury--only his sanctimonious insistence that the rest of us sacrifice our comforts to the dubious god of global warming. And there's no reason he couldn't live in a smaller house and throw his money at solar power.

The New York Post, meanwhile, reports that some celebrities are getting their global-warming indulgences free:

Hollywood's wealthy liberals can now avoid any guilt they might feel for consuming so much non-renewable fossil fuel in their private jets, their SUVs, and their multiple air-conditioned mansions. This year's Oscar goodie bag contained gift certificates representing 100,000 pounds of greenhouse gas reductions from TerraPass, which describes itself as a "carbon offset retailer."

The 100,000 pounds "are enough to balance out an average year in the life of an Academy Award presenter," a press release from TerraPass asserts. "For example, 100,000 pounds is the total amount of carbon dioxide created by 20,000 miles of driving, 40,000 miles on commercial airlines, 20 hours in a private jet and a large house in Los Angeles.

The greenhouse gas reductions will be accomplished through TerraPass' [program] of verified wind energy, cow power [collecting methane from manure] and efficiency projects." Voila, guilt-free consumption!

Come to think of it, Gore was at the Oscars, so he probably got one of those "goodie bags" too.

Then there's this, from the New York Times:

Goldman Sachs has been one of the most aggressive firms on Wall Street about taking action on climate change; the company sends its bankers home at night in hybrid limousines.

Literal limousine liberals!

Fun With Ellipses
From a New York Times editorial:

The international community . . . having invested so much . . . must continue to stay deeply involved. It would not be surprising if, after seven years, interest has flagged. But without more outside help, there is little hope for building a peaceful democracy in . . .

You guessed it, the next word isn't "Iraq." The Times doesn't want to cut and run from Kosovo.

The Heartbreak Continues
"Maybe it takes a woman to clean house," punned Speaker-elect Nancy Pelosi shortly after the election. To judge by a report in The Politico, maybe Pelosi should hire a maid:

Pelosi vowed that five-day workweeks would be a hallmark of a harder-working Democratic majority. So far, the House has logged only one. Lawmakers plan to clock three days this week.

The speaker has denied Republicans a vote on their proposals during congressional debates--a tactic she previously declared oppressive and promised to end. Pelosi has opened the floor to a Republican alternative just once. . . .

She is drawing fire for putting Rep. William Jefferson (D-La.), who had $90,000 in alleged bribe money in his freezer, on the Homeland Security Committee.

We're so disillusioned. We really thought the Democrats were going to be different!

Dispatches From Pelosiville
"A San Francisco weekly newspaper that bills itself as 'The Voice of Asian America' is facing harsh criticism from that very community for publishing a column Friday titled 'Why I Hate Blacks,' " reports the San Francisco Chronicle:

In the column, AsianWeek regular contributor Kenneth Eng listed "reasons" to discriminate against African Americans. . . .

Eng called himself an "Asian supremacist" in January in another installment of the column, which runs under the label "God of the Universe." . . .

Other AsianWeek columns of Eng's--including "Proof That Whites Inherently Hate Us" and "Why I Hate Asians"--have resulted in criticism.

Well, at least he doesn't seem to be prejudiced. He hates everyone equally! The Chronicle also reports that San Francisco played host to the GAYVN awards, which are the Oscars of homosexual pornography:

The weekend highlighted San Francisco's position as the capital of the gay porn industry. Elected officials--including Assemblyman Mark Leno, Mayor Gavin Newsom and City Treasurer Jose Cisneros--penned official statements honoring Colt Studios, which celebrated its 40th anniversary Friday. City Supervisor Bevan Dufty worked the crowd in the lobby of the theater before the Saturday night ceremony.

Where was Speaker Pelosi?

How Likely?
From an Associated Press dispatch:

Former U.S. Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan warned Monday that the American economy might slip into recession by year's end. . . .

"While, yes, it is possible we can get a recession in the latter months of 2007, most forecasters are not making that judgment and indeed are projecting forward into 2008 . . . with some slowdown," he said.

Greenspan said that while it would be "very precarious" to try to forecast that far into the future, he could not rule out the possibility of a recession late this year.

So if you're the Associated Press, how do you headline this story? "Greenspan Warns of Likely U.S. Recession."

Let's Get Retarded
Markos "Kos" Moulitsas, the Angry Left's answer to the Htoo twins, is unhappy that the Democratic Party of Nevada has reached an agreement with Fox News Channel for a "debate" among presidential candidates:

I suppose politics is about measuring baby steps. And the Nevada Democratic Party's decision to give Fox News rights to one of our field's debates sets back much of our hard work.

Would Republicans hold a debate on Air America? Would they live blog on Daily Kos? Only if they were idiots.

Sorry, Markos, but that is just offensive. We don't call people who go on Air America or post on Daily Kos "idiots" anymore. We call them "profound."

Homer Nods
It is New York's junior senator who is in what appears to be a polyamorous marriage with a former high federal official, not its senior senator as we stated twice in an item yesterday (since corrected).

Now put down that dagger, Chuck!

Making a Necessity of Virtue
"Man Aged 107 Forsakes Sex for Longevity: Paper"--headline, Reuters, Feb. 25

'It's a Cookbook!'
"CBS 2 Exclusive: Restaurant Doesn't Serve Kids"--headline, WCBS-TV Web site (New York), Feb. 27

'Lewandowski, 98.6; Kowalczyk, 98.6; Wojciechowski, 98.6 . . .'
"Researchers Take Poles' Temperature"--headline, Associated Press, Feb. 26

We Have a Theory
"Source of Fecal Matter Studied"--headline, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, Feb. 26

March of the Wooden Soldiers
"Malaysian Military Plagued by Termites"--headline, Associated Press, Feb. 24

Bottom Stories of the Day

• "Estonia's Population Minister to Pay a Visit to Azerbaijan"--headline, Baltic Times (Riga, Latvia), Feb. 26
  
  
• "Sorority Bases Membership on Looks"--headline, State News (Michigan State University), Feb. 27
  
  
• "Construction Workers Caught Drinking on the Job"--headline, WCBS-TV Web site (New York), Feb. 27
  
  
• "Edwards to Attend Poverty Forum"--headline, New York Sun, Feb. 27
  
  
• "O'Malley, in Washington, Listens to Bush and Later Criticizes Him: It's not the first time governor has made sharp comments about president"--headline and subheadline, Baltimore Sun, Feb. 27

Getting Their M.E. Degrees
"Today's college students are more narcissistic and self-centered than their predecessors, according to a comprehensive new study by five psychologists who worry that the trend could be harmful to personal relationships and American society," the Associated Press reports:

"We need to stop endlessly repeating 'You're special' and having children repeat that back," said the study's lead author, Professor Jean Twenge of San Diego State University. "Kids are self-centered enough already."

Twenge and her colleagues, in findings to be presented at a workshop Tuesday in San Diego on the generation gap, examined the responses of 16,475 college students nationwide who completed an evaluation called the Narcissistic Personality Inventory between 1982 and 2006.

The standardized inventory, known as the NPI, asks for responses to such statements as "If I ruled the world, it would be a better place," "I think I am a special person" and "I can live my life any way I want to."

The researchers describe their study as the largest ever of its type and say students' NPI scores have risen steadily since the current test was introduced in 1982. By 2006, they said, two-thirds of the students had above-average scores, 30 percent more than in 1982.

At this rate, it won't be long before everyone is above average! But this trend started long ago. When we were in college, we actually belonged to a narcissists club.

We were the only member!

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