"a mutual and mutually supportive decision that we have made together"

The Gores are no more. Some people may, of course, think it great fun to ruminate on reasons for their split, but it's a tragedy in the end. The article reads, "The Gores crafted an image as a happily married couple during his eight-year stint as vice president in the 1990s and a presidential candidate in 2000." Was it just an image? Perhaps they were deliriously happy during the Veep years, and it wasn't just an "image" to "craft." Ten years ago, marital separation may have been the furthest thing from their minds.

Gore's energy

He can talk the talk, but apparently not walk the walk.

a Nobel Gore

Al Gore has won the Nobel Peace Prize.

In a statement, Gore said he was "deeply honored," adding that "the climate crisis is not a political issue, it is a moral and spiritual challenge to all of humanity."

The former vice president said he would donate his half of the $1.5 million prize to the Alliance for Climate Protection, a U.S. organization he founded that aims to persuade people to cut emissions and reduce global warming.

Al Gore has reminded us that he can be a winner. He doesn't require teams of people examining hanging chads or arguing with the Supreme Court.

Everybody's talking.

Here is the list of past Nobel Peace Prize winners. I'll let you be the judge as to how many there have contributed to bringing about actual, lasting peace in this world.

I wonder what Bill and Hillary discussed this morning over coffee and bagels. I wonder what's going through her staffers minds right now. The article mentions a source, from Gore's political past, who says that he won't run because Team Hillary is such a well-oiled machine right now. If Hillary should falter, then who knows what would happen. We've got several more months to go.

global melting

If Al Gore cares to hear about news of the environment, he should probably read this.

Al Gore's office

Does your office look like this? It makes me wonder what the desk in the Oval Office would have regularly looked like had the Supreme Court handed him the presidency in 2000.

"They are much like indulgences in that way, aren't they?"

Somehow, Tim Challies connects one of the latest trends of the environmentalist crowd - purchasing carbon offsets for home energy use - to the ancient Roman Catholic practice of selling indulgences. Naturally, he brings up Al Gore.

I was amazed, as I thought about this, how humans are so eager to rely on their own actions instead of grace. Indulgences bypass grace through action, through human merit. Carbon offsets do the same, relying on self-punishment (purchasing "forgiveness" for crimes committed) to assuage guilt. By purchasing an indulgence a person neither needs to regret nor change his behavior. He can simply buy forgiveness in the form of a piece of paper. The same is true with carbon offsets. A person can continue to drive his SUV and fly around the world in a private jet, but have his conscience clear because he has offset his guilt with the offsets he purchases. If we ever reach the point where we are forced by the government to purchase carbon offsets, it is the poor who will suffer and the rich who will benefit. There will be no equality.

Indulgences and carbon offsets showed me something. Somewhere in the human heart is something that demands justice, but demands a perverted justice. It demands a justice that is so human, so flawed. It demands a justice that does not rely on grace.

As Instapundit would say, read the whole thing.

Related: The evangelical catfight over the environment

Related 2: Will this happen in America?

Forgive me, Al...

Dr. Sanity has a great little comic on to whom we should confess when we experience "green guilt."

get your global warming here?

If the liberal Hollywood crowd gives you an Oscar, expect to get some heat along with it.

what Al Gore should have said at the Oscars

Al Gore gave two short speeches at the Academy Awards ceremony on Sunday, one given before his film won for Documentary. Both speeches were obvious panderings to the Hollywood crowd, who now seems to be completely at peace with his wife Tipper. Many people will remember that Tipper railed against the music industry back in the 80's and formed the Parents' Music Resource Center. I'm sure Frank Zappa recalls those days fondly.

Calling the global warming threat a "moral issue," Gore said, "We have everything we need to get started, with the possible exception of the will to act. That's a renewable resource. Let's renew it."

What he should have said, specifically to the Hollywood crowd, was this:

My fellow wealthy Americans:

It is truly incredible to think of the amount of money represented in this hallowed room tonight. Why, George Lucas' bank account alone could fund the energy bills of entire countries for years to come, to say nothing of the piles of dough belonging to his pal Spielberg. So, just imagine the collective wealth of everyone here. It's really quite stunning.

It's also stunning to think about the amount of living space many people in this room occupy, especially those of you who are seated down front. Why, I was just reading in a recent copy of Architectural Digest about someone's house - no, I won't name who it is, even though I see the person here tonight - having 10,000+ square feet. And this person is the only one who lives there! And (s)he has an apartment in New York, too!! Can you just imagine the energy consumption?

What if we all committed to living in smaller houses, which would take much less energy to power and to heat? What if we had no more than, say, 3,000 square feet of living space? What that be enough for you? Now I know that this would mean that some of you would have to sell off some stuff - but, hey! You could give the money to environmental causes, to show that you're genuinely committed to my film!

And I know that some of you would have to live in "normal" neighborhoods with "ordinary" people living next to you. And some of you are concerned that the paparazzi would have easier access to you. I admit that's a concern for my friend Leo here, but some of you? Seriously, who cares about a picture of Alan Arkin mowing the grass, or Meryl Streep grabbing the paper in her bathrobe?

If you're truly concerned about the environment, be willing to make big changes yourself. Don't just expect those everyday Americans watching us right now to do it for you. And when you come to next year's Oscars, don't rent out some limo - carpool in a Prius!

Thank you. And good - I mean green - night!