Not since Ross Perot, Jr.

...ran for president in 1992 and 1996 have I seen so many charts. Ross was a piechart kind of guy. Al Gore, in the new film "An Inconvenient Truth", is more of a line graph and bar graph dude. This is not nearly as sleep-inducing as you might expect. Compared to Gore's book,Earth In the Balance, the movie is a jolt of java. The film is very viewable, and Gore is not the nerdy wooden politician you remember. I did not feel like I was trapped watching a filmstrip in an over-heated junior high science classroom while wearing pantyhose that kept slipping down until the crotch saddle was level with the hem of my polyester plaid miniskirt. True, it also did not make me want to write notes in backhand on ruled paper with a turquoise pen about how dreamy/neato/keen/groovy Al is looking these days.


If you've forgotten the "giant sucking sound," you can listen to the 1992 presidential debates. Paul Krugman's op ed,"Swift Boating the Planet", reminds us that those benefitting from the current energy habits of Americans do not play fair. And speaking of giant sucking sounds, don't miss the Dallas Morning News editorial, "This Deal Tanks", about Ford and GM gas rebates for dinosaur buyers.