I didn’t expect the film’s format to be a very polished, if not beautiful “powerpoint” presentation (Keynote actually). I thought it’d be more of a Discovery Channel style strum und drang with Al Gore doing the dramatic narration (a la March of the Penguins) which is maybe why I wasn’t chomping at the bit to go see it.
The movie’s tagline was “by far the most terrifying film you will ever see.” I wasn’t really phased. Maybe it’s my optimism, or maybe, global warming just isn’t news to me. I believe in science. And I’ve been exposed to protecting the environment and recycling since grade school. What is depressing is how out of touch I feel with my government and elected officials, how I don’t feel like they are doing much to protect the health, well-being, and future of individuals over the interests of corporations.
But I want to do something. So my first something is this post, and a link to the movie’s website climatecrisis.net. And a suggestion that you, dear reader, might want to go see “An Inconvenient Truth” if you have the desire. See a matinee showing. If only for the graph that shows the automobile emissions requirements for new cars by country over the next several years. The US is so dead last it’s embarrassing.
Which brings me to my last thought, which is really a message intended for Al Gore and Davis Guggenheim (the film’s director). Since I don’t know how to contact them directly, here’s hoping the blogosphere will carry this suggestion on my behalf:
Once “An Inconvenient Truth” leaves the theaters, rerelease it under a Creative Commons Attribution license. Make it available via BitTorrent, YouTube. Allow people to re-edit it, excerpt it, put clips on their blogs. You may discover that people will translate it, subtitle it, annotate it, mash it up with other films. Allow this work to go farther than the theater.
My Netflix arrived today—a documentary that came out a few years ago called The Fog of War about Robert McNamara, the Secretary of Defense during the Vietnam War.
Given that the United States is mired in a contentious conflict in Iraq, I’m interested in how people involved in similar historical circumstances reflect on (and perhaps re-evaluate) the decisions they made. The documentary is engaging, part interview, part dynamic narrative, encompassing the incredible range of American history on which McNamara had an effect.
And my immediate thought after finishing the movie was that our current president should see this. I don’t mean that in any patronizing way. It’s just a good documentary, and on a human to human level, even at this point in the course of events, I think it would do anyone in his position some good to see. And maybe to learn from.
So I decided I’d send a copy. As a gift. Thanks to Cindy Sheehan, I know where he’s vacationing, I just need a mailing address. Turns out that’s not so easy to find online. Perhaps his ranch in Crawford, Texas is outside the purview of the US Postal Service? Or maybe he just doesn’t want to bother with fan mail when he’s out of the office. Now that I think about it, President George W. Bush, Crawford, Texas would probably be enough to get it routed on its way, but the information geek in me was really hoping for a definitive street address.
I did find the Establishment of Prohibited Area P-49 Crawford; TX, which details that “the prohibited [airspace] extends from the surface to 5,000 feet above mean sea level (MSL) within a 3-nautical mile (NM) radius of latitude 31 deg.34’57” N., longitude 97 deg.32’37” W.” Hmm, I wonder what might be at the center of that prohibited area?
Well, I discovered that I can just pop longitude and latitude coordinates into Google Maps, and it will plot the point I requested. But first I had to convert the values above to their decimal equivalents, which put me somewhere in middle of China on my first try. Turns out west longitude converts to a negative value, and I didn’t even have to go through all the conversion trouble, entering 31 34’57” -97 32’37” works just fine.
Granted it’s not an address, but it’s pretty cool to see the “10,000 ft² honey-colored native limestone single-level home” over half of which is “a ten-foot-wide limestone porch that encircles the house.” On the right you can see part of the “11 acre man-made pond that is stocked with 600 bass and thousands of bait fish” that Bush added. (Source: Prairie Chapel Ranch, Wikipedia)
In any event, my gift has been sent to a rather generic mailing address, with the following gift note:
President Bush, I watched “The Fog of War” tonight, and I was touched by how Robert McNamara evaluated his decision-making during the Vietnam War. I thought you might find this movie enlightening, especially with regard to Iraq. Justin Watt
I’m going to have to get a TV so I can start watching The O’Reilly Factor just to stay in touch with this inadvertent O’Reilly subculture. Maybe find a way to get them turned onto Perl as a way to redirect their insecurities and anger. Converting Fox News fans into paying customers will be my hidden agenda.
Just a question?
I loved the show night, but the key issue is are we at “WAR”? Only the Congress can declare war. No they did not. The United States is in a conflict less than war; “Legally bu [sic] International Law”.
Therefore, the Geneva Convention does not apply and International Rules do not apply. The U.S. is free by the rules of “Westphalia” [A region in Germany? -ed] to protect its citizens and take the gloves off when we, our children, and way of life is threatened into distinction [It took me a minute, but acrobatic use of language was a dead giveway–we’re getting emails from the President. -ed].
If we are horrid [sic] by the events of 9-11, then take off the gloves and do what our ancestors did, kill them like rabid dogs [emphasis added], because you can not negotiate with them. That is what I and fellow Soldiers are doing today.
Do you feel safe at sleep tonight? How about your family, friends, and most importantly your children? We do not matter they do.
This post first appeared on From the Belly of the Beasts, a weblog from some of the people who build O’Reilly websites.
A few times a week an email gets sent to webmaster at oreilly dot com from someone intending to get through to Bill O’Reilly. Yeah, that Bill O’Reilly.
It turns out there is actually a bill at oreilly dot com who I’m told enjoys getting the sometimes supportive, other times combative emails intended for the other “Bill.” A quick search online suggests bill@billoreilly.com or oreilly@foxnews.com might be more effective outlets.
Since everyone in OPG sees the webmaster emails, every once and a while I get a chuckle out one of these gems:
As I was channel surfing this evening I caught a glimpse of your “take” on Arnold our governor getting booed at a commencement address. You called the protesters “leftist” “morons”. As someone who is to the right of you in my political views, I take offense at being called a leftist moron. [That’s frightening. -ed.] Although I was not at this protest, I agree with their point of view. The person you were interviewing understood what I mean as she did not agree with your view either. I am a teacher who is facing critical cuts in an already fragile budget and I am not happy with Arnold along with some fifty+ per cent of Californians. He stole 2 billion dollars from our budget which he promised, in writing, to return, and has now changed his mind. He refuses to work with the legislature and the other special interests such as nurses and fire fighters, but does not feel that his millionaire friends are special interest groups. I have been a dedicated Republican for years, but have told the Republican fund raisers that call that no more funding will be forth coming from this household until Arnold is out of office. [Thank god for that. -ed.] He is trying to bulldoze over us with his agenda and be an egomaniac dictator instead of the public servant that he should be. I am highly educated and certainly do not consider myself a moron. [Clearly. I’m curious who you voted for? -ed.]
Perhaps we should publish a book called “Political Hacks”!
This post first appeared on From the Belly of the Beasts, a weblog from some of the people who build O’Reilly websites.
back in october this journalist/author, ron suskind, quotes someone from the bush administration as basically dissing reality:
The aide said that guys like me were “in what we call the reality-based community,” which he defined as people who “believe that solutions emerge from your judicious study of discernible reality.” I nodded and murmured something about enlightenment principles and empiricism. He cut me off. “That’s not the way the world really works anymore,” he continued. “We’re an empire now, and when we act, we create our own reality. And while you’re studying that reality – judiciously, as you will – we’ll act again, creating other new realities, which you can study too, and that’s how things will sort out. We’re history’s actors . . . and you, all of you, will be left to just study what we do. (Without A Doubt, New York Times Magazine, Oct 17, 2004)
suddenly, as you might imagine, the whole blogosphere was up in arms. google reality-based community to see what i mean. after a cursory reading of the above passage, you’re apt to believe reality-based community = good, especially if you believe that bush administration = bad.
but i’m not convinced. since october, this idea that “reality-based community = good” kept repeatedly coming back to me in situations where it was very obvious that “reality-based community ≠ good.” case in point, a quote from something i read tonight:
I’ll expect all of you to help me out with the process of creating history. We all have to do our bit with free will. (Larry Wall, Apocalypse 1)
it occured to me again (thanks to this quote) that hackers are an example of the ultimate creators, usually portraying themselves as existing well-outside the reality-based community. and yet due the extremely passionate distaste for the bushian arrogance, the usually techno-savvy blogosphere (even boingboing!) fell for this conservative pigeon-holing.
i, however, want to be part of the reality-creating community. let’s call it the creator-community, shall we? and let’s create while being mindful of the existing discernible reality (what those in academia like to call “context”) and presumably after some significant and judicious study (what those in the blogosphere like to call “fact checking your ass”).
As penance for saying earlier that Northern California is crazy for not having A/C everywhere, I went out to see An Inconvenient Truth at the Rialto with Mark tonight. It was good. I mean, I’d heard it was good, so I pretty much expected it to be.