I’m in a sharing mood today.
Let’s start with Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog. It’s written by the unmitigatingly awesome Joss Whedon and stars Neil Patrick Harris, Nathan Fillion, and Felicia Day. It’s available freely online for a limited time (through the end of the week), and will then be available for a nominal fee through iTunes.
Also: It is made of glee.
Every so often I’ll depress myself by thinking about what might have happened if the 2000 election hadn’t been stolen by George W. Bush. Al Gore is, once again, demonstrating his keen vision and willingness to confront the tough, long-term problems facing this nation and the world: He is challenging the United States to transform its energy infrastructure so that, within 10 years, 100% of our energy needs would come from solar, wind, and other eco-friendly sources. This isn’t just something that we can do, it’s something that we must do.
Here’s the best version of the speech I’ve managed to find online. You’ll want to skip to about 2 minutes into it to get to the actual beginning of the speech (skipping over the accolades and “thank you” stuff).
“When demand for oil and coal increases, their price goes up. When the demand for solar cells increases, the price often comes down. That’s the difference. One source of fuel is expensive and going up, and the other source of fuel is free forever. When we send money to foreign countries to buy nearly 70% of the oil we use every day, they build new skyscrapers and we lose jobs. When we spend that money building solar arrays and windmills here we build competitive industries and gain jobs here at home.” – Al Gore, July 17th, 2008
“We could and should speed up this transition by insisting that the price of carbon-based energy include the cost of the environmental damage that it causes. I have long supported a sharp reduction in payroll taxes with the difference made up in CO2 taxes. We should tax what we burn not what we earn.” – Al Gore, July 17th, 2008
“Our democracy has become sclerotic at a time when these crises require boldness. It is only a truly dysfunctional system that would buy into the perverse logic that the short-term answer to high gasoline prices is drilling for oil 10 years from now in areas which would be protected.” – Al Gore, July 17th, 2008
