Many of my comments aren't showing up, and that frustrates me. Sorry Don, but I'm not going to try to comment here anymore until some of my old comments show up. Until then, it's a waste of time to try.

For what it's worth, I've emailed Veith and the person who may or may not do his tech work for him about all this.

I'm not sure how you use the word "follow" any more, of course, but I find this Wikipedia article mentions groups of scientists, all of whose opinions I consider more important than those of Ed Begley, Jr. or Al Gore: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scientific_opinion_o...

And Don, if you don't understand why people who want to put a message out don't use scientists instead of celebrities, I'm not sure I'll be able to explain it to you. But you might ask yourself: why are there so many more celebrities on commercials than there are product engineers explaining the scientific benefits of their work? Is it really that hard to figure out, Don?

I don't know, Don, it sounds like you're engaging in some word redefining here. You don't "listen to" him, but you know what his position is. But that's because, while you listen to what he says, you don't "follow" him. Hmm.

I still don't know why you care one way or another. To me, Begley's greatest achievement is and always will be his cameo as an early Spinal Tap drummer. I honestly don't care about his environmental stance, and, had you not reminded me of it, I probably wouldn't have remembered it (I last read something on the topic years ago).

I think you're likely a member of the Ed Begley, Jr. Fan Club, out trying to rekindle an awareness of your hero.

Why does my apology here keep disappearing? Don was right, I brought Gore up. Mea culpa. Sorry.

Your claim that all global-warming talk is wholly unscientific (science being, you know, thrown "out the window a long time ago") will likely come as a surprise to those scientists who claim otherwise, the existence of whom you seem to consistently ignore. They are the people I prefer to listen to while you go on and on about Al Gore and Ed Begley, Jr. But you don't seem to think they exist, because you think the "environmental movement", singular monolith that it apparently is, has no scientific basis to speak of. So easily dismissed with a few keystrokes!

And please, you don't care about celebrities. They're the only people espousing global warming that I can even remember you talking about! I think you care a lot about them, and they certainly are a lot easier to rebut than the aforementioned scientists, aren't they?

And last time I checked, you were commenting here when Bush WAS President, and yet you said nothing about his glaring hypocrisy in re: "oil addiction". Why is that? Was he not famous enough as President for you to care about his words/deeds?

And really, is your stance here that any movement that has as its adherents celebrities that are hypocritical is completely bereft of correctness? So all I have to do to rebut you in the future is find a celebrity who agrees with you (and yet is a hypocrite) to prove you wrong? They didn't teach me that method on debate team!

Ah, so you "respect" him, but don't "listen" to him. And you respect him, though he "espouses" "tripe". What respect! I don't think I need respect like that, though, for what it's worth. And, tell me again, how you know what he believes if you don't listen to him?

See, the thing is, I'm not claiming Obama's label is any better. I'm just claiming this manipulative use of language isn't limited to the liberal side of things, where you seem only to see it.

And yeah, War on Terror, huh? Who's winning, us or Terror? Do you think Terror will ultimately surrender? Are we also waging war on Fear and related synonyms, or would that be unnecessarily widening the conflict?

Don, if you can't see it ...

Honestly, you listen to Ed Begley, Jr.? Why? Why do you consider him an authority on ... whatever it is you apparently do?

Don, in what world do or should you or I care one whit what celebrities think or do? Why do you keep lending them so much credence, only to smack them down? I'm not lauding the celebrities, so why are you asking me to account for their actions?

Let me be as clear as I can: I don't care about celebrities. I don't care about them when they date or get married. And I don't care about them when they talk politics. If you do, that's your problem.

Celebrity ignorance does not affect in any way the actual issue being debated here. You seem to think it does, but I don't know why. And if celebrity hypocrisy does matter, why didn't you say anything about Bush with respect to the oil "addition" thing?

Play it consistently, please.