Les Jones

Thomas Jefferson didn’t free his slaves, so slavery’s ok. <– Spot the fallacy in argumentation.

No, slavery isn’t OK, but Jefferson was a hypocrite. Just as Friedman and all the rest are hypocrites.

They’re expecting people of much lesser means and much lesser consumption to reduce our consumption. Meanwhile they’re not even willing to reduce their consumption to your level or mine. Yet they’re the ones giving the lectures and expecting you and me to listen to them.

No thanks. I’ll sit out those lectures. I won’t be buying their books, either.

Being a hypocrite doesn’t invalidate his argument. Likewise, if Al Gore ate one grain of rice a day and travelled to lectures by astral projection, that wouldn’t support his arguments, either.

It doesn’t necessarily invalidate Gore’s argument that there is a problem, but if he can’t live the life he advocates - a life that would reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 80% by 2050, then it invalidates his contention that we can meet that goal. If he can’t walk the walk why is he talking the talk?

In general, most of the people who consider themselves environmentalists are living lives that aren’t very different than mine. They have houses with electricity, heat and cooling. Most of them drive cars. They consume things they’ve bought in a store. They’ve replaced some of their light bulbs with CFLs, but so have I. If all it takes to be an environmentalist is to talk the talk and maybe recycle your aluminum cans and have a compost pile, well, it isn’t a very impressive movement. What it is is mostly hot air.

we sure that’s Friedman’s house? How’s a NY Times columnist get that kind of bones to buy that?

Mark, it’s his house. His Wikipedia entry mentions the house and explains his wealth. He didn’t make his money writing for the NYT, he made it by marrying it. His wife’s family is worth billions.

Invalidating or validating arguments is not the point.

Practicing what you preach is.

If some of the prime spokespersons for a movement cannot be bothered to even look like they are abiding by the tenets of the movement… well, that says something about the movement in question. Hell, people in Gore’s and Friedman’s positions have no excuse for not living up to their own words, given that one of the prime limiting factors of doing so boils down to money - being green is expensive, but these paid mouths can afford it.

Speaking of, it must be nice… I am totally digging that courtyard thing he has going, though where are his garages?
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Thomas Jefferson frequently had money problems. Leonardo Decaprio does not.

(Not to mention that the land was his source of income, not a mere ostentatious display.)

[...] Ya know, the two groups of people who seem to constantly get busted for hypocrisy are your moral values right wingers who seem to always get caught diddling someone they shouldn’t be. And those guys who tell you how you should live so you can save the world from global warming but don’t do it themselves. [...]

To his credit, it does appear he’s conserving by not watering his grass….
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