September 29, 2006
Distinguished Lecture Series?
Laurie David? It's nice to tell people to use reuseable shopping bags and drive hybrid cars and things like that, but why is the university presenting this as a distinguished lecture? Are there no scholars around to do lectures anymore? Or is Hollywood the source of distinction these days?
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38 comments:
I can't believe they'd apply the term "distinguished" to this Hollywood tree-hugger!
John K also helpfully points out that she has "a great pair of tits", so she's probably just engaging in breast-environmental-activism.
In closing, we should treat the threat of global warming as blithely as possible, and marginalize its wholly under-educated advocates.
If they want to bring in a speaker on global warming for the distinguished lecture series at a university, it should be a scientist! Bringing in the wife of a comedian is not the way to deal with it. I realize she's an activist, and it's fine for an activist to pump people up about an issue, but it's not a distinguished lecture of the university type.
Actors who could also be distinguished lecturers, two off the top of my head.
Terry Jones, of Monty Python fame, is well respected as a medievalist, written scholarly works on the subject.
Peter Weller, of Robocop fame, is an occaisonal lecturer on the Roman Empire and Hollywood at Syracuse University.
Laurie David . . .
(I'd rather see Cheryl Hines as Larry David's wife give these lectures, that might be interesting)
That's a fair point, but even though being Larry David's wife and having produced "An Inconvenient Truth" don't qualify her as an expert, they do make her a bigger draw.
No one is expecting her to present original research. They're going to hear a presentation, presumably along the line of Gore's, which is in turn backed by actual scientific research.
The real-life scientists are probably boring to listen to (as Gore may be, I suppose).
She seems to have a nice face and great pairs
I think you're confusing her with Laurie Dhue.
At least Dhue has a career that could qualify as distinguished.
Distinguished has become synonymous with celebrity in American culture.
Only Gore and Ms. David have such a lofty opinion of themselves that they link a hundred years of pitiful observation into climatic conditions that go back 2.5 billion years.
You might want to tighten up your argument for skepticism.
Volcanic eruptions would have to be a recent phenomenon to explain the "hockey stick" chart of global warming. They would have to be getting more frequent each year.
And the hundred years of "pitiful observation" is only direct observation. Using nifty science tricks, they can actually figure out what temperatures were going back thousands of years.
Guess how many periods enjoyed balmier weather?
Well, during my undergraduate days, one of my university's "distinguished" lecturers was Howard Zinn. I leaned more to left back then, but not that much. Zinn, in any case, is not so distinguished nowadays, though I imagine he gets called for a few lectures here and there.
Burkean Reflections
Considering the University of Madison employs you, I'm surprised they're not bringing in Paris Hilton.
Who probably knows more about the Constitution than you.
Fenris -
This is great stuff. Could you flesh out the "disparate data sets" idea a little bit?
Global warming is not "Global Socialism." It's a phenomenon, not a political philosophy.
As for what is to be done, the most obvious is regulation of CO2 emissions, which is meaningfully different than regulating energy consumption.
The reason that you and Larry Kudlow are wrong to trust the market to do this is because global warming carries no tangible economic cost to firms, so they are (rightly) unwilling to pay more for cleaner energy.
That's why government has to force them to. Not in order to redistribute income, but in order to keep our planet inhabitable.
I see some good news here- the window of opportunity to forestall global warming is now ten years - used to be twenty.
So hopefully, in 2016, this upcoming calamity will go away quietly sorta like that disastrous Y2K.
I'm terribly disappointed to see the comments on Laurie David's tits and legs go unanswered by Ann. What's up, Ann? Why put up with this in your comments section when you don't hesitate to call out--deservedly, I agree--the liberal boys who claim to use sexist comments ironically, or on feminist bloggers who appear with Clinton?
Anytime I hear about Laurie David I think of that story where tshe and Larry gave away a Prius. Their old, used one, that is. That's devotion to the cause!
Can't get worked up about Global Warming because I remember being told with similar urgency that there would be no forests left by this time because of Acid Rain. I remember as a kid trying to comprehend that, thinking "We're killing all the fish and the animals!"
It seems self-evident that climate would be one of, if not THE, hardest phenomena to measure accurately in terms of cause-and-effect. And the fact that we had things like the Ice Age before humans could wreak their dastardly effects on the climate make me a little hesitant to surrender to the hysteria.
Plus I don't see too many people out there on bikes. If all the people who ostensibly cared really did--I think we'd see a bit more action. As usual, they just want programs and taxes to force their "cause" on everyone else.
In closing, we should treat the threat of global warming as blithely as possible, and marginalize its wholly under-educated advocates.
Wholly under-educated advocates, indeed. Why hasn't anybody with any weight gotten behind this? (No pun intended, so forget about the Al Gore's weight jokes.) I'm always hearing about how "the vast majority of scientists agree...," but I've never once seen a real scientist give a good argument about global warming...atleast not a real scientist that wasn't paid by the Sierra Club.
And Hollywood-types are notorious for flying around in these huge jets. It's like having O.J. Simpson lecture about domestic violence.
Doyle said:
"Guess how many periods enjoyed balmier weather?"
I seem to recall reading about vineyards in Greenland about 800 years ago. Does that count?
Elizabeth: I didn't like the use of the word but in the context of the whole comment I didn't want to delete the whole thing.
Well, I can disagree with your reasoning, Ann, but I appreciate the reply. I'm not encouraging you to delete posts. From what I've seen, your thoughts on feminism, second and third wave, are similar, though not identical, to my own, and I was suprised to see those comments go by without at least a response.
tcd, I hated that fray and so I kept out of it. I found it ugly in just about every aspect. Where are you every day when comments like the one above are made about women?
truly, I don't think Duchovny holds a PhD. I do know he did some of his study with Harold Bloom. I too have heard medievalists chuckle about Terry Jones' academic work, but they've also invited him to their conferences. I guess it brings in the paying customers?
Truly, one of my College Profs attended Oxford at the same time as Terry Jones and considered him one of the better Chaucer scholars he knew (but then, those school ties may have had influence).
Plus whenever Terry was in the LA area he'd ask him to come and recite Chaucer to his class (the threatened performance didn't happen the quarter I attended, although ten weeks where the only text is the Riverside Chaucer is a very good class in my book).
One professor's wretched writer is another professor's intriguing iconoclast.
As far as Duchovny goes, his Wiki mentions he graduated from Princeton, has a Masters in English from Yale, and almost completed his PhD but quit before his dissertation
She needs to get in line behind Sean Penn! *he'll* be doing any and all World Saving that needs to get done, thankyouverymuch.
Doyle,
Last I remember, Mann finally did crack and, after stonewalling for years, released the source code he used to generate the "Hockey Stick". Turns out it generates the same plot from other data sets, too. White noise, for example. It was never peer-reviewed and Mann himself never properly sanity-checked it (or did, and that's why he stonewalled for so long). It's garbage. Was it a deliberate fraud? Who cares? Science isn't about personalities.
A most excellent site on observations of global warming, with the bonus that it's paid for by your tax dollars:
Right here. I particularly like the Roads link.
There are also interesting posts on the hockey stick here.
pfroward, I'd be interested to see where you got your information.
As far as Ms. David's qualifications, from her Lauriedavid.com bio.
Before working full time on environmental and political issues, Ms. David had a distinguished career in entertainment spanning two coasts. She began her career in New York City as a talent coordinator for the David Letterman show. Four years later she left to start her own management company, representing many of today's top comedians as well as comedy writers. She also produced several comedy specials for HBO, Showtime, MTV, and Fox Television. Upon moving to Los Angeles, Ms. David became vice president of comedy development for a division of Fox Broadcasting and developed sitcoms for Twentieth Century Television."
Clearly, she's as qualified as anyone to talk about the environment, and she owes her soapbox to more than just who she is married to.
Also, real environmentalist advocate for the construction of nuclear power plants.
That's why long ago I suggested we need more folks creating an IMBY movement demanding that nuclear power plants be built in their own communitites.
(and there is an Imby.org, but they propose a geothermal, rather than nuclear solution to clean energy)
If Laurie David really wants to be the change she desires, she'll join me in demanding a nuclear power plant in the city where she lives.
The greenest green is the green glow of fission.
(what do you mean fissile material and nuclear waste doesn't glow green like on The Simpson's?)
I don't think working in the entertainment industry makes one "as qualified as anyone to talk about the environment"
As qualified as other non-scientist types, maybe...
XWL, agree with you on the nuclear stuff.
Robert Vaughn earned a Ph.D. in communications at USC.
tcd, I make a comment about this specific thread and your response is to ask me about a thread I wasn't involved in? Skip disengenuous; you're just full of shit.
johnk,
Sure, now I understand. When women do things they aren't qualified for, it's smart and witty to talk about their legs and breasts. Brilliant! And I'm sure, very sure, you'll be measuring penis length and pecs the next time we discuss some guy who's unqualified. Wow, this has been educational. And so very, very different from actual sexism. Thanks for clarifying that for me.
knoxgirl, I'm as happy to laugh at Sean Penn as anyone, but I'll have to defend him from any attacks on his post-Katrina days in New Orleans. He didn't just jump onto a PR opportunity. He'd spent a good bit of time in NOLA right before the storm, shooting "All the President's Men." He had the ability to get in, and he did help people. I don't care if it fed his ego or was videotaped. There are people who can thank him for pulling them from out of the water and taking them to safety. Good for him. It's more than the rest of us were able to do.
There are many things to needle him about, though, so don't hesitate on my account.
jody, yes! What a fun slip to make. I think that belongs on the other thread, about films and Bush and whatnot. I haven't seen "All the King's Men" yet, since the reviews are so bad. And I have a little irritation about it. The movie used my university's film students, and our film production and post-production facilities. But the grand opening was at Tulane U., which had nothing to do with it. Those TooLame rats stole our fanfare.
fen, neither Fema nor the National Guard was able to easily get in boats and trained personnel. No individual, no matter how well known or wealthy, could have done that. The roads weren't clear. It was very difficult to get any heavy equipment, including trucks and boats, into the city after the levees broke. The Guard unit a few miles from downtown lost its equipment, including boats and heavy trucks, in the floodwaters. All over the country, trained personnel were being mobilized to get here.
Some Hollywood mogul managed to get a large, medical-equipped plane in to help with evacuation of patients from the airport. That single achievement took a lot of money and strategy.
Yes, Penn's boat took on some water, which he bailed out. Yes, he did indeed go on to rescue people. I'm grateful for that.
tcd, I disagreed with Ann's take on the blogger (don't remember her name), was disgusted by much of the commentary by people who came into the discussion from the left, and likewise almost all of the comments from the ranks of mainly conservative men who frequent this blog. There wasn't a place for me in the discussion. You can call that what you want. Calling me names is childish. I wouldn't expect anything else from you, however.
tcd, you need to come up with something better than "I know you are but what am I?" for an argument.
"Even as she cricizes the purchases of American consumers (of SUVs), David defends her right to keep her prized material possessions, not least her Tudor mansion home in the Pacific Palisades, a ritzy suburb of Los Angeles. Says David: "My philosophy about this stuff is, it's not all-or-nothing. A lot of people have that attitude: So you drive a fuel-efficient car, what about your giant house? What about this, what about that? I just got asked that on [the] Paula Zahn [TV program] and I was like, I'm not looking for perfection in any of this. We're an imperfect people." Similarly, David defends her house on the grounds that she uses it "to gather hundreds of people for eco-salons," and it is therefore conducive to the "greater environmental good." Of the considerable amounts of energy required by her massive residence, David makes no mention.
As author Bernard Goldberg reports in his 2005 book, 100 People Who Are Screwing Up America, David is no slouch with regard to energy consumption: While hectoring SUV drivers, David, who dislikes traveling on commercial airlines, is ferried about in private Gulfstream jets that operate on some 2,100 gallons of jet fuel. Queried about her travel preferences by the New York Times, David, typically anxious for media attention, declined to comment."
http://www.discoverthenetwork.org/individualProfile.asp?indid=2115
I wonder if she'll be asked any tough questions about her mansion or her private jet at her lecture? I somehow doubt it.
Perhaps you should use some of your women's studies skills to explain why it is that old unattractive rich men like Larry David always have young attractive wives and old unattractive poor men not so much.
Johnk, I don't need to use anything more than freshman psych to see what drives your sexism.
I always thought the uncredentialed, inexperienced ones at universities were the students, not those at the mic during Distinguished Lecture Series.
I know that our academies believe in affirmative action, but this is ridiculous.
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