A few things that caught my eye today

Al Gore testified before Congress today about global warming, warning of a "planetary emergency." If his leadership on the issue inspires you, think about signing a Draft Gore for 2008 petition.

And I read this interesting opinion, entitled "Global Warming Has Gone Hollywood," from Robert Samuelson at Real Clear Politics:

The actual politics of global warming defy Hollywood's stereotypes. It's not saints versus sinners. The lifestyles that produce greenhouse gases are deeply ingrained in modern economies and societies. Without major changes in technology, the consequences may be unalterable. Those who believe that addressing global warming is a moral imperative face an equivalent moral imperative to be candid about the costs, difficulties and uncertainties.

I wholeheartedly agree. Our leaders in Washington have a short term perspective on most issues, and as citizens we don't ask much more of them. The tough question is: how do we build top-down and bottom-up support for making changes that won't necessarily be easy or attractive in the near- or mid-term? My guess is that it'll need to be something that makes people feel good right now and appears to offer an immediate benefit. I suspect that what makes saving for retirement easier for some people is seeing a growing balance on their 401(k) statement and feeling richer today even though they can't touch the money for years.

THERE WAS ALSO THIS INTERESTING PIECE titled "Entropy and Empire," a look at the Roman Empire from the perspective of thermodynamics:

The success of the empire depended on its ability to extract energy surpluses, in the form of food, from the imperial territories and concentrate them at the centre, where they enabled the development of a tremendous degree of organizational complexity. Without a large, and growing, hinterland to collect surpluses from, complexity on such as scale would not have been possible to establish and maintain.

The obvious follow-up question that the post explores is, what is the relevancy for us today? The United States has certainly been extracting large surpluses of the world's resources for fifty years or so, and lately we're paying for our continued spending habits by borrowing from the rest of the world, essentially extracting a surplus of world savings. Like most things that can't keep going on like this, our ability to continue maintaining these surpluses will end. Guess that's when things get interesting... or painful.

LARRY KRAMER, THE 72-YEAR OLD GAY ACTIVIST who helped found Gay Men's Health Crisis and ACT-UP in response to the AIDS epidemic in the 80s, remains as outspoken as ever. Yesterday he asked "why straight people hate gays so much?" in an op-ed piece for the LA Times. In his typical fashion, he takes a "no prisoners" approach and paints a very black and white picture. I admit that I agree with some of his points--politicians who claim to support gay rights are sometimes half-hearted, our relationships aren't afforded the same rights as those of straights, we do take anti-gay marriage amendments personally, gays and lesbians are killed simply for their sexual orientation--but while I've defended him in the past, I now feel like he's not willing to look at the world from any other vantage point than his own. I get that extreme voices on one side of an issue do sometimes produce extreme voices at the other; with that in mind, and for all of the work he did in forcing the U.S. government and American society to deal with the AIDS crisis, he has my respect. I just don't think he's very effective any more.

On the other hand, from what I heard of a discussion on NPR's "Talk of the Nation" today, there are people out there on both sides of the debate about what Americans really think about gays who are willing to LISTEN to their counterparts. Listen in here.

AS FOR THE SCANDAL DU JOUR IN WASHINGTON, I say to Congress: Please drop the firing of that handful of U.S. attorneys. It was no doubt political, and if there were no bigger fish to catch, worth investigating. But hello, there a dozen more important things to deal with: getting out of Iraq, Patriot Act abuses by the FBI, our dependence on fossil fuels, the budget deficit, the looming entitlements burden...

Let Gonzales get off the hook on this one. :-)

AND SINCE MOST MEMBERS OF CONGRESS probably don't read my blog, I encourage those people who do to listen to these radio ads from the ACLU. They are being aired in select congressional districts and highlight some of the ways that our Constitutional rights have been eroded in the last few years. You can also read more here. Then consider calling your representatives in Washington to urge them to support legislation to rein in the President's ability to arbitrarily designate individuals as "enemy combatants" and to restore habeas corpus.