Hi Dan:) Can't seem to make a New Topic post in Firefox, so I'm using Safari. Just a heads-up, and thanks fer all you do. GM

Scott's comment is rich. I would have passed along the entire digest, but clearly differing interpretations of the facts, related to the subject of global warming, aren't of interest hereabouts. Ya just gotta love the self declared open-mindeds audacity!

10. GORE’S BABY PROBLEM OpinionJournal :Best of the Web Today - March 22, 2007 By JAMES TARANTO

Several readers had interesting comments about Al Gore's comment, which we noted yesterday http://www.opinionjour nal.com/best/?id=110009815#hot : "The planet has a fever. If your baby has a fever, you go to the doctor. If the doctor says you need to intervene here, you don't say, 'well, I read a science fiction novel that tells me it's not a problem.' " Reader Martin Shimp notes: *** QUOTE *** Clearly Gore never cared for his children while they had a fever. Fevers can be a symptom of either a bacterial or viral issue. A doctor can attempt a solution to a bacterial issue, but not a viral one. A virus has to run its course while the body fights it--and a fever is a sign of the struggle to eliminate the virus. Let's see a scientific consensus that the Earth's fever is bacteria-related. *** END QUOTE ***

Reader Scott Jacobson questions Gore's premise: *** QUOTE *** Some great news for Daddy Gore: Little baby Earth does not have a fever. It's been awhile since Daddy Gore had a little bundle at home so maybe he has just forgotten that an infant is not considered to have a fever until her body temperature is at or above 100.4 degrees, or 1.8 degrees above normal. In the last century, little baby Earth's temperature has only gone up "almost one degree."

Overreacting is common among parents. I remember one morning when my first child was still an infant. Imagine my horror when I discovered that her temperature had risen to 99.5 degrees, almost a whole degree in just under 12 hours. Naturally, I immediately sat down and built a computer model, which clearly projected that by age 30, her temperature was going to be a staggering 19,710 degrees!

Thankfully, with the help of a patient wife and an impatient pediatrician, I came to realize that these fluctuations were normal, and that my baby daughter would not be going supernova by the time she reached her golden years. *** END QUOTE ***

And Kelly Murphy puts things in perspective nicely: *** QUOTE *** So let me see if I have this right. According to Al Gore, I would have to be an idiot to decide, after reading "a science-fiction novel" (he must be referring to "State of Fear") that it's OK to go about living my life in a normal fashion. Instead, I should see one science-fiction movie (his) and run screaming out of the theater prepared to change every aspect of my life to avoid certain destruction. *** END QUOTE ***