Plant a tree or plant a question?

Senator Hillary R. Clinton's campaign chose to plant at least one question at a recent Iowa town hall meeting. It's fair to say that many campaign managers have done this over the years. Issues are complex, and candidates need an opportunity to put the questions that they've been working hard to answer out there in the public venue. However, this should never be at the expense of listening to the questions that Americans are genuinely asking.

I'm not a political strategist, but I can't help that thinking owning up to it would be a smart move, dispelling the haze of distrust that is still over her from her days with slick-Willy. It would be easy to say that she had no knowledge, but it doesn't get her anywhere. Instead, she could take a Ron Paul approach and say that we need to focus on this (or any other issue) instead of being distracted by Xxx issue.

I wish it had turned out a little better for the Clinton campaign. I think she would have preferred something like this. That would have been more enjoyable. I dunno....whatever happened to the days when being an environmentalist meant that you planted a tree and not a question?

US Climate Data Shows Cooling Trend

This site is just too cool...pun intended. It shows how the earth was warming up through the 1930s, then started dramatically cooling, then warming again (but not that rapidly). Make sure that you test both the long-haul and since roughly 1973. The differences will astonish you.

It brings to mind C. S. Lewis' critique of chronological snobbery:

Every age has its own outlook. It is especially good at seeing certain truths and especially liable to make certain mistakes. We all therefore need the books that will correct the characteristic mistakes of our own period.... None of us can fully escape this blindness, but we shall certainly increase it, and weaken our guard against it, if we read only modern books.

For more info, check out Global Warming Heartland.