07-07-07

Albert Gore is hoping that July 7, 2007 - 07-07-07 - is his lucky day. On Saturday, Gore is backing Live Earth, a series of concerts across the world aimed at raising even more awareness of global warning and the need to do something about it. His presidential noncandidacy, however , suffered something of a blow today when his namesake son was arrested for drug possession after being caught speeding in his car. Conservatives have had a field day with this news, depicting the incident as an example of the Gores' poor parenting and lack of family values. The latter complaint seems strange, considering that Gore gave up a chance to run for President in 1992 to tend to his son after an accident in Baltimore when, ironically, a speeding car hit Albert III and left him close to dead.

By the way, bear in mind that Albert Gore III is only 24. To accuse a 24-year-old person of making bad judgements is like accusing a basketball player of dribbling the ball. No one has their act together in their twenties. Ask the Bush twins. :-p

Oh yeah, the concerts. The Live Earth concerts will bring together many of the biggest pop stars of the past twenty years, which obviously isn't saying much. Two bands in the middle of reunion tours that folks thought would only happened once hell froze over will take part; the Police will be playing at Giants Stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey, while Genesis will appear at London's Wembley Stadium. The Police have buried the hatchet for long enough to make this tour possible, and hopefully they've gotten their groove back. (As long as Andy Summers and Stewart Copeland can somehow keep Sting's pretentiousness in check, they should do all right.) And Genesis? Tellingly, they're picking up where they left off, meaning the remaining trio of Mike Rutherford, Tony Banks, and Phil Collins will be there but without Steve Hackett and, even more importantly, without Peter Gabriel.

Don't grab your things, Pete, you're staying home.

Will this make governments of the world, especially this one, take global warming more seriously? Let me answer that with another question: Will Iraq finally get its act together? (Hint: Not before Albert Gore III gets his act together.)

The elder Gore, meanwhile, still insists he's not running for President in 2008, but the continuing specaulation suggests that people hope he enters the race due to a possible fear that Hillary or Obama can't win. Gore says he's fallen out of love with politics. Please, Al, run, run already, don't leave us to the mercies of the Wicked Witch of Westchester! :-O