24

Damn, it's really going downhill. Two episodes after my last rant on how it might have jumped the shark and my worst fears are all but confirmed.

Now there are five episodes left and I have no hope whatsoever that they'll be able to salvage the season in any satisfying way.

At this point, the next five are the last episodes I'll watch of 24.

See ya!! Don't let the door hit you on the way out...

Winning a trip into space

This is a lottery I'd actually love to buy a ticket for:

Buzz Aldrin, the second man to walk on the moon, announced plans Tuesday for a lottery which would send its winner into space in a bid to spread the dream of extraterrestrial travel beyond the super-wealthy.

Aldrin added that the winner would have to be over 18 years old and in good physical condition. The prize would not be transferable or salable on eBay.

I can't imagine the luck of winning something like this. I actually have a hard time deciding which one I'd like to win more, a ticket into space or a jackpot of money.

When man is a beast more then a real beast

The beautiful animal you see here is an Amur leopard, a breed of leopard whose numbers have declined so much, it's almost extinct.

Another one was killed recently by hunters, bringing the species closer to being totally wiped out:

Hunters in Russia's Far East have shot and killed one of the last seven surviving female Amur leopards living in the wild, WWF said on Monday, driving the species even closer to extinction.

Last week environmentalists said there were only between 25 and 34 Amur leopards -- described as one of the most graceful cats in the world -- still living in the wild.

At least 100 are needed to guarantee the species' survival which depends upon female leopards breeding. There are more male leopards in the wild than female because cats tend to breed males when under stress, WWF said.

Totally shameless on the part of the hunters since this species is not known to attack humans.

Separate but equal is still unequal

And this shows is clearly:

Shannan Hauser and Jennifer Bonfilio of Hamilton say they will form a civil union in two weeks. In theory, it should give them the same benefits that married couples have.

So when the law creating civil unions took effect last month, Bonfilio, who pays $431 a month for health insurance, inquired about being added as a beneficiary on Hauser's medical plan at the New Jersey Carpenters Funds.

"I called to ask if they were going to be honoring that law and providing me with the same coverage that they would any married couple, and I was told no," Bonfilio said. "The woman on the phone actually said to me: 'We do not have to obey New Jersey law.'"
[...]
In either case, he blames the state's decision to label the relationships of committed same-sex couples "civil unions" rather than marriages.

"In the employment sector in particular, folks don't understand civil unions, and then when they come to understand what they are they find ways to disrespect them," Buckel said. "After all, the state has said that these relationships aren't worthy of marriage."

I'm looking forward to the day when gays and lesbians will be treated equally under the law in this country, but sometimes I wonder if I'll still be alive when it happens.

The Yangtze River is irreversibly polluted

That's what Chinese authorities have admitted after running some studies:

China's massive Yangtze river, a lifeline for tens of millions of people, is seriously polluted and the damage is almost irreversible, a state-run newspaper said Monday.
[...]
The pollution, along with damming and heavy use of boats, has caused a sharp decline in aquatic life along the Yangtze.

The report said the annual harvest of aquatic products from the river has dropped from 427,000 tons in the 1950s to about 100,000 tons in the 1990s.

"The impact of human activities on the Yangtze water ecology is largely irreversible," Yang Guishan, a researcher at the institute, was quoted as saying.

China's communist government faces a challenge in much of the country to deal with worsening pollution caused by rapid economic growth and the failure of factories, sewage systems and other sources to follow environmental regulations.

The Yangtze accounts for 35 percent of China's total fresh water resources, the report said.

There are no words to describe how sad and horrible this is, both for the planet's resources been destroyed by man and for the livelihood of millions of individuals being put in danger because of lack of concern on the part of the government and of businesses.

The promise of stem cell research

The evidence that stem cells can cure the worst diseases that afflict humanity are starting to come in. When will the US be able to join in the research race? Not before Bush leaves office, that's for sure.

Diabetics using stem-cell therapy have been able to stop taking insulin injections for the first time, after their bodies started to produce the hormone naturally again.
[...]
All but two of the volunteers in the trial, details of which are published today in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA), do not need daily insulin injections up to three years after stopping their treatment regimes.
[...]
Richard Burt, a co-author of the study from Northwestern University’s Feinberg School of Medicine in Chicago, said that 14 of the 15 patients were insulin-free for some time following the treatment. Eleven of those were able to dispense with supplemental insulin immediately following the infusion of stem cells and have not had recourse to synthetic insulin since then, he said.

No matter how those who oppose the use of stem cells for research frame the issue, I'm sure that anyone afflicted by any of the potentially curable ailments sees it differently. For them, it can be a life or death decision. But even if you don't have one of these terrible diseases, even just the possibility that someday you might is enough to make you hope for a cure to exist.

Thankfully, with or without the US, the research goes on, and results will be obtained, but the US, with its economic and technological resources, is the workhorse of scientific research, so its efforts are clearly necessary in this field.

New Hampshire approves civil unions for gays and lesbians

Democrats took control of the state congress last fall, and now another state joins the list of those giving us the same rights (at the state level) that heterosexuals enjoy:

A bill authorizing civil unions for gays cleared its last hurdle today in New Hampshire, the first state to embrace same-sex unions without a court order or the threat of one.

The Senate passed the bill 14-10 on straight party lines, Democrats in favor, Republicans against.

“To me this legislation is a credit to our state. We’re making this move not because some court someplace is telling us that we must,” said Democratic Sen. Joe Foster of Nashua. “We do so today because it is the right thing to do.”

The bill goes to Gov. John Lynch, who announced last week he will sign it.

“This legislation is a matter of conscience, fairness and of preventing discrimination,” said Lynch spokesman Colin Manning. “It is in keeping with New Hampshire’s proud tradition of preventing discrimination.”

The bill’s success is an about-face from two years ago, when a study panel recommended giving no meaningful consideration to extending legal recognition to gay couples. That panel, staffed mostly by supporters of a ban on gay marriage, concluded that homosexuality is a choice and endorsed a constitutional amendment to limit marriage to unions between a man and a woman.

Democrats won control of the Legislature last fall for the first time in more than a century.

Hallelujah!!

PS: this is why elections matter. Go vote.

Ohio

YES!! I just found out! I passed the test and I'm now an OnBase Certified Installer, although I still have to get my MCP before I can officially get my Hasp key and actually be able to install or activate anything.

It sure feels good to have put that behind me though. Man was that a tough week!

And Ray was wonderful during the weekend. He took the kids out for a hike on Saturday and to his parents on Sunday, allowing me to get some much needed rest. Isn't he adorable?

Ohio

Day Four. This is it. In about 10 hours I'll be taking the test for the second, and hopefully, last time.

I feel quite prepared and much more confident than I did last year, but with the way they word the test, you simply never know how it's gonna play out.

I just hope I pass it this time.

Virginia Tech's deadly shooting

The worst school shooting in the history of the US has been all over the news and will be for a while longer. After that, we won't hear about it anymore until its first anniversary and a few more after that.

We quickly forget, but worst yet, we tend not to learn from what happens. Will the latest shooting rampage push forward laws that limit the ownership of guns by individuals in this country? Unlikely.

I had hoped that after the Columbine tragedy tighter federal laws would have been enacted, but it didn't happen. I can't imagine they will now.

The gun lobby, quite possibly the most powerful in the country, always finds ways to blame the individual and not the object of death, but tragedies of this magnitude do not happen anywhere in Europe, because weapons aren't so freely available as they are here.

I guess the American people just aren't outraged or worried enough yet.

So much sadness. Words really do become superfluous.

Ohio

I'm back in Cleveland for my second stab at the Installer Certification for OnBase. I'm at Hyland for the third time and needless to say, not a happy camper.

The first day of class went ok, although I have the same teacher I had the last time around, and it didn't end that well then. Let's hope this time it goes better.

I do have more experience with OnBase now than I did almost a year ago when I was here the last time, but I still feel seriously unprepared because of a lack of experience with installing and using the application in a practical setting at a client site.

All I know is that I have to give it my best because I don't want to be back a third time for this.

Fingers crossed...

Madonna's new album

It's slated for release this November and seems poised to be even better than her last effort, Confessions on a Dance Floor, which was very well received by both public and critics.

Madonna has now started working with boy-wonder Justin Timberlake, and I'm sure her next re-invention will be as startling as ever. She's one of the best at adapting to changing environments, and can market herself like the best of them.

I've always admired her for that ability.

JUSTIN TIMBERLAKE is busy writing songs for MADONNA.

The former NSYNC star is collaborating with the Queen Of Pop on her forthcoming album, which is due out in November.
[...]
Madonna is famous for reinventing herself and this time her album will have a real hip-hop feel.

She has lined up a Who’s Who of the genre’s megastars, including Timberlake’s producer pal TIMBALAND to help her achieve R&B credibility.

Hip-hop legend PHARRELL WILLIAMS is already working on at least four tracks and his fingerprints look set to be all over the new release.

Madge’s last offering, Confessions On A Dance Floor, was a massive success, with Brit DJ and producer STUART PRICE the main influence on the 2005 album.

There will also be some dancy Price-produced tracks on the new offering and she has also been joined by Chicago house DJ and producer FELIX DA HOUSECAT in the studio. A source told me: “Confessions was a worldwide smash — but this will be different once again.

“The last album was a credible disco record and Madonna wants to give hip-hop the same treatment this time.

“It’s not all hip-hop though, there are a lot of producers from a lot of genres in there. It could be her most ambitious project yet.”

Meanwhile, Madonna has been named as a headliner at the London leg of the Live Earth concerts.

Why marriage equality is important

This article talks about how same-sex couples are hit harder by federal taxes then their heterosexual counterparts because they cannot file jointly (Ray and I are witnessing this first hand right now, and it would have really saved us a lot if we could have filed jointly at the federal level), given that they're barred from getting legally married.

Marriages performed in Massachusetts, civil unions or any other kind of domestic partnership set up at the state level has no value whatsoever at the federal level.

The article is interesting overall, but this excerpt at the end offers yet another good reason why we should be extended the privileges of marriage:

Last year, the National Sexuality Resource Center released a new study showing widespread psychological and social harm inflicted on same-sex couples because they are denied the right to marry.

The co-authors, Gilbert Herdt, PhD, anthropologist, and director of the National Sexuality Resource Center at San Francisco State University, and Robert Kertzner, MD, practicing psychiatrist, and Adjunct Associate Research Scientist in the Department of Psychiatry at Columbia University, found that on average, married individuals have better mental health, more emotional support, less psychological distress, and lower rates of psychiatric disorder than the unmarried.

A worse Little Ice Age

The Little Ice Age is a period of cooling that occurred in Europe sometime between the 16th to the mid-19th centuries. According to this Guardian Unlimited article, not only is another episode likely to occur with the worsening of global warming, but it could be harsher than the last time around:

There is "compelling evidence" to indicate that climate change is occurring and that the atmosphere will continue to warm at an unprecedented rate throughout the 21st century. It could lead to a reduction in north Atlantic salinity by increasing the freshwater runoff from the Arctic. This could affect the natural circulation of the north Atlantic by diminishing the warming effect of ocean currents on western Europe. "The drop in temperature might exceed that of the miniature ice age of the 17th and 18th centuries."

I hope I won't have to witness that. I'm actually feeling a little better living on this side of the Atlantic now that global warming is getting worse, but I still have family and friends in the Old Continent.

It is here and now

Global warming that is. Its effects are clearly visible and gaugeable according to the latest report by the UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC):

From the poles to the tropics, the earth’s climate and ecosystems are already being shaped by the atmospheric buildup of greenhouse gases and face inevitable, possibly profound, alteration, the world’s leading scientific panel on climate change said Friday.
[...]
The climate shifts would benefit some regions — leading to more rainfall and longer growing seasons in high latitudes, open Arctic seaways and fewer deaths from the cold.
[...]
The new report, focusing on the effects of warming, for the first time describes how species, water supplies, ice sheets and regional climate conditions are already responding to the global buildup of heat. While the report said that assessing the causes of regional climate and biological changes was particularly difficult, the authors concluded with “high confidence” — about an 8 in 10 chance — that human-caused warming “over the last three decades has had a discernible influence on many physical and biological systems.”

At a news conference here, Martin Parry, the co-chairman of the team that wrote the new report, said widespread effects were already measurable, with much more to come.

“We’re no longer arm-waving with models,” he said. “This is empirical information on the ground.”
[...]
The report said that given the current buildup of carbon dioxide and other long-lived greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, temperatures and seas would inevitably rise for decades. The worst effects would be felt in regions that are mainly poor and already facing dangers from existing climate and coastal hazards.

“It’s the poorest of the poor in the world, and this includes poor people even in prosperous societies, who are going to be the worst hit,” said Rajendra K. Pachauri, the chairman of the panel. “People who are poor are least-equipped to be able to adapt to the impacts of climate change, and therefore in some sense this does become a global responsibility in my view.”
[...]
“The warnings are clear about the scale of the projected changes to the planet,” said Bill Hare, an author of the report and a visiting scientist at the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research in Germany. “Essentially there’s going to be a mass extinction within the next 100 years unless climate change is limited,” added Dr. Hare, who previously worked for Greenpeace.

“These impacts have been known for many years, and are now seen with greater clarity in this report,” he said. “That clarity is perhaps the last warning we’re going to get before we actually have to report in the next I.P.C.C. review that we’re seeing the disaster unfolding.”

Will humanity be able to act before it's too late? Will our politicians muster the necessary courage?

More evidence homosexuality is genetic

This New York Times article about new findings in the way human sexuality works has very interesting information, among which:

Desire between the sexes is not a matter of choice. Straight men, it seems, have neural circuits that prompt them to seek out women; gay men have those prompting them to seek other men. Women’s brains may be organized to select men who seem likely to provide for them and their children. The deal is sealed with other neural programs that induce a burst of romantic love, followed by long-term attachment.
[...]
Sexual orientation, at least for men, seems to be settled before birth. “I think most of the scientists working on these questions are convinced that the antecedents of sexual orientation in males are happening early in life, probably before birth,” Dr. Breedlove said, “whereas for females, some are probably born to become gay, but clearly some get there quite late in life.”
[...]
The finding suggests that male homosexuality in these cases is caused by some event in the womb, such as “a maternal immune response to succeeding male pregnancies,” Dr. Bogaert wrote last year in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Antimale antibodies could perhaps interfere with the usual masculinization of the brain that occurs before birth, though no such antibodies have yet been detected.

And this was also interesting:

Romantic love, which in its intense early stage “can last 12-18 months,” is a universal human phenomenon, Dr. Fisher wrote last year in The Proceedings of the Royal Society, and is likely to be a built-in feature of the brain. Brain imaging studies show that a particular area of the brain, one associated with the reward system, is activated when subjects contemplate a photo of their lover.

I guess that's why I love looking at pictures of Ray.

Powerful earthquake lifts an island

It happened this week in the Solomon Islands:

The seismic jolt that unleashed the deadly Solomons tsunami this week lifted an entire island metres out of the sea, destroying some of the world's most pristine coral reefs.

In an instant, the grinding of the Earth's tectonic plates in the 8.0 magnitude earthquake Monday forced the island of Ranongga up three metres (10 foot).

Submerged reefs that once attracted scuba divers from around the globe lie exposed and dying after the quake raised the mountainous landmass, which is 32-kilometres (20-miles) long and 8-kilometres (5-miles) wide.

Corals that used to form an underwater wonderland of iridescent blues, greens and reds now bleach under the sun, transforming into a barren moonscape surrounding the island.

The stench of rotting fish and other marine life stranded on the reefs when the seas receded is overwhelming and the once vibrant coral is dry and crunches underfoot.

Dazed villagers stand on the shoreline, still coming to terms with the cataclysmic shift that changed the geography of their island forever, pushing the shoreline out to sea by up to 70 metres.

Unbelievable. I can't imagine the terror they must have felt when this was happening.

And obviously, what a loss, of corals, of marine life, of beauty, of sustenance.

The deterioration of 24

*** SPOILERS AHEAD ***

Has 24, as they say, jumped the shark? I'm afraid so.

With seven episodes left, this season's central threat, multiple nuclear devices going off inside the country, has been defused and Jack just got a phone call from the Chinese guy who had been responsible for Jack's abduction at the end of last season (conveniently enough, right after he finishes up securing the bombs) telling him his beloved Audrey is alive but not for long unless he does as he's told without telling anyone.

And this all happens right after Jack, by himself, is able to subdue at least 7 or 8 bad guys, besides, naturally, Fayed.

ALL. BY. HIMSELF.

Right after Fayed, the last one standing, is dead, CTU agents show up.

I've ranted before (here, here, and here) about the exaggerated plotlines that are a staple of this show, but now I really feel like it has reached a tipping point.

At the end of the last episode, Ray and I just looked at each other, speechless.

I guess we'll wait and see what they come up with next, since at this point we've watched more than 2/3 of this season, but me watching the next one is seriously in doubt at this point.

A Quote By:

Joe Klein, a TIME reporter, writing about President Bush and his administration's handling of government and policy:

"When Bush came to office--installed by the Supreme Court after receiving fewer votes than Al Gore--I speculated that the new President would have to govern in a bipartisan manner to be successful. He chose the opposite path, and his hyper-partisanship has proved to be a travesty of governance and a comprehensive failure. I've tried to be respectful of the man and the office, but the three defining sins of the Bush Administration--arrogance, incompetence, cynicism--are congenital: they're part of his personality. They're not likely to change. And it is increasingly difficult to imagine yet another two years of slow bleed with a leader so clearly unfit to lead."

It's about time

The 1913 law designed to avoid issuing marriage licenses to non-resident interracial couples from states where their marriage would be considered illegal and used by the former Governor of Massachusetts to prevent gay couples from anywhere in the US to go to his state and get married, might finally get repealed now that Democrats control both houses and the governorship:

Legislation is expected to be presented in the Massachusetts legislature this session to repeal a 1913 law used to prevent same-sex couples from all states outside the commonwealth, except Rhode Island, from marrying in the state.

Newly elected Senate president Therese Murray (D) said she would support the measure and believes there is enough support for passage. House Speaker Salvatore F. DiMasi (D) and Gov. Deval Patrick (D) both favor repeal.
[...]
The old law, which says marriage licenses cannot be issued to couples whose weddings would be illegal in the states where they lived, was originally passed when interracial marriage was legal in Massachusetts but not in most other parts of the country.

When the US Supreme Court overturned state bans on interracial marriage, the Massachusetts law fell into disuse.

That is, until Romney decided to revive it to attack gays and lesbians and position himself as the righteous man the religious right would love to support in the next presidential election.

Thankfully, the GOP lost the governorship.

I'd love to get a real marriage license someday, maybe during a vacation to the beautiful Provincetown.

The value of plankton

Yet another good reason to fight global warming:

Using a decade's worth of satellite data, scientists have determined that rising ocean temperatures are killing phytoplankton. Not only do these tiny plants form the base of oceanic food webs, they also process as much carbon dioxide and produce as much oxygen as land plants do. Although the findings may be influenced by El Niño, the researchers say the the study provides a sneak peek at how ocean biology will evolve as the climate continues to change.

The article has more negative effects on marine life, but in a nutshell, "Warmer oceans could mean fewer fish in the sea -- and pricier seafood."

These are basic civil rights

This is exactly why gay marriage is important and why the religious right is wrong and will, hopefully, lose this battle and ultimately the war.

A law is being considered in Minnesota to grant hospital visitation rights to gay partners, a right taken for granted if you're married, but denied to gays and lesbians because they cannot legally get married even if they want to:

Being able to visit a loved one in a hospital is something many can take for granted. Gay partners say they can be denied access to their partners in critical situations.

A Senate committee will soon consider a new law that would guarantee that access at all hospitals.

And this the reaction and reasoning of those who call themselves Christian :

Conservative groups are fighting the proposal. Their concern is not about visitation, but putting anything into law that acknowledges same sex partnerships.

"What we object to is the creation of these domestic partner statuses, which is really marriage by another name and that's what we see they are attempting to do”, said Tom Prichard of the Minnesota Family Council.

So they won't give us marriage and they don't want to give us any right that would cover even our most basic needs, like visiting a sick partner in the hospital, and then they are surprised and outraged that we fight back and demand those rights.

Go figure. I guess we should just disappear like ghosts.

The demise of a glacier

It's happening all over the world, the Chacaltaya glacier in Bolivia is just the latest example I found.

Look at the chart of how quickly it is retreating, keeping in mind that this glacier is thought to be around 18,000 years old and that it has lost 80% of its area in the last 20 years.

Scientists keeping track of its demise were projecting its complete disappearance around 2015, but those projections keep changing and now they're predicting it will be gone by either this year or the next.

Here's the link to the article.

The despicable tampering by the Vatican

In Italy, it is well known that the Vatican has "secretly" been involved in the government politics since the dawn of the Republic, always trying to influence laws to its benefit (hell, the party in power for 40 years after WWII, "Christian Democracy" was nothing but a puppet of the Pope).

Things haven't apparently changed much:

A directive by Italian bishops ordering Catholic politicians to vote against gay rights legislation has caused a political uproar and prompted fresh charges of Church interference in domestic affairs.

The long-awaited note, issued on Wednesday by the Italian Bishops Conference, was significant because it specifically targeted politicians as they consider a law to give homosexual and heterosexual unmarried couples more rights.
[...]
The note said Catholic politicians had "the moral duty to clearly and publicly voice their disagreement and vote against any proposed law that would recognize homosexual couples".

While some Catholic and centrist politicians welcomed the directive as food for thought, other lawmakers and civil rights groups condemned it as outright interference.

This is what smart politicians had to say:

"This continuous, daily interference by the Church in parliament's activity is intolerable," said leftist senator Luisa Boccia. "What's next, excommunication?"

Another leftist politician, Pino Sgobio, said the Vatican had to realize that unmarried couples are a fact of life and parliament had a duty to pass laws to protect the rights of people who have decided not to marry.

Excellent point. At the end of the day, this is what it all comes down to. Gays and lesbians are citizens of the country they belong to whether heterosexuals like it or not. They work and pay taxes like their heterosexual counterparts.

In some way, their rights have got to be protected and enforced. If homosexuals cannot take advantage of the same tools that are provided to heterosexuals, then some other kind of tool must be provided to them so that their livelihoods aren't threatened.

One thing is certain, the Church feels threatened by this measure and will do all it can to protect its power over Italy's everyday life, even if this means unleashing its harshest and most bigoted attack dogs:

Archbishop Angelo Bagnasco, who was appointed last month to head the Italian Bishops Conference, is leading the Church's campaign against the legislation which the Vatican says would weaken the institution of marriage.

The “DICO” Bill's supporters have already criticised the Church for what they see as interference in politics, but comments by Archbishop Bagnasco, reported in newspapers, have further incensed the gay lobby.

“Why say 'no' to forms of legally recognised co-habitation which create alternatives to the family? Why say 'no' to incest?” he said at a meeting of Church workers, according to a report in La Repubblica daily.

“Why say 'no' to the pedophile party in Holland?” he said, referring to the Dutch Brotherly Love, Freedom and Diversity party which wants to cut the age of consent from 16 to 12 and legalise child pornography.

Hmm, how about because incest and pedophilia have nothing to do with homosexuality?

That's outrageous. This guy's a fucking moron, because there's plenty of scientific evidence that shows that incest and homophobia have nothing to do with homosexuality. But naturally, why say the truth when a lie can smear a whole segment of the population, the very segment that threatens your fucked up institution?

These people should be shunned by all reasonable individuals for their unethical and shameless practices.

God, I hate the Church.

Links here and here.

Gulliver anyone?

These two pictures refer to an art show currently being held in the Palazzo Reale of Milan, Italy. Doesn't that look like Gulliver's skeleton surrounded by the Lilliputians?



Unless, of course, it's Pinocchio's skeleton...

A Quote By:

Australian High Court Judge Michael Kirby, an outspoken advocate for gay marriage in that country, who has been with his partner Johan van Vloten for 38 years, spoke out late last year regarding civil unions in Australia, saying:

"It is a source of puzzlement to Johan and me, as we go about our tranquil lives, that there are many fellow citizens, some of them well educated and very important, who seem to be threatened and upset by such relationships and who feel the need to discriminate against them by laws enacted or unenacted by our nation's parliaments."

What a hypocrite

I'm referring to John Travolta, who had the audacity to preach about global warming and the need for everyone to do their part to reduce their carbon footprint when he owns 5 personal airplanes and uses them as freely as I use my car to go to work every day:

But although he readily admitted: "I fly jets", he failed to mention he actually owns five, along with his own private runway.

Clocking up at least 30,000 flying miles in the past 12 months means he has produced an estimated 800 tons of carbon emissions – nearly 100 times the average Briton's tally.

And as if this weren't arrogant and hypocritical enough:

Travolta made his comments this week at the British premiere of his movie, Wild Hogs.

He spoke of the importance of helping the environment by using "alternative methods of fuel" – after driving down the red carpet on a Harley Davidson.

This is incredible!! Are you kidding me?! What the hell is wrong with you, man?? How can you talk about alternative energy and helping the environment when you arrive at the event's doorstep on a gas guzzler?

And naturally, he's blaming Hollywood for his choices:

Travolta, a Scientologist, claimed the solution to global warming could be found in outer space and blamed his hefty flying mileage on the nature of the movie business.

But his appointment as a "serving ambassador" for the Australian airline Qantas doesn't seem to have much to do with the movies. Nor does a recent, two-month round-the-world flying trip.
[...]
"I use them as a business tool though, as others do. I think it's part of this industry – otherwise I couldn't be here doing this and I wouldn't be here now."

Ludicrous and pathetically delusional, if my opinion. Take for instance Leonardo DiCaprio, arguably a bigger star than Travolta and himself an environmentalist. He drives a Prius, a hybrid that is, so that he doesn't look like a hypocrite when he preaches about saving the planet.

Take Al Gore, the start of An Inconvenient Truth. He purchases clean energy, which is more expensive than regular one, and has found other ways to offset his and his family's carbon footprint. He can then freely go out and tell us that we should all do our part.

I'm sure Travolta wasn't threatened with the loss of his compensation for the movie unless he drove a Harley down the red carpet to the premiere. I know he's wealthy enough that he doesn't need to sponsor Australian airline Qantas and fly their planes around the world for advertising. I'm sure he can find alternative and cheaper, albeit still satisfactory means of transportation than flying himself all over the world just because he can.

All these were his choices.

Saying you love nature while you soil it 100 times more than the average person, detracts from your words. At least don't tell us to do our part to save the planet when you're clearly not doing yours!