I secretely hope that Obama is an athiest....really, that he associates with deluded religious leaders (sorry for the redundancy) is disturbing to someone who's looking forward to the day we elect a self identified athiest...or even a polytheist...or an open agnostic, anything but the ususal batch of psycho hustlers preaching their point of view of stuff they can't possibly know anything about, all of it spilling out of the deranged mental state of a Paul, or Mohamed, or Elijah or Joseph Smith character with an undiagnosed case of epliepsy. He might be surprised at how many other athiests will stand up and cheer...most people believe their own religions are bunk but use them as a club, both socially and pugilistically.

I have mixed feelings about Al Gore. I voted for him and think he acted in a thoroughly civilized and admirable manner in 2000 and his retreat and contemplation re-emerging as the voice america heard too late is a successs story. But I have some serious questions regarding his sense of direction these days. Fist, becoming a part of the Obama administration would be a step down. Clearly his power on the international stage is hardly equalled by anybody. He is the wounded warrior hero returned, but a close examination reveals that he was wounded by ineptness, hisown. He selected Lieberman who kept his Senate seat and seniority only to stab the Democrats. Bad decision there, Al.

Secondly, his role in bringing about the popular drive for an international system of carbon caps and trades...I'm not even sure that it would do anything, really, that couldn't be done much more effectively other ways and the legacy of a international beaurocracy who, as anyone know, will not simply go away when the CO2 issue is resovlved.

I was working as a GS-5 when Al Gore was in the WhiteHouse as VP under Clinton and one of his major programs was one designed to reduce government paper work, called GPRA. What a farce. It looked good on paper, made sense to everyone who heard of it, but the actual execution and results were just about a larger role for beaurocracy and more congestion and reduced efficiency for the actual workers...I don't doubt the executive himself generated less paperwork...and for all I know there's still an executive level career sitting ontop of a staff for that...mucking up the works.

The role of a career politician like Al Gore is to find solutions. I'm sure sometimes they do actually find them, but the CO2/Climate connection is one where a solution now while so much of that complex inter-reaction is still unknown, is not a good idea and is one that needs exploration as to the real dyanamics of the incredibly complex system that is our climate. I really question the foundational understandings of any intellegent person who fails to see that in complex systems there is no guarantee or even liklihood of direct line correlation between any two conditions. Have they never heard of unintended consequences? In the mean time Caps and Trades and the focus on CO2 takes attention away from the genuine threats that are here and now: population, genuine pollution (not the supposed threat of CO2..a minor problem if one at all), and habitat loss on land and across our oceans.

I give Al one thumb up and the other down and hope he stays where he is rather than become involved in an administration that should be asking questions in new ways and seeing solutions that outside even Al Gore's box.

Glad to read that you've come to your senses and hope that you'll join the informal body of people known as free-thinkers as you realize that even if this particular group of superstitius monkeys condoned gay marriage they's still be a center for the perpetuation and dispersal of delusion and make-believe while they maintain the power structure that in place of true understanding brings them the satisfaction that we monkeys that call ourselves human seem to crave above all else. The false security from the perception of power over others in the heirarchy.

Welcome to the light/

.it's like a trip to a fun-house room of mirrors! I remember reading one about 18 months ago regarding her fawning admiration for Mitt Romney...and his intelligence...and ultimately I guess, his haircut, since we've seen that aside from himself and his political legacy (thin but stretched huge and way out of proportion thanks to the aforementioned mirrors), it's about the only thing on his mind.

I really wish Camile had a chance to actually live under an administration where leadership like Palin's reflects the local bunch of yahhoooos. Or is she too connected to the soft underbelly of academia like a parasite..unwilling to let go and snap up a good job at the high school in Wasilla?

I have to wonder if President-elect Obama reads this column. I would be glad to know that he did and hope that he could tap into someone with the pragmatic and enlightened viewpoint that Mr Smith has. It would be a sign of intelligence by design, which stands in such contrast to the current oval office clown's ingorant perceptions.

While I'm gladdened by the turn-around for Begich, seeing how the Senate seat is of greater criticality, I sure do wish that we'd see a similar turn of events for Alaska's only house seat. Don"Bridge to Nowhere" Young, is perhaps an even more pernicious aspect of the corruption that steeps the politics of the oil patch. His challenger, Ethan Berkowitz, in stark contrast is beyond just smart and is famous for his empassioned remarks last year at the close of the legislative session that lifted the lid off of the corruption in Juneau and helped to expose the very kinds of dealings that both Stevens and Young find so integral to their keeping their positions.