Homeowner Forum / Construction / June 2008

Bob F said something like:

Yes, I'm well aware of what he said.  This statement:

   During my service in the United States
   Congress, I took the initiative in creating
   the Internet.

...s enough to stick.  Note the key components of this:

*I* -- Al Gore
*I took the initiative* -- Al Gore did something on his own that was novel
*creating the internet* -- creating means that there was no internet before,
and then there was.  "Invented" is hardly a far cry from that.

Did this statement float around without context?  Yep.  Did it stand all by
itself as something obnoxious?  No, I'm pretty sure what he meant by it,
given the context of the conversation.  But it is not "pure bunk"-----the
public /misunderstanding/ of this is purely understandable.

Right.

But it took the Republican "slime machine" to obscure the truth and
propagate the lie through an intellectually-lazy bunch of disgruntled
"ditto heads" into the wider culture.

If you want to know what two of the acknowledged "internet wizzards"
(Robert Kahn and Vint Cerf) thought [in 2000] about Al Gore's
contributions to the creation and growth of the internet-as-we-know-it,
check out:

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2000/10/02/net_builders_kahn_cerf_recognise/

Here are some direct quotes:

"Al Gore was the first political leader to recognize the importance of
the Internet and to promote and support its development. . . . AS THE
TWO PEOPLE WHO DESIGNED THE BASIC ARCHITECTURE AND THE CORE PROTOCOLS
THAT MAKE THE INTERNET WORK, we would like to acknowledge VP Gore's
contributions as a Congressman, Senator and as Vice President. No other
elected official, to our knowledge, has made a greater contribution over
a longer period of time.
[Emphasis added]
. . .
"The fact of the matter is that Gore was talking about and promoting the
Internet long before most people were listening. We feel it is timely to
offer our perspective.
. . .
"As far back as the 1970s Congressman Gore promoted the idea of high
speed telecommunications as an engine for both economic growth and the
improvement of our educational system. He was the first elected official
to grasp the potential of computer communications to have a broader
impact than just improving the conduct of science and scholarship.
Though easily forgotten now, at the time this was an unproven and
controversial concept. Our work on the Internet started in 1973 and was
based on even earlier work that took place in the mid-late 1960s. But
the Internet, as we know it today, was not deployed until 1983.
. . .
"As a Senator in the 1980s Gore urged government agencies to consolidate
what at the time were several dozen different and unconnected networks
into an "Interagency Network. . . . Gore secured the passage of the High
Performance Computing and Communications Act in 1991.  This "Gore Act"
supported the . . . initiative that became one of the major vehicles for
the spread of the Internet beyond the field of computer science.

"As Vice President Gore promoted building the Internet both up and out,
as well as releasing the Internet from the control of the government
agencies that spawned it.
. . .
". . . No one in public life has been more intellectually engaged in
helping to create the climate for a thriving Internet than the Vice
President."

<trader4@optonline.net> wrote in message news:0933d55e-056d-4e1e-9082-
Yes, Al Gore is a hypocrite.   He's only installed his solar panels
very recently and that was after a year ago, when people publicly
exposed his huge energy bills in his over size mansion.

And he's been fighting the community for the right to install them all that
time.

His house is actually mostly used for office space, just like any
other 10,000 square foot office building. I'm not talking a spare
bedroom used as a home office. This office has a staff or employees.
And he didn't "just put a couple of panels on the roof", nitwit. In
fact, he would have covered his roof with panels sooner, but local
codes prevented it. The house is also using geo-thermal, and many
other measures to save energy. This work was completed well over a
year ago.

Too bad you couldn't install a couple of "panels" on top of your head
that would improve your meager brain power.