Always Looking on the Cynical Side of Life

Bill Hobbs apparently woke up on the cynical side of the bed this morning. Case in point:

"Look At Me! Look at Me! I'm Still Relevant!"

"Thus whineth Al Gore. If a past-his-political-prime tree-hugger mouths off in a press release, does anyone care to hear it?"

The link is to this article:

Gore opposes Midstate uranium enrichment plant

"Former Vice President Al Gore took a public stand today against a $1.1 billion uranium enrichment plant proposed for Middle Tennessee.

''I have been involved for nearly 30 years in the discussion about nuclear energy as a sustainable energy future and I can say with no hesitation that this facility is not in the best interest of Middle Tennessee,'' Gore said in a prepared statement released late this afternoon."

The article continues to explain Gore's interest in the matter, mainly that he still owns land in Smith County, right next door to Trousdale County where the plant is proposed to be built. He has also for years, as we all know, been a champion for environmental services - dating back to his Senatorial days and beyond.

Bill updates his original post to hint that polls are suggesting Gore would return to a large popularity if he decided to run again in 2004. "Look at Me! Look at Me!" indeed."

Indeed.

Like so many other pundits, he believes any headline in which Gore or Clinton is mentioned or quoted is a blatant, calculated bid for political relevency. It doesn't really matter what the story says, as long as any former political adversary reemerges into the public eye, it must be solely politically motivated.

Dictionary.com defines "cynic" as:

cyn·ic n.

1. A person who believes all people are motivated by selfishness.
2. A person whose outlook is scornfully and often habitually negative.
3. Cynic A member of a sect of ancient Greek philosophers who believed virtue to be the only good and self-control to be the only means of achieving virtue.

Source: The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
Copyright © 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.

Websters says, "cynic: Given to sneering at rectitude and the conduct of life by moral principles; disbelieving in the reality of any human purposes which are not suggested or directed by self-interest or self-indulgence; as, a cynical man who scoffs at pretensions of integrity; characterized by such opinions; as, cynical views of human nature.
Source: Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary, © 1996, 1998 MICRA, Inc.

While it's important to be aware of people who are trying to lead us down the wrong path, at least they should be given the benefit of the doubt until proven otherwise. We're all human.