# Republicans Drown Santa Claus **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [September 22, 2006, 4:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/republicans-drown-santa-claus/373735 "2006-09-22T16:48:36Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![elucidator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8edcca/32.png) [@elucidator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elucidator)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2006, 8:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/republicans-drown-santa-claus/373735/21 "2006-09-22T20:22:52Z")
He should hang with a better class of people. Us, for instance. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Weird\_One](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/7bcc69/32.png) [@The\_Weird\_One](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Weird_One)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2006, 8:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/republicans-drown-santa-claus/373735/22 "2006-09-22T20:24:34Z")
[QUOTE=elucidator] Name one. Must have several names on the very tip of your forked tongue. Seeing as how this is one of your touchy areas, and all. [/QUOTE] Indeed, **What Exit?** has it right, I was talking about people I personally know. I could name them, but you probably don’t know them, and I don’t think they’d appreciate it. ---
**Author:** ![What\_Exit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/what_exit/32/10652_2.png) [@What\_Exit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/What_Exit)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2006, 8:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/republicans-drown-santa-claus/373735/23 "2006-09-22T20:25:26Z")
[QUOTE=elucidator] He should hang with a better class of people. Us, for instance. [/QUOTE] That is a great point. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![eleanorigby](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/ee7513/32.png) [@eleanorigby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eleanorigby)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2006, 8:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/republicans-drown-santa-claus/373735/24 "2006-09-22T20:28:33Z")
I’d like to know what happened to all the other children of the energy crisis? I was one, and I walk whenever possible, recycle (long before the curbside program started), keep my thermostat at 67-put a sweater on already!- use both sides of paper, turn the water off when I brush my teeth, don’t leave lights on–these are just off the top of my head, I’m sure I do more than this. If I could afford it, I’d buy a Prius tomorrow. I drive a 98 Volvo wagon. I know people who drive to their mailboxes (these are not disabled people). I know moms who keep their SUVs running, while they talk for 20 minutes with their friends…it drives me nuts. I will say I know far more Reps that do this than Dems, but it isn’t cut and dried. I don’t think one party can be blamed-but I can certainly point a finger at those who put short-term profits above global issues. ---
**Author:** ![What\_Exit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/what_exit/32/10652_2.png) [@What\_Exit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/What_Exit)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2006, 8:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/republicans-drown-santa-claus/373735/25 "2006-09-22T20:41:51Z")
[QUOTE=eleanorigby] I’d like to know what happened to all the other children of the energy crisis? I was one, and I walk whenever possible, recycle (long before the curbside program started), keep my thermostat at 67-put a sweater on already!- use both sides of paper, turn the water off when I brush my teeth, don’t leave lights on–these are just off the top of my head, I’m sure I do more than this. If I could afford it, I’d buy a Prius tomorrow. I drive a 98 Volvo wagon. I know people who drive to their mailboxes (these are not disabled people). I know moms who keep their SUVs running, while they talk for 20 minutes with their friends…it drives me nuts. I will say I know far more Reps that do this than Dems, but it isn’t cut and dried. I don’t think one party can be blamed-but I can certainly point a finger at those who put short-term profits above global issues. [/QUOTE] Sounds like you are doing your part, but I know what you mean. I notice it especially at School events and Voting. I pull up in my little wagon and park among all the SUVs, Large Mercedes and a few Minivans. Almost no other regular sized or priced cars. I shut off my car and do what I need to do, the SUVs are left running to keep them either warm or cold I guess. 😕 I never have figured that one out. The light thing is funny, I feel like the electric police in my house, I am constantly turning off lights, computers and TVs and then complaining about it. I understand I get rather annoying about it. Jim ---
**Author:** ![Lightnin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lightnin/32/180_2.png) [@Lightnin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lightnin)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2006, 9:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/republicans-drown-santa-claus/373735/26 "2006-09-22T21:01:36Z")
[QUOTE=Renob] Blame the GOP if you wish, but Democrats haven’t lifted a finger to do anything about global warming outside of see _An Inconvenient Truth_. [/QUOTE] Well, at least the Democrats pay the subject some lip service. It’s not much, but it’s a start. The Republican party seems to be completely ignoring the subject at best, and actively denying it’s a problem at worst. As for a third party… well, we know _that_ will never happen, right? ---
**Author:** ![Renob](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/8c91f0/32.png) [@Renob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Renob)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2006, 9:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/republicans-drown-santa-claus/373735/27 "2006-09-22T21:33:22Z")
[QUOTE=elucidator] Name one. Must have several names on the very tip of your forked tongue. Seeing as how this is one of your touchy areas, and all. [/QUOTE] There’s Al Gore, for one ([http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2006/08/20/INGCGKJSB61.DTL](http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2006/08/20/INGCGKJSB61.DTL)): \*Public records reveal that as Gore lectures Americans on excessive consumption, he and wife Tipper live in two properties: a 10,000-square-foot, 20-room, eight-bathroom home in Nashville, and a 4,000-square-foot home in Arlington, Va. (He also has a third home in Carthage, Tenn.) For someone rallying the planet to pursue a path of extreme personal sacrifice, Gore requires little from himself. \* The article goes on to talk about a few areas where Al Gore is less than environmentally-friendly. ---
**Author:** ![elucidator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8edcca/32.png) [@elucidator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elucidator)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2006, 9:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/republicans-drown-santa-claus/373735/28 "2006-09-22T21:42:53Z")
He owns several large houses! My God, the depth of hypocrisy! I’m, like, crushed. ---
**Author:** ![AskNott](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/asknott/32/5790_2.png) [@AskNott](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AskNott)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2006, 10:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/republicans-drown-santa-claus/373735/29 "2006-09-22T22:18:54Z")
[QUOTE=Renob] …Blame the GOP if you wish, but Democrats haven’t lifted a finger to do anything about global warming outside of see _An Inconvenient Truth_. [/QUOTE] You have a short memory, **Renob.** A Democrat president signed the Kyoto Treaty, and the senate ratified it. GWB decided he wasn’t going to honor it. Clinton’s EPA and Justice Department were in the process of prosecuting several power plants for ignoring regs. Mr. Bush cancelled all that. In case you hadn’t noticed, the Democrats were voted out of power with Bush’s arrival. The GOP has the White House and both houses of congress. The Democrats have tried to introduce some measures to fight global warming, but the GOP crumpled them in committee. The Grand Oil Party is in charge. They don’t believe in global warming. They say it’s a hoax. There is nothing the Democrats can do about it. ---
**Author:** ![Carol\_Stream](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/c2a13f/32.png) [@Carol\_Stream](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Carol_Stream)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2006, 12:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/republicans-drown-santa-claus/373735/30 "2006-09-23T00:09:27Z")
[QUOTE=AskNott] You have a short memory, **Renob.** A Democrat president signed the Kyoto Treaty, and the senate ratified it. [/QUOTE] Do you have a cite that the Senate ratified it? Because they did not. ---
**Author:** ![Evil\_Captor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/f17d59/32.png) [@Evil\_Captor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Evil_Captor)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2006, 12:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/republicans-drown-santa-claus/373735/31 "2006-09-23T00:25:38Z")
[QUOTE=Renob] For someone rallying the planet to pursue a path of extreme personal sacrifice, Gore requires little from himself. [/QUOTE] Is that what Gore is doing? Because I was under the impression that he was saying the environment was in ‘pay me now or pay me later’ mode and we’d better pay now if we don’t want to make even more huge, even more painful payments later. Gore is not asking people to make sacrifices, he’s trying to REDUCE the amount of sacrifices people have to make. It’s the GOP that’s unilaterally forcing people to make sacrifices by ignoring these issues now. Just so’s ya know. ---
**Author:** ![Loopydude](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/e56c9b/32.png) [@Loopydude](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Loopydude)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2006, 1:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/republicans-drown-santa-claus/373735/32 "2006-09-23T01:11:51Z")
[QUOTE=The Weird One] The Republican Party certainly needs to start taking action on environmental issues, but frankly, I’m even more frustrated by the many liberals I know who do nothing more than pay impassioned lip service to environmental causes. As I once heard someone on NPR say (paraphrasing), “Everyone agrees that the environment should be protected, but nobody’s willing to make the necessary changes in their own lives.” [/QUOTE] It’s really fun when you take such criticism to heart, spend lots extra of your own money to buy a hybrid that gets 50 mpg, Energy-Star everything, the most efficient windows and heating system the condo assoc. will let you purchase, make weekly trips to a recycling facility and do all the extra sorting that involves, give oodles of your hard-earned cash to conservation groups, vote in every election like a concerned citizen, etc…and then have the same critics of liberal hypocrisy and complacency call you a money-wasting chump whose car is fueld by “the smug”. ---
**Author:** ![elucidator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8edcca/32.png) [@elucidator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elucidator)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2006, 1:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/republicans-drown-santa-claus/373735/33 "2006-09-23T01:39:34Z")
I’ve known several people who’s personal integrity and unswerving commitment to principle can only be described as impeccable. The fact that I can’t stand any of them probably reflects more on me than on them. ---
**Author:** ![EddyTeddyFreddy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eddyteddyfreddy/32/18796_2.png) [@EddyTeddyFreddy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EddyTeddyFreddy)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2006, 3:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/republicans-drown-santa-claus/373735/34 "2006-09-23T03:23:18Z")
[QUOTE=elucidator] I’ve known several people who’s personal integrity and unswerving commitment to principle can only be described as impeccable. The fact that I can’t stand any of them probably reflects more on me than on them. [/QUOTE] [Kermit] It isn’t easy being green. [/Kermit] ---
**Author:** ![if6was9](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/e47c2d/32.png) [@if6was9](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/if6was9)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2006, 6:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/republicans-drown-santa-claus/373735/35 "2006-09-23T06:07:43Z")
[QUOTE=Inigo Montoya] “Nothing’s being done” Jeff Beck anyone? Guitar shop? Terry Bozzio? Anyone? I’m tired of trying to google the lyrics. [/QUOTE] Much is being said but nothing is being done! I thought I bought the only copy of that… I’m all for global warming. I live about 250 miles from the ocean. If this kicks into high gear, I’m sitting on beachfront property, baby! ---
**Author:** ![if6was9](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/e47c2d/32.png) [@if6was9](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/if6was9)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2006, 6:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/republicans-drown-santa-claus/373735/36 "2006-09-23T06:59:12Z")
Ok. I googled the lyrics too, and came up with nothing. So I dug out the CD. 😛 Here’s part… My Lords, I call to order. On the issue of the environment, Nothing is being done. My Lords, we can’t keep dancing along pretending everything is just fine. The consequences are devastating. We must strike out and rescue this fine Earth upon which we live. **Mother Nature has suffered far too long and quite enough!** Much is being said, My Lords, but nothing is being done. ---
**Author:** ![Operation\_Ripper](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/34f0e0/32.png) [@Operation\_Ripper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Operation_Ripper)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2006, 9:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/republicans-drown-santa-claus/373735/37 "2006-09-23T09:51:20Z")
Huzzah! Progress toward a practical [Northwest Passage](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Northwest_passage)! Take that nature! Screw the kiddies ---
**Author:** ![Renob](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/8c91f0/32.png) [@Renob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Renob)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2006, 4:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/republicans-drown-santa-claus/373735/38 "2006-09-23T16:23:45Z")
[QUOTE=AskNott] You have a short memory, **Renob.** A Democrat president signed the Kyoto Treaty, and the senate ratified it. GWB decided he wasn’t going to honor it. Clinton’s EPA and Justice Department were in the process of prosecuting several power plants for ignoring regs. Mr. Bush cancelled all that. [/quote] You need to do a little more research before attacking my memory. From the [Wikipedia entry on the Kyoto Treaty](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kyoto_treaty): _The United States (U.S.), although a signatory to the protocol, has neither ratified nor withdrawn from the protocol. The signature alone is mostly symbolic, as the protocol is non-binding over the United States unless ratified. On July 25, 1997, before the Kyoto Protocol was finalized (although it had been fully negotiated, and a penultimate draft was finished), the U.S. Senate unanimously passed by a 95–0 vote the Byrd-Hagel Resolution (S. Res. 98), which stated the sense of the Senate was that the United States should not be a signatory to any protocol that did not include binding targets and timetables for developing as well as industrialized nations or “would result in serious harm to the economy of the United States”. On November 12, 1998, Vice President Al Gore symbolically signed the protocol. Both Gore and Senator Joseph Lieberman indicated that the protocol would not be acted upon in the Senate until there was participation by the developing nations. The Clinton Administration never submitted the protocol to the Senate for ratification._ ---
**Author:** ![Caridwen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/c89c15/32.png) [@Caridwen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Caridwen)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2006, 8:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/republicans-drown-santa-claus/373735/39 "2006-09-23T20:49:56Z")
I’m just curious, are you saying that you would have approved of the Kyoto Treaty being ratified by Clinton? ---
**Author:** ![Carol\_Stream](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/c2a13f/32.png) [@Carol\_Stream](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Carol_Stream)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2006, 11:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/republicans-drown-santa-claus/373735/40 "2006-09-23T23:17:16Z")
[QUOTE=Caridwen] I’m just curious, are you saying that you would have approved of the Kyoto Treaty being ratified by Clinton? [/QUOTE] Presidents don’t ratify treaties, the Senate does. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/republicans-drown-santa-claus/373735.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/republicans-drown-santa-claus/373735.md?page=3)