During the 14th century when Europe was being ravaged by the Black Death, there arose a cult of people who thought that the reason for the plague was the displeasure of God, earned by mankind's wickedness. These people hoped that God would forgive them if they acknowledged their perceived evil, and they went from town to town, carrying crosses, and scourging and beating themselves for their imagined sins.

It didn't work of course, if they were trying to mitigate the Black Death, but it did work in other ways. Women would follow them in their progression through the villages and catch their blood in cloths, and apply it to their eyes, claiming miraculous powers, and women would find them irresistible and they'd party--they were the rock stars of the day. Or perhaps the environmentalists.

They were the flagellants. The Catholic Church recognized a challenge to their totalitarian stranglehold on the populace but were advised, at first, not to say anything, fearing an uprising. And then the Pope spoke out at this direct challenge to his ideas and authority, and was ignored. The party went on--moaning, self-denunciation, drama, loud protestations of evil and sin, and of course the endless supply of groupies and debauchery which came with the dramatic profession of evil, renounced, loudly, for a holy cause.

Al Gore gives speeches rewarded with substantial honoraria which he reaches in private planes, and then in a fleet of limousines and SUVs, left running during the speech to that he will be cool when he returns from earning the money, or I should say, when he returns from making his performance which will result in a check to him. As that growing number who contemn the MSM all know, his house uses many times the energy of that of George Bush. Recently the Holy Gore had a bespoke houseboat built, called, apparently without irony, the Bio-Solar One. Note the initials. It is meant to run on bio-diesel, which is not available for purchase where the yacht is. Perhaps it will flown in on a private GE jet.

Al Gore has been instrumental in the legislation mandating the phasing out of incandescent light bulbs, and the biggest candidate for their replacement is the Compact Fluorescent Light. The CFL has mercury and breaking one constitutes an environmental emergency and the suggested remedies include evacuation of the house and cleaning all of the fabrics and clothes in the room. And this forced purchase of CFLs benefits the bottom line of the Holy Gore as reported by the Reihl World View here.

Ah. The Holy Gore, who lectures us on the evil of our ways and is the High Priest of the First Church of Climatology. And who is making out like a bandit. But he's clever, that one: he doesn't actually have to beat himself like the Flagellants. He beats us. Will no one rid us of this troublesome priest?