Whack-a-Penguin

WSJ's Washington Wire (via Brad DeLong):

Everyone knows Al Gore stars in the global warming documentary “An Inconvenient Truth.” But who created “Al Gore’s Penguin Army,” a two-minute video now playing on YouTube.com? In the video, Gore appears as a sinister figure who blames the Mideast crisis and starlet Lindsay Lohan’s shrinking waist size on global warming. (See the video.)

The video’s maker is listed as “Toutsmith,” a 29-year-old who identifies himself as being from Beverly Hills in an Internet profile. In an email exchange with The Wall Street Journal, Toutsmith didn’t answer when asked who he was or why he made the video, which has just over 59,000 views on YouTube. However, computer routing information contained in an email sent from Toutsmith’s Yahoo account indicate it didn’t come from an amateur working out of his basement.

Instead, the email originated from a computer registered to DCI Group, a Washington, D.C., public relations and lobbying firm whose clients include oil company Exxon Mobil Corp.

The other day I blogged about the tyranny of ExxonMobil's unfettered profits and this only solidifies how I feel about them and corporatism in general.  It's one thing to make money to put food on your family and have a basically good life.  It's another thing entirely to go about the "I've got mine, fuck you" approach as you scoop up obscene amonts of bloodmoney while trying to discredit people and theories that just might threaten your unsustainable cash machine, the planet's and other folks' well-being be damned.

ntodd

PS--Any time I see stuff about penguins, I can't help but think of this sadistic, addictive game.