What's up with these Seinfeld folks?

I stayed away from the Kramer incident. There really wasn't much to say--when you joke about lynchings it's pretty much over.

But there's another person tangentially associated with Seinfeld in the news, albeit in a less glamorous fashion. Laurie David, who describes herself as one of the biggest global warming activists in the country, is the wife of Seinfeld writer Larry David. She's treading perilously close to the edge of the glacier with her allegation that Big Oil is trying to muzzle science teachers by threatening to hold back donations to their group, the National Science Teachers Association:

It's bad enough when a company tries to sell junk science to a bunch of grown-ups. But, like a tobacco company using cartoons to peddle cigarettes, Exxon Mobil is going after our kids, too"

Big Oil, Big Timber, Big Cigarette, oh my.

Let me lay it out real quick. David, who has no formal scientific training, is ticked that Al Gore's "Inconvenient Truth" DVD, which she considers must-see TV for every single school child in the world, was rejected when offered to NSTA. She blames their refusal on a fear of ticking off their oil industry corporate sponsors, whom we all know don't want the real truth about global warming to reach the masses because they're immune from planetary climate disruptions themselves. One can only assume they have hidden spacecraft stashed in mountains ready to whisk them off to other oil-rich planets as soon as the firestorms begin here.

Sorry, but this sounds like a load of wet wood chips. It's a good thing that oil companies are donating some of their obscene profits to furtherance of scholastic achievement. Ms. David would probably be the first to whine if they weren't. Their primary interest in NSTA is in cultivating future employees. Like engineers and stuff. Or maybe spacecraft pilots?

Glancing at NSTA's 2004 financial disclosure there are a lot of companies aside from Big Oil on the list, like Big Computer (Microsoft). Evidently they're OK because Gates takes occasionally takes time out from building his monopolies to give away a few million. But hey, even Big Weather (the Weather Channel) was listed, who should act as a watchdog against such things.

Ms. David's conspiracy theories aside, the most likely reason Al Gore's DVDs remain on the dock has more to do with equal access than squelching climate debate. If NSTA accepts Gore's flick they might be sued into accepting similar material about Nessie, crop circles, or Sasquatch. Or even Intelligent Design.

MORE 11/26/06

This is a current Citgo ad found at various places around the internet:











They seem to be interested in educational achievement, too. Yet for some reason the greens are reluctant to dump them into the same Big Oil barrel with the others. Amazing what a PR campaign focused on free heating oil and references to the devil can do. Pretty slick, actually.

UPDATE 11/29/06

The NSTA has issued a response to Ms. David. To borrow a phrase, heh.