Prior to discussing the Streisand Effect, I am reminded of radio talk show host Dr. Laura Schlessinger, heard on weekdays on SiriusXM channel 111. She is currently 75 years old and going strong. Back before the proliferation of Sirius channels she was usually heard on AM radio. The program was very popular. Even as I was a liberal at the time, and her advice very conservative, I liked her and had very little trouble with her advice, which was stern, sensible and straightforward.
Dr. Laura had a boyfriend at one time, and they must have gone through a nasty breakup, as he maliciously put nude photos of her on the Internet. The photos are currently available at various porn sites, and friends, you are on your own. I merely entered “Dr. Laura nude” on my search bar, and my Malwarebytes program went ballistic.
Dr. Laura was incensed and embarrassed, and wanted the photos removed from the Internet. She did not understand that once downloaded, those photos were in the ether, and unrecoverable. Fortunately for her, her career stumbled but recovered.
Another woman who apparently does not understand the nature of the Internet is Barbara Streisand. She is currently 81. In 2002 a project was undertaken to photograph the entire California coastline. There were more than 12,000 photos taken at 500 foot increments. One of them was the one shown above, the coastal residence of Streisand and husband James Brolin.
Streisand, an environmental activist, was furious that this photo had been taken of her home, and demanded that all copies be given over to her. She even sued the photographer to the tune of $50 million for invasion of he privacy. (The web site I am using to get this information does not list the outcome of that suit, though I assume it was a non-starter. She does not own photos taken of her residence, only the residence itself. Like most of us, photos of our home are available on Zillow, though I never gave permission for that. They must be public property.)
At the time Streisand initiated her actions, there existed a total of six photos of her home, two of which were given over to attorneys. The story went viral, including tabloids all over the world. It is anyone’s guess, but I would warrant that there are now millions of those photos out there, and here I am doing my part.
I have no problem with Streisand’s immense wealth and desire to live in such a mansion. It is only the stunning hypocrisy that upsets me, as she is advocating that the rest of us reduce our “carbon footprint.”
Streisand is not the only one investing in beach properties. Barack Obama recently spent $11.75 million on a at Martha’s Vineyard waterfront home. It leaves me wondering if it is payoff for the immense windfall he delivered to the health insurance industry. Obama also wants us to be mindful of our carbon footprints.
The above waterfront home is owned by John Kerry. He currently serves as United States special presidential envoy for climate. I have always found Kerry to be particularly objectionable, going back to 2004 when he accepted the Democratic presidential nomination by saluting the convention and saying “John Kerry reporting for duty.” I think it safe to say he has no regard for climate, and that his military service was puffed up, as elites are never placed in real danger.
And, of course, the biggest hypocrite of all is Al Gore. He invested $9 million in the home above in Montecito, California. The home to the left here, also Gore’s (though Tipper may have gotten a cut) is in Nashville. An enterprising reporter looked up public records and found that the house uses 230,889 kilowatt hours of electricity in an average year. That is 19 times the use for an average American home.
So what is with these Climatards? How can they possibly preach at us about our use of fossil fuels when they are off the charts in consumption? One thing can be certain – they do not believe a word of what they preach to us. If they did, they would be avoiding rising oceans rather than buying adjacent mansions.
For the record, I do not suffer from jealousy. Streisand earned her money based on talent. Obama earned his too, I suppose. The others are simply upper crust, wealthy beyond imagination. They can keep their money. I just want them to stop preaching.
Piece of Mindful 
Re house photos and public domain.. I recently learned from an article in New Left Review that the town of North Oaks near Minneapolis successfully sued (or lobbied) to keep their whole area off Google maps. Even the streets etc I think. The whole place is technically privately owned, streets and all, through homeowner association type arrangements.
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Naked capitalism ran a piece on shore erosion a few days ago.. total doom is imminent according to them. Huge knock-on effects, water tables fouled, displaced populations, etc.
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Nothing new under the sun – 50 Years of Failed Doomsday, Eco-pocalyptic Predictions –
https://www.aei.org/carpe-diem/50-years-of-failed-doomsday-eco-pocalyptic-predictions-the-so-called-experts-are-0-50/
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Unrelated to climate, but…
I have a wealthy friend who recently bought a summer home in a wealthy area of Northern Michigan. The house is right across the street from Lake Michigan, a two-minute walk. As we were strolling along the beach, we observed various lakefront homes with cranes and bulldozers and other such construction equipment around it. Many of these homes have been built within the past ten or twenty years. Though the local government and maybe even the homeowners’ association has (or had) regulations against building too close to the lake, these people were wealthy enough to get around the ordinances. Now, they are throwing money at construction guys to build various kinds of supports, or something, so the homes don’t fall into the lake in the next few years. Those homes and the useless work being done to them are a beautiful reminder that bull-headed delusional idiocy is alive and well in the upper classes.
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Related to climate.
https://dailytimewaster.blogspot.com/2023/06/the-soviet-research-station-at-south.html
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“So what is with these Climatards? How can they possibly preach at us about our use of fossil fuels when they are off the charts in consumption?”
Because the masses are totally stupid and believe every single bullshit the élites say.
But we’re not all cretins as they think or wish, and who knows what could possibly happen in a near future…
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And then there’s the staggering absurdity of cow methane as a contributor to climate change..
https://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2023/05/coalition-calls-on-ipcc-to-reject-meat-industry-meddling-in-un-climate-process.html
I guess I could grant it some level of tenuous plausibility if they meant, somehow due to CAFO industrial farming operations.. which they do criticize, but they also do literally mean, just cows.. anywhere, anytime, a cow is a crime against nature, thanks to its abominable four chambered stomach.
I mean.. how do they not get laughed out of the room, even by the liberals on that one.. but no, they just nod and take it seriously.. or go glassy eyed and mute like.. cows.
Though maybe the issue hasn’t sunk in. It’s usually just in the background churn of climate news, despite being a “major” source.. Methane, they say goes away in a few years, but is 80x more potent than carbon, or something.
Interesting pushback in comments at that link.. some NC liberals at least may buy the science, but still see the social engineering behind controlling the food supply. However that works, they can smell the, well, cow manure..
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One commenter gave a helpful link to this “explainer” on the science of cow-caused climate change (CCCC! Now there’s an acronym they could push!)
I would love to go through and pick this apart because the numbers and logic seem contradictory to me. It’s tricky though because they mix various categories and ways of viewing the data..
https://www.verifythis.com/article/news/verify/environment-verify/cattle-cows-the-top-source-of-methane-emissions-in-united-states/536-8d5bf326-6955-4a9c-8ea5-761d73ba464c
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As should be patently obvious by now…
All “famous” people who are “activists” are phonies who are payola-promoted into their “fame” and inserted into the “activism” scripts for very specific reasons. (They’re probably not actually rich, either.)
All politicians are fake-nominated and fake-elected, intentionally inserted into countless scripts for countless very specific clandestine reasons.
EVERYTHING in culture, politics, and media is all and ONLY about Narratives—narratives that they can employ to control people (all of us) and enrich themselves by tricking these people (all of us).
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I wonder if her nude photo expose was like a Tommy Lee type of publicity stunt to give her name and show a boost. Schlessinger obviously is one of the MM type of last names.
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This was my thought as well, along with sabotaging her typically morally conservative advice.
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I suppose that’s possible. She was not harming anyone, her advice was typically bland, even useful. She was not terribly attractive. But when it comes to sexual relations all bets are off. I thought (as I did of everything at that time) that it was real. The guy did payback for being shafted. We are known for that.
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