There is a story on ClimateDepot,about a fainting woman at the COP21 climate conference, who “faints” into Gore’s arms. This just happens to be a TV news Anchorwoman from Bloomberg, who I’m sure is well past any stage fright associated with her job.
The caption reads:
Francine Lacqua, the London-based anchor for Bloomberg Television, faints onto former Vice-President Al Gore as he delivers a lengthy response to her question, “Why are we still using fossil fuels?”
I’m not at all convinced this is real, it wasn’t even a faint as the video title claims, just a stumble, and Gore seemed ready to catch her…and, it sure looks like stagecraft to me, something Gore is no stranger to. In fact, there’s precedence for this behavior. Russell Cook writes to tell me:
As Al Gore said once, “We’ve seen this before.”*
Second to last paragraph, out of an Ozone Action Feb 24 2000 media release, second-to-last paragraph: http://web.archive.org/web/20000902025335/http://commondreams.org/news2000/0224-08.htm
Throughout the month of March, Global Warming 2000 activists will continue to urge the candidates to lay out comprehensive plans to solve global warming. …
Yesterday, one team activist even feigned fainting into the arms of Vice President Gore to highlight the impacts of heat related illness due to global warming in Florida.
* At the 1 hour 13 minute of the Inconvenient Truth movie, after reading spelling out the “reposition global warming as theory rather than fact” memo phrase, “We’ve seen this before.” – whereupon he dived into the Brown & Williamson leaked tobacco memo, “Doubt is our Product”. Do remember, the “reposition global warming” leaked memo set was “obtained by Ozone Action…”
UPDATE: It appears Ms. Lacqua has fainted on live TV before, see this clip:
So perhaps it wasn’t stagecraft, but given Mr. Gore’s penchant for producing outright lies using stagecraft before, such as faking an entire scientific experiment and then refusing to retract it when called on it, it seemed entirely plausible this was yet another stunt on Gore’s part.
I hope Ms. Lacqua can find help for her condition.
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doesn’t seem staged to me
I agree.
No, not staged at all. She merely suffered the normal reaction to being exposed to Gore’s tedious droning for so long, and at such close range. I challenge anyone here to last as long as she did under the same conditions. Just watching the video made me woozy. She has an almost superhuman constitution to have lasted so long.
It wasn’t a faint.
She was almost comatose and snapped out of it.
I’d faint too facing this
http://images.dailytech.com/nimage/22584_large_Al_Gore_Fire_Breathing_Wide.png
Those were my thoughts exactly Caveman! LOL
Exactly right.
It’s just the Gore effect. Anyone subjected to this bore is liable to have the same reaction.
It is not Gore, droning on as he did produces C02, which above a certain ppm level will naturally induce the effect we saw.
I suspect to much partying the night before, and this was the result. You can see that she is slightly unsteady for close to a minute before she loses it. At least she didn’t throw up on Al the Gore.
I agree that it doesn’t look staged. I think AL Gore just put her to sleep with his rambling answer.
His answer should have been: We continue to use fossil fuels because they are inexpensive and we currently don’t have any reasonable alternatives.
I say staged. If it was real, then the lady would have put the back of her hand to her forehead and, in an expiring voice, would have said: “Take me you fool!”
I’m sure Tipper had a good “barf”, when she saw this.
Lookin’ over that video some more, I noted that as the lady began to wobble, Al grabbed her microphone. Also, I noted that Al’s subsequent orotund, resonant words of comfort and encouragement continued to be heard, without missing a beat, in the same high-quality, amplified sound-capture that was heard in the earlier part of the interview. Which would kinda seem to imply that Al held the microphone at just the right distance, throughout the lady’s ordeal, so that his beta-male (don’t jump on me, Al paid Naomi Wolf big bucks to call him that) chivalry was on full, heroic display without any loss-of-sound-quality of the sort that a sub-optimally positioned microphone might cause.
One way to work the problem, of course. But if it were me, I would have tossed the microphone so as to have both my hands free to catch the lady in mid-swoon, if the need should have arisen. But, then, that’s just moi.
Right from the beginning the lady was exhibiting signs of distress.
Her eyes were un focused.
She was wobbling.
Her mouth stayed closed and she stayed quiet without interjecting questions.
A) Her blood sugar was plummeting; or if she was diabetic her insulin level was plummeting.
B) Her blood pressure was plummeting, from standing upright perhaps.
Reading ATheoK’s above comment and that of some others on this thread who appear to have medical expertise, it seems reasonable for me to conclude, at this point, that Ms. Lacqua did, indeed, suffer a medical emergency. Accordingly, I owe Ms. Lacqua an apology.
Dear Ms. Lacqua,
Please accept my sincerest apologies for my comments appearing on this thread that, in view of the genuine medical emergency, that I now realize afflicted you during your interview with Al Gore, lacked an appropriate fellow-feeling and sympathy. In that regard, please allow me to also extend my every hope that you will swiftly recover, if you have not already, from the effects of your recent distress.
Respectfully
This reminds me of the “crazed sex poodle”.
http://voices.washingtonpost.com/postpartisan/2010/06/if_al_gore_tried_to_sleep_with.html
Mike,
If you look at Laqua’s dreamy eyes and slightly parted lips, you can see that she is in a state of utter Gore adoration. She loves the man and would loved to be gored to death.
What did he put in her drink?
http://www.leif.org/research/Al-Gore-Receives-News-Global-Warming-has-Stopped.png
In case it is needed:
Al-Gore-Receives-News-Global-Warming-has-Stopped
ROFLMAO
Don’t TV Evangelists do that all the time? Didn’t he fail divinity school?
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2000/mar/25/20000325-011032-8259r/?page=all
At Vanderbilt divinity school, Mr. Gore took a course in theology and natural science. The assigned readings included the apocalyptic, and widely discredited “Limits to Growth,” which formed much of the foundation for “Earth in the Balance.” It is said that Mr. Gore failed to hand in his book report on time. Thus, his incomplete grade turned into an F, one of five Fs Mr. Gore received at divinity school, which may well be a worldwide record.
You can take the man out of Vaudeville, but you can’t take Vaudeville out of the man.
Who cares about the feinting, I’m more worried about all the carbon dioxide emitted to provide all the electricity for that event! Did you see the lights, the massive screens?
CO2 matters!
I love this website, but honestly in this instance whether they’re faking it or not, I don’t think it’s something to make fun of. Either it’s legitimate and serious, and good on them for recognizing something was off before she could have had an even worse experience, and quickly sorting it out. Or, she was faking it, and wasted everyone’s time, and distracted from any actual “debate” [if you can argue that listening to Al Gore waffle on is a relevant debate / use of people’s time….]. But honestly the setup looked stupid to have her standing there for so long in place, probably under some annoying stage lighting, and having to listen to someone gore her to death.
Are you really suggesting it’s wrong to ridicule a person so dense that she’s overcome by emotion after asking a man in front of hundreds of elites who have just burned thousands of tons of oil/gas/fuel to travel to meetings/parties where they will continue to burn tons of oil/gas/fuel to stay warm and commute between meetings/parties why they haven’t stopped burning oil/gas/fuel?
Really?
Yes, I’m saying that ridicule is wrong in this instance because there could have been something actually physically wrong with her. Yes her question is irrelevant, as is the setting.
However, if you want to discuss the setting and question [and not the fainting/”fainting”], then yes I completely agree with you and would even jest that her question might arguably be an excellent question given a different audience with a little more bite and willing to explore where that question takes them.
Craige,
Could you point out which comments or language in the article you see as ridiculing her? The ridicule I see here seems directed at Mr. Gore.
(Bet you didn’t know there is an e at the end of your name ; )
It is absolutely something to make fun of: a phony fainting spell at a phony conference solving a phony problem with phony solutions.
@hunter
Your trenchant comment has helped me crystallize my own thoughts on this deal–thank you, hunter. On the other hand, if it proves that the reporter really did suffer a medical emergency, then I’m going to feel like a real jerk (deservedly), given my comments up-thread. Hopefully, my subsequent, profuse apologies will be accepted. So I also see Craig’s point.
To sort of hedge my “bets”, then, at this point, I offer Ms. Laqua my sincerest best wishes for a swift recovery from any harm she might have genuinely suffered during her interview of Al Gore, even as I remain highly skeptical of the whole episode.
Vaudeville. And very revulsive. Listen to Gore talking. Big and Ostensive, Loud and deep, Sonorous and Looming. He’s so full of sh*t I can smell it through the weak bandwidth here in Salahaddin.
Never underestimate the overwhelming power of the snake oil.
Quite funny to watch the whole thing.
Or this simply shows how much a good portion of the media is in the pocket of the climate alarmists.
Epilepsy
My feelings exactly. A simple partial seizure with psychic symptoms. Who could blame her?
Or beta-blockers…. Commonly used to control outward performance anxiety symptoms.
Propranolol (Inderal)
Possible Benefits. Used for short-term relief of social anxiety. May reduce some peripheral symptoms of anxiety, such as tachycardia and sweating, and general tension, can help control symptoms of stage fright and public-speaking fears, has few side effects.
Possible Side Effects. Taken occasionally, propranolol has almost no side effects. Some people may feel a little light-headed, sleepy, short-term memory loss, unusually slow pulse, lethargy, insomnia, diarrhea, cold hands and feet, numbness and/or tingling of fingers and toes.
Source: Anxieties.com
No one whose career depends upon maintaining composure in front of an audience wants to “loose it” on stage, regardless of their politics or beliefs. I think the comments suggesting this was staged degrade the forum. In spite of what I think of Gore, in her mind this was probably a big interview for her, and I imagine she was a little nervous – as evidenced by her inability to stop his boviating.
I’ll never forget a conference in January 2008 where in front of a few thousand people I asked the Treasury Secretary why the government was refusing to address the obvious (at least to me) coming wave of mortgage defaults. His reply was “You are talking about a States Rights issue. Ask your Governor.” That left me speechless, which was or course his goal.
These guys are pro’s.
“No one whose career depends upon maintaining composure in front of an audience wants to “loose it” on stage, ”
“Loosing it” can indeed be bad, especially in the event of a little Montezuma’s Revenge. But “losing it” can be worse. If you do both, fuggeddaboutit.
Check the side effects again, Jim. 😉
The intellect of a perfectly normal human being can be compromised through extended sleep-deprivation, blood sugar-level swinging nibbles, alcohol, flashing lights and, then the AGW classic, by switching off the air-conditioning. Then apply some group pressure.
“Perfectly normal human beings” and “intellect” are incompatible in about 90% of the cases. Most of the people living today are descendants of serfs bred for strong instinctive obedience, gullibility (aka “faith”), and mindless reproduction.
This is why our “progressive” society is fundamentally dishonest: the overwhelming majority of idiots needs to be calmed, entertained, and kept out of trouble somehow. Distraction (TV, sports, inculcation of fear and guilt, smartphones, video games, FaceBook, etc.) works for a while.
The only long-term solution is evolution but we all will be pushing daisies long before it shows any results (results being some new kind of idiots, I suppose).
What was obviously staged, on the stage in front of an audience, was the question and answer (previously known and prepared).
The near-fainting was also staged.
She just wanted to distract the audience to spare them from the stupid comment of Al Supreme, and was very successful at it… smart woman…
Maybe they had the heating turned up too high.
But the first question, “why are we still using fossil fuels?”, was a bit stupid.
Because if we didn’t the world would stop functioning.
QV…to which, any tenured interviewer would have asked, “So, are you fossil-fuel-free, Mr Gore?”
And, of course, his answer would be “No.” (If he were honest). Of course, we sceptics would have asked if he was BS-free. And we know the answer to that one.
Probably chloroform from Gore’s pocket hanky.
It looks more like he was boring her to death.
even if he was really boring her he would still be boring her.
It must have been man-bear-pig’s chakra that caused her to swoon-she’s only human you know.
Boy, I’d hate to have been out partying all night and then have listen to Al Gore drone on and on and on….
I don’t think it was faked – she was trying gamely to hang on for quite a while, but was losing control of the microphone well before Gore stopped rambling.
Wasn’t there something like this in Pachauri’s bodice ripper?
/snark
I’m not sure that it is. Notice what happens to her speech at 1:18. It appears to be an actual medical issue. Now Gore’s bloviating is certainly an issue. Maybe his hot air overwhelmed the poor woman.
Agreed.
On the other hand, women faint in my presence, also.
Well, they did before I was so old and ugly.
Well, in my dreams, anyway.
It appeared that Al Gore sucked all the oxygen out of the room.
You have a point there, the CO2 from the great Gores exhaling causing her to loose O2 may be the first video indication ever of real CO2 pollution.
She had that “look in her eye and on her face” as if she may have been fantasizing about giving Gore a massage. lol.
That’s a good one! History is inconvenient sometimes.
Big Al only took 1 enviornmental course in university , but he attended Divinity school for 2 years, they may cover the “Fainting Arts” at Vanderbilt.
I think she fell asleep with her eyes open listening to that answer. Weird!
Sounds to me like the Al Gore-effect on living tissue. As her blood cooled due to continued proximity and bloviations, the hemeoglobin in her red blood cells held onto oxygen molecules more tightly. This cooling effect effectively deprived the woman’s brain of adequate blood-gas exchange.
No doubt many people have been put into a catatonic state by his mere physical presence
/s
It appears she got caught under the big-toe of Al Gore’s over sized carbon footprint.
Was that it?
…she’s probably just had a few too many free bevvies over dinner.
nowt to see here
I think the high amount of CO2 from breathing out of his mouth caused the fainting
Anyone who has stood in parade or at a wedding (mostly grooms) knows that if you lock your knees for too long you will become faint. But in this case I agree he probably bored her to sleep or perhaps he simply has bad breath.