I recently received an email about two houses and the impact that our preconceptions can have.

As far as I can tell the details are for the most part true (according to Snopes.com). I could not find any rebuttals and found a variety of sources confirming the detail http://www.cnsnews.com/ViewCulture.asp?Page=/Culture/archive/200703/CUL20070301c.html being one.

House #1 A 20 room mansion (not including 8 bathrooms) heated by natural gas. Add on a pool (and a pool house) and a separate guest house, all heated by gas. In one month this residence consumes more energy than the average American household does in a year. The average bill for electricity and natural gas runs over $2400. In natural gas alone, this property consumes more than 20 times the national average for an American home. This house is not situated in a Northern or Midwestern n "snow belt" area. It's in the South.

House #2 Designed by an architecture professor at a leading national university. This house incorporates every "green" feature current home construction can provide. The house is 4,000 square feet (4 bedrooms) and is nestled on a high prairie in the American southwest. A central closet in the house holds geothermal heat-pumps drawing ground water through pipes sunk 300 feet into the ground. The water (usually 67 degrees F.) heats the house in the winter and cools it in the summer. The system uses no fossil fuels such as oil or natural gas and it consumes one-quarter electricity required for a conventional heating/cooling system. Rainwater from the roof is collected and funneled into a 25,000 gallon underground cistern. Wastewater from showers, sinks and toilets goes into underground purifying tanks and then into the cistern. The collected water then irrigates the land surrounding the house. Surrounding flowers and shrubs native to the area enable the property to blend into the surrounding rural landscape.

HOUSE #1 is outside of Nashville, Tennessee; it is the abode of the "environmentalist" Al Gore.

HOUSE #2 is on a ranch near Crawford, Texas; it is the residence the of the President of the United States, George W. Bush

Robert, I'd be careful before posting stuff with such poor sources.

What do you mean you "got an email?" from whom. You confirmation efforts don't seem to have borne much fruit.

CNS (Cybercast News Service) apart from being a service I've never heard of, has a website which is plainly driven by a political agenda which focuses on 'culture news,' and not, as its name would imply real news.

As annoyingly unreliable as the big news services are, they are more reliable than a web based "news" service like this. When you combine such unreliable sources with such an improbable story, it only reflects on your credibility. Having read many of your posts, your reputation is too good to trash by associating it with such a poorly sourced and dubious report.

And a quick hunt around shows csnnews.com is owned by this mob:

http://www.mediaresearch.org/

As you can this site has a distinct bias towards the right, in fact their "About Us" page (http://www.mediaresearch.org/about/aboutwelcome.asp) pretty much ensures that I trust them about as much as I trust any Socialist Alliance news site.

At a risk of using up another posting slot let me just correct the above post by replacing "csnnews.com" with the correct address "cnsnews.com"

RObert,
I am in the Arch. game, may I be of some assistance against these other crooners?
I think most of them have misinterpreted what you are aiming at.

If the story is incorrect I'll be happy to hear it. I could not find any rebuttals other than some justification as to why Gore's house would use more power than average - both he and his wife work from home. Extra people in and out due to security for an ex VP etc. Also Gore does buy carbon credits and pays extra for non carbon electricity.

The sources are not from sources I'm happy to put a large amount of trust in but are consistant enough to be worth paying attention to. Bushes critics are not denying the story about his house. Rather opposing views focus on changes Gore has recently begun to make (putting in solar panels and a geothermal heating system) and attacking Bush of his energy usage in his job (Air Force 1, the Iraq war etc).

http://www.truthorfiction.com/rumors/g/gore-bush-houses.htm
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,254908,00.html
http://www.practicalenvironmentalist.com/energy-efficiency/perhaps-al-gore-should-ask-george-w-bush-for-help-in-making-his-house-more-energy-efficient.htm
http://www.newscientist.com/blog/environment/2007/02/gore-v-think-tank-power-consumption-dig.html
http://www.treehugger.com/files/2007/02/is_george_bush.php
http://www.commondreams.org/views01/0429-03.htm

There should be food for thought for us all in there aroubt the different choices people make in both private and public life.

R0bert