He read (or, more likely, saw) Jurassic Park and thought it would be a great idea:
[E]ven as Gingrich knocks best-selling author Michael Crichton for works that he calls “just standard alarmist environmentalism in which humans are forever messing up nature,” the one-time aspiring zookeeper wonders: “Why not aspire to build a real Jurassic Park? (It may not be at all impossible, you know.) Wouldn’t that be one of the most spectacular accomplishments of human history? What if we can bring back extinct species?”
The man is, as George Will put it, hubris distilled.
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Chris
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captainfalcon
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You / MJ excerpted the best part, but I also enjoyed this from the original LA Times piece:
Having lived in France and Germany as a teen-ager, Gingrich recalls his “indelible impression” of how “a decaying (French) government with a weak currency can quickly undermine people’s faith in its political leadership.” Another life-changing moment occurred during an Easter visit to the French battlefield of Verdun, which Gingrich says “reminded (me) of the terrible ability of humans to cause pain to one another.” Until then, young Gingrich’s interest in politics was riveted on getting a zoo for his hometown of Harrisburg, Pa. But as he sailed home from Europe, he said, he decided “there was no moral choice except to immerse myself in the process of learning how to lead and how to be effective.”
The problem is this may be a perfectly accurate account of his development (and where it terminated).
By: captainfalcon on December 14, 2011
at 11:00 pm
Newt seems to go on some wonderfully instructive vacations:
http://www.boston.com/Boston/politicalintelligence/2011/12/newt-gingrich-says-luxury-cruise-helped-him-learn-about-euro-crisis/qRlTss9pHmfBsNvBeYXETM/index.html
By: Chris on December 15, 2011
at 9:39 am
[...] the eminently conservative Newt Gingrich has suffered a personal Pearl Harbor: Leading Republican [...]
By: A Date Which Shall Live in Infamy « The Lure on December 27, 2011
at 7:45 pm
[...] further, but comedian (and fellow Polar Bear) Hari Kondabolu literally uses the Gingrich position vise Jurassoc Park as the reductio punchline to a joke about white [...]
By: Newt Gingrich is a Joke « The Lure on January 3, 2012
at 5:51 pm