One consequence of Tuesday’s meeting of Al Gore with Sens. Barack Obama and Joe Biden is that Gore’s descent on Poland tomorrow — as if the Poles didn’t have enough troubles — will now bear the appearance of his being an emissary of Sen. Obama and the U.S. administration-in-waiting.

Given Gore’s likely histrionics, that will be truly unfortunate. But also consider the additional twist — on the heels of Sen. Obama’s apparent, and U.S. government scientist James Hansen very explicit endorsement of breaking the law in order to draw attention and win special favors to their cause: Will Al Gore also give Obama’s apparent imprimatur to the hooligans who shut down London’s Stansted airport this week?

Surely the topic will come up in the unlikely event that Mr. Gore finds himself the subject of media attention.

Put aside for the moment the nuance found in the spectacle of one nation’s officials endorsing lawlessness in other nations, and consider the table we are setting. As I cover in detail in Red Hot Lies, history shows that when outrageous behavior and barbarism become acceptable to the mainstream — particularly when assisted by the intellectual elites and political class — civilization (far more than the planet) is in peril.