Raise the Hammer

Where to start. The premises of your naive editorial... they are all incorrect. "living the suburban dream in perpetuity" (whatever the hell that means), is indeed an indefinite reality, if this "suburban dream" as you refer to it simply means carrying on living our lives as we are now, driving the vehicle of our preference fueled by the energy source of our time. We can indeed "sustain" this both economically and ecologically... if we choose to. No destruction is being caused by continuing to do so.

I am SO tired of the self-righteous and narcissistic "eco" nuts out there who tell us we are all killing the planet by driving to work everyday or taking our kids to soccer. STOP the fear mongering. You people have an uncanny inability to connect the dots on anything, and the environment is yet another example of this.

It is none of your business what I drive. It is none of your business what I consume. It is none of your concern how much space I take up. If I can pay for it, then it is mine.

If your "Smart Car" were to get in an accident with an evil Hummer, then which vehicle owner is smarter now? How about getting stuck in the snow? How about going somewhere as a family?

You know what we should raise taxes on? Stupidity. That's right. Ryan McGreal should pay extra taxes for publishing ignorance like this. I am SO TIRED of the "GO GREEN" garbage I see on TV all the time... and most of you are CLUELESS to the fact that the vast majority of it is a MARKETING campaign by corporations to make you "feel better" buying their product. They are GUILTING you into buying their special light bulb, cleaner, or whatever they are selling.

You want to get more "green" vehicles on the road? I personally couldn't give a crap about how "green" my vehicle is (for COUNTLESS intelligent reasons that I could go into here but won't... at least not until requested), but if you want some free advice... here it is: Make "green" vehicles that are actually practical and make sense. Right now, the green vehicles that are available only appeal to the pious among us. How so? First of all, "green" vehicles make absolutely no sense economically. Any money you save in gas in the long run is erased by how much more hybrids cost initially. Make "green" vehicles make ECONOMIC sense, and then you will start to get consumers' attention.

Next... stop making them look like gay spaceships. I would not be caught DEAD in a "Smart Car".

Third, let's think about the REAL reasons people like SUVs. They hold more people (ie families) SUVs actually often cost less than mini vans (just discovered this) and have comparable gas mileages. They hold more stuff. They get better traction in inclimate weather. They go off road (I LOVE to camp and kayak, which makes ME an environmentalist, just not an "eco-nut"). They are stronger in a crash. They look like a REAL vehicle.

Now, if YOU don't have a family or friends you like to go places with, you like to travel light, you never drive in the snow, you never go off-road, you don't care about being crushed by almost any other vehicle on the road, and you LIKE the "gay space ship" look, then by all means get a Smart Car or a Fit... but leave the rest of us alone. We aren't interested in your self-righteous opinions.