Independence Days

Along with being a total babe, Arianna Huffington is brilliant. This isn't a shocking opinion or revelation, it's been a known fact for years. But the fact that an article she wrote for Salon would encourage everyday folks to cough up dough to fight our dependence on oil and shame SUV drivers puts her over the top in my book. As a rider of public transportation, I am disgusted by those freakish gas-guzzlers, especially when I see vehicle after vehicle with only the driver on board, zooming down the highway. The worst part is talking to an SUV owner about it. "Oh, I know they're terrible, but I just love mine. It's so big!" Aw, that's sweet. It's like being in love with a bazooka. "I know that I'm killing people with it, but did you see how big it is?" What I can't understand, is that anyone would drive a car that gets poor mileage in bad economic times. Dependence on oil (foreign or otherwise) and air pollution concerns aside, hey, isn't it expensive to fill 'er up? Ah well, in the American way of putting one's own desires above the welfare of the whole, behemoth truck-like vehicles with negligible actual storage space continue to roll down the city streets, never to touch the soft dirt off-road or even a gravel driveway. Bah.