I saw that Cadillac Escapade/Escalade/Petroaide machine.

I thought Hummers were big. I cricked my neck to look up and see who was driving that thing. (A skinny anorexic looking bleach blond with Ann Coulter eyes)

I once got reamed for wearing real leather Birkenstock shoes. They last for decades! Give me a break. They wear like iron and fit so well and I don't have to replace them quickly. They are just a bitch to break in... There are trade offs with everything...

You have a choice: Roof or back trunk racks.

http://www.yakima.com/Consumer/Step1.aspx

Well, depending whether you have the coupe, sedan or hatchback.

I was able to put a tandem bike roof rack on a Civic years ago. It looked funny because the rack was so long but it worked fine.

Yamima racks have the best array of options and attachments IMO. I've always used Yakima although I do prefer the Thule rack boxes.

A friend bought a Lexus hybrid and I pointed out that they could have done a better job choosing a better fit.

They drive mostly highway miles negating the hybrid feature...

But they feel good driving it. Go figure...

I also forced the dealer to replace the engine under warranty after it started using too much oil...

'But it doesn't smell like it's burning oil' says the dealer. 'But it is and I don't like it. Besides your salesman told me about that 'incredible reliability' of the Mercedes engine and it doesn't even have 40,000 miles on it. Please replace it.'

They did and made a big point out of showing me the old block and proclaiming that they didn't find anything wrong but I felt much better that they did. I didn't want the thing blowing that much oil into the environment...

I'll never buy another one again but after the first 4 years, it has been a good car...

It's those that can't afford to keep their cars maintained that should frighten people that want to save the environment. All the smokers and chokers... They are going to grow by leaps and bounds now that no one can afford to replace, or fix, their four wheeled pollution machines...

I drive an 'SUV'. It's over 10 years old too.

I am also very careful to keep it tuned up and running right. I only drive it when I have to but honestly the room is unbeatable. It holds our bikes and can haul around my dogs, skis and a weekends worth of luggage too and not blink.

Sure it gets 14MPG and I would max out the filling quota on one of my credit cards and have to start filling it again when gas was so high but it was at the time I bought it the safest SUV on the road (although maybe that was because it spent so little time on the road those first 2 years. Mercedes quality? BAH!). And, in this economy, it's paid for... Biking isn't an option in my very bike unfriendly town. I've almost been hit twice while riding. 'Almost' is enough for me...

How to live with the decisions that you have made...

If I had it to do over, I'd probably have chosen a different car but at the time I needed a vehicle and that one was available cheap (dealer demo) and I liked the safety and at least the perceived 'quality' PR spin.

I have thought about getting a Prius but the idea of taking on a car payment in this economy sounds deranged... I'll keep it running as long as I can and turn it over to be recycled...

Israel can't 'survive' no matter what if there really are no limits to the depths of inhumanity they won't sink to.

Israel will become more of a pariah and will eventually be either a victim of their own stupidity or will be taken out by the rest of the world.

To say that fucking for virginity is worthwhile and will continue until the goal is reached is insane! The end costs might be justified to them but the rest of the world have to live with them and their caustic ideology and militarism and the continuous wreckage left in their wake. Other nations will tire of dealing with it.

The tide eventually turned against Apartheid South Africa and so it will turn against the Israeli government's reign of terror...

Yes, Obama's silence is deafening...

Does he have the balls to take on the 60-million ton elephant in the middle east? There can't be meaningful peace without caging that beast...

Is right on.

Israel has morphed into their own worst enemy.

Self-righteousness and hypocrisy run like water through out their smallest utterance... Anyone doing comparisons between Israel and Nazi Germany yet?

I don't think that the current war going on with Israel could possibly be overplayed.

This war of aggression has the very real possibility of blowing completely up in everyone's face.

And what a story that would make...

But there is a god who will swoop down and snatch the christians up and coddle them up to heaven which must be just two doors down from the heaven that the suicide bombers go when they blow themselves up. Them and their 70 virgins... It was 70, right?