2kids + dog means you could get around in a subcompact and have a comfortable seatbelt to spare. You could be driving around a Honda Fit and getting 40 mpg on the highway.

You acknowledge that you could get a minivan and have all that SPACE SPACE SPACE for hauling the little league team down the highway and get better mileage and safety. Why don't you? Because they are "lame." You've bought into the notion that you are too hip for the "minivan" set.

Guess what, you spawned two kids. You already bought into the mentality. If you're not willing to squeeze by in a subcompact or even a roomy sedan or station wagon like millions have managed to do just fine, then get a damn minivan already. I guess this is one way to write copy, but you're really not much better than the next guy who doesn't give a shit about the planet if you are armed with all this information and then knowingly go out and buy an SUV.

No brownie points for it being a "crossover" instead of a Hummer.

By the way, "Snow" is a lame, lame excuse for an SUV. I live in the snowbelt and drive an Aveo.

Heard of a shovel? They have zero emissions.

Your local tire dealer may also be able to acquaint you with snow tires and chains, interesting inventions that are more effective at gaining traction on snow than large tire diameter and SUV mass, which you may find do not help you much when you lose traction.

The Senate is not going to use its police power to keep its black population at zero. The Senate is going to use its police power and its power to determine its own membership to keep a man who is not legitimately a Senator from entering a chamber which he has no right to enter. The man's selection is tainted by Blagojevich's alleged crimes, and no less than Obama himself has said that he should not be seated, so let's not make this unfortunate episode an example of black oppression, which is exactly what Mr. Blagojevich, himself an example of white corruption, calculated to do. If Burris were a man of integrity he would have had nothing to do with the Governor and sought the office on his own merits once an untainted means of appointing a successor were determined.

The racial make-up of the Senate is certainly appalling as a representation of the United States--but the blame for that lies first and foremost squarely at the feet of the voters themselves, together with the political system. A corrupt senator covering his ass with racial politics does nothing to redeem our political system from racist voters or racial inequities that enable citizens to become leaders.

The sexual make-up of the Senate is quite arguably even more appalling. After all, Senator is a state-wide office and there is not a single state with close to majority black population (Mississippi is closest at 36%--DC is 57% but unfortunately has no vote in Congress), while all but five states are majority female and those are very close, while there are only 16 female Senators.

The Governor is a lame duck. You can't compare his actions in signing bills to appointing a Senator.

Signing a bill is a matter of state law. Those bills were written and passed by the state legislature. Under section IV.9(b) of the Illinois Constitution, if the Governor were not to sign the bills at all, they would become law anyway. There are also no pending allegations that he was bribed to sign or veto bills. Hence your examples are not relevant. There is also the fact that the Illinois Secretary of State has refused to certify the appointment and the Senate's constitutional powers to determine its membership. It is by no means a forgone conclusion that Burris is entitled to his seat, and it should not be lest we allow the most powerful legislative positions in the country to be sold with impunity, with a hasty federal appointment to a six-year term.

The same power that the Senate has with respect to Burris it has with respect to Franken. There is no serious issue of fraud or corruption in the Franken-Coleman election, there is only a very close count and procedural quibbles over vote-counting. His election has been certified. It is a matter of the Senate's discretion whether to seat Franken, to wait out a potentially (though not necessarily) length court battle, or possibly even to seat him provisionally.

Whether the law is "fairly clear" to you or other commentators or not, the Senate Sergeant-at-Arms takes its orders from the acting President of the Senate (whoever holds the gavel), so up and until there is a federal court order of appropriate jurisdiction requiring them to let Mr. Burris in. It would be up to that court (ultimately SCOTUS) what the law actually is.

If Mr. Burris wants to bring personal security or any out-of-jurisdiction Illinois police along to try to force his way in, I doubt that the Capitol Police or U.S. Marshals will back them up in a battle against the Sergeant-at-Arms. In any event, we'll see what happens tomorrow. I expect Mr. Burris will be turned away at the door, file a suit, and it will end up being negotiated out of court.

Since our idiotic elected state officials managed to bungle it the first time the federal government was dangling a billion or so dollars in front of the City's face, maybe we could get a round 2.

America obviously needs more of Joe the Plumber.

He would make a perfect anchorman and/or correspondent for Fox News to cover world and domestic affairs in the Obama Administration.