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Sunday, Nov 8, 2009
Mark - nice piece. I admire your honesty given that you surely knew your admission would generate so much vitriol. I don't think there is anything wrong with your purchase of the vehicle. Many of the writers here are just being judgmental by focusing on only one little aspect of the broad range concerns with the environment.
The official car of Leather Elbow Patch liberals everywhere. If you need more room get a roof rack or possibly swap it out for the mod 95 'wagon'. I recommend a pre 1967 model with the 3 cyl 2 stroke as opposed to the V4 Taunus block for extra hippie cred.
What a mealy-mouthed article. I don't know what's worse, the weird way you try to justify your guilt (which is lame in the first place) or the wishy washy way you write about it. You bought an SUV. Big friggin deal. Get over it already. What a weiner.
CO2 is fertilizer.
Believe it; live it.
Don't kid yourself - you are now the epitome of everything you've railed against in the past. Why didn't you buy a VW Jetta TDI station wagon? http://www.vw.com/jettasportwagen/tdi/en/us/
Did you even do any research or comparison shopping? Another Salon columnist jumps the shark - this site is going down the tubes but fast...
A station wagon updated for the hipster set. You can fit a shitload of stuff into them, they're insanely comfortable to drive, they ride high so if you are actually doing things like driving down pothole-riddled dirt roads you won't destroy the undercarriage, and they average about 35mpg, with drivers reporting the efficiency ticking up to 40mpg.
I'd have bought one if I could afford it, but settled for a used Civic that gets 38mpg on the highway. Now I just need to figure out how to get a roof rack onto this thing.
Dude - the author is clearly so despicable that his only option is to move out of the US to one of those better countries.
Where gasoline combustion emits only the sweet fragrance of socialist revolutionary freedom.
What else is there to say? Loser.
I wouldn't be irritated if the jist of the article was: "I bought an SUV because I wanted one. I really don't care about the environment or what anyone thinks. I'm only one person, anyway." I'd think, "You're an arrogant ass, but, fair enough, you're being honest." But it wasn't that. It was a total exercise in self-justification. "But I NEED one! The rest of you can do the right thing - *I* have 2 kids! So I'm exempted for a while! And I really didn't buy an SUV. Not really."
I was also irritated about the lack of responsibility for your decision - a classic delusion for justifying your actions - making it seem like it was something that happened TO you, instead of something you did. But you didn't wake up one morning with the thing in your driveway. You actively sought it out and bought it.
You really need to change your attitude. Personally I'd dislike you less if you said "I know I'm a hypocrite. I'm weak. I really wanted an SUV so I bought one." But you didn't. The SUV rang your doorbell, of it's own volition, in disguise! As soon as it ripped off its mask, you thought "Doh! You fooled me! You're an SUV! Oh well, at least I didn't have any part of the decision or process to purchase you!"
I don't think I've ever seen a more textbook example of "sell out". You believe SUVs are wrong, but you think you didn't really make an active decision to get one. You didn't even know it WAS one! And they kind of led you around and put the pen in your hand - and what could you do?
H ow can the author be so evil? I mean
y es he says he cares about the
p lanet but
o bviously this only goes so far. His new
c ar is an outrage. He deserves to be
r un out of town, dismembered, and
i mpaled on a hot metal
s pike for the world to see. Good thing people like me and
y ou get it.
Mostly I hate being unable to see over or around all the big ass vehicles from the confines of my little Toyota (which gets 31mpg @80mph on cruise control w/ 3 people in the car) or worse, my scooter. I mean if you need a fat ass car you need a fat ass car. It's not a reason to kill yourself. When I go to Whole Foods what I see is mostly upper tier foreign sedans like Volvo, Benz, Infinity, Lexus. If driving a 400hp car that's still a car makes you feel good about yourself, have at it. In 1996 I bought a Honda Accord and the dealer wanted to push me into a Volvo Turbo Wagon. I don't need turbo to go to the grocery store.
What did you buy? My husband is looking at the small SUV/crossovers as well, and I'm wondering which one nicely fit you.
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.
Much of the initial coverage about Fort Hood turned out to be wrong. Is there anything wrong with that?
The accountability imposed by another country for the CIA's kidnapping and torture reveals much about our own.
Fox News' morning show plays to type, talking about whether Muslims in the Army should face "special debriefings"
The survivor and author is upset about comparisons some on the right are making to genocide
219 Democrats and one Republican join in favor of the legislation, which passed by a narrow margin
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