Posted on 03/22/2006 5:50:00 PM PST by wagglebee
RUSH: I'm ecstatic. I heard about this list this morning. It's a list of the "meanest" cars for 2006, and I am on the list -- well, my car is. "High-performance sports cars, ultra-luxury sedans and powerful trucks all rely on high-powered engines to deliver performance and towing capacity but that performance comes at a price landing these vehicles at the bottom of the list in the annual Green Book from the American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy (ACEEE). Each year, ACEEE rates vehicles on their overall impact on the environment, with vehicles earning the best scores dubbed the 'Greenest,' and those with the worst scores labeled the 'Meanest,'" and I am proud and I am honored that my car is among the meanest cars made and sold today. This is in terms of its effect on the environment and global warming. (story) "At the top of the meanest list for 2006 is the Dodge Ram SRT-10." Well, let's just go through the list. The Dodge RAM SRT-10 is the meanest. The Lamborghini Murciélago is the next meanest. The Bentley Arnage, the Dodge Durango, the Dodge Ram 1500 and the Maybach 57-S are all tied in the next position here as the third meanest. The Hummer H2O and the Ferrari F-99 GTB Fiorano and the Ford F-250 Super Duty 5.4 V8 four-wheel drive. The GMC Yukon, the Volkswagen Touareg and the Chevy Suburban all come in tied at the next stop. Now the vehicle I drive, I'm not going to identify it, but is somewhere on that list. (laughing) I love being honored this way: having one of the meanest cars in terms of its environmental impact, knowing full well how that irritates the socialist environmentalist wackos. I just love it. BREAK TRANSCRIPT |
RUSH: Christie in Half-Baked Moon Bay, California, welcome to the program. CALLER: Thanks, Rush. Hey, I just wanted to let you know you could help the environment. That mean car you have? If you just switched out all your lightbulbs to the environmental wacko kind, then you would have a net zero impact on the environment. RUSH: Yeah, well, I remember that story. This is the CFLB, the compact fluorescent light bulb. CALLER: (giggles) RUSH: I'm not putting down the lightbulbs! I got an e-mail from a guy who sells them who thought I was putting down, harming his sales. Nope, nope, nope. It is something you can do. In fact, that was my own suggestion. You people out there driving Yugos and these little lawn mowers with four seats on them thinking you're helping saving the environment, go switch out all your lightbulbs to these new super-duper lightbulbs, because it was Laurie David that said that if every house was just using one or two of these lightbulbs it would have the equivalent of taking eight million cars off the road every day. I figure enough people will do this that I won't have to sacrifice on either side. So I'm not going to go change any lightbulbs and I'm not going to get rid of my mean car because I know other socially conscious people who want to make themselves feel better about themselves will go do it and more than accommodate for my mean car and my natural (interruption). Laurie David? Did you see her? She has no claim too fame. She's a Hollywood liberal that organized a bunch of rallies against Bush. Bobby Kennedy, Jr. turned her into an environmentalist wacko, and that's her claim to fame. Her husband's Larry David, Seinfeld's partner and creator of that show. I mean, that's it. I mean, what's Sharon Stone's claim to fame? Sharon Stone is out there making all kinds of political statements. She went over to Israel. She said, "We're just a breath away from peace. I can feel it." (exhales) Well, she ought to know about breaths, but what the hell are we talk about here? Why is it news that Sharon Stone thinks that we are "a breath away from peace" in the Middle East, just because she touched down there? And then she says whatever else. They're just celebrities and so what they say is given weight? It's screwy. |
I proudly made the list, as did 90% of my family
Do you drive trucks or $250K+ exotics?
No matter how much money I had, the day I ever have a driver to drive for me is the day I've lost.
With an unlimited budget, I'd drive this, or one like it.
The only time anyone drives for me is if I have had a drink or ten.
Well Rush has said a number of times that he doesn't drive an SUV, I think he's probably too big for a Lamborghini or Ferrari, so that leaves the Maybach or the Bentley. My guess is that he probably has one of each.""
Somehow I think he drives a HUMMER. I can see him in that. Maybach or Bently too easy to spot and have the losers looking hard to see who is driving. Hummers more common. Wish I could afford the Dodge truck which is at the top of the list. It pulls great, and it probably wouldn't even notice my 4 horse trailer behind it......
And proud of it.
Sometimes, I just have to shake my head in wonder at what our grandchildren will be thinking when they read this sort of stuff fifty years hence wondering how could it be that many Americans could not see that this was not just - or even mostly - about tweaking some liberal's nose or enjoying the perks of personal success, but that instead it was about the survival of the US as a country able to chart it's own economic fate and freely able to act against those who wish to destroy us.
Power plants burn fuel to create electricity. Often that fuel is coal, which causes pollution, just like the internal combustion engine. Different inputs at different points.
Somebody needs to run the numbers of Ms. David's claims. The numbers just seem out of whack.
If the Dodge SRT truck is there, why isn't the Dodge Viper? A ten cylinder engine and it doesn't make the list? What the devil am I saving for if I can't have one of the top ten meanest myself?
Gee, I bet his money had nothing to do with her marrying him.
Okay, that makes sense, I was thinking far enough up the line. I am familiar with hydroelectric dams and some companies use large turbines but not sure what they run on.
trucks and SUV's
playin in the dirt
Looks like Elaine married George. George won the lottery, or his parents died and went to Florida. I had a crush on Elaine, she was cute. Just whacko.
We have one of those vehicles too...we feel like Rush does. :)
Personally, I like direct-injected Turbo-Diesels.
I've ridden in a Dodge SRT pickup. It was nice but has a short wheelbase for a bumpy ride and doesn't tow enough for my needs.
My 2004 Dodge Cummins 3500 TDI with 305hp and 610 lb-ft. of torque on the other hand... it will tow the horse trailer with Merlin (our 2 y/o 1500 lb. Percheron) here in the mountains of SE Idaho with ease. It gets 12mpg towing and 17mpg solo highway cruising. Not bad for a 1 ton-rated 6 passenger pickup truck that WILL burn Bio-Diesel if it is available.
BTW - I went to the Dodge National Championship Rodeo in Pocatello, ID last Saturday and had a ball watching the cowboys, saluting our flag, and ogling the 2006 Dodge Mega-Cab 3500 TDI which has 325hp and 610 lb. ft of torque... I wish they would stop improving that truck because now I want THAT one!
I don't remember where I read it, but I think he does a lot of reading needed for his job on the way to work, thus the need for a large luxurious car and driver.
For someone at his income level, with these demands on his time, it has a postiive return on investment; he needs more time to work and relax than he does the money it takes to get a luxury car and driver.
Also, I don't think it's a lot of fun to drive in NYC. You certainly wouldn't want a Canterham (is that what that is?) in NYC weather, either.
D
I'm all for people driving whatever the hell they want.
That said, why doesn't everyone conserve all they can? There's nothing wrong with CFLs. I got tired of replacing bulbs all the time and switched out to CFLs in about 75% of my sockets. NJ has subsidies(probably the only damn thing I get for my taxes in this state), so you often can get them CHEAPER than regular bulbs.
Also of note, saving electricity doesn't affect our oil imports much at all if any, but who doesn't want to save a few bucks on their electric bill?
I think we need to go entirely to clean coal and Nuclear and ramp it up a whole bunch. Plug-in Electrics will work for some proportion of people and we should encourage that. The more we can use electricity for transporation, the more we can flip the bird to external suppliers of oil.
As soon as he got to NY, I pretty much wrote him off, so I may never know...
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