Banning fast cars is just envy disguised as concern for the earth.

If one of the more extreme responses to global warming comes true, driving a sports car anywhere but on a racetrack might be relegated to history's dustbin.

Fast, powerful cars within a few years may be outlawed in Europe, an idea that has been raised ostensibly because Ferraris and Porsches produce too much carbon dioxide. For those who abhor sports cars as vulgar symbols of affluence (along with vacation homes, furs and fancy jewelry), such a ban could be a two-fer: Saving the planet while cutting economic inequality.

Who are these people anyway who decide on behalf of everyone what car is proper to drive? In the U.S. they're members of Congress, which is considering fuel-efficiency standards that will affect vehicle size. In Europe, it's the ministers and parliamentarians of the European Union, which wants to limit how much CO2 cars can emit as a proxy for a fuel- consumption standard.

Absolute DITTO's on your post.

I work in construction. Sometimes I have to work at some heights that get my legs shakey, but I suck it up and work through it. After a while the heights aren't quite so bad.

Sometimes I have to work in dirty or greasy, or wet disgusting environments. But the job has to get done, and someone has to do it. If its not me, maybe I have to sit on my bum not making anything, until a more suitable job comes around.

Other times its brutally cold and add on high winds. Or its 90 - 100 with high humidity, and maybe I'm on a roof with the sun beating down on me, and reflecting back up off the roof. Or its brutally hot, and I'm at a steel mill where you have to wear long sleaves and heavy clothing, just to protect you from touching hot surfaces.

There are times I have to work so physically hard, that my body ackes or I'm absolutely exhausted.

Sometimes, (like now) I have the ability to work 40 hours a week, and close to home. Other times I might have to work 6 or 7 days a week, 10-12 hours a day for months on end. And have to drive 1-1/2 hours each way.

Thats just my JOB. I also do a lot of work on my own house. Not only saving $$ that others would have to pay to have somebody else do, but also putting what I believe is higher craftmanship than what I'd get hiring someone else.

All that allows me some pretty comfortable lifestyle choices. Some of those choices are buying older, less expensive vehicles, than my income would indicate that I can afford. Which allows me to invest more money, to either make more money, for a better lifestyle now, or put away for a more comfortable retirement later on.

By some standards I make good $$, by others not so much. But I'm proud of what I do, and I like what I do. I'm content with what I have, but wouldn't mind having better or more. But I don't begrudge those who have better or more than me, because every day I look at myself in the mirror and have no problem with who looks back. I dream and plan for future things, knowing that if and when they're accomplished, they are EARNED by me. Not by chance or at the cost to others.

And yet like you said, there are those who think I shouldn't have the things I have. Or that I "should give back" to the community. The problem I see with people who say others "should give back", giving back implies "taking something" before hand. The federal government spends over $7000 per person on average, on things like defense, education, and welfare. Meanwhile, my federal income taxes are over twice that. And yet there are those, like you mention, that would begrude me what I have.

Calling me a liberal is almost as funny as this article. I had my share of fast cars but grew up, eventually. There is a time and place for fast cars and the neighborhood streets simply isn't it. Terrorizing children pets and others' property isn't it. Please present compelling argument otherwise; I'm willing to listen. For the record, let me repeat, I am not in favor of legislating fast cars; only the idiots who abuse the opportunity to buy one. As for the rest of your puerile name-calling, I will simply let your second-grade rant speak for itself.

I agree -- in general terms -- with what you have said here.

One of the most pathetic aspects of the grief hurled at you is the belief on the part of other posters that ~everyone~, in his secret heart, must want a flashy car. I bet they also feel sad when they notice my wrist and presume that I can not afford a three-pound Rollex.

There is not accounting for taste.

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