O'Reaaaaaallllllllly lost me as an avid fan when he declared that no one should drive an SUV. He lives in NYC where few people drive anything. I live in Arizona and have occasional need to haul STUFF. I also like to take back roads in the 70% US/State owned land of Arizona, on which NO taxes are paid and I have to foot the bill. Slightly run-on sentence...sorry.
Anyway, hauling kids, firewood, friends, etc is none of O's business and as long as I can afford the gas at market prices, what is his involvement? Why is it that those of us who have sweated our 'nads off, must cower in shame for our success?
Every trip out is a life or death experience around here.......the deer play dodge-em all the time. The deer are multiplying like rabbits thanks to the yuppies who moved in and then drove the farmers out with their constant complaints about the slow moving farm vehicles on the road, the smells from the farm, blah blah blah. Farmers had nuisance permits to shoot deer all year. That kept the numbers down.....now there are no farmers and the yuppies whine that killing bambi is bad bad bad.
Driving around in a little car is having a death wish. More than a few fatal accidents with deer each year and dozens and dozens of major damage accidents.
O'R figures if he doesn't need to have an SUV, then by golly, no one does. The man is just too self involved to be a good commentator.