It's one thing to criticize SUVs for using more gas than the typical passenger car--even to dislike them on aesthetic grounds. But to argue they're less safe than the typical passenger car--as NHTSA's Dr. Jeffrey Runge has implied--or to accuse them of befouling the environment is quite another. Part of the attempted crucifixion of SUVs relies on selling half-truths about government and insurance-industry crash-test data. SUVs are often portrayed as "menaces" because when they are involved in collisions with the average passenger car--which is much smaller and lighter than the average SUV--the smaller car almost always suffers disproportionately more damage....