[thechat] Re: Gasoline/Petrol prices

[Sabrina Dent, Apperception]

I'm sure you've got your tongue planted firmly in your cheek, Ron,
but...

> Little javier velasco pegged the trollometer by asking:
> 
> >>do you really need that V8 for commuting?
 
> We do!

Unless you commute ON A RANCH, or live in mountain range, no you do not.
 
> Because it is our most holy and precious right as the chosen people 
> of the one true goddess! <sotto voce /> Long may her talons grow!

Less funny than you probably think it is. Americans *are* raised to
believe that plentiful and cheap gasoline is their RIGHT. It is not. The
endless bitching about the cost of gasoline in the US (aka land of the
Free, Home of the SUV) is just nauseating.

> (1) It's FUN! ... there are few things in an otherwise 
> unoccupied vehicle 

I assure you, living on a sustainable planet will indeed put a bigger
smile on my face than a gas-guzzling status symbol of good-ole-boyhood
or yuppies-from-helldom. Therefore, sitting in an otherwise unoccupied
vehicle that is as kind as possible to the world in which we live should
induce equal, if not greater, happiness.

> (2) The Boyz Gots to Have It! What the heck else we gonna use 
> to tow our 
> gas-guzzling toys around with? Can't pull no boats, jet skis, 
> dirt bikes, 
> four-wheelers, 5th wheels, cattle trailers (this *is* Texas 
> after all), 
> farm toys, campers, nor Harleys 'round with no ricy 4-banger! 

Might I suggest an ass?

> (3) Safety.  (Yes I realize this is a double-edged sword ... high 
> horsepower vehicles [actually high torque vehicles]

Triple-edged sword, at a minimum. Since we're talking safety: Have you
ever seen a standard hatchback after a head-on collision with an SUV?
Ever seen the survivors? Ever seen the people who didn't survive?

> RonL.
> (Who was a lot more help {with his v8 pick-em-up truck} to friends 
> moving last weekend than he would have been with his old 4 cylinder 
> Celica!)

Did U-haul go out of business when I wasn't looking?

Seriously, I used to live with a man who owned an Eddie Bauer Ford
Bronco V8 4x4. Yes, we lived in Rhode Island, and yes, we got shitloads
of snow. But the truck was only for going to the ski house in Vermont.
That was it's only use in life. When I suggested that perhaps putting
chains on any one of the *other* gas-hogging vehicles parked on our
driveway might get us up the mountain, he declared that chains were
unmanly and he wasn't going Up A Mountain in a sissy vehicle. Plus, you
know, chains are bad for the road.

There are a lot of really stupid people with way too much money. They're
probably *all* brokers, too.

Regards,
Sabrina

--------------
Sabrina Dent
http://www.darlingbri.co.uk 

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