Location: Several miles up his own ass!
I stole this table from one of the major government websites to aid in my case.
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Table 8: Consumer Cost of Motor Gasoline per Gallon and per Mile Driven, 1973-2001 (2001 cents)
This is for the year 2001.
Passenger Car ................SUV's and Light Trucks
----------------..............------------------------
21.4 .............Avg. MPG...........17.1
7.2 ...........Cost Per Mile........9.1
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The difference in fuel consumption is not as large as you would have us believe. Mark Twain said in his autobiography that there are 'lies, damned lies, and statistics'. And then there are averages. A man is standing with one foot in a bucket of freezing ice water, the other foot in a bucket of boiling hot water. On average, he'll feel pretty good, lukewarm if you will. Right? That's just not how it works.
There are reports that aerosol sprays kill the ozone and sugar substitutes cause cancer. Yet, give the scientists time and surely they will state that these statistics are no longer accurate either. With all of the studies I've heard over the past few years, I am pretty sure that living, in and of itself, causes death. Cause and effect. Stuff happens. So clearly, if a bunch of people with empty lives want to throw themselves into an empty cause, then why not target SUV's, sounds fair enough. Surely they can find some statistics to support their claims.
Webster defines statistics as: "a branch of mathematics dealing with the collection, analysis, interpretation, and presentation of masses of numerical data." Special attention should be paid to the word "interpretation" of the numerical data. Unlike an editorial (which this article is, it's my opinion), statistical analyses are often taken as fact, or scientific proof. Fact is, it's one person's interpretation that can be swayed by something as simple as not reviewing all the possible causes or something as malicious as funding of the study by extreme activists.
I won't attempt to defend the Hum-V (Hummer) or the extremely large SUV's that are merely Hulk-sized versions of their more useful cousins. I will defend though, vehicles like the Jeep Grand Cherokee, Ford Explorer, Nissan Pathfinder, Land Rover Discovery, Range Rover, BMW X5, Lexus RX300, etc. etc., because as far as vehicles go, they are functional, useful, and most of all viable choices for consumers. Perhaps I have three children and two dogs, or maybe I coach a soccer team, or perhaps even I own a boat. Why then would it be such a travesty for me to own an SUV? Simple enough, it wouldn't - and isn't! If you feel better about yourself driving your 'hybrid' car, then by all means zip right along at that whopping 35 mph (with the knowledge that to go faster you will actually be burning gas, *gasp* the horror!) in your Hyrbrid vehicle. I live in the U.S. so that yokels and half-bakes like you can voice your opinion and choose the car you want to drive, and likewise I can laugh at such opinions (as is my right) and drive a vehicle I deem fit for myself.
Like I've mentioned before, if all of the anti-SUV activists were truly concerned about the environment they would boycott things like cigarettes, organic foods, produce, and IKEA. Consumer goods of that nature are constantly having to be replenished, and the trucks that deliver them surely don't run on water, consume 3 to 4 times the fuel an SUV does, block much more of the road due to their massive size, and are driven at excessive speeds to ensure the goods are delivered 'fresh'. So quit pestering the good people at Ford and go picket the nearest grocery store. As soon as one of you wizards designs the first water fueled vehicle that can produce the same performance as a gas powered vehicle, we'll all jump on your bandwagon. Until then, pipe down!
The Seeker Of Truth
"Why are you smiling?"
"Because I know something you do not?"
"What is that?"
"I am not left handed!"
This message last edited by The Seeker of Truth on 1/28/2003 at 3:46:32 PM.
*NM*
- 28/01/2003 07:30:42 PM
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