My friend Tim owns this SUV and enjoys stirring up Bay-area lefties on his daily 90-mile round trip commute. What cajones! Tim also tells his teenage son that the ultimate goal of Al Gore and the climate change alarmists is to take away our cars and make us ride the light rail train.
Just another wingnut ranting, right? Until now you may say yes. Progressives have been careful to hide their ultimate agenda, only referring in general terms to things we can do to help fight global warming, but never admitting what it would take to meet the Kyoto mandates.
But LA Times writer Dan Neil lets the truth slip out in his otherwise excellent list in TIME of the 50 worst automobiles.
Uh-oh. Here comes trouble. Let's stipulate that the Model T did everything that the history books say: It put America on wheels, supercharged the nation's economy and transformed the landscape in ways unimagined when the first Tin Lizzy rolled out of the factory. Well, that's just the problem, isn't it? The Model T — whose mass production technique was the work of engineer William C. Klann, who had visited a slaughterhouse's "disassembly line" — conferred to Americans the notion of automobility (sic) as something akin to natural law, a right endowed by our Creator. A century later, the consequences of putting every living soul on gas-powered wheels are piling up, from the air over our cities to the sand under our soldiers' boots.
First, Neil admits the positive economic impact of the auto industry ("...supercharged the nation's economy..."), which also implies the negatives from shutting it down that lefties won't admit.
Then he makes a clumsy tie between the auto industry and death ("... who had visited a slaughterhouse's 'disassembly line' ... ") to create an evil parallel. What is that doing in a list of the 50 worst cars?
Finally, Neil lets us see the true target, it is not windmills and hybrid cars that will save the planet. "A century later, the consequences of putting every living soul on gas-powered wheels are piling up, from the air over our cities to the sand under our soldiers' boots."
What Tim tells his son is correct. Progressive thinkers, such as Dan Neil, believe that "automobility" is something to be carefully rationed and not available to "every living soul" in America. "Automobility" is to be reserved for Dan Neil, George Soros, the Reverend Al Gore and the rest of the politically connected left.
The rest of us can take the trolley or ride a bike.
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