SUV Mania?

What is it about SUV's that drives normally rational, intelligent people completely over the edge? First Gregg Easterbrook, now Tom Friedman, have turned into anti-SUV scolds. Read the always-excitable Tom's latest here. He advocates turning every college town into a "hummer-free zone" in hopes that this will generate a grass-roots student movement. Good luck with that Tom! Friedman says that the President's policies are "completely nuts." I would humbly suggest that the term might be more aptly applied to his column.

Full disclosure here -- we drive an SUV and need it because we spend much of the year living in a rural/mountain region. We didn't always have one, but several years ago She Who Shall Not be Named, tried to negotiate the slope below our place in a rear-wheel drive Scandanavian vehicle on a cold and snowy morning. After a 360 degree spinout she wound up in a ditch and had to be hauled out. Two days later we went shopping for a four-wheel drive SUV and have had one ever since. If Tom Friedman wants to take it away, he will have to deal with her, and it won't be pretty.

Glenn Reynolds, the Instapundit, comments on the same parts of Friedman's column. He's a bit more polite, but his take is pretty much the same as mine:

This sort of moralistic-but-ineffective posturing -- based more on dislike of SUVs and their owners than anything else -- is the 21st Century equivalent of Jimmy Carter's cardigan, and it's why most Americans roll their eyes when people say the words "energy policy." If Friedman wants to make a difference on this subject, he needs to look at technology -- and at what people actually want and will tolerate -- and try to put the two together [but Glenn, that would be asking him to be reasonable, and that's far too much to ask of a timesman and three time pulitzer prize winner; he's far too busy hobnobbing with and being a mouthpiece for world figures to actually stop and think]. The "energy policy" discussion on The West Wing was better than this.

And while you're at it, check out Toby's link in the comments section. He's not as polite as Glenn, but he speaks truth to power.