[Superman]

Well, thanks for your candor. For the record, I don't have the same impression as some of you. Yes, I notice that rural folks are as warm as a pile of kittens. I do get out, Gaijindabe. In fact, I don't identify with city folk that much. Cities are my least favorite place, really. Mountain tops are my fave. And yeah, the heart of this country is in its heart, not in the cities.

And the "heart" has substantial numbers of both liberals and conservatives, as does the city.

I sometimes sit at the corner of Maltby Road and SR-9, waiting for the light (long light) and sometimes I wait a while and see a lot of vehicles, before I see one that is NOT an PU or SUV. And no, most of those folks are not using them for hauling. CArnutzzz, you listening? If folks drove those things for those purposes, I'd have no gripe. Probably six out of ten vehicles here are SUV's less than four years old, and I RARELY see anything in them aside from a single individual, the driver. These things are selling because 1) It's the latest tred/fad, 2) Visibility from that height is terrific and 3) Folks think they are safer (for the driver, which is not the whole truth) And Carnutzzz, if I start to hate America, folks like you will be the biggest reason. I'm not going anywhere. Enjoy hurling insults and calling me names, if that's what you need, emotionally.

And finally, according to my observation, the rude drivers are not the poor liberal folk wearing hemp pajamas and driving Subarus with "Save the Whales" and "John Kerry" bumper stickers. Those folks are in the merging lane, patiently gling with the flow. The rude drivers, in my observation, are the Ford F-350 guys with "Freedom" and "Bush/Cheney" bumper stickers. Or Mercedes. Or Lincoln Continental. Or Cadillac.....anything HUGE and expensive.

No, Marc, I'm not basing American life on truck commercials. but I'd be surprized of the big auto companies are completely off target in terms of what emotions and goals and needs they should be exploiting. The volume of these kinds of commercials is high enough that the obvious conclusion here is that Americans hope to be rude and overbearing. That's the personality of this country, frankly. Certainly, that's its reputation. And its marketing tack.