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To Sammyg2 and Rouser:
Instead of getting into a factual discsussion about whether the war had anything to do with our energy policy or whether a 914 is a greater polluter than a new SUV (these are factual issues that we will not ever agree about), I'd just like to make a more general point: I don't really care that much what you do with your own property, but some things, like our shared air and our shared roads, are not just your own property.
There are some people who believe that their actions have little or no effect on the rest of us, and for that reason these people think they can, basically, do whatever they want with impunity. But it turns out that because of the way in which we consume resources and the way in which we live very close to one another, everyone's actions has an effect on everyone else. I breathe the same air as you. I drive the same roads as you. In other words, we share the air, and we share the roads. And if you contribute in some way to making my air worse and my roads more dangerous then, yes, the things you do affect me, and thus the things you do are my business.
If you want me out of your business then don't do things with the resourses we share that messes up my business. I think this is the more general ideological point that the pro-and anti-
SUV camps disagree on. The pro-SUVers think the world is theirs to drive over; the anti-SUVers believe the world is to be shared.
Douglas
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