I’ve seen these applied, gratis, to the rear ends of Hummers:

REAL TROOPS ARE DYING
SO THAT I CAN
PLAY SOLDIER IN THIS

And this:

6. HUM JOB; (also) a performer of a hum job.
1970 Landy Underground Dict. 107: Hummer. . . One who engages in oral copulation of the testicles by putting them in the mouth and humming.
1972 PFC, U.S. Army STRATCOM-Taiwan (coll. J. Ball): I’m gonna go out and get me a hummer! 1979 T. Baum Carny 118: You know what to do if the marks [at a carnival strip show] can’t get up? . . . You know what a hummer is? 1994 Details (July) 62: The predictable hummers in the back of the tour bus.

* * *
What Fuels These Mortals Be [Guzzling]

This is my reaction to that quaint, recent attempt by some, using the Web, to boycott Exxon and Mobil — the alleged Bad Guys making our gasoline too expensive.

Please, make no mistake; I am no fan of bully-sized multinationals, including those two. However, I think the current prices are still lower, when adjusted for inflation, than in years past.

Be that as it may, we are in Iraq because so many cretinous, shortsighted, infantile Americans know nothing about world events and history. . . or the connections between their actions (and choices) and said events and history. Among those [obscene] choices is the stupifying popularity of SUV’s and Hummers. (Why so many Republicans would be seen in a truck emblazoned with the name of Clinton’s favorite “high crime and/or misdemeanor” is really beyond me.) Especially nauseating is the sight of those conspicuous consumers PLAYING SOLDIER in their $60k toys (Hummers) while REAL soldiers, in REAL Humvees, are dying to protect their supposed right to such toys, fueled by cheap gasoline. “Support Our Troops”, my ass.

I’m also ashamed of so many of my fellow boomers, and Americans in general, who have yet to learn (with over 30 years to have done so) the lessons of Earth Day, and the 70’s oil embargo. These decades of talk — and all it is, among citizens and politicians alike, is talk — about “energy independence” mean nothing, and will continue to mean nothing, until PAIN (boo-hoo!) causes the average clueless, pampered North American to demand fuel-efficient vehicles, think more about carpooling and the wiser use of fuel, and actually support the development of the sundry alternative energy sources and technologies available to us — which, by the way, will finally become competitive with the petroleum lifestyle (and hence feasible), now that the latter is approaching a more realistic price.

Why do I say “more realistic”? Because, among other things, we who share this globe with other people are now seeing the basics of Supply and Demand at
work. . . in the shape of, among other things, growing demand for oil from the one billion Chinese, and their burgeoning economy. (They’re actually emulating the U.S.– the greatest country anywhere, ever — by clamoring for cars, fuel for their factories, and heat for their modern homes. Who would’ve thunk it?)

While I certainly realize that there IS such a thing in this world as price-gouging and price-fixing (witness Enron and the California fuel crisis they fomented), that alone does not explain the current price rises. Nor will vigorous policing to prevent undue profiteering hold off the inevitable for very long.

And it IS inevitable.

I would also advise my fellow citizens to get used to the idea of a REAL shock to the world oil market, and the global economy, that will accompany the nearly-inevitable fall of the monumentally corrupt and despotic House of Saud (the royal family ruling Saudi Arabia, and great “friends” of the U.S.) Either the Muslim Brotherhood of their numerous cousins will eventually bring down that house of cards, and much of our guaranteed flow of cheap oil with it. (Unless, of course, Bush & Co. succeed in their plan to establish an invincible U.S. military presence throughout the region, sufficient to actually protect and control the oil. But, even were we to agree that that’s a laudible goal, no one actually paying heed to our already-overextended military, and our deficit-funded economy — not to mention the ineptitude of Bush & Co. — actually believes such a thing is possible.)

In short, dear friends, what we are seeing is chickens coming home to roost.

–J.D. Glick, J.D.
Washington State

You never hear the Japanese or other foreign car makers complaining about the standards the Congress have legislated, they just comply and do it right the first time.

It comes down to this build a better mouse trap and ….

T0: Bill Stevens in previous comment. I recalled a few years back, a GM spokesman saying that they would skip the Hybrid and develop hydrogen cars, they wouldn’t waste their time with Hybrids. Look whose pushing Hybrids now.