We are watching tonight’s basketball game (WVU vs. Xavier — now in OT), and we just saw a new Mercedes commercial: “300 horsepower is fast; 400 horsepower will take your breath away ….” My immediate thought in response — 100 horsepower will get you where you need to go with decent gas mileage and help keep Antarctica from melting into nothingness. (More here. And here.)

Ummmm, surprise, people: Inflation does NOT affect your engine-power needs.

My 1976 BMW 2002 had 100 horsepower and was considered a fast, sporty car 30+ years ago. Now we have more crowded roads, higher gas prices, and conclusive evidence of human-caused global warming, and still we need 451 hp?

Think about this: If all of the manpower, intelligence, ingenuity, and desire that has gone into designing higher powered engines had actually gone into designing AND MARKETING higher fuel efficiency, think about what a better place we would be in not just environmentally, but also geopolitically … Osama bin Laden, anyone? 9/11, anyone? Dick Cheney, anyone? Iraq, anyone?