Motor Trend's new print magazine finally ditches oil for mpg

The cover of the June 2011 Motor Trend magazine says:
"To Hell With Foreign Oil" and spends much of the magazine focusing on small cars that get good mpg that are also fun to drive and have some performance. The magazine has numerous articles focusing on small cars versus gas guzzlers and also features some hybrids. Finally!

 

When American's were pumping their own oil and America was energy independent, yeah it was their birthright. They were born on the land, inherited it from their parents or bought it dirt cheap (remember when the government was encouraging people to move West and offered the land for next to nothing if they agree to farm it?), and then when demand for oil grew around 1900, those farmers and land owners did in fact have a birthright to that oil.

Today, I wouldn't say Americans have a "birthright" to oil that is located in the Middle East, Russia, South America, and other foreign sources. Alaska and the Gulf of Mexico? Americans as a collective whole that were born in America could claim a birthright to that oil. But not the foreign oil. At least, that's my thinking.

 

Are you referring to the Indian casino operators who were born in the same era that you were born in (1940s, 1950s, 1960s, 1970s, 1980s, etc) and never fought in a single physical battle or war and think it's their birthright to build huge casinos, drive gas-guzzling V12 Ferraris, and claim it's their "birthright" to operate slot machines and poker tables ? By the way, did the Indians own the Deepwater Horizon oil well, or any of the oil wells in the Gulf for that matter? Did the Indians cover the entire North America or just some parts of ? I can't possibly conceive that the Indians populated the entire continent of North America. There had to be some land in the United States that they did not populate nor had ever walked across. Were the Indians aware of the oil wells under the ice in Alaska? Were the Indians aware of the oil wells in Texas and claimed that oil as their crude oil?

FYI: I have read The Long Bitter Trail by Anthony F.C. Wallace and I am very well aware of the bloodshed and more importantly the exploitation of the Indians. Yes, I think it was horrible. If I was living back then, I would certainly have not been able in my consciousness to join with those that were taking land and exploiting the Indians. But today is a completely different world. Could YOU get all of the Americans that own houses and businesses in your county to decide to move and give it all back? Could YOU do that nationwide? Certainly not. My point is that when we are born today, we start with what we have, in the world that we live.
The kids that are born today in America do have a right to the oil that is drilled in North America, but they do not have a "birthright" to the oil that is drilled in the Middle East.

If you grew up on a farm in 1905 and had spent your whole life working on the farm until your father passed away, and your father had inherited the land from his father, and you did not know where your grandfather got the land and had therefore considered "it's just his land. I know nothing else," then you would consider your father and grandfather's land to be your "birthright," wouldn't you? (answer that question)

If you disagree, please type up several paragraphs and enlighten me.

 

I can't imagine that full size SUVs are going to survive. Chevrolet is very thin in finances. With Suburban's piling up on lots and collecting dust, production lines will likely slow down, and automakers may begin to consider discontinuing full size SUVs. Mid-size SUVs will very likely survive, but I have a feeling that the demand for justifying continued production of full-size SUVs may result in a discontinuation of such vehicles by year's end. It's all going to depend on the price of gasoline, but at Friday's close, gasoline and oil had the highest levels they'd been since 2008. And the gasoline futures expired for May delivery. This means that you WILL see another 40 cents onto the price of gasoline by the end of May compared to what it is today. It's already factored in. It's done. Traders are now moving on to June and July contracts.

OIL FUTURES: Crude Settles At 2-1/2 Year High Led By Gasoline
http://online.wsj.com/article/BT-CO-20110429-711388.html

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It's not looking good for the Suburban though:
March 2011:
Cruze: 18,018
Equinox: 14,949
Camaro: 8964
HHR: 7428
Traverse: 8230
Impala: 18,063
Malibu: 15,551
Silverado: 32,555
Tahoe: 6844
Suburban: 2959 (Suburban sales -23.8% compared to March 2010)

I look forward to seeing the April 2011 numbers.

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According to the dictionary, "birthright" is "any right or privilege to which a person is entitled by birth." That is open to interpretation by each civilization and likely varies widely from culture to culture, religion to religion, community to community, an so forth. I was just basically saying that in the United States, when your father leaves his farm and land to you in his will, then according to our government (of the people, by the people), that farm, land, and whatever may be seaping up from the ground onto it, is yours, and since you were born to that father, it sure sounds like you have a birthright to that farm.

The definition to "birthright" could be interpreted in millions of different ways by a million different societies and courts.

I would like to get away from the word "birthright" because I really don't like the word at all. In fact, I've only heard it a few times previosly in my life, and it's definitely not a word in my vocabulary. Using just the word, "right," do I think we have a right to destroy nature? Absolutely Not. In my opinion, humans do Not have a right to destroy nature. By extension, if people are destroying nature in the process of drilling for and extracting oil, then by extension in my opinion, they should not have a right to that. As I type this, I'm seeing that the word "right" seems to be a human-defined word like a law, and not something of the natural world.

Back on topic, already. What do you think of the Motor Trend article, and will Americans finally shift from gas-guzzling full size SUVs to high mpg cars?