Suvs

Fascism in schoolhouse Christopher Jones (letter, Oct. 15) asks: "Does it take a Columbine to stir the consciousness of the conditions of our public schools?" He does not name a single factor at that school which led to the tragedy. There is no evidence that the school could have prevented it. What could have been done and by whom to develop an anti-fascist spirit at Columbine (and everywhere else)? Who was responsible for the course of thought and action those two killers took?

Let me start with full disclosure. When it comes to cars, I am a geek. I feel like I live in the last one-car family in America. Our family of four drives a dented 1997 Ford Taurus with 56,000 miles. When we switched to the bigger Ford after 15 years of Volkswagens, I felt like I was driving a truck. I do not consider my car a measure of professional achievement, socioeconomic status or sexual prowess. Our family visit to this year's car show held as much glamour for me as watching a tractor pull or a ladies' mud wrestling competition.

On a mission to steer public opinion toward President Bush's drill-'em-deep national energy policy, Vice President Cheney arrived in Philadelphia this week without his voice - thanks to a bout of laryngitis. The same could be said for a key element mostly muted in the Bush proposal: conservation ideas. While the President's policy is long on boosting energy production, it's short on commonsense ways to stem the nation's energy binging. Yet there are huge savings to be gained, notably on the nation's highways.

THE REAL purpose of Section 8 housing is to create "diverse" neighborhoods, much like busing was implemented to help "diversify" Northeast Philadelphia schools. Anyone who has been to a Northeast Philadelphia school lately can see how well this is working out. Section 8 becomes a real racial issue when 95 percent of the people in the program are minority who are being dispersed into solid, predominantly white working-class neighborhoods. I haven't met a white person in Northeast Philadelphia who wished their neighborhood would become "diversified.

LATELY, I feel like reading the "Joke of the Day" instead of "newspaper headlines. " City Council passes a bond deal for the airport in which the daughter of Ron White (crook emeritus) and the daughter of a mobster are involved. A well-known "clergy"woman and her adult children steal over $200,000 from Community College and are awarded house arrest. A kid selling marijuana gets 10 years. The city is broke (closing rec centers, libraries and fire stations), but City Council is awash in free cell phones, Blackberries, multiple cars, etc., beside employing their complete families as paid aides.

WHOEVER wrote the song "Let it Snow, Let It Snow, Let It Snow" obviously didn't have 50 feet of driveway and 35 feet of sidewalk to shovel! Ugh! Rick Bauer, Bellmawr, N.J. First, SUVs and their owners are demonized by idiots who say they are supplying the terrorists with money for weapons. Then, with the blizzard, we heard the city put out a call to SUV owners to help nurses and doctors get to the hospitals. Isn't that ironic? Those same terrible, awful SUVs being called upon for help.

By George Parry On Saturday afternoon, well into my second full day of we're-all-gonna-die television coverage of the approaching Hurricane Irene, I sat in my Barcalounger feverishly loading banana clips for my assault rifle. Rivulets of sweat coursed down my face as Terror Track Weather warned yet again that Philadelphia was squarely in the path of a killer storm. "Dear," my wife said tenderly, "what in the hell are you doing?" I explained that I was preparing to deal with the looters who were sure to pillage the neighborhood in the storm's aftermath.

Kia Sportage SX FWD: Cute with a kick. Price: $30,990 as tested ($25,795 base). Marketers' pitch: "Designed for the next level. " Conventional wisdom: Kia used to be synonymous with "designed for the previous level. " Not anymore, as the Sportage joins the Optima, Sorento, and Soul as Consumer Digest "Best Buys. " Reality: Forget what you knew about Kia, Sportages, and dismal fuel economy in small SUVs in general and Kias in particular.

Drive, He said . . . Thanks to gas-frugal Rev. Jim Ball, the topic of which vehicle the Son of God might drive has captured the nation's attention. Now that the Rev. Ball has already gone there (in an apparently Jesus- approved Toyota Prius, no less), there's no putting a lid on the speculation. Why stop at what Jesus would drive? How about prophet-approved tires, gasoline, and roadside assistance plans? Surely He has a soft spot for Manny, Moe and Jack? And then there's the troubling question of air fresheners.

The compassionate plea by Kathy Calvin, CEO of the United Nations Foundation, for increased funding to help women and others in the camps of quake-displaced Haitians ignores the United Nation's complicity in their plight ("Small measures can improve the lives of Haitian women," Sunday). There have been more than 10,000 armed U.N. security forces in Haiti since 2004, at a cost of $60 million a month. Yet there is no war in Haiti, no violent factions to restrain. Before the earthquake, U.N. cash had already failed to create infrastructure or sustainable job programs.