This from a story Toyota hopes to cut hybrid premium in half as reported in USA Today:

"The mind-set has changed. Used to be somebody would pay $2,000, $3,000 more for a big V-8 and the macho and muscle and squealing tires that went with it," said Jim Press, president of Toyota Motor Sales USA. "Now, at least in some places, people pay the premium for the (hybrid’s) image of being concerned about a clean environment, contributing to their children’s future health and depending less on foreign oil."

It continues to baffle me why our domestic auto manufacturers continue to extrapolate the demand by some for big mondo cars to everyone in the market.  I still think our industry is on it’s way toward another clock-cleaning ala Japanese imports in the 1970s.  Toyota considering how to double their Prius sales points this way.

My previous hybrid posts: Prius-buzz; 1397 miles, one tank - must be a hybrid.

Last time I heard Bill Moyers speak, I was ready to draft Moyers for high elective office.  His ability to explain progressive ideals as emerging from a deep moral background is unsurpassed.  His latest address, 9/11 and the Sport of God, is a must read, addressing some of the same questions I asked in Bad Muslims, or Bad Islam? - only this time directed at Christian fundamentalists.

An excerpt:

In his last book, the late Marvin Harris, a prominent anthropologist of the time, wrote that "the attack against reason and objectivity is fast reaching the proportions of a crusade." To save the American Dream, "we desperately need to reaffirm the principle that it is possible to carry out an analysis of social life which rational human beings will recognize as being true, regardless of whether they happen to be women or men, whites or black, straights or gays, employers or employees, Jews or born-again Christians. The alternative is to stand by helplessly as special interest groups tear the United States apart in the name of their ’separate realities’ or to wait until one of them grows strong enough to force its irrational and subjective brand of reality on all the rest."

That was written 25 years ago, just as the radical Christian right was setting out on their long march to political supremacy. The forces he warned against have gained strength ever since and now control much of the United States government and are on the verge of having it all.

…

It has to be said that their success has come in no small part because of our acquiescence and timidity. Our democratic values are imperiled because too many people of reason are willing to appease irrational people just because they are pious.

…

As I look back on the conflicts and clamor of our boisterous past, one lesson about democracy stands above all others: Bullies - political bullies, economic bullies and religious bullies - cannot be appeased; they have to be opposed with a stubbornness to match their own.

Well.  I say again: Moyers for President!!

If you liked my Googlecaching post, see Paul Downey: Flickr into Google Earth.  He’s gone one further and turned his geotagged photos into Google Earth annotations.  Fun!