People who buy Hybrid vehicles for the wrong reasons annoy the heck out of me.

According to reports I’ve heard, it’s pretty much split down the middle between people who buy the cars for savings on improved gas mileage, and people who buy them for environmental concerns.

To group 1, I say buy a regular small car. The savings in the car’s price will give you enough money to pay the difference in gasoline prices for several years. To group 2, buy a bicycle.

Anyone not buying the Toyota Prius for valid reasons should immediately get off the waiting list, so that those of us who know the real reason that one should buy this vehicle can purchase it. (The real reason being, of course, an addiction to cool gadgets, which includes the nice touchscreen panel in the dash.)
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In what may be a historic first, I actually agree with the British on this.

I’m not one of these people who constantly preaches that all mental illness is exaggerated, but I do believe that, especially in children, mental health professionals (and teachers and parents) are way too quick to deem that a child needs drugs.

For that matter, I tend to think that our entire society is a bit too quick to turn to drugs. When drug commercials don’t even tell you what the medication is for, things are bad. Some commercials simply show people having a good time, then a quick shot of the name of the drug, with a voice-over telling the viewer: “Ask your doctor if this drug is right for you.”

I see this in much the same vein as the Honor Roll story from a week or so ago. When we start diagnosing every quirk as a medical illness, and drug people so that it goes away, aren’t we taking away a lot of what makes people individuals? I know that all psychiatrists don’t jump straight to drug therapy, but in general, I think psychiatrists (or doctors in general, for that matter) are a lot like lawyers, in that 99% of psychiatrists (doctors) give the rest of them a bad name.
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