Review: Driving Like Crazy by P. J. O'Rourke

Something happened, I think around 1991, that turned this guy from a talented and funny writer to unoriginal, bland and unfunny. Since this book seems to span both eras I suggest those interested check out some of his older books. Two in particular I read and are really good: Modern Manners: An Etiquette Guide for Rude People and Republican Party Reptile, both from the mid 1980's. For examples of the new and extremely unfunny stuff, try making it to the end of any of his pedantic attempts at humor that are online at weeklystandard.com

P.J. O'Rourke on Woe Is My Car Industry! How feminism and Facebook killed the car. Be sure to listen to the audio commentary and not read the transcript. I want to watch the submarine races. Is that an innuendo for something?

blucon: you were on point until the poorly characterized comment - "Funny thing is in the ’30’s a little guy named Hitler came to power based on his belief that capitalism was a failure and National socialism the cure. How history repeats." - I agree with your criticisms, especially regarding the lack of awareness on the part of the citizenry, although most Americans are so busy trying to get by that they do not have time to figure out the truth behind the shit fed to them. I even agree that history repeats itself b/c I have a pulse. However, I wouldn't give Hitler the credit of truly believing what he espoused. The belief that capitalism is a failed system and that national (total) socialism is the cure is a theory of sociologists not fascists, and there is a difference. There are so many people, presidents, and governmental agencies (supposedly in charge of oversight) etc. ad nauseum. Obama got handed a pile of shit upon taking his oath of office and nothing he, nor ANY one person in the oval office, can do will remedy the recent results of years of amoral, immoral, and otherwise poor decisions. I hate knowing that the p.o.s.'s at the top are given a Get Out of Prison Free card and believe that a failed business model should not be salvaged by the state, the amount of Americans who would have been without work would have been a catastrophic blow, and it was better to keep these people employed and (idealistically) punish others later than to take a purely capitalist approach to the crisis. The automobile crisis primarily occurred because of the banking/lending crisis and though I do not like such government involvement in once non-governmental corporations, it softens the blow. All of this is more weight on the "why I will not pay off my law school loans by becoming a corporate attorney" To end on a lighter and more germane (less german) note, I do not believe that the American affinity with the automobile is lost nor significantly diluted permanently. I love the sound of a loud, gas-guzzling muscle car as much as a teenage girl as I do a decade later (though the man who owns it has a higher bar to pass). Public transportation is the way to go, but Americans will still own cars due to our indispensible desire for independence and exploration. AMTRAK will not take you to the wilderness, nor should it. Technology will find a way to make green cars sound loud and sexy, in due time. Afterall, they are already starting to look sexy. I am a staunch believer that driving is a privilege and NOT a right. But if you deserve that privilege, you should wake up the neighbors with your eco-friendly, loud, Shelby.