Al Gore and the Petrol Police

When I read today's story of Al Gore III's, AGIII, (former U.S. Vice President Al Gore, Jr. is SO green he even recycled his name!!) arrest in California my first thoughts were --

• I don't care about another (semi-)celebrity getting arrested, and
• How long before we see the follow up story that AGIII has checked himself into rehab?

For those readers who are interested AGIII was arrested for:

• Speeding at 100 miles per hour
• Possession of marijuana
• Possession of prescription drugs (Xanax, Valium, Vicodin, and Adderell)

Wow, based on that mix of drugs AGIII is either in a lot of pain or just loves to get REALLY relaxed in order to drive on California's crowded freeways. But wait -- there is a ray of hope in this tragic story since AGIII was driving a Toyota Prius which is a hybrid automobile that gets an estimated 55 miles to the gallon of gasoline -- http://www.toyota.com/prius/

Of all these potential criminal charges AGIII now faces by far the "worst" one has to be his speeding violation since the Prius is engineered to operate at its highest efficiency level at road speeds ranging from 30 to 40 miles per hour (http://hybridcars.about.com/od/news/a/100mpgrecord.htm) but he was driving 100 miles per hour. Such a rate of speed clearly consumes a lot of gasoline which of course means AGIII's carbon footprint is much larger than it should be given that he owns a Prius. For a fuller discussion on hybrid automobiles and law enforcement please review my posting entitled, "Petrol Police," where the police of Alexandria, Virginia were used to "ticket" drivers in hybrid autos by pulling them over to distribute thank you coupons/gas cards!! What a complete mis-use of law enforcement resources.

Good luck AGIII,

Todd