Gore's son busted (in a Prius!)

Local law enforcement agencies warned they were going to be out in force over the holiday weekend (and week) looking for DUI and reckless drivers. Well, in Orange County, the campaign snared Al Gore's son (and yes, he was driving a Prius):

Al Gore III, 24, was driving a blue Toyota Prius about 100 mph on the San Diego Freeway when he was pulled over about 2:15 a.m., Sheriff's Department spokesman Jim Amormino said. The deputies said they smelled marijuana and searched the car, Amormino said. They found less than an ounce of marijuana, along with Xanax, Valium, Vicodin and Adderall, which is used for attention deficit disorder, he said. "He does not have a prescription for any of those drugs," Amormino said. (AP)

Comments

[Phil]

Some columnists have suggested that AG3 isn't the story, the Prius is, as though a 100 mph Prius is an amazing thing. It's not. Nearly every car sold today can travel at 100+mph. The only thing that is in question is how long it takes to get there. 30 years ago I drove a car with barely 70 horsepower and drove it over 100 mph at will. It doesn't change the fact that Prius drivers are making that car the new Buick. Today, if your progress is being impeded, it's 85% likely your obstacle is a Prius. Speed and acceleration aren't the same thing. Plus, the Prius is a fairly aerodynamic car, so air moves around it with less resistance than many other cars. Additionally, it has relatively skinny, low rolling-resistance tires.

This last item is a good reason you *shouldn't* drive a Prius at 100 mph. I've seen a few Priuses crumpled shiny side down on the freeway because the dynamic handling characteristics of this car are seriously poor by modern standards. Its handling is also numb, so the driver gets very little information through his or her butt, heels and hands regarding the car's ongoing stability. On a straight like the 405, you might think, as AG3 obviously does, that you'll never have to find out how wobbly the Prius is at lightspeed, but it only takes one urgent need for an evasive maneuver to educate you about automotive spin cycles pretty quickly.

But getting to 100mph on a 74 hp gas engine is not a problem. However, for the carbon weenies that don't understand how a big engine loafing can be the environmentally preferred choice, I wouldn't be surprised to find that a 400 hp Corvette is more efficient at that speed in its tall 6th gear.

Now, that hybrid isn't particularly efficient at that speed, having to punch nearly 3000 lbs of eco-ego-sled through a roaring stream of mixed gas molecules. So we've also learned that AG3 is every bit the carbon poseur that his old man is, flying private jets instead of commercial air and feeding a 15,000 s.f. house its daily energy bullet. Please, can we stop paying any attention to these charlatans now? Anyone here selling Big Al his carbon credits? I didn't think so.

Meanwhile, carpool lane efficiency -- always a dubious proposition to start with -- is declining because of single-driver hybrids soft-shoeing their whips and clogging that system, boosting more pollution than they are saving (and I mean real pollution: unnatural chemical compounds and particulates, not CO2 that you and I exhale every minute.

While AG3 is on his ADD drug, perhaps you can get his attention long enough for him to explain why Good Magazine doesn't print the facts on climate change? Does he know, for instance, that Earth, Mars and Neptune are all yielding evidence of increased solar output and warming at the same time? Or that the cryosphere in South America shows no sign whatsoever of climate change? Or that ice is accumulating on Antarctica everywhere but the western peninsula?

Nah, I didn't think so.

[Tom A.]

The funny thing, Jason, is that Gore's Prius was putting out a lot more pollution and using a lot more fuel flying along at 100mph that it would at 70mph (though most Prii I see in the carpool lane are going more like 80+). Teaching people how to drive and have respect for the rules of the road would go a really long way in reducing pollution and fuel consumption (maybe even enough to reduce the need for the state's global warming and air pollution initiatives that target cars while at the same time almost always giving other pollution sources what amounts to a free pass), but why would our so-called leaders want to do something as drastic as treating the disease (aggressive driving) instead of the symptoms (pollution, fuel use, etc.)?
After all, politicians are like electrical current: They both travel down the path of least resistance.

[Jason Hoppe]

tanaS,

Whether global warming truely exists or not, just think of it this way. Every bit of polution we pump out into the atmosphere is something our children will have to deal with in the future. Not us.

And this is a worldwide problem, not just here. Have a little courtesy and realize that whether or not global warming exists, there are things that serve that purpose, but make things better overall for everyone.

[tanaS]

Maybe Al Gore III, the drug-addicted, multiple DUI driver, thought the speedometer read,"100 km/hr". Big, REALLY BIG Al should give up scaring people about the man-caused atmospheric warming scam; instead he should be a father to a screwed-up son.

[tanaS]

Maybe Al Gore III, the drug-addicted, multiple DUI driver, thought the speedometer read,"100 km/hr". Big, REALLY BIG Al should give up scaring people about the man-caused atmospheric warming scam; instead he should be a father to a screwed-up son.

[Pete McFerrin]

I didn't know that a second-generation Prius could even do 100. I know that the first-generation ones sure as hell can't.

[pedro K-town]

Well He Just got caught! He should have drove atleast 20 miles slower and he would of been fine! Anyways he is from the GORE DYNASTY!!!