Soon to be followed, I'm sure, by an op-ed in which the WSJ calls for better protection for SUV drivers from a cabal of America hating cyclists who might scratch their bumpers, and who are harming the environment and economy by not filling up at Sunoco at least three times a week.

Kind of a TAN, but a funny story anyway. Riding along the Custis Trail yesterday, we come upon an Arlington sheriff's deputy, who is cruising along on a Segway. So of course I ask him if he realizes how dorky those things are, and isn't a bike a better way to get around? He agrees 100%. "To tell you the truth, I hate this thing. But once a week we're instructed to roll them on the bike trail." I can see why he hates them. The thing has a horrible side-to-side wobble, the deputy says that's a result of all the gyroscopes overcorrecting the balance. I mention that you could probably outfit 20 bike cops for the price of a Segway, and he says, "Yup." He then said he'd even rather do his patrol on rollerblades, they are much more stable than the two-wheeled dorkmobile. As a parting shot, I ask him if he should be wearing a helmet while he's rolling down the trail, and he said "Gimme a break, you're already busting my chops for riding this thing, now I need to wear a helmet too?" Very funny. So if you see the poor guy on his lame vehicle, be sure to give him grief and then sympathize.

Our conversation ended in agreement. "Still beats sitting in my car all day." Case closed.

The stuff about the oil companies is pretty funny, but have you ever looked at the people who run the governments in Europe? The politicians are generally the same types of people who run governments in the U.S. For instance, Chirac's son-in-law is a high level executive with Elf, France's more-or-less national oil company (akin to British Petroleum) and has been implicated in the Iraq sanctions / oil-for-food scandal. In a scathing op-ed yesterday, Anne Applebaum, a noteworthy human rights supporter, chalks up much of France's supposed political independence on the international stage to oil deals and other dirty dealings with oppressive foreign governments. From what I saw in 6+ years in Germany, the relationship between government and big business is *exactly* the same as it is here. The primary differences are that the distances in Europe are smaller, the population settled more densely around towns and villages, and due to economic factors (general lower level of affluence) bicycle transportation has been more popular for a very long time. You look at a country like Great Britain, where bicycles used to be extremely common, and look at what has happened in 25 years of affluence; in short, everybody drives a car now. The bus system is greatly contracted, you hardly see bicycles used for transportation, and the cities are in gridlock traffic at rush hour.

This has a lot less to do with corrupt politicians, IMN-HO, and much more to do with our human tendency to get fat and lazy once we can afford the luxury of doing so. Contrary to Rousseau's lovely vision of supremely fit natural savages who browse and forage for just what they need, natural man left alone with plenty of food to eat, man tends to eat it. And ask for seconds. And then drive out in the Rover to go get some more. (And yes, based on my recent travels, Europe appears to be doing what they can to make the received wisdom of all Americans being fatter than Europeans into a purely ironic slur).

I do tell a small white lie. The relationship between big business and government is actually a bit more cozy in Europe than it is in the U.S., due to the more rigid class stratification one finds in Europe, and the concordantly more difficult path for an individual to go from the lower classes, into the mostly-hereditary upper class.