I can always count on the youngest of my big sisters to send me those feel-good emails with the animated puppies and kitties with their subtle warnings of dire consequences if I don't forward the email to at least 6 people.

But today she took a break from puppies and kittens to send me an email about a woman who purchased a 2006 Hummer H3 and converted it into a 'rolling memorial' for her son who was killed in Iraq. The H3 features a 25,000 paint job (a good-hearted body shop did it for her at cost for $3k) and you can see photos here.

I'm sure that there are a lot of people who see that as a touching homage to fallen heroes. Personally I see it as spending 3 grand worth of petroleum-based paint on a gas guzzler with a pathetic 16 MPG combined rating.

I am not some environmentalist global warming greenpeace nutjob, and the last thing I want is to be perceived of as bashing anyone - least of all a parent of a fallen veteran - But JEEZ, lady! I don't really do politics on this site but the sick irony of this story left me shaking my head as I watched a grief-stricken fellow countryman go out of her way to put money into the hands of her child's murderers.

Labels: Peak_Oil, The_News