Heard any good Ed Begley electric car jokes lately?

Americans think driving an electric car makes you gay. Or worse, Ed Begley Jr.

Up there with the pope converting to Scientology is my sister-in-law's recent trade-in of her beloved SUV for a more fuel-efficient car. It was costing her upwards of $80 to fill up the tank, and she has a long commute.

And so it goes.

The price of Ed Begley Jr's electric car batteries could wire every house in the Rio slums for electricity.

Scrimping in anticipation of this winter's gas heating bills, Mr. Nearing and I have trimmed down the cable bill as far as it will go short of digging up the street and ripping out the cable wiring itself. Everything's gone but basic, and we would get rid of basic cable too except for my fear of heights. Mr. Nearing is not allowed to climb on the roof to affix an antenna (anybody remember those contraptions?).

I told the cable company rep that we'd be back when they offered an a la carte option; she barely paused for breathe in her pitch of the latest HDTV Nascar programming,

Top Ten Stores Least Likely to Be Looted in Power Failure: No. 5 -- Ed Begley Jr.'s Electric Car Emporium

Atrios considers the increase in mass transit ridership.

According to the WaPo, mass transit ridership has jumped quite a bit in a lot of areas presumably due to increased gas prices. Assuming the causal relationship is genuine, it's actually a much bigger jump than I'd expect. The fact is for most people mass transit is really not a reasonable substitute for an automobile commute, even focusing on places which actually have transit systems.

The real question is whether high gas prices will create more public demand for better transit….

And at long last, the anti-Ed Begley Jr.'s electric car joke:

The Top 16 Signs Oil Companies Are Intentionally Screwing Consumers: No. 14 -- Ed Begley, Jr.'s electric car found in the middle of the Mojave Desert with "Charge THIS!" painted on the side.