Two H-2 Hummers lead the Dallas marathon this morning.

I could not believe it. My wife and I were walking the dogs when we realized that the marathon was coming through our neighborhood. A cop at the corner said the leader was about three minutes away. We staked out a spot in the sun to watch for the leader and the pack.

Soon a Dallas police car came into view. Following the squad car was a police motorcycle and, then, two brand new Hummer H-2s with Sewell dealership banners on the vehicles. The windows were down on both H-2s and beautiful young women waved from inside the Hummers. I gave both Hummers two thumbs down - nothing more, nothing less. The women in the H-2s were incredulous. Some shrieked in obvious dislike of my gesture. Maybe they thought I was giving the thumbs-down to the marathon. Who knows.

As soon as they passed, and the leaders came into view, we cheered and gave the thumbs up. Then we cheered the pack and many of the pack cheered back, mainly for the dogs.

As these people sweated blood on a cold Sunday morning, with their lungs raw from the icy air, two of the most fuel inefficient vehicles on the market burned almost eight gallons of gasoline over the 26 mile course and pumped out foul fumes and chokin' smoke for the runners to breath.

Only in Texas, where the big truck is king.

I'd like to think not. It's certainly not conservative (small c).

he was one of the driving forces to get hummers made available to regular working stiffs (er, those who can afford 'em)

an oxymoron or just redundant ?