I just posted this on Facebook and thought I'd share it with a broader audience:

I think it's fine if people want to customize their trucks to intentionally spew enormous clouds of black smoke -- a.k.a. "coal rolling" -- but it should be contingent upon them affixing one end of a tube to their tailpipe and feeding the other end directly back into their cabin. (Hey, if you dig the black smoke, breathe it in, friend!)

I'm all for licensed adults driving whatever kind of vehicles they want to drive (if any), generally speaking; but a voluntary "mod" which results only in 1) the extreme degradation of air quality for surrounding pedestrians and vehicles, and 2) self-centered yuks for the driver-creators who don't have to breathe or look at the stuff they spew, is over the line. It boggles my mind that it's permissible anywhere, let alone here in Colorado, where air quality along the front range is suspect as it is.

Politically speaking, this is the strangest place I have ever lived -- probably as close to libertarianism as there is anywhere in the country, much to the occasional chagrin of everyone, regardless of their position along the political continuum.

In this podcast, I notice the smog and grueling traffic up and down the front range of Colorado, and wonder if we will invest in transportation alternatives that reflect intelligent growth and the preservation of a pleasant way of life.