THERMONUCLEAR BOMBASTICS: 'KNG SNK' vs. '2TRBO VET'

Back in the Johnson Administration, the flamboyant Sen. Everett Dirksen once remarked about a proposed spending bill, "A billion here, a billion there, and pretty soon you're talking real money." And so it is of the many staggering statistics with which we've lately become so bemusedly blasé. For sale in America's showrooms right now, for instance, are 12 street-legal automobiles producing 400 or more horsepower. On any given day, an air-conditioned Corvette targa six-speed can achieve 170 mph; a Viper GTS, 186. Following her book deal, Monica Lewinsky can afford either. And if Monica married Michael Schumacher--whose pay packet this year swells to $28 million--the two could buy both of these cars, plus Belgium. More...