In the spirit of Bill O’reilly’s “Pinheads and Patriots” segment (and many other comparative pieces out there in journalism land), I figured it was time to add my own occasional blog post contrasting good and bad ideas. I’m calling my segment, “Geniuses & Idiots.”

I just got my new Businessweek from the mailbox earlier today, and being the car guy that I am, two stories in this week’s magazine caught my attention.

Genius Award

The first story that caught my attention is titled “The Efficiency Paradox” and due to some awesome insights around how many “green” solutions actually have a negative impact on the environment, David Owen, the author of The Conundrum, wins this edition’s “Genius” award.

Some examples of the green “conundrum”:

Idiot Award

This week’s Idiot Award was a tie, so the idiots will have to split the glory – the winners are the Polizia di Stato and the Agenzia delle Entrate (Italian Police and Italian Revenue Agency). In an era when racial profiling is considered very politically incorrect, apparently vehicular profiling is perfectly okay.

Ferrari Drivers Beware!

In Italy, if you are out driving in any type of expensive vehicle, the police will pull you over, check your registration, then call the Italian tax authorities, and check to see if your reported income is sufficiently high to justify you driving a nice car. At first, I actually couldn’t believe this, but European socialism seems to have few limits. I’ve heard Marin Lawrence talk about being pulled over for DWB (National Security), but it’s a whole new thing to be pulled over for DWS (Driving With Style).

Here’s the video: