It is hard to believe at first, but once you think it through it makes perfect sense. Big Business loves Big Government and vice-versa. Big Business wants the government regulations and taxes to be so massive that it prevents any new businesses from competing in the market. Why spend your money on expensive things like Research and Development which may not work? It is much easier and cost effective to accept regulations and taxes that prevent anyone new from joining the marketplace. This is how California works. The only businesses that are thriving there are the large corporations because they can get political favors, exemptions, and loopholes put into the laws. A small business has no chance of survival because they can't pay for environmental impact studies, regulation fees, and the "just because we can" fees to get their operation up and running.

Big Government prefers Big Business because when it wants a policy decision implemented it is much simpler to call three or four executives then it is trying to call a few thousand who will most likely think your policy is horse puckey. The government loves the largest businesses because they are the ones who can pay for the lobbyists and junkets while the small guy is lucky to send them a pencil in the mail. There is no incentive for any politician to pay attention to the little guy.

What would be nice is if we would retaliate. Cyber-attacks are relatively cheap to do, have no cost in human life, and are completely deniable thanks to the anonymity of the internet. I am not sure how effective it would be because North Korea has around 10 computers.

The larger issue is that this is China's doing. The Chinese know they are the top-dog right now. Their economy, industrial base, and people are all extremely strong and the rest of the world is run by a bunch of wimps. They really have nothing to fear. Until America is willing to give up its cheap shoes and gadgets this will not change. It is truly sad that we are causing our own destruction because of a lack of leadership from both parties and the apathy of most of the population.

The attack that was described in the article runs something like this. Each time your computer goes to a website it tells the computer it's talking to that it needs their attention. During a normal day the remote computers like Yahoo!, Google, or the sites in the story can handle it. What they are talking about in the article is that a computer virus (a small program) told a whole bunch of computers (Probably in the tens of thousands at the minimum) to ask for the attention of the remote computer. Because you have thousands and thousands of requests for attention at the exact same time and continuously, the internet computer can't handle it and slows down or crashes.

You forgot to mention that the bill also made war illegal. I bet they were surprised that all the wars didn't stop because they passed a law.

I was taught by my mother that you are judged by the company you keep. When Obama was elected we were told that the company he kept was unimportant and if you forced it to be important you were a racist. If you kept at it you were given an extremely weak excuse saying that it was because Obama had to become part of the Chicago machine to advance his career but he was completely clean despite swimming in a sea of sewage.

Fast-forward to today. Whenever a democracy has needed help he has either said nothing or rebuffed them. Israel certainly comes to mind. The protests in Iran he sided with the existing government instead and was forced a week later into saying the government was being mean. Now we are on the same side as Castro and Chavez? Look at the company you are with and see if you are on the right side of the fight.

I understand am not as much of a genius as Obama so what he is saying isn't making much sense to me. Perhaps someone can explain. He openly declares that America will no longer meddle in the internal affairs of sovereign nations. After this statement he tells Israel to make a two state solution and stop building settlements. He then makes this statement again when the protesters are calling for new elections in Iran. After this he seems to go back to meddling with countries in demanding that Honduras reinstate their ousted President. Does flip-flopping more then once cancel out the previous flip-flops or are you supposed to keep score? Either he is trying some convoluted shell game that is as intricate as something out of Ocean's Eleven or he has no idea what he is doing.

It was Splash with Tom Hanks.

I am a non-traditional student as well and it sounds like we are the same age. The way I deal with it is the same way I deal with the dentist. It's painful,, makes you want to spit, but a small amount of pain now allows you to live a happier life later. I know if I suffer through the flotsam now I can become a teacher later and instruct people on how great America is. America might have her faults, but I would stack our history against anyone else anytime.

Last semester was the hardest for me, because I had the most liberal/socialist/anti-american professor in the state of Texas. The entire semester I was bombarded on how terrible conservatives, Christianity, Capitalism, and America are. From how our Founding Fathers created the Constitution solely to protect rich white men, to how Christianity is hurting America, to how the modern Conservative movement is identical to the Nazi party. He said those exact words in class. Lord knows I wanted to prove him wrong, but it would have been a Pyrrhic Victory. I would never change his mind, and my grade would have been in Jeopardy. It was very hard, but in the end it is worth it. I took comfort in knowing that I was an undergraduate who knew more about history then the pompous gas bag at the front of the class.

I know the MSM's memory is bad but this is bad even by their standards. Last week they were proclaiming that the Cairo speech started this entire thing. That because of Obama's words he lit a spark for the embers of freedom to spread like wildfire across the area know for tyranny. Let's take the fire analogy further. Like any spark it needs fuel to grow, and the only thing we were providing was water to the regime to douse the flame. If we weren't helping the firefighters we were starving the fire with our inaction or tepid answers. Obama, it is time to make a line in the sand. Hell, I would be somewhat mollified if you even went somewhere that had sand. What I would like from you is to pick a side and stick with it. No more changing teams halfway through because the other side is winning. I never expected the Iranian Revolution to come about but with our ineptitude and inaction we will never know.

102+ for as far as the eye can see here in Texas with high humidity. It is usually a sauna by 7:00 am.