For the crowd in Washington and about 40% of the rest of the country, the government is god. Pay to it, and it will give you things.

Somehow people defend borrowing 40c of each dollar the country spends as a good thing. Right now these people seem to be in the majority, or close to it. I'd say we're already off the cliff, and our free fall is just beginning.

In addition to the ever increasing cost of an education, the more people with college diplomas brings the value of each diploma down a bit. It's called supply and demand. If everyone has a diploma and a mountain of debt it will be more difficult to pay that debt because any jobs available are seeing dozens of job seekers. A few years ago when college diplomas were more scarce there might be just a few people applying for a certain job, and it would probably pay more that the same job today with 100 applicants vying for it. Since it is relatively easy to get college loans, colleges have no incentives to watch costs, and costs have soared. No matter. Students can get their loans, get their diplomas and be out the door.

From what I read, Bin Laden did little more than hide in his compound watching videos of himself. He wasn't leading or influencing anything.

How can Obama be expected to know where he was born? He was just a baby and only had his mother's word about it. Maybe she lied when she told him he was born in Kenya.

I have lived in Shenzhen for nearly 3 years. Few trust the stock market, so they invest in real estate. The housing bubble is huge here. Many young people own 3, sometimes 4 or more apartments, thinking they can only go up in value. When these people see the value of their investments get cut in half, I am wondering what will happen. There is already a lot of social unrest her that is never reported in the papers.

The U.S. used to be where the drained "brains" ended up, but not so much any more. I suspect most end up in Asia.

Anyone who has bought groceries, clothing or gas knows there is real inflation in the country. The only thing that keeps the CPI down as low as it is, is the price of housing. Housing values make up 41% of the CPI. Once house values stop dropping, we will be in for inflation that will make us yearn for the good old days under Carter when it was 16%. Tangible assets like gold are looking better all the time.

I'm sure Iran is quivering in its boots. This is only the 99th time such a threat or implied threat has been made.

I recently drove through Hendersonville, NC where I grew up, but haven't visited in 30 years. I was impressed that the largest, newest and finest buildings in the country were government buildings. There was a giant new Court House, and equally large Sheriff's Department. There was a huge new Human Resources building (whatever that is), and well as dozens of large, new schools with all the amenities. There were many smaller, but equally nice government buildings scattered around the county. The only new buildings by private concerns were lawyers offices. This is another way the public servants serve themselves before they serve the taxpayers.