American consumers are enjoying the lowest long distance rates in history, and the lowest Internet rates in the world for one reason: competition. This merger appears to be a surrender. How can this be good for consumers? The parties will bear a heavy burden to show how consumers would be better off.

Outside of the killings, Washington has one of the lowest crime rates in the country.

Americans don't learn about the world; they don't study world history, other than American history in a very one-sided fashion, and they don't study geography.

These guys are excellent. They have a good history of starting Internet-based companies. The draw with them is their history of success.

The Internet has flourished as the most revolutionary communications medium in history, based on a model where carriers do not interfere or choose what people do online. Even simply picking winners among services threatens the basic Internet model of communications, where users get to decide which services are the most important to them.

As long as housing prices don't go down, consumers have more equity they can borrow against. If mortgage rates go up another 1.25 or 1.5 percent and pierce 7 percent -- watch out. That's when the housing bubble bursts and consumers would cut back on spending a lot.