The rumors of our death have been greatly exaggerated.

The United States still makes many things, and is still one of the worlds largest exporters, with over $1 Trillion in exports in 2009.

See:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_exports

http://www.wto.org/english/news_e/pres10_e/pr598_e.htm

It appears that cars accounted for 11% of those exports:

http://www.trademap.org/tradestaz/Country_SelProductCountry_TS.aspx

Yes, sometimes I'm immature. But it's fun to find Easter eggs like this:

How do you know that I'm not a replicant? Maybe you are just dreaming, and we're all just figments of your imagination.

Blade Runner: Re-imagined, by J. J. Abrams
Blade Runner 2: Starring Arnold Schwarzenegger
Blade Runner Prequel: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blade_Runner#Prequel

Here's an article that describes another reason for the cuts. There does seem to be alot of back and forth regarding this system.

http://www.insidegnss.com/node/1806

President Obama is influential, but he isn't capable of time travel. President Bush scheduled the dismantling, President Obama continued that recommendation. Both the Coast Guard and the DHS said they didn't need LORAN-C, so why maintain it? It smells like pork.

This dismantling was already scheduled by the previous administration, according to the FA.

The Department of Homeland Security last year started a painful upgrade to LORAN-C, adding modern electronics and solid-state transmitters, despite the fact that in 2008 President George W. Bush signed a law that scheduled the system's dissolution.

http://www.navcen.uscg.gov/Loran/default.htm

The DHS and Coast Guard both said they didn't need LORAN-C. From http://www.navcen.uscg.gov/Loran/default.htm :

The Homeland Security Appropriations Act for Fiscal Year 2010 allowed for termination of the LORAN-C signal on January 4, 2010, after certification from the Commandant of the Coast Guard that it was not needed for maritime navigation and from the Secretary of DHS that it is not needed as a backup for GPS.

And shortly afterward, plants surrounding the funeral began to wither and die from a exotic new fungus.

Is this an intentional cyberwarfare, or is a botnet simply doing what it's programed to do? In many of these cases, I doubt that the human controller behind the botnet cares about most of this activity. Your target isn't juicy enough, yet.

I'm sure that streamlining the regulations will help a little, but I'm not convinced that regulations have contributed to the cost significantly.

My real question is why didn't the Republicans propose these changes when they had more power and when they had a friendly president? They saw the problem, and what did they try to do to help to contain costs back then?

This isn't exactly a new problem. My health insurance premiums have been rising by $1000 a year for a long time. The average health care plan costs $14,000 a year for a family. Eventually my employers will be unable to pay for this coverage.

Each year the insurance companies cover less and less (My family has typical needs).

The grass on the other side of the Atlantic doesn't seem green at all. Looks more like rotten.

The grass was denied individual insurance due to pre-existing conditions, and the employer had to drop coverage because the costs of premiums increased from $5000 in year 2000 to over $16000 this year.

Meanwhile, Congress sat on it's hands and did almost nothing to help deal with the costs which were spiraling out of control.

"It originally clocked in at 861 MPH"

WOW!!! That's some seriously astonishing speed at 2,752 miles per gallon! My 30 minute commute just dropped to just under 2 minutes! Take the top off and I won't even have to bother drying my hair after I get out of the shower. The constant windburn would probably result in some ointments, but it's probably worth it. Even if it only holds one gallon of gas, I'd only have to fill up every 2 months! Take _that_ big oil, I'm sold!

If you think the use of the word 'cyber' is bad, check out this video promoting "Cyber ShockWave". It's produced by Bipartisan Policy Center, the organizers of the event.

The video is like something out of a bad action movie.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8xpV5JjnEdE

Because there is often another employer willing to hire at a higher price point.

I hear many people complaining about H1B workers, but I have yet to run into a conflict myself after 13 years in this industry (I'm also not over 40).

I could be wrong, but H1B workers seem to work in many of the low-level and entry positions. Workers over age 40 often aren't applying for those positions.