Americans have always evinced some distrust of government, but the current situation has exacerbated this to a degree that may be unprecedented.

History is replete with examples of empires mounting impressive military campaigns on the cusp of their impending economic collapse.

There are more people at Obama's table offering ideas than there were five years ago, but when it came to facing up to the Republicans' threat to force a double-dip recession if they didn't get their millionaires' tax cut, they still amounted to nothing. And therein lies our fundamental problem.

Fox News is nothing if not impressive. No matter how harsh the criticism it endures, the network somehow always manages to prove itself even worse than we had previously imagined.

Whether one agrees or disagrees with the tactics of the Occupy Wall Street movement, it's easy to understand the inspiration for its anger as well as its impatience.

Americans have always evinced some distrust of government, but the current situation has exacerbated this to a degree that may be unprecedented.

Face it, the system is rigged, and it's rigged against us.