It is estimated that up to a quarter of all American households still owe more on their mortgages than their homes are worth. Many of these people have been able to refinance their home loans with much lower interest rates, but that does not solve the problem because they have a balance sheet problem rather than a cash-flow problem.

Those who owe more on their homes than they can sell them for, and who have little other savings or assets, are "locked in" to their existing homes.

Even if they have a better job offer in a location too distant to commute, they may not be able to take the job because they cannot afford the mortgage payments on their existing homes, cannot sell for a price higher than their mortgage, or cannot afford rent or house payments in the new location.

The Obama administration and the Federal Reserve are largely responsible for the problem.  Ironically, they too are locked in to an inescapble conundrum of their own making.

During his long career, Ariel Sharon built a lot of roads. As housing minister in the early 1990s and as national infrastructures minister in the late 1990s, Sharon played a key role in building everything from the Trans-Israel Highway to access roads to isolated communities.

Since he passed away on Saturday (1/11), his role in building Israel's national infrastructures has been widely noted. But no mention has been made of the final and most important road that he paved.

That is the road to Israeli sovereignty over Judea and Samaria.  Here's how it got built.

Can you name the worst tax? In recent weeks, there have been a slew of articles in major publications about how many multinational corporations have found legal ways to reduce their tax burdens by running some of their operations through low-tax jurisdictions. In response, those who love high taxes and big government demand that corporations pay more.

Economists dislike the corporate income tax because it reduces productive labor and capital and is an additional tax on income that has already been (or will be) taxed. Politicians love the tax because it is largely invisible to most voters. Because of tax competition among countries, corporate tax rates have been dropping globally, resulting in the United States having the world's highest rate.

Now the high-taxers are fighting back.  They need to be stopped.

Hitler’s infamous question is being asked anew by Moslem immigrants, characterized by French Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy as “thugs” and “scum,” now into their eighth day of violence in Parisian slum suburbs.

French President Jacques Chirac promptly condemned Sarkozy rather than the Moslem rioters. Such talk by Sarkozy – Chirac’s main political rival – showed a “lack of respect” for the rioters, which “could lead to a dangerous situation.”

Further confirmation that France is doomed.

Howdy, folks. I put this history lesson on telecom and how we got to this No Such Agency spying-on-everyone mess on the Forum, and both Jack and Skye bugged me to put it into a TTP article series because they said it was so good. So here we go with Part One.

It's long so grab a drink.

Edward "Snowjob" Snowden didn't really do anything other than give NSA's program a name: "PRISM". There are many such programs throughout the government.

There are various telecom laws that have been enacted since the 1934 Communications Act that enabled the government to do just what they have been revealed to be doing. So we'll start at the beginning in order for you to understand the fullness of how government bureaucrats justify infringing on your 4th amendment and 1st.