According to the CTIA, a wireless trade organization, there were 1.8 trillion text messages sent in 2009 by US mobile device users. That figure represents nearly 6000 texts for every person in the country. However, since I don't text – the figure can slightly be downgraded. On the other, all indicators are that the rate of texting has increased over the past two years. Of that 1.8 trillion, one can only imagine how many times “what's up?” was digitally conveyed.

Before I proceed I will make the customary concessions. There are, of course, sensible and practical applications of this new-fangled technology. There are instances when a timely message cannot be received as a voice communication. A message sent by a phone can serve the same function as an email or a mobile device can tie into the internet and send an email. Unfortunately, in a decade or two we may have additional data available for the study of carpel tunnel syndrome.

Neglecting a balanced approach, North Carolina lawmakers have created a “fundamentally unbalanced” budget

RALEIGH (June 29, 2011) – State lawmakers passed a budget on June 2nd that will likely impede North Carolina’s fragile recovery, a report released today finds, and place additional pressure on local governments, communities and families across the state.

The $19.7 billion budget for fiscal year 2011-2012 fails to take a balanced approach to the state’s real fiscal challenges, a report from the Budget & Tax Center finds, and also reduces the state’s investments in public structures that support economic growth.

Anyone with kids tries to drill into them that their actions carry consequences, sometimes far into the future.

The same may apply to North Carolina legislators as they begin redrawing the legislative and congressional district lines which determine who votes for whom.

The process can be bloody, with legislative leaders and their map-drawing lieutenants "double-bunking" colleagues, drawing two incumbents into the same district.

Listen closely and what you will hear, beneath the babble of political chatter and other mindless political noises distracting you from what’s really going on, are the dying squeals of the Fourth Amendment. It dies a little more with every no-knock raid that is carried out by a SWAT team, every phone call eavesdropped on by FBI agents, and every piece of legislation passed that further undermines the right of every American to be free from governmental intrusions into their private affairs.

Incredibly, with little outcry from the populace, the lengths to which the government will go in its quest for total control have become more extreme with every passing day.