In today's International Herald Tribune Kevin J. O`Brien writes:

Verizon on Wednesday chose two equipment makers, Ericsson of Sweden and Alcatel-Lucent of France, to build the first ultra-high-speed mobile network in the United States.

The point that this illustrates is how greatly lacking our country has become in the area of being able to develop the most relevant infrastructure of the day on our own. Spain lost its power to England when they used the profits they plundered from the new world to buy ships from England. Of course the English built better ships for themselves and thus moved to the forefront of the main infrastructure consideration for that age. The much heralded fourth Generation mobile information networks will be as important in this era as maritime superiority was centuries ago.

We have long given up being the technological power of the world. Letting Japan and India take over the precision manufacturing sectors. Asia has become automotive leader of the world while Detroit slides onward to its Doom. Now Europe is stretching the lead in mobile information technology. We cannot continue to imagine our economy will ever recover when we produce nothing; when we take back seat on the relevant innovations of the day.

We have become the arrogant bloated nobles we once fought to reject. We demand tribute and trifles from every corner of the world so we don't have to remove our obese backsides from our thrones. We produce nothing but movies and video games and porn (and even most of that is being outsourced to Eastern Europe and Japanese Animation studios) Amusements for our own amusement. We suddenly wonder why there is no money left in the coffers. We have sent it all over the world, along with all the jobs that once made our middle class the envy of all nations.

We can all the hear the screams now. The chorus sounds of aristocrats being loaded in the jaws of Guillotine, pigs in the chute, sheep in the dip are all over the place. We wake in cold sweats with the screams of our own slaughter echoing in our ears and know that we have done this to ourselves. The next time you hear some conservative talking head or columnist expound on the absurdity of government spending money to upgrade our national information networks, remember that us not doing it for ourselves means letting the French do it for us.

"... Doom Doom Doom, go home now!"

- Mrs. Bitters, Invader Zim