Is "free" too much to pay for online music? In October, the critically acclaimed group of Internet entrepreneurs known as Radiohead released its latest album, In Rainbows, in digital format and invited fans to download it from its Web site. The price? The completion of a registration form, plus whatever you feel like paying. Five dollars? Great! Zero? That's fine, too.

In an information age when we're required to hand over confidential information to make a purchase, drive a car, or visit a doctor's office, our privacy is being relegated to the junk heap of antiquated, obsolete ideas. Nowhere is this more evident than in the telecommunications industry, where technological breakthroughs that add convenience to our lives are simultaneously giving corporations and government agencies almost unlimited access to our most private moments.

The Consumer Price Index (CPI) is the central statistic the federal government uses to calculate inflation. The CPI is a statistic used by the government to track the cost of goods and services. Beginning with the Jimmy "I will never lie to you" Carter administration, food and energy were removed from the CPI because of the volatility in pricing of these items, but that has since been extended to include anything that reflects unstable or volatile pricing. This was done because this volatility in pricing interfered with long-range projections concerning inflation.

Illegal immigration is one of our country's most divisive, intractable issues. The Simpson-Mazzoli Act of 1986 was supposed to solve it, but illegal immigration has continued to increase. This year's attempt to craft comprehensive immigration-reform legislation blew up in Congress. Given the record of failure for effective comprehensive reform, perhaps it is time to address the problem in incremental, piecemeal proposals.