"It is error alone which needs the support of government," Thomas Jefferson once said. "Truth can stand by itself." On the morning of June 21, Americans witnessed two truths. The first was that the creative mind of an engineer could fly into space at almost three times the speed of sound.

Without variation and with omnipresent intensity, the single cure to every natural, economic and political calamity is said to be civil dialogue.

So what exactly is on your computer? This is a troubling question for millions of Americans whose home computers have been hijacked by viruses and spyware. To remedy part of this widespread problem, a bill endorsed by California Republican Mary Bono and New York Democrat Ed Towns that would try to ban spyware is working its way to Congress.