Hmm...I suppose I need to start this post with full disclosure. My opinion of this article is just that: my opinion. Even though I have done my best to look at this objectively, I understand that my perspective is shaped by my observations and experiences here. Even though I have not done complete and exhaustive scholarly research, I have thought long and hard about this and am not posting some knee-jerk reaction.
Also, after I started writing, I realized that this was going to be extremely long so I decided to break it into multiple parts.
Now that's out of the way, let's begin.
