I know I've written about this before but, reviewing last week's telecommunications subcommittee hearing, I am struck once again by the contradictory talk I keep hearing.

On the one hand, America loves competition. Lawmakers love competition. Market competitors love competing against each other. It's all good.

Except, of course, that's not really the way it is.

Again and again, lawmakers and federal agencies have chosen to protect competition between large firms, often at the expense of competition from small ones.

I wonder if you find that as peculiar as I do?

Isn't it odd that giant Verizon is happier about competing for high speed Internet access customers against giant Time Warner Cable than it is about competing with little XO Communications?

Think about that for a moment. Isn't it a bit like an elephant that's afraid of spiders?

We saw from last week's article on research recently released by the SBA Office of Advocacy that the same thing happens in the timber industry. History teaches us that it also happens in the automotive industry and it is currently happening in the oil industry.

Large companies seem much more worried about protecting their market share from smaller companies than they are worried about competing with the giant cousins. Go figure.

Perhaps the only thing odder than that is the fact that policy makers, deliberately or simply thoughtlessly, are inclined to protect those elephants from us spiders even while they prate on about the virtues of competitions.

I expect there must be some rational explanation for that.