On this 4th of July, Department of Interior Secretary Ken Salazar officially reopens to the public the Statue of Liberty's crown, a powerful symbol to the nation and the world of American ideals and hopes. Meanwhile, in the American West, his Bureau of Land Management is detailing plans for the extermination of a different but equally powerful symbol of the American spirit, the wild horse.

A hero of mine cannot march today, as she lost her life while flying for the Army years ago. Since then, many have fought hard for recognition for her supreme sacrifice. It's been overdue. It's so wonderful now, that in time for this 4th of July, President Obama has signed into law a bill that makes certain that my Aunt Mabel Rawlinson, fallen hero, will receive the Congressional Gold Medal.

Like the proverbial broken clock, even Charles Krauthammer gets it right occasionally, if not twice a day. On Thursday, Krauthammer dismissed Governor Sarah Palin 24 hours before her surprise resignation as "not a serious candidate for the presidency."

Sarah Palin's decision to quit with 18 months left in her first term as Governor of Alaska is perplexing. The move seems to highlight her weakness as a national figure -- the fact that she is unqualified for the presidency.

With very little fanfare, one of the beginning pieces of the online world we know today has gone away. As of June 30, the Compuserve Classic service ceased operations as an ISP. Compuserve was one of the pioneers, along with Delphi, of on-line services for the general public.

It is our patriotic duty to honor our Founding Heroes, America's greatest hemp growers. George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, James Madison -- virtually all Revolutionary Americans who had access to land -- embraced hemp's critical role in our early economy. ccordingly, they raised it in mass quantities.

It is a national shame that mining companies are allowed to blast America's oldest mountains to smithereens -- all for the sake of dirty coal. Indeed, it is unfathomable that here in America, where the Adirondacks are adored and the Rockies are revered, that the Appalachian Mountains -- older than the Himalayas and so integral to our nation's heritage -- are steadily being reduced to lifeless moonscapes.

Eric Steuer has interviewed Caterina Fake, one of the founders of Flickr, on sharing. More specifically, Fake talks about changing expectations around sharing media and why websites need to adapt to those changes.

There was once a baker in the town I lived in. He and wife and two daughters each evening mixed the dough, let it ferment, and in the wee hours of the morning lit his oven with firewood to bake fresh and fluffy breads. He then delivered the labor of his love to his customers in the town on a bicycle, with a rubber horn heralding his arrival at the crack of dawn.

Earlier this week, the Kansas City Star had an article about a test project being done at the University of Iowa to examine the practicality of having a vehicle tax based on the number of miles actually driven: The year is 2020 and the gasoline tax is history. In its place you get a monthly tax bill based on each mile you drove " tracked by a Global Positioning System device in your car and uploaded to a billing center.

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