The mainstream debate today is on the various levels of current taxes: income, sales, property, gasoline, etc... What has been missing from the debate is a debate on land value taxes. Thomas Paine wrote "Men did not make the earth. It is the value of the improvements only, and not the earth itself, that is individual property. Every proprietor owes to the community a ground rent for the land which he holds."

President Obama has landed in Russia for his first visit to the country as President -- let's hope it doesn't end like the last one as US Senator, when he was detained with Senator Lieberman at a regional airport after a nuclear missile inspection.

A full transcript of remarks yesterday by Rep. Peter King (R-N.Y.) about the media coverage of the death of Michael Jackson.

The Federal Trade Commission has proposed to mandate disclosure of connections between bloggers and advertisers (those selling stuff) under its Section 5 authority, which enables the Commission to prohibit "unfair or deceptive acts or practices" in commerce. There's been significant fear and loathing of this proposal. At a recent legal meetup in NYC, I suggested that there may be a barrier -- Section 230 of the CDA -- to the FTC's enforcement of this move.

While running errands with someone who banks at Chase, the teller made a bit of small talk as she typed numbers into the computer. As the teller kept asking innocent questions along with questions regarding the deposit my friend was making, she inquired in the same pleasant friendly tone that had been there in her earlier small talk about what my friend did for a living.

Karl Marx famously wrote that "Religion is the Opiate of the Masses" in the last but one century. His ideas have since been taken and turned into a kind of religion, one he declared he didn't believe in; he once said (and I haven't the original to hand, so to paraphrase) "I'm not sure what a Marxist is, but I'm fairly sure I'm not one." I wonder whether Che Guevara might say much if it were possible to ask him about the T-Shirt wearing mob of fans he seems to have acquired.

Here Comes Everybody is a book about how technology has already changed society in irrevocable ways, and why you need to recognise that -- whether you're a TV critic unwilling to admit that his job's worthless, a dictator who needs to start worrying about Twitter or, say, a 30-year old journalist who really should be thinking about getting a new job.

The BBC News reports that the European Space Agency's Planck observatory, which was launched along with the Herschel telescope in mid-May, has reached its rather chilly normal operating temperature, '273.05 degrees Celsius ('457.7 F), just 0.1 C above absolute zero (0 Kelvin). It will attempt to make the most precise measurements yet of the oldest "light" in the universe, the Cosmic Microwave Background, left over from a short time (in cosmic terms) after the Big Bang, when the nascent universe had cooled enough (to about 3000 K) that electrons and protons could combine to form hydrogen atoms.

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.

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