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EU plans broad talks with Russia.

UN concludes Russia shot down an unarmed drone in Georgian airspace.

Obama urges graduates to enter public service. That's nonsense. Everything we have in America comes from the private sector. Everything. The private sector pays for those public service jobs, but those jobs don't produce anything. Other than combat service, there is no more noble or effective way to help your fellow man than to start a business and provide jobs. The more and better jobs, the better the benefit for individuals and society. Calls to public service are wasteful nonsense. Following enlightened self-interest is the best path to an enlightened society.

Bob Barr won the Libertarian Party nomination.

Mars Phoenix lander lands safely in arctic polar region. New pictures from Mars. This is kind of sad to say, but they look like all the other pictures from Mars. I hope this mission finds some water, or it will be a let down after Spirit and Opportunity. Cool picture of the Phoenix with its parachute deployed as it descends taken from Mars Orbiter.

Oprah lost 7% of her ratings this year. That's what she gets for injecting herself into politics.

These proclamations that such and such a technology will end (game) pirating always look so foolish shortly afterwards, though hardware will make piracy a lot tougher.

Wikileaks has released a bunch of pictures and videos from the Chinese crackdown on Tibetan protesters. These are not for the squeamish.

Comparison of the checks done on casino machines versus those done on voting machines. The voting machines are much less open. This pictures assumes that the government oversight of the casino machines is a good thing. I doubt it, but there certainly needs to be transparency, not government oversight but oversight by the people, in the voting machines. Open source would be best.

Nice picture of the public airwaves - the breakdown of the frequency spectrum by the FCC. This is how they justify their existence. Somebody has to manage it, right?

Secret laws are growing. It's kind of a paradox. How can we celebrate the rule of law, when we don't know the laws?

A bunch of funny photos of current politicians.

Amazingly prescient description of the current times from 100 years ago. Also interesting is what they got wrong. The pace of technological improvement is so much faster today that I doubt anybody could come anywhere near this close to predicting the world 100 years from now.

Democrats continue to ignore the remarkable progress in Iraq.

George Will reviews Cato's The Cult of the Presidency, explaining how we've elevated the office of the president to include the office of the pope.

Pro-gay liberal explains how same-sex marriage undermines the institution of marriage and child-bearing. This is why same-sex life commitments, while they should have all the legal weight of heterosexual commitments, should never be called marriage.