Brian Gongol
No money left for roads
The US Highway Trust Fund is going to be out of money by the end of the month, in large part due to the fact that gasoline taxes just don't work anymore. But in shifting to a per-mile tax (which will be the only reasonable way to get around the problem), Americans absolutely ought not to capitulate to liberty-infringing proposals like GPS tracking of our movement.
Inflation is underway
The M1 money supply (cash and bank accounts, mainly) has risen at an annual rate of 8.8% in the last three reported months. That's spooky, especially considering Milton Friedman's maxim that inflation is always and everywhere a monetary phenomenon. In other words, somebody is putting too much cash into the economy, and that's going to send prices higher. Sadly, this is happening at the very same time that China is dealing with its own inflation problem, as well as the trouble of dealing with the stability of the American bonds it has purchased in things like Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the collapse and bailout of which is unnerving to the highest degree. But it seems that it must be too much to expect any kind of analysis or even basic reporting on the matter to ever make it to most news outlets, since overinflated personality has replaced reporting at the cable news networks -- MSNBC, Fox, and CNN abandoning thoughtful reporting for Keith Olbermann's shouting, Sean Hannity's pandering, and Anderson Cooper's emoting.
The US can't win "hearts and minds" with sporadic, panicky attempts at public diplomacy
Freedom and liberty are appealing enough to stand on their own merits, without an outlandish effort to coordinate messages or promote an agenda. Telling the truth about individual liberties and powerful tyrannies should be enough. But we have to do it consistently, not just when the threat of terrorism or war looms. The BBC has been the voice of Britain to the world since 1932, to the extent that today, even many Americans are aware of it. The United States should place the highest of priorities on supporting the Voice of America and get immediately to work on making sure it can be heard reliably and easily throughout the world, especially in Latin America (which is far too often neglected in our day-to-day diplomacy and current affairs).
Commuter trains kill almost 11 people per day in Mumbai
It's more evidence that prosperity saves lives and poverty kills: By comparison, almost no one is ever killed on the New York City subways or on the London Underground.
Hurricane Ike could hit Houston as a Category 4
