Brian Gongol
As we celebrate Independence Day, a question: Is it our job as Americans to spread the values of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness to the rest of the world? And if that's our job, how should we do it?
It's not a small question -- at least 1.4 billion people still live under Communist rule, and hundreds of millions more live under theocracies, dictatorships, and military juntas.
One of the ways we discussed spreading those values is by simply knowing how to communicate with other countries, especially our neighbors here in the Western Hemisphere. Of course, that means knowing Spanish. One caller brought to our attention the Xochipilli Children's Center, where she sends her English-speaking daughter for combined English and Spanish instruction.
Our Yay Capitalism prize goes to Verizon, which is suing local governments to break up the monopolies those governments grant to Internet-access providers.
China's Communist government want to prohibit news reporting about disasters, in yet another example of the intellectual dishonesty they have to maintain in order to stay in power.
And our update this week about making money: Some thoughts on why gimmicks and tricks are worthless in the world of online advertising.