June 11 marks the 100th anniversary of the birth of explorer, scientist, and environmentalist Jacques Cousteau. Born in 1910, he served in the French Navy before and during World War II, and went on to invent the "Aqua-Lung" which revolutionized underwater diving and exploration. He became famous with the production of his television specials, including The World of Jacques-Yves Cousteau and later, The Undersea World of Jacques Cousteau.

Today he is viewed as a hero by many, and is fondly remember by the generation of Americans who as children in the 1960s and 1970s were transfixed by his television programs, which at the time were nearly as stunning to the imagination as the Apollo program. As such the media, in marking the anniversary of his birth, has a produced a swarm of articles fawning over Cousteau's admitted successes.

In its coverage, for example, Wired republished an article on its homepage from one year earlier calling Cousteau "Champion of the Wine Dark Sea” and remarking on the many honors he was awarded: "introduction into the Television Academy's Hall of Fame, the National Geographic Society's Centennial Award, the U.S. Presidential Medal of Freedom and France's Grand Croix dans l'Ordre National du Merite."

In China, one man has had enough. Yang Youde, who lives near the city of Wuhan, has had to begin defending his property rights with homemade artillery.

He's not fighting off who you might think. There are no roving gangs of thugs, no sneaky, shifty criminals eager to invade his home. No, privatized criminals like these present no threat to Yang. Instead, the threat comes from his own government.

According to London's Telegraph newspaper, Yang is fighting off developers who want his land. The paper reports: "Mr. Yang said the local government had offered him 130,000 yuan (£13,000) for his fields, on which they want to erect 'department buildings.' He said the land is worth five times that amount."

He is likely right. Wuhan is a rapidly growing city in Hubei province with a population of approximately 9 million. Many French firms have investments in the area, and the city is at the center of much economic and industrial development. To the government, Yang's modest holdings stand in the way of further "progress."

The Obama administration and the Democrats are openly hostile to the First Amendment. On that issue, here is the scoreboard so far:

1. In remarks to graduates of Hampton University on May 9, the President said that the free flow of information enabled by new technologies like the iPad "is putting pressure on our country and our democracy." 

2. At the White House Correspondents Association Dinner in May 2009, White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel joked: "When you think of the First Amendment … you think it's highly overrated."

3. The administration has repeatedly attacked those in the press it considers to be their ideological opponents, targeting Fox News and Rush Limbaugh, for instance.

4. Mark Lloyd, the associate general counsel and chief diversity officer (aka, the Diversity Czar) for the Federal Communications Commission wrote in his book Prologue to a Farce regarding freedom of speech and of the press that "this freedom is all too often an exaggeration. At the very least, blind references to freedom of speech or of the press serve as a distraction from the critical examination of other communications policies.”

Former Speaker of the House and probably future Republican presidential candidate Newt Gingrich has written a very interesting column for the Washington Post arguing in support of his position that the Obama administration is a "secular-socialist machine."

Appearing in the Post on April 23, Gingrich's column takes the form of a response to an earlier column by Norman J. Ornstein that argued that for most people, the Obama administration doesn't seem all that radical. "To one outside the partisan and ideological wars," he wrote in the WaPo on April 14, "charges of radicalism, socialism, retreat and surrender are, frankly, bizarre."

As it turns out, Ornstein's column was a response to an earlier statement by Gingrich to the effect that Obama is "the most radical president in American history."

What we really have here is nothing more than a little boys' grade school argument:

Gingrich: "He's radical."
Ornstein: "No he's not."
Gingrich: "Is too."
Ornstein (presumably): "Is Not!"

Gas is getting expensive again. A year ago, according to AAA’s Daily Fuel Gauge Report, the price of a gallon of regular unleaded was $2.051. That was a reasonable price, one, relatively speaking, that did not hurt American pocketbooks.

 

That’s no longer true. Since then prices have risen dramatically. Currently, AAA reports that the average price for a gallon of regular unleaded has hit $2.85. Of course, it could be worse. Just take a look across the Atlantic. In the UK, gas prices have reached truly terrifying levels. According to London’s Daily Express: “Unleaded hit an average of 119.9p a litre for the first time ever, breaking the previous July 2008 record of 119.7p. But some forecourts are already charging 131.9p a litre – just a penny short of the £6 gallon.”

 

To relate this to prices in the U.S., head over to a site like this one that converts currencies and you’ll quickly find that £6 works out to $9.22. Imagine filling up a big SUV in London — filling the 28-gallon tank on a new Ford Expedition would set you back a whopping $258. Sobering indeed.

For years government has been using declarations of eminent domain to seize private property and use it, supposedly, for the public good. It's a practice that has been abused, and is almost always controversial.

Now, one state proposes an entirely new use of eminent domain: take land from the federal government so that it can be developed by private ownership and investment.

The move comes in the state of Utah, where sixty percent of the state's land is owned by the federal government. Writing for journalist Steve Farrell's new pro-liberty news site, The Moral Liberal, Henry Lamb, author of The rise of Global Governance and chairman of Sovereignty International, noted that the measure, introduced in the Utah state legislator by Representative Christopher Herrod, was motivated by the failure of the U.S. government to live up to its obligations to the state of Utah: