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Discovery News | Supposedly, new 'spy scopes' will not spy on other nations, but instead spy into the deepest regions of space.

nytimes.com | Grave dangers posed by governments that manufacture and release viruses on the Internet.

NEW YORK (AP) -- President Barack Obama sought to take advantage Monday of the fundraising prowess of former President Bill Clinton, the most reliable deliverer of Democratic dollars, despite their history of testy relations and differences on campaign tactics....

NEW ORLEANS (AP) -- Kevin Costner's attorney claims his client's fame is the only reason why a fellow actor, Stephen Baldwin, sued him over their investments in a device used to try to clean up BP's oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico....

Responding to criticism of his notorious push to outlaw the sale of large sodas in New York City, Mayor Michael Bloomberg penned a defensive op-ed for USA Today, in which he completely fails to appreciate why he’s become a national laughing stock, as well as the living symbol of the creepy nanny state:

The initial reaction to our proposed portion cap on sugary beverages follows a now familiar pattern. But here are the key points. The increase in sugary drink consumption is the largest single cause of the rise in calories in the American diet in the last 40 years. Many studies show consumption of these beverages is linked to weight gain and obesity, and more recently, diabetes and heart disease.

Other studies show that people given larger portions simply consume more without noticing it or reducing calorie consumption at subsequent meals. And portion sizes of sugary drinks have ballooned drastically over the last 50 years, from 12 ounces to 32 ounces for a large beverage at a typical fast-food restaurant, not as a result of consumer demand but because of corporate decisions.

Together, these facts strongly suggest that if people are served smaller portion sizes of sugary drinks, they will consume less, gain less weight and be healthier — and we may just start to reverse the catastrophic epidemic of obesity.

What all of the Mayor’s favorite studies do not suggest is any reason why a politician should assert the power to over-rule the free choice of his constituents, in the name of saving their fat butts from the depredations of their empty little minds.  Nor does anything in the Mayor’s defense suggest a limit to his benevolent tyranny.  In what other ways can this self-appointed crusader against corporate greed and individual folly step into the lives of his subjects, to impose his prescriptions for a healthy lifestyle?

“Under our proposal,” writes Bloomberg, “people could still choose to drink as much soda as they want. If 16 ounces (promoted as enough for three people in the 1950s!) is not enough, people could purchase two portions.  Is that too much an inconvenience to reverse a national health catastrophe?”

Since when is a politician’s notion of acceptable “inconvenience” supposed to be the limit of government power?  On Monday, the U.S. Supreme Court upheld the right of another city, Indianapolis, to cheat certain homeowners because they were foolish enough to pay a huge sewer assessment up front, while those who chose long-term payment plans found the balance of their debt forgiven after just one year.  The Supreme Court ruling said that requiring the city to treat all residents equally, by refunding overpayments or collecting the full outstanding debts it decided to forgive, would prove unacceptably inconvenient for the government.  It looks as if the people are supposed to be far more worried about inconveniencing government than vice versa.

Bloomberg’s soda ban is just one sobering reminder that independence and responsibility are inextricably linked.  If people don’t want to accept responsibility for their actions, they must sacrifice their liberty as well.

This is the great challenge facing the European Union, where some member states have discovered that international welfare comes with strings attached.  Independence must be sacrificed to centralized authority in Brussels (which, as some in Greece, Spain, and Italy are grumbling, appears to be located right next to Berlin) before more bailout money will be tendered.  Those on both sides of this argument have reasonable points.  Who wants to give up national sovereignty to a trans-national bureaucracy, forever placing important aspects of civic life beyond the reach of local voters?  But why should the European Union finance further life support for dying governments that feel free to discard austerity measures, at the pleasure of their restless populations?

In the United States, liberals have spent generations selling the illusion of “independence” without responsibility – the promise of government benefits provided at no great cost to individual liberty.  This illusion shattered forever when the American Left finally achieved its dream of government-controlled health care.  The true cost of dependency could no longer be concealed.  The Catholic Church is no longer free to follow its religious conscience.  Contrary to President Obama’s assurances, you don’t get to keep your old plan if you liked it.

The War on Obesity is still fairly young, as political crusades go, but it has spotlighted the loss of liberty that inevitably accompanies dependence.  If the government is to be held accountable for financing your health care, it must have power over your life, in order to keep those socialized costs down.  Once the basic premise of socialism is accepted, and everyone is collectively obliged to pay for everyone else, this only makes sense.  Why should healthy people be forced to subsidize the poor lifestyle choices of soda-swilling, fast-food-gobbling couch potatoes?

The government is in the process of outlawing risk, by forcing some citizens to bail out others.  President Obama openly rails against the notion of government abandoning its hapless citizens to face the consequences of their actions, decrying his opponents’ putative “you’re-on-your-own economics.”  When central power overrides the judgment of the free marketplace, the result is a dissolution of consequence, which means diminished responsibility… and the contraction of liberty.  A free man is responsible for his choices.  A servant has neither choices nor responsibility.

“Rather than wringing our hands about the obesity epidemic, we in New York City are once again taking action to improve the lives of our residents,” declares Chief Nurse Bloomberg.  “History will likely bear out that once the controversy dies down, we will look back and wonder why we did not do this sooner.”

More to the point, there will eventually be no purpose in complaining about it, because you’ll never get your lost choices back.  You will be expected to grow comfortable with a more limited range of motion, within the perpetually shrinking cage your betters have designed for you.  You will become steadily less responsible for your life, and the lives of your children, which is very soothing.  You’ll also be less free, by definition, as your “unacceptable” choices are taken away.  It is widely assumed that Americans are no longer the sort of people who grow angry over such things.

MADISON, Wis. (AP) -- The battle over Gov. Scott Walker's agenda has attracted millions of dollars from out of state, campaign volunteers from across the country and months of concentrated attention from the two major political parties....

Live Science | Scientists' findings are "a step toward creating partly synthetic living organisms."

A month after Nadya Suleman took her clothes off for an adult video, the octuplets mom has accepted a job dancing topless at a Florida strip club, her representative said Monday.

Douglas P. Horne | The windshield in evidence today at the National Archives is not the windshield that was in the Presidential limousine.

Shaun Ainscough scores a hat-trick and Luke Gale kicks seven goals as Bradford hang on to win a thriller against Castleford.

TG Daily | Drones will allegedly gather information about hurricanes.

TRIPOLI, Libya (AP) -- Libya's government has retaken control of the country's main airport from disgruntled militiamen who stormed the Tripoli site with heavy machine guns and armored vehicles on Monday, Libya's interim leader said....

TRIPOLI, Libya (AP) -- Libya's government has retaken control of the country's main airport from disgruntled militiamen who stormed the Tripoli site with heavy machine guns and armored vehicles on Monday, Libya's interim leader said....

TRIPOLI, Libya (AP) -- Libya's government has retaken control of the country's main airport from disgruntled militiamen who stormed the Tripoli site with heavy machine guns and armored vehicles on Monday, Libya's interim leader said....

LAGOS, Nigeria (AP) -- A crane hoisted the tail section of a commercial jet from the smoldering debris of a shattered neighborhood Monday in a search for the dead from a crash that killed all 153 people aboard and an unknown number on the ground....

JERUSALEM (AP) -- When Sandra Tamari arrived at Israel's international airport, she received an unusual request: A security agent pushed a computer screen in front of her, connected to Gmail and told her to "log in."...

JERUSALEM (AP) -- When Sandra Tamari arrived at Israel's international airport, she received an unusual request: A security agent pushed a computer screen in front of her, connected to Gmail and told her to "log in."...

JERUSALEM (AP) -- When Sandra Tamari arrived at Israel's international airport, she received an unusual request: A security agent pushed a computer screen in front of her, connected to Gmail and told her to "log in."...

NEW YORK (AP) -- When President Barack Obama's re-election campaign unveiled its new slogan, some conservative critics were quick to pounce....

BALTIMORE (AP) -- A campus police report describes a Maryland student accused of eating a slain man's heart and brain as a "Virginia Tech waiting to happen."...