Reason magazine has been predicting the end of the postal service so long that even another 2-cent increase for stamps can't get it that excited these days:
As Associate Editor Katherine Mangu-Ward said in a post two years ago, "Reason has been predicting the imminent demise of the post office since at least the '80s, so I suppose we'd better not get too cocky just yet."
Both the best boss and the worst boss I ever had were women, which I offer as my credentials for being fair-minded about this issue (or at least as fair-minded as a man can ever be). The New York Times is really stirring the workplace pot with its article on women bullying women at work.
Observations such as these:
Brave police officers in Bismarck protect North Dakotans from killer comedian:
Anna Quindlen makes a whole big Old-Fogy-Steps-Aside and Passes-Along-the-Torch deal out of quitting her very part-time gig of writing one lousy column every two weeks for Newsweek. But at least she leaves me a going-away present, a sentiment so manifestly wrongheaded that it has to be answered:
Feliz Cinco de Mayo! Or, as the president likes to say, "Happy Cuatro de Cinco!"
On the eve of the Mexican holiday, Obama on Monday had an event in the East Room of the White House with Mexico's Ambassador Arturo Sarukhan (sahr-oo-KHAN').
Supreme Court nomination hearings are fascinating looks at how the judiciary (often the most important force in our lives) is shaped. And the hearings for whomever President Obama selects to replace David Souter should even be fun, since they won't really matter. Souter is a liberal justice, and Obama will try to replace him with a liberal justice.
Justice Antonin Scalia recently made some remarks that seemed to indicate a less-than-concered attitude about privacy and its possible invasion:
Every single datum about my life is private? That's silly," Scalia [said]. . . .
Scalia said he was largely untroubled by such Internet tracking. "I don't find that particularly offensive," he said. "I don't find it a secret what I buy, unless it's shameful."
Indiana has had its first case of swine flu confirmed. so, naturally, drastic action is called for. The state has now activated its Emergency Operations Center.
Some will be pleased and some horrified that the Supreme Court let stand the Federal Communications Commission's change of rules on bad language -- especially but not confined to the "f" word and the "s" word. Even if their use on radio or TV is fleeting and unanticipated, the FCC can still levy heavy fines not just on the program where the offense originated but on all affiliates that carry the offending program.
Washington Post and syndicated columnist Richard Cohen has an interesting take on torture and expresses a view that needs to be heard more often in the debate that too often focuses on utilitarianism -- let's not torture anybody, but let's not pretend that such restraint will somehow makes America safer:
