Stamp of reality

In a capitalist environment, like ours is supposed to be, the market decides whether a business should survive. You don't make money, you change what you're doing or you go out of business.

Unless you're related to the government.

Postmaster General John Potter is asking Congress to allow the Postal Service to cut back to five days of delivery a week; it is currently required to deliver six days.

Of course it should cut back. It is withering on the vine. Letters and documents are exchanged by e-mail. Bills are received and paid online. Packages that absolutely, positively need to get somewhere in a timely fashion go by commercial carrier.

Congress should allow the Postal Service to do what it must to stay afloat.

Or sink.

Main Street economy

Things are tough all over, even here on Main Street. Our family is following the government's lead, however, in order to get to better times.

First, we're going to start spending more money. We'll improve our infrastructure by putting in new carpet and painting the kitchen. We will generate jobs by hiring contractors to landscape the yard.

To help cover those expenses, we will cut our income, just as the federal government is planning by cutting taxes.

We expect things to get much better as we spend more and more of the money that we are receiving less of.

Four More Months!

The good thing about all television going digital Feb. 17 was that we would quit getting all of the annoying reminders and warnings.

Was.

Monday, the Senate unanimously approved postponing the transition until June 12. The House is expected to follow with approval Tuesday.

Yep ... four more months of irritating graphics, lame commercials and unprofessional news show reports.

We've been getting those warnings for a year and still 6.5 million homes are not prepared.

Guess what. I bet millions still won't be ready in June. Maybe Congress will make it illegal for us to not be prepared. That should fix it.

Only in the U.S.?

Friday, in Dendermonde, Belgium, a man walked into a day-care center and started stabbing and slashing with an eight-inch knife.

A 9-month old girl, a 6-month old boy and a 54-year-old caregiver were killed. Ten other children were wounded.

An Associated Press story quoted a resident of the small city as saying, "We thought that things like this only happened in the United States..."

Painful, but true.

Saturday, in Wichita, Kansas, USA, a wake was held for an elderly woman. With a large number of people in the house, others arrived and started shooting, according to an article in the Wichita Eagle. Two people died and seven hospitalized -- one in critical condition and four serious.

No answers from this corner, just more questions.

Still victims

Heard on TV this morning and then read in the paper about an execution in Texas. Both named the murderer and mentioned that he killed "two people."

Here's an idea: Let's try to give the victims at least as much attention as the murderer. I'd rather we remembered them than the one who ended their lives.

Sen. Caroline Kennedy (D-Mass) ???

So, Caroline Kennedy has withdrawn her name from consideration as New York's replacement in the U.S. Senate for Hillary Clinton.

Theories range from concern about her uncle's health to her receiving information that Gov. David Paterson did not intend to appoint her.

Consider the thought that maybe she's planning to re-establish residency in Massachusetts in order to keep Teddy's seat in the Kennedy family. There, nobody will care about how she talks ... indeed, even about what she has to say ... only that her last name is Kennedy.

Welcome, President Obama

There is so much and so little to say about Tuesday's inauguration of President Barack Obama that I'm leaning toward the latter.

His speech, which I heard on the radio, stopped short of blaming the Bush administration for Hurricane Katrina, making it seem his definition of change may simply be "anything different from the past eight years."

I do believe and fervently hope that there rests within Obama and his staff an abundance of fresh, workable, winning ideas. Thankfully, he continues to stir the American people to act. Therein lies perhaps his biggest challenge, convincing them to take charge of their own lives.

Our prayers go with him.

PB blues

George Washington Carver has always been one of my heroes and only partly because he invented peanut butter.

Peanut butter is a wonderful food. You can eat it straight out of the jar or slathered onto a variety of surfaces. You can mix it with any number of things. It makes great cookies and contributes to wonderful candies.

And you can argue that it is good for you.

So, it is incredibly disheartening to hear that the Food and Drug Administration is encouraging everyone to lay off peanut butter until they track down the source and breadth of a recent salmonella outbreak.

My first thought -- driven, perhaps, by my love of peanut butter and the recent tomato scare that so widely missed the mark -- is to call it a knee-jerk reaction. However, reading that 470 sicknesses, 90 hospitalizations and six deaths have been linked to it, I must grudgingly admit that some precaution should be taken.

Fortunately, I have an almost fresh jar of Jif in the pantry.

Preparation behind the 'miracle'

Everyone seems to be calling it the "miracle on the Hudson," the safe landing of a jetliner on the New York river Thursday, but that description is unfair to so many.

I'm not saying there was no divine intervention, but the safe landing also was the result of planning and training.

The jet is designed to stay afloat in such a landing. Pilots train on how to safely set the plane down in water. Flight attendents must fall back on their training and take charge of the cabin to lead passengers to safety.

Finally, the ferries and boats that promptly responded to evacuate passengers played no small role in the potential disaster.

While we thank God for the end result, we also must thank the long line of people who have prepared for such situations.

Thoughtful justice

A Reuters story out of Lima, Peru, says a high court ordered a man get his government job back. He was fired for being drunk at work.

The court's logic was that, even though Pablo Cayo was drunk while working as a janitor for the municipality of Chorrillos, he did not offend or hurt anyone.

Or, as some say on the basketball court, "No harm, no foul."

With what little we've heard, I must side with the court. I'm assuming, of course, that the man does not have a habit of showing up for work while intoxicated.

The "no tolerance" mentality that trashes people for one mistake leads toward an ending where few people remain to carry on society's work. There are some things -- murder, rape, child abuse -- where justice should be black or white. However, most offenses deserve some consideration in the gray areas.

Peaceful exchange

The transition of power in the White House has been so smooth this time around and George W. Bush deserves a pat on the back for his effort.

Story after story out of D.C. has pointed out that Bush not only has wished Barack Obama well but helped make the move easy.

I appreciate the way both gentlemen have handled things.

We're No. 1?

Once again, we end the collegiate football season without a clear decision of which is the nation's No. 1 team.

Get used to it. Without a playoff, there will not be many clear-cut champions.

Oklahoma, which lost to Florida 24-14 Thursday night, is the only one of the top five teams that cannot offer an argument that it should be No. 1.

Utah was undefeated. Southern Cal had only an early season loss to Oregon State. Texas defeated Oklahoma.

I must join the crowd in calling for a playoff. Take 16 teams (there will be arguments over who is included, but they will be the lower teams) and do away with the six-week break between the end of season and the championship game. Use the bowl games in the playoffs, even if some must change their traditional dates. Shuffle around which bowls get which games.

It can be done. It should be done. Division One football deserves it.

Paging Dr. Gupta

Remember the John McCain campaign ad calling Barack Obama a megacelebrity and comparing him to Britney Spears and Paris Hilton?

For some reason, that came to mind when I read that Obama is supposedly considering Dr. Sanjay Gupta as surgeon general. Gupta, you may recognize, is chief medical correspondent for the Cable News Network.

OK, I know nothing about Gupta's qualifications. However, I can't help but question the wisdom behind appointing a celebrity as surgeon general. Qualified or not, it looks funny.

Lady in waiting

When I read that New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson withdrew his appointment as the next secretary of commerce due to an investigation into possible wrong-doing, my firest thought was that Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich could learn a lesson or two.

However, to be fair, there are considerable differences, not the least of which is that Richardson still has a job while Blagojevich is asked to give up his.

Then ... another thought.

Waiting in Santa Fe to take over the reins of New Mexico's government has been Lt. Gov. Diane Denish. The state's first female lieutenant governor would become its first female governor had Richardson been confirmed to President-elect Barack Obama's cabinet.

I can only imagine her personal disappoint in Richardson's situation.

Go, Go Robots

I enjoy hearing of NASA’s open-ended success stories, such as the fact that the Mars Exploration Rover Mission – robots Spirit and Opportunity – has marked its fifth anniversary.

At its inception, scientists were hoping for three months of activity before the Red Planet’s extreme climate struck them down. Recently, Spirit awoke from a winter break and responded to signals from the Jet Propulsion Laboratory.

Remember Voyagers I and II? They were launched in 1977 to explore the outer planets. This they did and now, 31 years later, they continue exploring beyond the solar system.

You’ve got to love these stories.

Getting Hosed

I see some of our governmental entities are talking about raising gasoline tax because we’re buying less gasoline and they’re having trouble paying for highway upkeep.

I’m not going to get into the fact that we spend way too much on highways, partly in an effort to make them safer for irresponsible drivers and partly to enable us to drive hundreds of miles without seeing a stop sign or signal, because an article by Reuters gets into another alternative – a mileage tax.

The idea is to have a GPS implement in your car that, every time you gassed up, would work out how many miles you’ve driven and what your mileage tax should be.

Man, what a relief! That means the folks who drive the heavy, gas-guzzling SUVs can offset their tax bill a little bit while those driving economy cars to keep down transportation costs help shoulder the load.

There are many disturbing things about the idea, but I will allow one exception. It may be appropriate to have owners of electric cars and, to a lesser degree, hybrid cars pay a highway tax of some kind and a mileage tax may be an answer.

Playoff perils

So, how bad is the economy? Look no further than Minnesota.

The Minnesota Viking football team, which boasts a rather proud history, is in the National Football League playoffs beginning Sunday.

However, as of noon New Year's Day, 8,000 tickets remained unsold and area fans are looking at the possibility of not being able to watch on television due to a league-mandated blackout.

That is difficult to imagine.

Count the second

Did it seem New Year’s Eve like you just couldn’t put 2008 behind you fast enough?

Sure, it makes sense, considering a weakened economy, wars around the globe, a tiring presidential campaign and trying to figure out why the Associated Press poll of 2008’s top stories included Hillary Clinton’s losing campaign but not Hurricane Ike.

However, there was a more concrete reason. Dec. 31, 2008, was extended by one second (just prior to 7 p.m. Eastern) to help keep the world’s finely tuned official clocks in sync with the world’s turning.

It was the 24th time since 1972 that such an adjustment was made.

As a youth, I was amazed by Leap Year – the fact that it occurred every four years except years divisible by 100 except years divisible by 400. Being calculated to the point of one day out of 400 years seemed pretty incredible.

But determining a one-second-per-year slowing in Earth’s spin is mind-boggling.