In 1803 the British posted sentries on the cliffs of Dover to watch out for an invasion by Napoleon. Until 1945, 134 years after Napoleon’s death, the guards were still on the job. This episode is an extreme elaboration of one of C. Northcote Parkinson’s famous laws: Action expands to fill the void created by […]
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‘First Class’ Review: Undeliverable Obje
In 2021 the United States Postal Service booked a $4.9 billion net loss. The USPS also reports that it has more than $120 billion in unfunded liabilities in pensions, retiree health benefits and other debts. To conserve cash, the agency has quit making payments on some of these obligations, and its perennial deficits likely portend […]
Should we expand the House of Representa...
Are you one of the 77 percent of Americans who disapprove of the job Congress is doing? Well, some very smart people have a solution for you: We need to add more politicians to Washington. Funny, right? But once you finish snickering and actually think hard about the idea, it does not sound so crazy. […]
Are our elections policies fueling toxic...
“Politics ain’t bean bag,” quipped the late 19th century, fictional barfly and political analyst, Mr. Dooley. That is an eternal truth about American politics, wherein combatants have deployed everything from lies to bribes to fists, clubs, and even “violent laxatives” to win office and get their way. Yet, last year’s invasion of the Capitol along […]
Does being an elite mean never having to...
I nearly got run over by truck when I was out for a jog last week. A guy in a pickup truck rolled through a stop sign and into the crosswalk right as I was about to cross. Somehow, I was able to throw on the brakes and avoid slamming into his fender and either […]
Congress must ensure Postal Service can ...
The U.S. Postal Service says it is ready for the holiday season and its crush of holiday cards and packages. “We’re going to kill it,” said Postmaster General Louis DeJoy. The agency desperately wants to avoid a repeat of the poor showing of December 2020. A tsunami of 1.1 billion packages hit the USPS’s logistics […]