Get rid of the Post Office

The U.S. Postal Service has lost $2.6 billion so far this year.

The Dutch postal service:

Every week Dutch households and businesses are visited by postmen and postwomen from four different companies. There are the ‘orange’ postmen of the privatised Dutch mail company, trading as TNT Post but about to change their name to PostNL; the ‘blue’ postmen of Sandd, a private Dutch firm; the ‘yellow’ postmen of Selekt, owned by Deutsche Post/DHL; and the ‘half-orange’ postmen of Netwerk VSP, set up by TNT to compete cannibalistically against itself by using casual labour that is cheaper than its own (unionised) workforce. TNT delivers six days a week, Sandd and Selekt two, and VSP one.

Two of my favorite authors: Orwell and Forster

Some snippets from two most enjoyable book reviews.

From a review of George Orwell's Diaries:

Orwell on politics, “The real division is not between conservatives and revolutionaries but between authoritarians and libertarians.”

From a review of E. M. Forster’s journals and diaries:

The reason for E. M. Forster’s apparent abandonment of fiction after the publication of A Passage to India in 1924 is now well known: “Weariness of the only subject that I both can and may treat – the love of men for women & vice versa”. Forster had written down this explanation in June 1910 in what became known as “the Locked Diary”. This notebook, which could indeed be locked by a clasp and key (occasionally mislaid), was used by Forster between September 1909 and June 1967 to record those thoughts and observations he wanted to keep private. It now forms the “central column”, as he puts it, of Philip Gardner's very welcome but problematic three-volume edition of Forster’s journals and diaries.
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As he wrote in the Locked Diary: “I should like to record – and why not here – that during nearly 70 years I have been interested in lustful thoughts, writing, and sometimes actions, and do not believe they have done me or anyone else harm”. He also wanted to record (in the section excluded by Gardner) “how annoyed I am with Society for wasting my time by making homosexuality criminal”.

Levi Johnson in Sarah Palin's crosshairs

Levi's new book, Deer in the Headlights, will be published in September. There's no doubt that he is very pretty but he also seems to be pretty dumb. The title alone is not at all flattering.

Aaron Schock's sixpack

Ripped Rep’s Abs Send “Schock” Through Capitol Hill:

Photos of Republican lawmaker Aaron Schock, R-Illinois, are creating buzz today after the youngest member of the House of Representatives was photographed for the cover of Men’s Health magazine showing off his washboard abdominal muscles.

Schock, who is 29 and not married, is featured in a spread pushing the two-term congressman’s challenge to Americans to lose weight and get healthier this summer with a Take the Fit for Life Summer Challenge.
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The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC) quickly jumped on the sultry images with its own photoshopped version of the magazine cover that pokes fun at Schock and asks "Who Needs Medicare When You’ve Got Abs Like These?"

The DCCC is also working to discredit Schock for his vote in favor of H.R. 18, the GOP’s FY2012 budget resolution that aims to transform Medicare. The measure passed the House in a partisan vote April 15, and is expected on the Senate floor in the coming weeks.

It must have been a real slow news day. Schock says he's a "conservative Baptist" and denies being gay.

Aaron Jon Schock (born May 28, 1981) is the United States Representative for Illinois's 18th congressional district, serving since 2009:

He is a member of the Republican Party. His district is based in Peoria and includes part of Springfield. At the age of 29, Schock is currently the youngest U.S. Representative and one of the first members of the U.S. Congress born in the 1980s. Previously, Schock served two terms in the Illinois House of Representatives, and was its youngest member.

This photo proves that he's not gay. No self-respecting circuit queen would be seen dressed like this - not even in Peoria: