The Week

■ Worried about its competition, the U.S. Postal Service has invoked the law to put out of business a messenger service in Charleston, S.C., namely Kenny Maguire, 14, who had been delivering wedding invitations and such in his neighborhood for 5¢ to 8¢, which rate the Postal Service can’t match. Kenny had made $4 in June and was up to $10 in July when the Feds finally nabbed him.

■ “The New Right: A Political Blight”—so reads the cover of this August’s Federationist, the AFL-CIO’s monthly magazine. (Lest you miss the point, the graphics people supplied a small, white map of America, engulfed by menacing, Rorschach-like shadows.) “The New Right,” the Federationist concedes inside, “is far more pragmatic and intelligent” than past conservative “fringe” movements; but this only makes it more dangerous. Common situs picketing, the Labor Law Reform Bill, and the campaign to repeal the Hatch Act have all succumbed to the New Right’s evil eye; while the National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation has been advertising itself in such unlikely forums as Commentary, The New Republic, and The New York Review of Books. The Federationist concludes with a little old-time liberal base-stealing: “By imposing a divisive and antagonistic style and strategy into [sic] political affairs, the New Right has also revealed the shallow and distorted nature of its regard for democracy.” Democracy, in other words, is okay, just so long as you don’t antagonize us-folks.

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■ Worried about its competition, the U.S. Postal Service has invoked the law to put out of business a messenger service in Charleston, S.C., namely Kenny Maguire, 14, who had been delivering wedding invitations and such in his neighborhood for 5¢ to 8¢, which rate the Postal Service can’t match. Kenny had made $4 in June and was up to $10 in July when the Feds finally nabbed him.

■ “The New Right: A Political Blight”—so reads the cover of this August’s Federationist, the AFL-CIO’s monthly magazine. (Lest you miss the point, the graphics people supplied a small, white map of America, engulfed by menacing, Rorschach-like shadows.) “The New Right,” the Federationist concedes inside, “is far more pragmatic and intelligent” than past conservative “fringe” movements; but this only makes it more dangerous. Common situs picketing, the Labor Law Reform Bill, and the campaign to repeal the Hatch Act have all succumbed to the New Right’s evil eye; while the National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation has been advertising itself in such unlikely forums as Commentary, The New Republic, and The New York Review of Books. The Federationist concludes with a little old-time liberal base-stealing: “By imposing a divisive and antagonistic style and strategy into [sic] political affairs, the New Right has also revealed the shallow and distorted nature of its regard for democracy.” Democracy, in other words, is okay, just so long as you don’t antagonize us-folks.