In difficult budget times such as these, government must be creative in order to preserve essential services and maintain our quality of life. There is a consumer-friendly solution to a problem many of you have been facing: the problem of long lines at the Registry of Motor Vehicles.

In recent days, there have been four major events with the potential to dominate news coverage for many, many days: the off-year elections, the Fort Hood shootings, the House passage of Obama-PelosiCare and the rise of unemployment to 10.2 percent. In most discussions - in the papers, on television and on radio - unemployment has ranked fourth among the four. The others were newer, or more immediate, or more compelling, at least for a while.

It is not often that a sappy show on TV spurs me to write a column about something, especially if that something happens to be one of the Ten Commandments.

WASHINGTON Unfortunately, the government's decision to prosecute the mastermind of the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks in a civilian court and the prospect of an eventual traumatic trial of the mass murderer of 13 persons at Fort Hood, Tex., hold the distinct possibility of exacerbating already virulent anti-Muslim sentiment in this country.

Gov. Rick Perry of Texas recently joined commentators Rush Limbaugh, Patrick Buchanan and others in using the word "socialist" to describe President Barack Obama and his policies, and we all know what's coming: a verbal bombardment.

While we are all sympathetic to State Senator Eldridge's recent bout of ill health, careful readers of his comments in last week's newspaper ("Politician to patient," Nov. 8) should take the opposite lesson from his subsequent therapeutic regimen than he apparently has.

For a couple of months there, it looked like insurers might be able to use your credit scores to help figure out how much to charge you for auto insurance.

I'm not Joe the Plumber. I'm Pete the Architect from Massachusetts, and I just read a disturbing article in the Wall Street Journal about Senator Reid's proposed 40 percent tax on health insurance plans over $8,000. I live in that sole state where universal health care is guaranteed by the legal requirement to buy health insurance, or else pay a tax, fine, penalty or whatever they call it if you "chose" not to buy it.

It was an unusually quiet election: just a handful of yard signs, only one face-to-face debate, mediocre turnout, no incumbents defeated, few bumper stickers or direct mail pieces. Meanwhile, our flood tide of illegal immigrants is beginning to ebb, while home foreclosures, commercial real estate vacancies, and unemployment are still on the rise.

I'm no big fan of capital punishment, but it's hard to argue that John Allen Muhammad didn't deserve to die last week. Much more than most murders, his were particularly meaningless. And they were thoroughly public: for three weeks in 2002 some citizens in the Washington metropolitan area were paralyzed with fear, and nearly all were seriously uneasy during any public activity that could expose them to a sniper's bullet. Some just stayed home.