Santa, baby

Another AP gem, this time reporting on the Post Office's decision to scrap Santa letters.

This is another zero-tolerance event that reminds us Dilly Do-Gooders of the need to be careful about what we wish for.

I am amused by the entire episode. It's what we deserve.


NORTH POLE, Alaska (AP) The Postal Service is dropping a popular national program begun in 1954 in the small Alaska town of North Pole, where volunteers open and respond to thousands of letters addressed to Santa each year. Replies come with North Pole postmarks.Last year, a postal worker in Maryland recognized an Operation Santa volunteer there as a registered sex offender. The postal worker interceded before the individual could answer a child's letter, but the Postal Service viewed the episode as a big enough scare to tighten rules in such programs nationwide.

People in North Pole are incensed by the change

North Pole Mayor Doug Isaacson agreed that caution is necessary to protect children. But he's outraged North Pole program should be affected by a sex offender's actions on the East Coast — and he thinks it's wrong that locals just found out about the change in recent days.

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