I’m perplexed at the response of people who were outraged when Spokane Public Schools omitted Christmas from a calendar of upcoming events. Why can’t they just accept this as an honest mistake? The entire winter calendar is built around Christmas. No other religious observance comes close to getting that level of consideration.

Is the suspicion that the district hoped students would show up on Dec. 25?

Guess I’ll never understand the defensive nature of people who belong to the overwhelmingly dominant belief system in this country. Hate to think how they’d handle being in the minority.

Good move. Spokane Mayor Mary Verner is asking city officials who are currently exempt from the city’s Ethics Code to sign a “commitment and compliance agreement” that would bind them to that rule. If you recall, this became an issue when Roger Flint left his job as the city’s public works and utilities director to take a job with the engineering firm CH2M Hill, which has contracts with the city.

The newly adopted ethics ordinance called for a one-year hiatus for former employees in doing work related to their city jobs, but because some workers were under personal services contracts that predated the ordinance, they were deemed exempt from the ethics code.

These top-level employees are the last people the mayor needs involved in potential conflicts of interest. It’s nice to see that the mayor recognizes that.

D.C. knows best. U.S. Agriculture Undersecretary Mark Rey stopped off at the paper on Thursday to promote the Bush administration’s policy prescriptions for the 2007 Farm Bill. He noted that the administration’s plans were based on the 4,000 public comments made at hearings around the country and that the two bills in Congress ignore some of those concerns.

I certainly agree with him that public input on such matters is valuable and that inside-the-Beltway officials are not smarter than the rest of us. But back when the feds asked for public input on whether roadless areas in national forests should be protected, the public overwhelmingly said, “Yes!”

The administration then dismissed the more than 1 million public comments in rescinding the Clinton-era protections.

Home economics. Given the considerable harrumphing over property taxes in recent days, I feel compelled to state the obvious to prospective homeowners.

History suggests that the house you are about to buy will go up in value. If so, your taxes will also rise. The 1 percent property tax cap will not prevent this. If this inevitability would be too much of a financial burden, do not sign on the dotted line.