Orange County Register, Dec. 4: The newspaper industry is struggling with Internet competition, declining circulation and a tough revenue picture, which is threatening the stability of the industry and harming the public’s ability to get important news and information. And it’s hard to overestimate the importance of the news industry in ensuring that the electorate is well-enough informed to make wise decisions in the voting booth. Therefore, we believe Congress should provide tens of billions of dollars in loans and subsidies to newspapers, in order to …

Hold on. Stop dialing our publisher’s number, and take a deep breath. We are only kidding. As important as we believe the newspaper industry to be, it’s even more important that the government stays out of our business. Newspapers, which are slogging through a tough economic environment, would lose their independence – not to mention their entrepreneurial zeal – if the government were to come in and bail us out. And private companies must live or die with private funds.

So, now substitute the term “newspaper industry” with “automobile industry.” The basic principle is the same, isn’t it? Why should taxpayers be forced to bail out U.S. carmakers, who are once again going hat-in-hand to Congress?

Yes, the public needs automobiles, but there always will be someone to provide them. It makes no difference, from a public policy standpoint, whether General Motors, Ford or Chrysler provide the cars or whether Toyota, Honda or some yet-to-be-known Indian company makes them.

Congress needs to tell the automakers that it feels their pain, pat them on the back and send them back to Michigan empty-handed. Maybe once the executives are sure that there are no subsidies coming they will get back to the business of making and selling world-class automobiles.

The Washington Post, Dec. 5: There was a plan for a transit line linking Dulles International Airport to Washington as early as 1962 – when Virginia Democratic Gov. Timothy Kaine was 4 years old. In the nearly half-century since, the proposed rail link, now projected to cost $5.2 billion, has teetered on the brink of demise more than once, most notably last January, when federal transit officials warned that they would not fund the line without drastic design changes. Since then, Kaine and a bipartisan coalition of regional leaders have lobbied federal officials furiously to revive the project. Their efforts paid off this week when federal regulators approved the extension.

The revival of the project represents a triumph of bipartisanship. Republican Sen. John Warner pressed the administration; Kaine revised the project’s plan to meet federal requirements; GOP Rep. Frank Wolf secured millions of dollars in appropriations to keep the project afloat; Democratic Sen.-elect Mark Warner and then-Rep. Tom Davis, R-Va., were also strong advocates. Transportation Secretary Mary Peters would have preferred more private investment in the line, but she kept an open mind and ultimately made the best decision for area residents.

The federal government will contribute $900 million to the project. State transportation dollars are scarce, but the project could receive an unexpected assist if Congress approves an economic stimulus package with a sizable transportation infrastructure component.

Anchorage Daily News, Dec. 5: The Department of Veterans Affairs Alaska Region offered some striking numbers this week about veterans in Alaska. One number jumped out.

Nationwide, an estimated 50 percent of recent veterans who would qualify for mental health care don’t seek it.

One of the reasons, said Reed Dyer, an outreach coordinator with the VA in Anchorage, is that there is a stigma attached to mental health care. Active-duty troops and veterans who wouldn’t dream of ignoring shrapnel in a shoulder might not seek help with post-traumatic stress disorder, or PTSD. They fear losing status in the military or in the civilian world, or they feel shame or embarrassment.

There should be no stigma. As Dr. Joe Pace, a VA psychiatrist and 20-year Air Force veteran, said earlier this year, PTSD and other mental health problems from service in and around combat are normal reactions to abnormal situations.

Like physical wounds, some psychological wounds go deeper than others. Those that go deep are like their physical counterparts – left untreated, they get worse.

Pace pointed out that in his active-duty experience, troops who came to him for help of their own volition usually were able to resolve their problems without needing to inform a commanding officer. Those referred to him by a commander usually had let the problem grow big enough to notice, big enough to disrupt family life and job performance.

The lesson: Treat the trouble early on; the wound will be easier to heal, exhibit fewer symptoms and be less likely to recur.

Los Angeles Times, Dec. 4: In a valedictory interview with ABC News, President Bush has come closer than ever to acknowledging that the U.S. invasion of Iraq in 2003 was a mistake – but not close enough.

Asked if he would have led the nation to war if U.S. intelligence had concluded that there were no WMD, the president reverted to the annoying equivocation that has characterized his reactions to other administration missteps. “That’s an interesting question,” Bush replied. “That is a do-over that I can’t do.”

Of course Bush can’t un-invade Iraq, but you don’t have to be capable of time travel to admit that discrediting the principal justification for war also discredits the war itself.

It might seem churlish, at this late date, to ask Bush to make a frank confession that a war that has killed more than 4,200 Americans was based on a mistake.

Still, welcome as his latest remarks are, they fall short of the recognition of reality that would have been cathartic for Bush and for the nation.