For more from Daily News cartoonist Dave Granlund, visit www.davegranlund.com

The national economy is hovering on the brink of recession, foreclosures are hitting record levels and everyone feels the pain at the gas pump. But economics, like politics, is local. Here in MetroWest, the picture is less bleak.

Compassion is an essential element of justice, but U.S. Rep. William Delahunt's plea to free a Plymouth Marine convicted of murdering an Iraqi civilian is beyond mercy and sends a horrible message about what we will allow our military members to do in the name of combat.

Here's one way of looking at our solar system and our place in it: If the vast span of time between the two events that bookend the lifecycle of our solar system - that is, from its coalescence in a cosmic cloud to its destruction in the sun's final flameout - were telescoped into a single year, all of recorded history would be represented by less than a minute in early June. The entire 20th century would flash by in less than a third of a second.

First, we ought to stop calling them superdelegates.

It's too heroic, like it's their job to rescue the party, or the nation, from disaster. It sounds like they can leap tall buildings in a single bound - or crown the Democratic presidential nominee. They can't, at least not all by themselves.

The last time I witnessed a woman becoming a mother, it wasn't anything like the frilly sentiments of Mother's Day. She lay on her back, perspiring heavily and yelling, "Oh my God, why did you do this to me? I'll never forgive you in a hundred years. I hope you hurt like this someday. Give me another epidural, you sadists. And get this thing out of me!" and looking up at me as if she were burning at the stake and I had lit the fire. And when the Infant appeared and was placed on the Madonna's chest, she said, "What in the world am I supposed to do with that?"

An open latter to Governor Patrick and Senators Kennedy and Kerry:

Gentlemen: I want to draw your attention to a school committee forum that was convened here in Natick last Wednesday evening on May 7th. The topic of discussion was the reconsideration of the mascot name "Redmen," which for half a century has served to rally the sports teams of our town.

On the assumption that President Barack Obama survives for a full four-year term - for it is generally assumed that, as the first African-American president, he will face a higher than average risk of assassination - what changes will he bring to the United States and the world? It is remarkably difficult to say, for no president since Lyndon Johnson has come to office with so few commitments to specific policies.

At a time that awareness of child abuse is at a pinnacle, and the Department of Social Services is justly criticized for mishandling some cases, it says something that the agency has to practically beg the public to step up to the plate and sign up to become foster parents.

The conversation continues at Holmes & Company, an new blog that is the online cousin of the Daily News Opinion pages.  Editor Rick Holmes and a wide range of commentators  opine on a wide range of topics - and readers can weigh in as well.