My Sick Mind

News Item: The Postmaster General says that the United States Postal Service will be broke by August 2012. Supposedly, if the economy doesn't improve or Congress doesn't act, our mail will cease to be delivered a year from now. Phooey! That's a classic cry for help, and he'd have been better off keeping his mouth shut. Why? Because there is plenty you don't know about the United States Postal Service, not the least of which is how they deliver the mail. A few years ago, I found myself in a Center City bar sitting next to a FedEx pilot (off duty, I presumed) who related to me the details of how anything that the Postal Service gets winds up on a FedEx plane. I started out by kidding him about how he liked the movie "Cast Away," and one thing led to another. It turns out that I learned a valuable lesson before the beer got to me. That's right kids, it pays to drink. FedEx has a partnership deal with the USPS to fly their stuff around the wor...

Our postal service is in trouble again, and as usual, they're going to lean on us: WASHINGTON - The post office is renewing its drive to drop Saturday delivery — and plans a rate increase — in an effort to fend off a projected $7 billion loss this year. Without drastic action the agency could face a cumulative loss of $238 billion over 10 years, Postmaster General John Potter said in releasing a series of consultant reports on agency operations and its outlook. "The projections going forward are not bright," Potter told reporters in a briefing. We have heard this before, and especially over the past 10 years. The U.S. Postal Service is dying, a victim of both bad management and lack of demand for their services. I defend them all the time, but it's growing stale. Routinely someone else's mail is left in my mailbox, and I can't help but wonder how many times my mail has been left in others' boxes. It stands to reason. It's kind of a simple job, and ...