Now this is fun…
I have received an unusually large number of responses to my article in the February 2005 issue of Wired Magazine about ending the Postal Monopoly.
There is a certain poetic justice about getting these by email (although, to be fair, I didn’t give out my home address.)
Usually, the hate mail to anything I write runs about 80/20. But in this case, I seemed to have touched a nerve of current and former postal workers and their relatives and people on their routes. Their carefully worded and spellchecked notes accusing me of being an f*ing idiot, moron and a*hole are easily running 99%, with an occasional whispered “I agree.” By the way, no where in the article did I say anything bad about postal workers, just the postal monopoly.
One guy in Anchorage, Alaska offered to let me do his mail route for a week (nice try.)
I would normally selfishly keep these to myself, but two stand out as extraordinary pieces of culture and paranoia, so I have decided to share them. Enjoy.
Andy Kessler
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To: “Andy Kessler”
From: “J.R.”
Andy,
Just read your running-dog lackey, effluvial spew about privatization.
When you’re done stroking off your privateering masters (who are probably paying you some stipend to “write” such gibberish), I hope you take a moment or two to research historically the vast benefits privatization has provided mankind so far.
Maybe Fed-Ex, founded by our president’s fraternity brother, could take over?
Let’s reduce the number of American jobs from 707,000 to a couple
latte drinkers or maybe red-eye drinkers, or Pabst drinkers.
Then the trains will really run on time.
Please don’t reveal your staggering ignorance of history by attempting to use terms like Luddite in your juvenile and Pavlovian “writing.” I have a call into Roger Ailes right now to see if there’s a spot for you at his news organization where such tripe is standard fare.
Counting the days until the truth commission puts you and your traitorous, sated, stroked-off masters where you belong,
J.R.
Los Angeles
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To: “Andy Kessler”
From: “Bruce M. “
Andy,
Saw your article on Rense.
What you don’t realize is that that the post office is the US Government’s way of registering the location of all people in the country. In the USSR, when somebody moved they had to (show their ‘papers’ and) register with the government. In the US one must also register with the government. We do it through the post office. And in most major cities, everyone who comes to a post office window is videotaped and is assigned a transaction number with a time attached. Therefore, every package over one pound is visually traceable to the person that mailed it. All money orders are visually traceable to the purchaser.
When was the last time on a TV show you saw some law enforcement person say check with the post office to find this person. They don’t, because this is one of the best kept secrets in the country. Every post office is computerized, and every letter’s address is read and sorted by machine. As a computer consultant, I can assure you that it is not difficult to collect this data into one large or several smaller regional databases. Or to skim the recipients names off of the address reading machine.
You cannot rent a post office box either at a private location or in the post office without showing proof of residence and giving that information to the post office/private mail box firm on the application form. It also requires a government ID. The government can walk into any private post office box service and examine all of their records and applications without a warrant under the guise of enforcement of postal laws. You can bet that federal law enforcement has access to all post office records.
Theoretically, one must have registered at the post office before one can receive mail at any residential address.
If you don’t think this is significant, talk to some of the seniors who have sold their house and live permanently in a motor home (full timers). The system simply cannot handle these people if everyone involved with them follows the law. It is legally impossible to live like this, especially if the motor home is owned by a corporation, which happens so they can be purchased in a state without sales tax. Think about the ramifications of being unable to receive mail without proof of a residential address.
People who want to receive mail outside this system usually use a company address, however nearly everyone working at a company has already registered with the post office so it is not difficult to trace them. I would imagine that there is some law that prohibits receiving personal mail at a corporate/commercial address. This would be unenforceable, but provides a source of criminal action to selectively prosecute when desired.
You might also consider that the goal of a certain group of people is to enact enough laws so that any person at any time could be charged for violating a law in their normal daily activities. Do something the government doesn’t like, you get picked up. A lawyer once told me that a crooked cop could follow the average person around with a video camera for one day and destroy their life for at least three years.
Hope you read www.Rense.com regularly for some real news.
Bruce
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