Free Talk Live

By James Bovard -- The U.S. Postal Service announced plans this month to phase out overnight delivery of first-class mail. Postal officials are portraying the decision as a painful but necessary budget-induced departure from a long history of exemplary service. In reality, the Postal Service has been intentionally slowing down first-class mail for almost 50 years. It’s time to end the post office’s monopoly on letter delivery.

A driver of a white Prius with a giant, red plastic flag affixed to its side is rolling through the hilly streets of San Francisco, undelivering mail from mailboxes. The driver is not a thief. He and the car are part of a startup called Outbox that is attempting to pick up where the embattled United States Postal Service leaves off -- by digitizing physical mail. The driver, dubbed an "unpostman," visits Outbox subscribers' homes three times a week.

The federal government's mail transport and delivery agency this week said it will roll out a line of apparel and accessories it plans to sell in department and specialty stores. The "Rain Heat & Snow" brand of clothing, named after the Postal Service's motto trumpeting its carriers' determination to overcome whatever Mother Nature can throw at them, would put USPS in the "cutting edge of functional fashion," it said.

U.S. Postal Service suuuuucks!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

If you want to mail a letter in Sugar Hill, N.H., you’d better be quick. The town’s postal unit has cut its hours to a mere 30 minutes per day, sparking outrage from the rural community’s 563 residents that has now caught the attention of the state’s two U.S. Senators. The Postal Service announced in May that instead of eliminating up to 3,700 post offices, it would instead reduce their hours of operation from 8 hours per day to between 2 and 4 hours, but only after holding community meetings.

The oft-maligned U.S. mail is actually quite well-run. Politicians steered it into the ditch
By John Tierney

Postal worker on tape displaying his eye for providing superior customer service and taking special care with a package

After cashing a postal money order, David Lipin tried using one of the eight $100 bills at the gas station and was nearly arrested. Even the Secret Service couldn't help him replace the bogus bills.

Coming soon to a neighborhood near you! -- Since the only thing rapid about “snail mail” is the speed it’s fading into disuse, no one should be surprised at the growing number of abandoned post offices. These once-proud centers of commerce and communication are, one by one, following video rental stores and record shops into irrelevance and extinction.