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Apollo BBS Archive - April 18, 1988
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Message: 3328
Author: $ James Taranto
Category: Chit-Chat
Subject: Cliff's name
Date: 04/17/88 Time: 22:00:43
I suspect it will be a long winter in hell before any of us finds out.
Message: 3329
Author: $ James Taranto
Category: Chit-Chat
Subject: TNR excerpts
Date: 04/17/88 Time: 22:09:48
....Now that first-class postal rates have gone up for the fifth time
in 11 years, discontent is reaching new heights. As if on cue, the Reagan
Administration has come up with a proposal for reform. The President's
Commission on Privatization has urged repeal of the private expres statutes,
the 1845 laws that guarantee the U.S. Postal Service a monopoly on first-
and third-class mail. And James Miller, director of the Office of
Management and Budget, has seconded the motion. What the USPS needs, he
says, is the invigorating force of competition.
It is tempting to dismiss this idea as another manifestation of the
administration's undiscriminating passion for free enterprise. But this
time the Reaganites are right. Monopoly has been a bad thing for the U.S.
mail....
....[Postal officials] say that on the whole the USPS has performed
admirably, and cite figures intended to dispel the common impression of
inexorably growing inefficiency. Since 1971, the year after the postal
service was reorganized from a government agency to a semi-autonamous body,
the consumer price index has risen 274 percent, while first-class postage
rates have gone up 275 percent. The real cost of mailing a letter, in other
words, hasn't changed. True enough. But what kind of organization is it
that boasts about not having *lost* productivity in the course of 17 years?
This is an especially pathetic boast in view of the unusual opportunities
for productivity growth during this period; relevant new technologies have
emerged, and mail volume has roughly doubled.
To be sure, postal officials have their share of excuses for the
stagnation. Powerful unions have prevented layoffs and raised the salary of
the average postal carrier or clerk to about $27,000. According to one
study (paid for by USPS management), that's about 20 percent higher than
market value for comparable jobs. The unions attribute the difference to
"wage discrimination" against black women and men in the private sector. An
alternative explanation is that private sector workers--black or
white--don't have the luxury of belonging to a monopoly union that
negotiates with a monopoly employer. Hence the logic behind the
administration's proposal: if management has no incentive to bargain hard
with labor, provide one in the form of competition.
....USPS officials--while conceding that first-class delivery has
slowed a bit since 1960--proudly note that of roughly 80 billion pieces of
first-class mail handled last year, about 90 percent were delivered on time.
Well, that's better than, say, 50 percent, but it isn't the kind of
performance that would land a CEO on the cover of Forbes. And remember, the
official definition of "on time" is ludicrously loose; the post
office's "three-day standard" for coast-to-coast mail refers to the time a
letter takes to travel from one post office to another. Throw in some time
spent sitting in a bin at each end, and you have "on time" letters taking a
week to get from sender to receiver.
Faced with these and other unpleasant truths, postal officials fall
back to another line of defense. At bottom, they say, the argument isn't
about economics or efficiency but about political ideals: the government
should maintain its monopoly in order to keep the American people bound
together with the common denominator of the mail....yes, of course a
well-run company could successfully compete with the post office; but that's
because the company would exploit lucrative inter-urban routes and
neglect--or serve only at exhorbitant rates--farms and small towns in the
hinterland....
But the truth is that modern American culture is not in desperate need
of a unifying force. The Founding Fathers established a government postal
service to link different regions of a young country, but today linkage is
provided by, among other things, television, telephones, highways, and
planes. Granted, no one, in a nation founded on the principle of easy
access to diverse opinion, should on grounds of geography be denied access
to magazines, newsletters, or even junk mail. But there is no reason to
believe that in even a fully privatzized postal system anyone would be cut
off completely or more than a handful of people would pay prohibitive rates.
(Federal Express, whose core clientele is a quite narrow slice of the
population, nonetheless serves 98 percent of American addreses.) If it
turns out that exposing the postal service to competition--and granting the
freedom to set variable rates--leaves 5,000 Americans paying $20 for a copy
of Newsweek, then the government can step in with targeted subsidies to keep
rates below some ceiling....
Would competition be the death of the USPS? Ironically, an argument
commonly invoked by postal officials against deregulation suggests not.
They contend that the postal service is a "natural monopoly"--that, just as
it would be wasteful of society's resources to privatize electrical service
and have legions of underground cables snaking redundantly alongside one
another, it would be hugely expensive to have five times as many letter
carriers pounding the same millions of miles of sidewalk every day. To the
extent that this logic is valid, postal officials have little to fear from
competition; given the immense postal infrastructure, and the high cost of
replacing it, a USPS not burdened by regulated rates should be able to stave
off competitors.
It may turn out, though, that pavement-pounding is the only part of
postal service that is so resistant to competition....Perhaps, then, a
deregulated postal system would be comparable to the present phone system:
long-distance information transmission would be competitive, while local
transmission, for sound economic reasons, was still monopolized. So the day
may come when we buy our stamps--for something less than 25 cents--from
companies that contract out pickup and delivery service to the postal
service, whose letter carriers will still be clad in the traditional blue.
The USPS's role will then be confined to the corridoors between dorrstops
and those army green drop boxes on street corners. This will be just as
well, as this area is one of the few within which the postal service can
plausibly claim competence.
The preceding messages are excerpts from "Mail Menopause," an unsigned
editorial on pp. 7-9 of the April 25, 1988, issue of The New Republic.
Message: 3334
Author: $ Paul Savage
Category: Chit-Chat
Subject: last few
Date: 04/18/88 Time: 06:28:03
James, you're getting almost as bad as Apro Poet. Not having any original
thoughts of your own, you quote extensively from other sources of
misinformation and present it as fact, without apparenty even bothering to
verify the validity of the statements made.
In so doing, you have totally ignored some of the facts and figures I
placed on this board the other day, most notably the figures on postal
productivity. Your writer wrongly states that productivity in the Postal
Service is stagnant, and indicates that it is barely surviving, when in fact
just the opposite is true. As I pointed out, mail volume since 1971 has
increased more than ten times the rate of posal employment, and that spells
greatly increased productivity! When we have some 7% increase in employment
handling some 70-80% increase in volume, it means that mal handled per hours
worked has to show a marked increase. WHere your writer gets his figures
from is anybody's guess, but I expect they must come from a source similiar
to our late unlamented governor's bag of tricks.
Message: 3335
Author: $ Paul Savage
Category: Question?
Subject: Cliff?????
Date: 04/18/88 Time: 06:29:28
If it's not Kolostow, what is it? Legally, that is. And why in the world
would you change the name by which you are so famous? (Or is that infamous?)
Message: 3336
Author: $ Apollo SYSOP
Category: Chit-Chat
Subject: Change Name...
Date: 04/18/88 Time: 11:01:39
Well, I don't want my Dad to find me anymore when I move here
next.... and frankly, I HATE the name... (problably because I hate my Dad.)
Cliff....
Message: 3337
Author: $ Apollo SYSOP
Category: Chit-Chat
Subject: Post Office...
Date: 04/18/88 Time: 11:13:26
Paul, we know the mail volume has increased in the last ten years
ten fold, but that is mostly JUNK mail. I would rather pay a LARGER
fee to mail if it would rid the system of all this garbage mail and so would
many others. I have seen guys rip up checks they were getting thinking it
was junk mail, just because there is so much, who can wade though it all.
I do not think a private company could do any better, but I knotice
I get far more mail in little "Body Bags" than in years past.... again
because there is so much JUNK mail... how do we "the Private Sector" get it
across to the USPO that we would like it done away with? If the USPO would
charge FULL rate to the big mailers, just maybe it would filter out a few,
and the USPO would make more on the one that would still mail no matter what
the fee.
I don't mind paying for a service that I get, but I resent paying
for service I don't get. Restore QUALITY!
$tatus Club Bulletin Board command:EA
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Subject:JT/Winter
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1: I don't believe that hell has a Winter.
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Message: 1225
Author: $ Beauregard Dog
Category: Cosmos-Chatter
Subject: Commercials
Date: 04/17/88 Time: 21:10:10
This is an anarchy, though (though admittedly a small island in an otherwise
dictatorship)
Rev. Beau
Message: 1226
Author: $ Ann Oudin
Category: Cosmos-Chatter
Subject: Cliff/commercials
Date: 04/18/88 Time: 09:57:20
No - don't do away with the commercials. I for one want to know what you
have on sale and what you have stocked in the store. =*--ANN--*=
Message: 1227
Author: $ Michael James
Category: Cosmos-Chatter
Subject: one-balled mouse
Date: 04/18/88 Time: 14:51:04
I think that's required to run Unix.
Home of the Nuts Bulletin Board command:$C
Message: 302
Author: $ Apollo SYSOP
Category: Rockets
Subject: Motor Mount
Date: 04/17/88 Time: 17:43:25
I have the Motor Mount spacers done....
Pick them up James....
Message: 303
Author: $ James Hawley
Category: Answer!
Subject: Cervelli
Date: 04/17/88 Time: 21:41:22
That's not how it supposed to work, but if he really wants a refund, *I'll*
give his $20 back.
Message: 304
Author: $ Nick Ianuzzi
Category: Crazy Chit-Chat
Subject: last
Date: 04/18/88 Time: 02:19:44
Let me put this another way. I think Peter would really like to attend the
launch, and he's wondering if it can be postponed.
Message: 305
Author: $ James Hawley
Category: Answer!
Subject: Last
Date: 04/18/88 Time: 03:26:58
I'm not sure. Can't HIS trip be put off? (It's a JOKE!)
We should come up with ONE date and keep it. Plus it's possible that if we
change the date, Pat Lamanuzzi may not be able to attend. (And he is
helping out with the camera, 1/2" launch rod, and tracking equipment.)
If a majority of paying members want it so, I have no problems.
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Message: 51792
Author: $ Jim Lippard
Category: Chit Chat
Subject: last
Date: 04/17/88 Time: 14:57:52
Isn't that the organization Deanna Kahn works for? She's the woman who
wrote a letter to the Arizona Republic claiming that the amount of
plutonium that was supposed to have been on the space shuttle Challenger was
enough to kill every man, woman, and child on the planet (implying that
had it been on board, life as we know it would have come to an end).
Her factoid is correct, but only in the same sense that a box of straight
pins is enough to kill every man, woman, and child on the planet (i.e., if
properly distributed through the population).
Message: 51793
Author: Apro Poet
Category: Politics
Subject: The Prince
Date: 04/17/88 Time: 18:01:54
And one of the most potent remedies that a prince has
against conspiracies, is that of not being hated by the mass
of the people; for whoever conspires always believes that he
will satisfy the people by the death of their prince; but if
he thought to offend them by doing this, he would fear to
engage in such an undertaking, for the difficulties that
conspirators have to meet are infinite. Experience shows
that there have been very many conspiracies, but few have
turned out well, for whoever conspires cannot act alone, and
cannot find companions except among those who are
discontented; and as soon as you have disclosed your
intention to a malcontent, you give him the means of
satisfying himself, for by revealing it he can hope to
secure everything he wants; to such an extent that seeing a
certain gain by doing this, and seeing on the other hand
only a doubtful one and full of danger, he must either be a
rare friend to you or else a very bitter enemy to the prince
if he keeps faith with you. And to express the matter in a
few words, I say, that on the side of the conspirator there
is nothing but fear, jealousy, suspicion, and dread of
punishment which frightens him; and on the side of the
prince there is the majesty of government, the laws, the
protection of friends and of the state which guard him.
When to these things is added the goodwill of the people, it
is impossible that any one should have the timerity to
conspire. For whereas generally a conspirator has to fear
before the execution of his plot, in this case, having the
people for an enemy, he must also fear after his crime is
accomplished, and thus he is not able to hope for any
refuge.
Numberless instances might be given of this, but I will
content myself with one which took place within the memory
of our fathers. Messer Annibale Bentivogli, Prince of
Bologna, ancestor of the present Messer Annibale, was killed
by the Canneschi, who conspired against him. He left no
relations but Messer Giovanni, who was then an infant, but
after the murder the people rose up and killed all the
Canneschi. This arose from the popular goodwill that the
house of Bentivogli enjoyed at that time, which was so great
that, as there was nobody left after the death of Annibale
who could govern the state, the Bolognese hearing that there
was one of the Bentivogli family in Florence, who had till
then been thought the son of a blacksmith, came to fetch him
and gave him the government of the city, and it was governed
by him until Messer Giovanni was old enough to assume the
government.
Message: 51795
Author: Michael Kielsky
Category: Chit Chat
Subject: Taxes
Date: 04/17/88 Time: 20:29:30
Actually, I was being quite serious, although my checklist was not
necessarily exhaustive. Let people *VOTE* with their *MONEY*!
In addition to givin everyone a greater voice in government, this system (of
allotting percentages of your annual income tax to various governmental
agencies/programs) would greatly lessen 'voter apathy'. Or would it?
Michael Kielsky
Message: 51796
Author: $ James Taranto
Category: Chit Chat
Subject: Kielsky
Date: 04/17/88 Time: 21:57:46
Why not just have the government run a giant mail-order business and require
everybody to order everything through the IRS?
Message: 51797
Author: $ James Taranto
Category: Chit Chat
Subject: Hamilton
Date: 04/17/88 Time: 21:59:33
The Framers of the Constitution included a provision for amendment, through
which the Thirteenth Amendment, abolishing slavery, was added to the
Constitution. Thus the abolishion of slavery is entirely consistent with
the intent of the Framers.
Message: 51798
Author: Bubbles McGill
Category: Chit Chat
Subject: Jim Lippard
Date: 04/17/88 Time: 23:17:35
Thank you, Jim, for doing your part to expose the pernicious problem of
androcentrism in our soceity. Gender-specific pronouns is just one of the
many ways in which the white male ruling class oppresses women, people of
color, women of color, gays and lesbians, gay and lesbian women, gays and
lesbians of color, and gay and lesbian women of color. For too long women
have been trated as sex objects, property for the amusement of their white
male masters. We are paid 59 cents on the dollar of what men are paid for
comparable work. We were not allowed to vote until recently. Our sacred
right to control our own reproductive organs is under constant assault from
rightist white males who wish to keep us barefoot and pregnant. A woman's
place is in the home, a gay and lesbian's place is in the closet, a person
of color's place is in the ghetto, that's what the white males want you to
believe! But it's time they woke up. We are mad and we are not going to
take it any more. No more will we allow discrimination on the basis of
gender, race, nationality, or social class. Women of the world unite!
You have nothing to lose except the misogynistic, androcentric, neanderthal
attitudes of the white male oppressors! Power to humankind!
Message: 51799
Author: Bubbles McGill
Category: Chit Chat
Subject: White males
Date: 04/17/88 Time: 23:24:53
Women are the soul of humankind. We are caring, compassionate, and
nurturing, while men are aggressive, hateful, and warlike. But men have
greater physical strength so they have been able to keep us under their
control for many centuries. Why do white men desire to overpower and
oppress women? Because they suffer from womb envy. Men are angry that we
can give birth and they can't. Once all life was female--that is, able to
reproduce itself. Sex took away that capacity from males, and males have
never forgiven Mother Nature (note: a woman) for it. So they take it out on
all women, leading to wage discrimination, date rape, and gender-specific
pronouns. But now women are becoming empowered. We are throwing off the
balls and chains which white male society has forced upon us. With the help
of a few sensitive males like Jim Lippard, we are nurturing a new social
order, a matriarchy instead of a patriarchy, where all class distinctions
will be eliminated and every body will love one another. We have a long way
to go, we must overcome the macho social order that is kept in power now.
But we shall overcome!
Message: 51800
Author: $ Paul Savage
Category: Tales & Tall Stories
Subject: J.T. ERRED!!!
Date: 04/18/88 Time: 06:14:14
I can't believe it! Tell everybody you know that you actually saw it here
first! James Taranto, columnist, writer extraordinaire, etc. has made a
spelling error! Absolutely unbelievable!
James, my dear young friend, the word is abolition, not abolishion.
Have a nice day.
Message: 51801
Author: $ Lloyd Pulley
Category: Chit Chat
Subject: Bubbles McGill
Date: 04/18/88 Time: 09:24:29
It sounds like Mark Adkins had a sex change operation.
(LL)oyd Pulley
Message: 51802
Author: $ Ann Oudin
Category: Question?
Subject: Lloyd
Date: 04/18/88 Time: 09:52:31
Where have you been? I thought we lost you to some inferior BBS or
something. Welcome back. =*--ANN--*=
Message: 51803
Author: $ Peter Petrisko
Category: In search of
Subject: CHILDREN'S BOOKS
Date: 04/18/88 Time: 13:11:07
I am currently looking for children's books, approx. size 5 1/2" wide x
8 1/2" tall. If you have any, or know of anyone who does, and are willing
to give them away, please contact me via private mail on this BBS.
Thank you.
Message: 51804
Author: $ Rod Williams
Category: Answer!
Subject: Lippard/Deanna Kahn
Date: 04/18/88 Time: 16:18:20
I don't know but I will find out. You missed a good American
Atheist meeting last night. The State director gave a talk on the First
Amendment.
Message: 51805
Author: $ Rod Williams
Category: Chit Chat
Subject: Bubbles
Date: 04/18/88 Time: 16:25:37
I'm all for it, however I do not believe that males are mad because
they cannot have babies. I'm glad I can't have a baby, the tits on my chest
would slow me down.
The sex drive is very strong but our society is still in a warped
state, thus rape and other problems come out of it. Human kind may one day
grow up and act intelligently.
Glad you are doing your part.
Rod