Postal Service holds pretend hearing on future of Gus Yatron mail facility

The United States Postal Service held a hearing yesterday on whether it could save $7.1 million annually by stopping mail distribution at Reading's Gus Yatron Postal Facility and moving the work to a plant in Harrisburg. They held this hearing even though it is a done deal that the Yatron building will be razed and replaced by a kiosk that will sell forever stamps with pictures of the Frankenstein monster and Buzz Lightyear. They held this hearing so people would have the opportunity to squawk and sputter and shout about Reading always getting the shaft.

This is America, and it's important that Americans think they have some input in such economic matters.

Who needs FEMA when your letter carrier can ride in to the rescue

As the Republican presidential candidates pointed out Monday night, the federal government should get the hell out of people's lives. All essential services should be turned over to the states or the private sector. If something can be found on Google, let Google do it.

In that atmosphere, it's little wonder that the United States Postal Service, already in its death rattle, is looking for new duties in order to stay afloat.

The president of the National Association of Letter Carriers, Fredric Rolando, has come up with a novel suggestion, one certain to spark serious debate in the corridors of Washington. Just suppose, Rolando imagined, if postmen became an arm of Homeland Security, "adding to what letter carriers already do to protect community and national security."

While delivering the mail in rain and snow and gloom, they also might don moon suits to thwart biological attacks, roar in on postal Hummers to defuse terrorist bombs, mop up after floods and twisters, even help get cats out of trees. They already have to deal with unfriendly dogs on a daily basis:

“They would be the first ones on the scene for disasters and so forth, weather issues. Because they’re the first ones in there, the only ones that can get in to every neighborhood on a daily basis. There’s things they could do with sophisticated scanners because they go everywhere.”

Fredric Rolando is a genius! Let's hope the USPS givs him a nice bonus.

Neirther rain, nor snow, nor a snootful of booze...

Why your Netflix do not arrive on time.