As IF Times

link Losses are getting steeper for U.S. Postal Service – Nov. 12, 2010.

Of all the sacred cows out there, the Post Office has to be the most holy.  According to this article, 8.5 billion dollars was lost by the operation over the past year despite job cuts and austerity measures.  What this really means is that  US citizens spent 280 dollars per man, woman and child over the past year in order to keep them in business.  In the big scheme of things,  this isn’t a lot of money when you consider the alternative; that would be having all the postal workers unemployed.  The estimated number of actual carriers is about 350,000 as of 2008, but there’s probably another half of that amount in administration.   If they all got laid off, there would be all sorts of unexpected consequences. 

For example, the short pants business would take a huge hit.  It can probably be verified that posties are responsible for 80% of the consumption of short walking pants in the nation.  What about black shoes?  Same thing.  We would see a drastic decline in the use of dog repellent as well as dog snacks.  The incidences of lonely spouses signing on to chat websites will spike as the daily mailperson would no longer make the daily rounds.  At least for 280 dollars per year, the gang are employed and the country gets some kind of service.  Plus, where else would people go to vent their anger?  So a family of 4 would supplement the jobs of posties at just under $1200 per year, not including stamps.  In this day of $5 cups of coffee and million dollar bungalows, I suppose it’s not a big deal. 

But if you think about what usually gets delivered in your mail, I think the conclusion would be the same as  mine.  It’s mainly junk.  Bills are moving more and more to the online payment scheme.  Love notes are sent with pics now on chatrooms.com.  The only things you receive in the mail anymore are flyers for supermarket sales, real estate solicitations and the odd summons for jury duty or legal demands for more child support.   In essence, the  public is subsidizing advertising to their homes.  When we toss flyers directly into the recycle bin, it is the same thing as tossing dollar bills there.

The amusing part of this article is this comment:

“…The Postal Service blamed the deeper losses on the recession and on the continuing growth of e-mail…”

Email huh.  That’s probably a temporary thing.  Looking a  bit closer, we can see one of the main sources of the funding shortfall.  It turns out that the Post Office has a unique constraint:

“…its “unique” requirement to pre-fund its retirement fund — something no other federal agency is required to do…” 

 In the upcoming year, this amount is almost 6 billion dollars and auditors Ernst and Young are doubting the ability to pay.    As  has been previously discussed, the entitlements and promises of many public sector employees will come under increasing pressure to be re-negotiated  as the obligations get bigger and the pay-ins get smaller.  At least in this case, it appears to be somewhat on track. 

This is still small change compared to the potential savings from a genuinely useless apparatus, the TSA.  That costs up to $58 billion  a year… Hmm…

link Muslim Group Advises Women Wearing Hijabs to Allow TSA ‘Enhanced Pat Downs’ Only on Head and Neck Area | CNSnews.com. 

You can’t make this up.  There may be some recollection among people that the entire reason for the institutionalized personal assaults that happen at airports these days are because of concerns for security.  In particular concerns about explosive devices being smuggled on board.  In particular, a certain segment of the population that has had a predisposition to this kind of thing. 

As a demonstration of tolerance and objectivity, everyone is considered a suspect and must be equally regarded as dangerous.  This only proves the inclusiveness and tolerance of western society.  It is not acceptable to use profiling to screen potential risks, but it is acceptable to essentially commit sexaul assault on the general public to prove tolerance.  !!!  Now, however, Muslim groups are insisting that Muslim women be excluded from the invasive searches that the public are subjected to….for religious reasons.  Well there ya go.  That’s the loophole! 

You can feel the mad rush for travellers hitting the conversion booths at airports as everyone rushes to adopt Islam as their faith!  It’s brilliant.  Islam in one fell swoop manages to add tens of millions of followers.  At the very least, the market for Hijabs will soar.  Someone will come up with the idea of a temporary Muslim I.D. card for use specifically at airports like the Nexus cards in use today.  At the same time, the intricate and expensive airport screening measures are rendered useless.

Security lines will move much quicker once Muslims are excluded from searches.  The process of groping kids and grandparents will be all that’s left for TSA agents to do.  The reduced workload will enable a smaller staff, thereby saving taxpayer dollars.  It’s an elegant solution.