feren

Or, to paraphrase the illustrious jwz, Wake me up when we're in the future and have a postal system that can differentiate BOLINGBROOK, IL 60490 from PEOTONE, IL 60468.

So here's the back story on that: the United States Postal Service somehow managed to misroute an envelope from Blotch that contained the original artwork from a commission. Said envelope had the address for my postal box in Bolingbrook clearly displayed but it never got to me. Luckily Blotch had put a delivery confirmation request on it. That delivery confirmation number, when run through the USPS website, faithfully shows the package departing on the 19th and being delivered on the 22nd. I was a bit vexed by this, because I checked my postal box on the 29th and there was no envelope waiting for me and no marker stick that it was waiting for me behind the counter, either. That's when I noticed that the delivery confirmation printout had one piece of information I had overlooked previously: that the delivery was made in Peotone.

There is no address similar to mine in Peotone, IL. In fact there's no road with the same name in Peotone at all!

Sadly it wasn't a Signature delivery confirmation, so all I know is that some mail carrier scanned the envelope and dropped it on somebody's stoop somewhere in a farm town 49 miles to the Southeast of me. I wish there was at least a name so I knew whose door I'd could try to go knocking on.

Because you don't treat me the right way

I think it's overdue at this point because they're still blowing random shit up and claiming that whatever they detonated was a "suspicious item." Who can fault their logic... if it's something somebody doesn't recognize than it must be a bomb! Right? I can't wait until they have some country bumpkin up there pointing at everything he's never seen before and really stirring up the hornet's nest.

I dunno about Boston, but in my neck of woods we have a name for people who go around blowing things up without provocation or reason: terrorists. Nice going, Boston's Finest. You're a shiny badge away from being lumped in with Osama's band of merry men.

Joe at techdirt raised an interesting point when he wrote his own post about Boston's new-found habit of using explosives to "safely dispose" of anything they deem a "possible threat." Joe said, If this really was just for monitoring traffic, will transportation officials face fines ... for placing a hoax device in public? I, for one, would like to see that happen. It's called "equal treatment" and it might just help put the reaction over the apparently seminal "safe detonation" incident into perspective.

don't you ever refuse it

Has anybody else seen this shit? Or this?

Why am I just finding out about this now, almost a year after this got started? Why do I see echos of Kelo -v- City of New London in this? Where's the OUTRAGE and the news coverage? Why is the possible (later mostly-debunked) killer of Jon Benet getting press coverage while this sort of douchery is occurring on Capitol Hill? Why isn't this getting hours of air time on various television stations? Opiate of the masses, indeed. Ignorance shall reign and we all shall suffer.

It would appear that the American Dream is in actual jeopardy here. If I wasn't before, I am now Gravely Concerned about the direction our nation is heading in. I mean, seriously... we're talking about altering the very thing that makes the ownership of a home -- the essence of the american dream and the envy of lots of other cultures and nations -- a reality. When we start talking seriously about alterations like this there's something seriously wrong. So, is the deduction of mortgage interest a right, something afforded to us by the Constitution? No. But it's a privilege we award to those who have worked hard and who have shown they can do the due dilligence, think intelligently and are trustworthy of such high risk debts. America encourages home owners in an effort to magnify wealth and increase the standard of living for those who are dedicated to achieving a goal. Financially speaking I am doing pretty well for myself (at least for a 27 year-old unmarried male I think I am) and I am very dilligent about paying down my mortgage faster than my note holders may expect (average of $300/mo extra is going in towards principle), but that doesn't make me rich by any means. In truth it's only through tax code that says I'm allowed to deduct my mortgage interest that I'm really able to bear the cost of owning property and a house in one of Chicago's booming suburbs. Believe me, if I could move somewhere that wasn't exploding at the speed of light and still be able to work in my particular job arena at my acknowledged pay rate, I would.

This strike against the middle-class (and honestly the upper crust will be hit too, but the middle class will feel the biggest pinch because they've got the least margin for change) had better not be a result of an effort to offset the cost of our multitude of military actions -- if it is then the terrorists really have won. The idea of terrorism is, at the very root, to make your opponent so afraid or overextended that they end up waging an attack against their own base of power and ideals. Something this drastic is right up their alley as a goal.

To add to the fun: since the wiretap bill seems to be moving forward for warrantless monitoring of communications within the USA it seems to be simply a matter of time until privacy is an ill-remembered thing of the past. Have you had your daily allotment of Newspeak, citizen? Sounds alarmist, I know... but there was a time just a few years ago when I thought the Kelo ruling could never happen in our nation -- and I was proved wrong. Things do not indicate a trend towards improvement since then.

Do it in the name of love