Defending Cliff Clavin and the Post Office against ludicrous criticisms from right-wingers
October 23rd, 2009 at 02:17pm Pat Cunningham
As we all know, some conservatives are inclined to embellish their arguments against what they call Obamacare with criticisms of the U.S. Postal Service, as if the private sector could do a better job of shipping for less.
Tom Schaller SETS THE RECORD straight on this score.
An excerpt:
[P]rivatizing mail delivery would lead to far more expensive shipping costs. The idea that a private company would both deliver mail to every office and home six days a week, and collect it from the same plus thousands of drop boxes scattered across the nation– all the while maintaining walk-up offices in every town–and still be able to deliver a first-class envelope to any address for a mere 44 cents (an amount that hasn’t changed in real terms after 30 years) is simply an absurd expectation.
PERSONAL NOTE: I take special pleasure in using a photo of John Ratzenberger (in the role of postal worker Cliff Clavin) on this post.
Ratzenberger is a friend of my brother Tim Cunningham from the days when they both worked on the celebrated sitcom “Cheers,” where the Clavin character became an icon of sorts.
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11 Comments Add your own
1. Monkey | October 23rd, 2009 at 2:22 pm
Say what you want, but the fact that I can stick a piece of paper in a metal box and three days later it’s on someone’s front porch mail box in California is pretty darn amazing. Any private company would go bankrupt trying to do the same.
2. QuentinK | October 23rd, 2009 at 2:43 pm
the also funny thing is Ratzenberger is a staunch republican. He hate s to be identified with Cliff Clavin.
3. QuentinK | October 23rd, 2009 at 2:45 pm
the also funny thing???
My grammer ain’t what it used to be…..gramps aint’ so hot either.
4. George | October 23rd, 2009 at 2:51 pm
Should of used Newman from Seinfeld instead
5. Neftali | October 23rd, 2009 at 4:45 pm
I also like John Ratzenberger, he’s a good Republican.
Here he is talking to Fox News while attending a Sacramento Tax Day Tea Party Protest.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f_SSylbsLU0
6. Art | October 23rd, 2009 at 5:25 pm
John has been known to hang out at the bar at the Beloit Inn when in the area.
Kirstie Alley went in to a bar recently and was asked if she had been on Cheers? She replied, “yes, but I am not Norm!”
7. Richard C | October 24th, 2009 at 5:02 am
John Ratzenberger is been doing what most of our elected leaders have not. Promoting made in the USA.
Three cheers for that!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
8. snuss | October 24th, 2009 at 9:36 am
John Ratzenberger, and conservatism, promote reality, personal initiative, and a positive work ethic.
Liberalism promotes a “I’m a victim” attitude, continued dependence on government.handouts, and a cradle-to-grave nanny-state mentality, paid for by those who actually EARN a living, by working for it.
9. Pat Cunningham | October 24th, 2009 at 10:17 am
Snuss: You’re funny. You say that conservatism promotes reality. The truth is that conservatives are more likely than the rest of us to not believe in evolution and to deny, in the face of mountains of evidence, that global warming is caused by human activity. Reality is not the long-suit of most conservatives.
As for the rest of your foolish diatribe, you’re apparently completely unaware of the long history of conservatives doling out corporate welfare to their political sponsors.
Moreover, you’re apparently given to that ridiculous notion that liberals are not hard-working people who earn a living. You right-wing weirdos are so funny with your preposterous claims that only you and your ilk know what it is to really work.
I dare say that I worked at least as long and as hard in my life as you have in yours — in shops and factories and offices, sometimes for 85 or 90 hours a week. I was the oldest son in a working-class family of five kids. My father was a laborer who was killed in a job accident, after which I went to work in my first paid job in 1952 when I was just a school kid. When was your first job?
Get off it, Snuss. Quit pretending to be the model of the hard-working American.
10. expdoc | October 24th, 2009 at 8:16 pm
Conservatives don’t work any harder than liberals and there are as many lazy conservatives as liberals. There are rich cons and rich libs, smart liberals and smart conservatives blah blah blah.
To take a famous tag line from the movies..IN A WORLD WHERE we have so many reals issues to discuss maybe the boys and girls on this blog should try to stick to debating ideas and ditch all the stereotypes and name calling?
11. snuss | October 25th, 2009 at 9:50 am
Forget stereotypes, how about facts?
One MAJOR difference between conservatives and Liberals, is their amount of truly charitable acts. To quote from “Bleeding Heart Tightwads”, by Nicholas D. Kristof:
“Liberals show tremendous compassion in pushing for generous government spending to help the neediest people at home and abroad. Yet when it comes to individual contributions to charitable causes, liberals are cheapskates.
Arthur Brooks, the author of a book on donors to charity, “Who Really Cares,” cites data that households headed by conservatives give 30 percent more to charity than households headed by liberals. A study by Google found an even greater disproportion: average annual contributions reported by conservatives were almost double those of liberals.”
“According to Google’s figures, if donations to ALL religious organizations are excluded, liberals give slightly more to charity than conservatives do. But Mr. Brooks says that if measuring by the percentage of income given, conservatives are more generous than liberals even to secular causes.”
“Conservatives also appear to be more generous than liberals in nonfinancial ways. People in red states are considerably more likely to volunteer for good causes, and conservatives give blood more often. If liberals and moderates gave blood as often as conservatives, Mr. Brooks said, the American blood supply would increase by 45 percent.”
Source: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/21/opinion/21kristof.html?_r=1&em
Liberals believe that charity (Healthcare, and virtually everything else) should be done through government, because government alone has the wisdom to determine who should be supported and who should not be supported. So, this falls under the “(Leftist)government is smarter than the rest of us” doctrine.
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