The mail must go through -- why not emails too?

An AOL news article said,

The Army said Friday that it has opened an investigation into the recent discovery of 4,500 letters and parcels -- some dating to May 2006 -- at Walter Reed [Army Medical Center] that were never delivered to soldiers.

And it fired the contract employee who ran the mailroom . . . .

Maj. Gen. Eric Schoomaker, commander of Walter Reed, said he ordered a team of 20 to 40 soldiers and civilians to launch an around-the-clock operation to screen, survey and forward all the letters and parcels. Items addressed to soldiers still at Walter Reed were being hand-delivered Friday night, he said.

"This delay is completely and absolutely unsatisfactory," Schoomaker said . . .

The acting Army surgeon general, Maj. Gen. Gale Pollock, said there have not been any complaints about delayed mail delivery at other Army medical centers. Even so, she said she ordered an immediate review and inspections of mail room procedures and supervisory controls at other medical centers.

Note that the Army did not waste any time in delivering the mail after the hold-up was discovered.

An unscrupulous staff attorney of the Electronic Frontier Foundation, Kevin Bankston, bankston@eff.org, threatened to block my emails addressed to other EFF staffers. If I were another EFF staffer, I would be hopping mad at him for making that threat and I would have sent me an apology.

If that sleazebag Bankston doesn't like the way we do things in this country, maybe he should move to Italy. A June 2003 newsletter noted (page 5),

The Italian Post has always been something of a puzzle to us. A few years ago they had such a backlog of undelivered mail that they simply burned several warehouses-worth of it. Rumors in the market recently hinted at improvement.

Blocking emails sent to others should be a federal crime, just like robbing the postal service. Email robbers should go straight to jail. Do not pass "Go." Do not collect $200.