Bring Back The Pony Express

With Christmas approaching, a lot of people are shipping packages these days. A natural question is: how long will it take this to reach its intended destination?
I don’t think it’s “normal” shipping is this slow, but if you happen to have something shipped by the United States Postal Service’s slow service, it might take a long, long time.
Recently I placed an order at Performance Bicycle. I’m not 100% sure where it ships out of, but I’m pretty sure it’s North Carolina, since that’s where the company is located and where returned products are sent. The order was shipped on November 2. Here’s the tracking information:

DELIVERED – KNOXVILLE,TN 11/15/2005 12:02 PM
ESTIMATED TIME OF ARRIVAL TO POSTAL FACILITY – DDU CEDAR BLUFF – 379239998 11/10/2005 12:00 AM
DEPARTED – APX ATLANTA 11/8/2005 3:16 PM
SCANNED AT INTERMEDIATE HUB – APX ATLANTA 11/7/2005 11:55 PM
DEPARTED – APX NORTH EAST 11/6/2005 7:40 AM
SCANNED AND ENROUTE – APX NORTH EAST 11/4/2005 9:08 PM
LOAD RECEIVED – APX NORTH EAST 11/3/2005 9:23 AM

That’s right–it took two weeks to go travel to an adjoining state. Once en route, it took a week to get from Atlanta to Knoxville.
I could have ridden my bike over to Chapel Hill, picked up the order, and ridden back in considerably less time than it for the carrier to deliver. So much for that notion of the world getting smaller, eh?

Other Side Of The World

You gotta love the Internet. Without it, where would we get fun time-wasters like this.
And here I incorrectly thought all these years that if I dug a deep enough hole, I’d end up in China.

Find Johnia Berry’s Killer

Les Jones created a website intended to help find the person who stabbed Knoxville resident Johnia Berry to death.
Today is the one-year anniversary of the murder.

Not The Latest No. 3?

You mean that the person killed in Pakistan over the weekend might not be number three on the al Qaeda totem pole?
But . . . but T.V. news said it was true!
I’m shocked.

Security Forces In Iraq

One has to wonder how that training of security forces is going in Iraq.
Yesterday it was reported that the Iraqi vice president disputes Bush’s claims on the rate of training of security forces.
Today, suicide bombers killed at least 43 at Baghdad’s police academy.
If it’s not safe at a police academy, one wonders where Iraqis can provide security.

War On FNW

I sometimes watch Fox News Watch. Unfortunately, I missed the segment this past weekend on the supposed “War on Christmas”; not to worry–Crooks and Liars has the video. I liked this response:

Neal: We’re at war, there’s Darfur, there’s an AIDS crisis and you’re worried about whether people should say Merry Christmas? What world do you live in?

Yep, that sums it up. Instead of talking about real issues, this is the rightists’ seasonal wedge issue trotted out to fire up the base.