Is The Military Playing God With The Weather?

Mail Delivery In Milford Hits Record Low

This is a blog about my daily conversations with our friendly mailmen in town. Recently I noticed there have been at least three different people delivering mail to my location. Earlier this week my local mailman Daniel stopped by to get his computer repaired and we got into a discussion about the status of the Postal Service here in Milford.

He repeated the same things that I heard my New Haven Ave. Mail person say, and that is "that the volume of mail in Milford is dramatically down." Daniel estimates that his route alone is off by about 50%.

This decline in volume could eventually translate to increased layoffs of Milford Postal workers, and the expansion of routes for the more senior postal employees. This problem has also been resonating at the national level as the post office has been running advertisements to boost flat rate box shipping.

This program, it is hoped, will increase volume from shippers who wish to have flat rate boxes up to 70Lbs. shipped anywhere in the U.S.

The economy has certainly been a factor in the Post Office problems, but when it is combined with the advent of e-mail and electronic transmissions that do not require postage, the future of the mailman gets pretty uncertain.

From my own personal experience the only things I receive via my mailbox is mostly bills and junk mail. Even many of my bills, if no money is owed or I pay online results in nothing being mailed to me in some cases.

Reform is required to alleviate these issues, and our misleading leaders always end up reverting to punitive actions against those systems that result in the problem. For a long time now there has been talk on Capitol Hill of taxing the Internet, and some Representatives have gone so far as to suggest a tax on e-mail to aid the ailing Post Office.

This idea was met with contempt from those in the Internet community who support "net neutrality" a concept that precludes any censorship, or regulation of the Internet. Media giants like Rupert Murdoch and Senator Rockefeller have gone on record and said the Internet is a economic hazard, not only to commercial interests but to the energy grid and military systems.

Thus far, there has been no successful legislation or attempts to tax E-mail to help the Postal Service, however the banking sector did succeed in having a court shut down Wikileaks, marking the first major case of Internet censorship in the U.S.

Connecticut Lobsters And Fishing Season

When I was in College, I took up Scuba Diving, and last week when I was watching some old family movies of that time period, the late 80's, I was reminded of what happened to that old shirt of mine. The shirt, featured in my home movie, had a Scuba diver chasing after about 100 lobsters.

One of the best things about Scuba diving trips was being able to catch lobsters and bring them home for dinner. A tasty treat everyone in the family loved, especially my parents at the time who despite the cost of these excursions, got to look forward to me bringing home some good treats.

Although I have not Scuba dived in quite a long time, I was once again thinking of the wonderful fish treats that the Long Island Sound contains. In the past I have enjoyed Blue Fish, Flounder, Mussels, Oysters and a variety of other random things besides lobsters.

This is something that I have been thinking about again in light of the increasing food prices that are coming. I will be writing soon on this issue because the biggest concern that I have in eating out of the LIS is the quality of the fish, and their associated levels of toxicity. I have not seen any mercury warnings in a while of which is a good sign, but I did read some time ago that the lobsters in the sound have been having some difficulty with sickness. I do plan to do some more fishing this summer and I will report back with the status of my catch if any.

I also have the privilege and honor of having my brilliant step daughter going to the Bridgeport Aquaculture School this year and will have access to a wealth of scientific knowledge on the health of our ecosystem of which I believe has improved over what it was some years ago. When I have an opportunity to learn with her I will share interesting facts about our ecosystem.

Until then wish me luck while I am out fishing this Spring, maybe I will see you out there. Or maybe not because I keep the good spots a personal secret, but if you do your work you will find me look for my USA hat.

A Message From Me (Rocco J. Frank Jr.)

This is my first webcast this year and contains my rebuttal to Speaker Jim Amann's 2007 Legislative Update that was mailed to everyone in the 118th district. Feel free to link to, and share, my video with whomever you wish. This video is not yet posted to Youtube and may not be because of file size limitations.

Enjoy the video, and feel free to share your comments.