http://www.democraticunderground.com/123014077Oh my.
This is one of the hard-of-hearing primitives who buys hearing-aids by the case, because he's obsessed with, fixated with, getting back his once-perfect hearing. Which of course can't happen.
DavidDvorkin (12,002 posts) Tue Mar 26, 2013, 11:14 AM
Is the US Postal Service Biased Against Atheists? Check Out This Study
Remember those atheist shoes?
Well, the Berlin-based makers of the shoes have been sending their goods to a lot of Americans and they’ve noticed something weird: The shoes take a lot longer for American customers to receive than you might expect:
We have lots of customers in the USA, but sometimes the shoes we send them take longer than they should to arrive, or even go missing. And, when some of our customers asked us not to use ATHEIST-branded packing tape on their shipments, we started to wonder if the delays were caused by the US Postal Service taking offence at our overt godlessness…
http://www.patheos.com/blogs/friendlyatheist/2013/03/26/is-the-us-postal-service-biased-against-atheists-check-out-this-study/
Apophis (410 posts) Tue Mar 26, 2013, 11:47 AM
1. The USPS is being very petty about this.
Promethean (36 posts) Tue Mar 26, 2013, 11:52 AM
2. I'm leaning toward religious employees of the post office being the likely culprits.
This seems to be the most accepted theory in the commentary at the link as well.
Also there is an entertaining comic someone linked to in the commentary that is somewhat on subject.
http://hijinksensue.com/2013/03/06/post-apocalyptic/
backscatter712 (19,058 posts) Tue Mar 26, 2013, 01:12 PM
3. Sounds like the most plausible theory to me.
Probably some fundie who illegally acts out by "accidentally on purpose" mis-sorting packages with atheist markings or addresses of known atheists on them.
I'd hope the Postmaster General would arrange a sting on this sort of shit, and make sure that anyone caught deliberately mis-sorting or refusing to deliver, or tampering with packages gets instantly fired and criminally prosecuted.
Phillip McCleod (773 posts) Tue Mar 26, 2013, 02:39 PM
5. i'm a vocal atheist in a small ultra-catholic town.
been here for a decade-and-a-half, in the newspaper who knows how many times with letters and atheistic events from my bookshop days. point: people know me here as an atheist.. and i never did get the xmas decorations my mom insisted on sending me. at least, not until fully a MONTH and a HALF later. then suddenly, magically, the pickup slip appeared.
i didn't deserve xmas you see. i'm not just sure of it. i'm sure of it.
Apophis (410 posts) Tue Mar 26, 2013, 01:50 PM
4. The packages are coming from Europe so expect delays.
Is the mantra in GD currently about this.
backscatter712 (19,058 posts) Tue Mar 26, 2013, 02:55 PM
7. Of course. Even when the evidence of bias is presented in pictoral form in the OP and the thread...
"Oh, it must just be customs and the postal service being slow! You're not being picked on!"
OriginalGeek (5,015 posts) Tue Mar 26, 2013, 02:45 PM
6. They look like pretty cool shoes
but they're about 170 US Dollars give or take a few...I'm not against spending that much on shoes but I'd need to try them on first to see if they are as ridiculously comfortable as their site claims.
And yeah, I think there are maybe a few religious postal workers gumming up the works but I wouldn't say the entire Postal Service was in on it.
backscatter712 (19,058 posts) Tue Mar 26, 2013, 06:32 PM
10. Nadin did have an interesting alternative hypothesis.
Her claim is that the automated equipment in the USPS sorting facilities, which includes OCR systems that read shipping labels in order to automatically sort mail, gets confused on packages with writing and marking on them other than the shipping label, resulting in those packages getting rejected by the OCR systems, shuffled off to be manually sorted, resulting in delays.
I'd suggest another study to test that. Send one group of packages with blank packing tape, as the control group, just as before, have the second group with the "ATHEIST" packing tape as before, add a third group with "JESUS SAVES" on the packing tape, and a fourth group with an Islamic crescent and "ALLAH" on the tape.
I'd like to see what happens.
temporary311 (102 posts) Tue Mar 26, 2013, 07:05 PM
12. True, but that would only explain the increase in delivery time.
Not the 10x higher chance of the package being "lost" altogether.
deucemagnet (3,892 posts) Tue Mar 26, 2013, 10:25 PM
17. I agree that her hypothesis is interesting, and I think that your "JESUS SAVES" control would address the issue, but as temporary311 notes this would only account for the ~3 day delay. Are postal workers really so inept that they're 10 times more likely to lose packages than the automated system? And what about the European controls? Do other countries not have automated mail sorting systems? Do they have them, but they're much better than what we have? If they don't have automated systems, are their postal workers that much better than ours?
deucemagnet (3,892 posts) Tue Mar 26, 2013, 06:33 PM
11. OMG
1. They did a controlled study.
2. They did the appropriate statistical analyses.
3. They presented the data in a friendly infographic format.
4. The infographic was posted.
5. The statistics in the fine print were posted.
6. People still deny, snark, and dissemble.
Honest to God, (so to speak) DU has gone to shit and I don't feel this place represents me anymore.
Gore1FL (11,522 posts) Tue Mar 26, 2013, 07:26 PM
13. You have to understand one thing.
It doesn't matter if you have reproducible data or not. Christians feel that they are the only ones who can be persecuted.
Curmudgeoness (10,106 posts) Tue Mar 26, 2013, 08:42 PM
14. And since when have some Christians fell for reproducible data?
Editted to add "some" Christians.....I really do hate generalizations.
^^^the primitive with a sensitive bottom; she's the one who some months ago was looking around for a city mission for the homeless operated by atheists. I don't think she's found one yet.
Anyway, it's a really big bonfire, burning fiercely, until near the end, this happens:
trotsky (32,712 posts) Fri Mar 29, 2013, 05:24 PM
41. I want to ask why you think you need to barge into a safe haven with your dismissal.
Get out. I see far more than enough of your absurd and offensive apologetics in the defense of religious believers in every other forum/group on this board. Please allow me just this one to be free of you.
trotsky (32,712 posts) Fri Mar 29, 2013, 07:33 PM
43. Study the graphic again.
And leave this safe haven. I do not wish to see your religious apologetics in the group any more.
struggle4progress (70,796 posts) Fri Mar 29, 2013, 10:55 PM
44. I didn't realize that standing up for USPS employees violated this group's SoP
trotsky (32,712 posts) Sat Mar 30, 2013, 12:58 PM
45. You are not welcome in this safe haven.
Your tactics and goals are well known. Leave us alone. For once in your existence act as wonderfully as you Christians THINK yourselves to be and get out.
Wow. The Leon primitive must be enduring some really burning haemorrhoids.
One hopes he's got lots of them.
