So long, '25!

 On the last day of this seemingly long year, some of us inevitably turn a little contemplative and assess the past twelve months and the changes they've brought to the world.  In just such a mood I write this on a cold, sunny morning in central Alabama, while weighing my role in the universe.

From a personal standpoint, it's been a pretty mixed year.  As are most of them, I suppose, with ups and downs that culminate in a general sense of turmoil or serenity, as the case may be.  Early on in the year, I experienced a potentially serious health episode which resulted in my first ever ambulance ride and ICU admission.  Things turned out alright, and I used the episode to spark a renewed effort in personal wellness.  Through the rest of the year, I've accomplished some much-needed weight loss, improved my fitness, and improved some worrisome medical measurements.  By December, my annual physical exam produced a panel of blood test lab results that were, as my medical professional wife called "textbook perfect."  This is an area that I hope to continue in the coming year.  This summer also saw a landmark birthday for me, which was allowed to pass with a minimum of fanfare, as I had hoped.  Age hasn't produced wisdom, but it has certainly provided experience, which is maybe the next best thing.

The past year also saw our first real vacation in over five years.  In it, I overcame my aversion to the hassles and disappointments that so often accompany modern air travel, and we had perfectly smooth travel to a beautiful location on the midcoast of Maine.  Wonderful weather and beautiful scenery made it an enjoyable and memorable trip.  I only wish such a trip could be reliably reproduced!  Closer to home, I expanded my literary horizons with regular participation in the Trollope Society Big Read, where we read and discussed works of the prolific Victorian author.  That's also something I will continue this year.  This year I took the plunge and arranged to have professional landscapers to tend to our property, freeing me from the drudgery of lawn mowing and yard work.  It's made a tremendous difference in my life, and I wish I'd turned to this option years ago.  And finally, I've been diligently puttering along with Postcrossing, where I exchange postal messages with other like-minded people all around the world.  The daily arrival of a tiny personal connection to another human being does wonders for one's outlook on life.

Taking a wider view, things are decidedly less rosy.  My country continues to suffer a despicable felon at the head of government.  In the past year, nearly everything that could seriously be said to "make America great" has been dismantled or seriously damaged.  As a working research scientist, I have grown an astonishing capacity to absorb the daily developments that represent destruction of the nation's once respected and admired scientific system.  Higher education is under assault, research funding is a shambles, once respectable agencies are now run by crackpot hacks, and the nation's proud scientific tradition is a smoking ruin.  Restoration, if begun tomorrow, would take years to return us to the condition we boasted only 12 months ago.  This is just the area of life with which I am most familiar.  But almost every other aspect of American life has been systematically destroyed in the past year.  The environment is being destroyed, the arts are being demolished, rule of law is being contorted to unrecognizable dimensions, public health, safety, and welfare are a shadow of their former selves, international relations are a shambles, and simple American principles like Freedom of Speech are no longer upheld.  To merely express disapproval of the current regime is to invite thuggish retribution from the government or its agents.  It is difficult for me to express how much I despise the current demented resident of the White House (what remains of it) or of his ignorant cult of supporters.  Fortunately, Postcrossing members do not often delve into politics, and I am only occasionally required to apologize for the disgrace that my country has become.

Since my personal life is on balance a good one, and since the conditions of the wider world are so bad, perhaps it is understandable that my coping mechanism has been to ignore the outside to that extent possible, and instead focus on life close to home.  If I were a better person, I might try to do small things to change the world for the better, for that's what will be required if we are ever to return to a sensible existence on this country.  But I simply don't have that sort of energy.  So I'll content myself with my books, my postcards, my experiments - in the laboratory at work, and in the kitchen at home - and try to hold on until the national pendulum inevitably swings back towards sanity.  Will that begin in the year that begins tomorrow?  I'm not hopeful.  But it surely will eventually, given enough time.  And I will try my best to endure until it does.

No Kings

In General Congress, assembled-

The History of the present King is a History of repeated Injuries and Usurpations, all having in direct Object the Establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid World.

He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public Good.

He has endeavoured to prevent the Population of these States; for that Purpose obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their Migrations hither, and raising the Conditions of new Appropriations of Lands.

He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone, for the Tenure of their Offices, and the Amount and Payment of their Salaries.

He has erected a Multitude of new Offices, and sent hither Swarms of Officers to harrass our People, and eat out their Substance.

He has kept among us, in Times of Peace, Standing Armies, without the consent of our Legislatures.

He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil Power.

He has combined with others to subject us to a Jurisdiction foreign to our Constitution, and unacknowledged by our Laws:

For cutting off our Trade with all Parts of the World:

          For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent:

          For depriving us, in many Cases, of the Benefits of Trial by Jury:

          For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended Offences:

In every stage of these Oppressions we have Petitioned for Redress in the most humble Terms: Our repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeated Injury. A Prince, whose Character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the Ruler of a free People.

Chaos in the mail

 As the year winds down, the dreaded inauguration of our next president draws nearer.  In about a month, Donald Trump will return to the White House, and this despicable, defective human being will be the chief executive of the country for four long, long years.  While I disagree with nearly everything he says or does, one subject of particular interest to me has recently arisen.  Trump has been making statements about his intention to destroy the US Postal System in multiple different ways.  The first particularly laughable one was his desire to cancel the ongoing upgrades of USPS delivery vehicles. The new vehicles are a tremendous upgrade to the current aged design from the 1980s.  These new vehicles are safer, more comfortable for the carriers, and are better suited to the shift to package delivery seen by the USPS, which is an especially profitable part of their business.  Trump's sole concern seems to be that many of the vehicles are electric.  Mail delivery, with its short distances, slow speeds, and frequent stop-and-go operation is particularly well suited to the characteristics of electrical motors.  Never mind that these vehicles are liked by mail carriers, are a great improvement on the obsolete vehicles in use, and are manufactured by an American company.  They would also benefit the environment, and that seems to be something Trump can't abide.  It is an odd characteristic of Trump and his Republican cult followers that caring for the environment is seen as a weakness or character flaw.  Whether or not Trump follows through on this threat, or indeed any of his frequent, rambling, nonsensical statements remains to be seen.

The statement more recent and more troubling is his idea to privatize the USPS.  On the face of it, this is a ridiculous idea that surfaces periodically.  There can be no advantage to such a move, and would in no way improve current service or prices.  In fact, such a move would likely bring a decrease in services and price hikes even larger than what has been seen the past few years.  Just ask Great Britain.  After the UK government privatized the Royal Mail, the service has spiraled into inefficiency, unreliability, and astonishing price hikes.  This is a valuable example for those who would consider such a move for the USPS, the largest postal system in the world.  The idea that the government "should be run like a business" is a fallacy that should be discarded.  Especially when the "business" would be run by a robber-baron with a long history of bankruptcies.   There are some things a government should do and services it should provide for the national benefit where profit margin is not the primary motive.  Just like having a functional transportation system where air travel and rail travel receive government subsidies, a postal system needs to be functional, serve all addresses across the country, and be reliable.  None of that would be guaranteed with a privatized system.  And if the government has to provide some funds, as it does with a military, education system, and law enforcement which do not create a profit, that is the pure role of a government.  The privatization idea is at best a cop-out idea, concocted by tiny minds who have no business running anything more than a hot-dog stand. 

Word of the day

 

Read Free or die

 Once again, it is Banned Book Week.  This is the time of year when we remind ourselves of the poor, hapless individuals in the world who are deeply threatened...by ideas.  Sad to say, it's a growing movement once again in this country, and especially in my part of it, to ban books.  Mostly in the guise of "protecting children", these misguided souls are rampaging through libraries and bookstores searching for anything they disagree with.  Not content with merely suppressing ideas, they are threatening the employment or even physical harm to those who they view as not sufficiently closed minded.  Quite predictably, the same people who want to post their Ten Commandments in schoolrooms and who offer the solution to "just don't look at them" to those who follow another faith or none at all, can't follow their own advice when it comes to school library books they choose to be offended by.  Or more likely, are told to be offended by, as it is often the case that book banners have never actually read the books they want to ban. So this week, take a moment to remember these troubled, perpetually aggrieved souls, who are burdened to go through life persistently outraged by ideas they can't accept.

Sorry, America

 A couple years ago as part of my Postcrossing activities, I sent out several copies of a postcard that would become one of the most popular I've ever sent.  It expressed my opinion of the dismal Trump administration.  As social commentator Fran Lebowitz aptly says, "Every single thing that could be wrong with a human being is wrong with him.  But the single most dangerous thing about Donald Trump is how unbelievably stupid he is."  In short, Trump has absolutely no redeeming features, belongs in jail, and astounds me by how much support he then received (and continues to receive) from his cult followers.  So my postcard, with sardonic humor, relayed my feelings of our county's leader through those dark years.

 And now I once again feel the need to apologize, this time to the American nation as a whole.  It's clear that the senior senator from Alabama is a colossal embarrassment and a danger to national security.  As a resident of Alabama for over 30 years, I'm used to politicians who are embarrassing on a national scale.  We all remember the sanctimonious Judge Roy Moore, don't we?  With logarithmically greater political ineptness, Senator Tommy Tuberville has brought embarrassment at levels that are notable even for Alabama.  From questions about his residency to clear indications of his political ignorance, Tuberville only makes news for his deep and persistence incompetence.  As a product of the modern Republican party, he exemplifies all the qualities the party values: ethical shortcomings, proud stupidity, and vague racism.  Tuberville now is best known for his obstinate efforts to impede the appointment of military leaders.  In these dangerous times, the damage Tuberville is causing to military readiness exasperates even members of his own party, though most of them lack the courage to do anything about it.  With the cocksure petulance of a teenager, Tuberville resists advice and doggedly persists in his tantrums.  In a state dominated by a party that values its own power over the good of the country, there is little more I can do as an individual voter than to vote against Tuberville.  That, and to offer my apologies to the nation:  Dear American, sorry about Tommy Tuberville.

...and Tuberville, too.