Today we made out our shopping list for the Memorial Day BBQ so I thought it would also be appropriate to sit down and remember why we really celebrate this day.  We have two official holidays associated with our armed forces, Veterans’ Day and Memorial Day.  The first is more general and in theory honors all who have served.  The second is to specifically honor the memory of the fallen and the wounded.

The public and the media often confuse the two days by celebrating the heroes and their medals of valor.  I’d rather not confuse the two at all.  Moreover, I’d like to focus on the quiet and dedicated service of men and women far from home and family, just doing their jobs as best they can in a hostile environment.  They’re generally young and lonely and also very deserving of our esteem and appreciation.

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We all know science is not as popular as it once was.  Popularity started waning in the seventies.  A definite decline in interest on our nation’s college campuses, especially over the last fifteen years, if continued, will eventually turn this country into a scientific and technological also-ran.  In some cases this unpopularity has become extreme, leading to hate mail and death threats against scientists.  Instead of just a disaster looming for our economy, this animosity against science threatens to return us to the Middle Ages.

Too many people blame science for the world’s ills and some of these become fanatic. Others view scientific discovery as a political issue and abuse their position as pundits to deceive people.  Fundamentalists of varying taxonomies have developed dogmas and superstitions that are threatened by scientific fact, so the worst among them threaten violence.  While most people in the U.S. use and enjoy products of technology which owe their origins to scientific research and development, a few would just as soon kill the goose that lays the golden eggs.

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As one of the millions that watched the last episode of ABC’s Lost Sunday night, I’m sitting here on Monday morning, bleary eyed, wondering at the strength of my addiction.  For those of you that avoided this embarrassment, Lost is a soap opera that went on and on for six years.  It gained viewers as people talked about it at the water cooler, wondering at the mysteries the writers threw at them; it lost viewers as people talked about it, becoming tired of and angry at the writers jerking them around.  At the very best it provided lush settings as an empty stage for some fine dramatic acting.  Many of the actors were not well known before Lost and will probably go on to successful careers.  At the very worst it provided many lessons on how not to write.

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This week we hit the bloody milestone of 1000 deaths of American servicemen in Afghanistan.  This statistic becomes even more alarming when we add to it the number of wounded Americans and the wounded and dead among the innocent civilians in Afghanistan and parts of Pakistan.  The maws of the war beast are dripping with the blood of human sacrifice-he knows the Middle East is a good feeding ground.  Mr. Obama should hang his head in shame.

These statistics are all the more remarkable considering Mr. Karzai’s animosity towards the U.S. and the corruption in his government.  Moreover, the Afghan poppy fields are still supplying much of the heroin that destroys the lives of men, women, and children world-wide.  Afghanistan’s own population has a crisis of addiction, especially among the children.  Only a small percentage of the money involved in producing and selling the national product is used in bribing officials and assassinating critics, but in absolute terms it is enough to make Afghanistan a cesspool of corruption.

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I’m just a little weary of all the pundits saying that Mr. Rand Paul’s victory in Kentucky is a win for the Tea Party.  Sure, he used them to whip up the mobs that rejected Mr. Mitch McConnell’s lackey, but if Paul son is anything like Paul father, I’m sure his philosophy is more reasoned than mob rule.  Neither Rand nor Ron is a person that thinks in terms of tweets (the new expression for “thirty second sound bite”).  Libertarian philosophy is deep enough that most Tea Party members, including their dingbat darling Ms. Sarah Palin, would drown in its depths.  Mr. Paul’s victory is one for the Libertarian movement.

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(John L. Betcher, The Missing Element, ISBN 978-1451512717)

This book was a lot of fun.  It is the kind of book I love to read and it is the kind of book I try to write.  John Betcher has written a real gem.  Like a good port, you can enjoy it any time.  It is an entertaining addition to the thriller/suspense class of books with just a dash of sci-fi-the style lies somewhere between Carl Hiaasen and Michael Connelly, although the author claims to emulate Robert B. Parker.  A difficult task, but he comes close in entertainment value.  There is not much negative I can say about the book.  But if you want more information, read on.

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You’ve seen the ads on TV for Amazon’s Kindle (they have a great jingle that I can’t get out of my head) and Apple’s iPad.  Sunday’s NY Times book section had an ad for Barnes & Noble’s Nook on the back page.  Are eBooks going to do to traditionally published books what tapes did to LPs (and CDs did to tapes and iPod’s did to CDs)?  Will traditional publishers and brick and mortar bookstores go the way of the dinosaurs as reading becomes e-reading?

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There are many problems associated with the exploration and exploitation of energy sources to drive the world’s economy, but one is certainly under our control: a culture of shoddy workmanship, driven by greed, must be changed.  The greed leads to shortcuts which lead to failures which lead to loss of life and ecological disasters.  Some of the largest international companies promote this culture-Massey Mining, Halliburton, and British Petroleum are examples-and should be held accountable.

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I apologize up front for this post.  I will reminisce about one of my previous careers and, as a consequence, may give some readers a royal headache with the technical jargon and pedagogical whining.  Please forgive and bear with me.  Memoirs are not my forte.  But Mr. Feynman is as much a part of our American cultural background as hot dogs sold at Fenway Park.  You will perhaps remember his role in leading the analysis team of the shuttle o-ring disaster.  I have more complicated memories of him, although that one even showed his genius.

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The conversation that Mr. George Stephanopoulus (ABC News) had a week or so ago with Iran’s President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad reminded me of something which is plainly obvious but bears repeating: you cannot have a rational conversation with a fundamentalist.  I believe this is a sociological theorem proven by experience.

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