Touching base

This is just to let folks know that I have been away for a bit and will be away for a bit longer still.

I was actually working on three posts, hoping to get at least one of them finished before I am computerless again, but no such luck.

But just to give the flavor and to indicate I have not completely abandoned things here:

- One was on the financial problems facing the USPS and how they are not, contrary to claims, caused by a mass switch to email and are decidedly not caused by "selfish unions." Rather, they are rooted in unrealistic fiscal demands placed on the agency, demands that seemed more aimed at undermining it than securing it.

- A second was on the latest attempts by the wingnuts in Congress to attack the science of global warming, this by accusations of a "shadow organization" within NOAA.

- The third was on the Wall Street protests and their expansion to other places in the US and the crappy media coverage they've gotten - along with some thoughts on a philosophical common ground shared among recent protests faced by at least nominally democratic governments around the world: Despite the surface differences in the issues addressed, the protesters here, just as those protesting in Spain, in Greece, in Israel, in India, express a loss of faith in government. Not in the ability of government to deal with problems, but in the desire of government to do so. Not in the ability of government to respond to the needs of the mass of the populace, but in the desire of government to do so. And what are the implications of that (and noting that the natural response among a lot of us of "Well, duh" is wholly inadequate to the task at hand).

To those of you who still check this thing out from time to time: Bear with me, please. I will be back, I promise.