Diary

One of my characteristics is that I like to be completely caught up on all responsibilities so that I don't have to worry about things that don't interest me much. This is fairly easy to do if you don't work for a living, and I haven't done that since 2007. Even so, certain challenges do come up occasionally, such as at the beginning of winter. It snowed last night, but it is already melting. My property maintenance tasks become compressed at this time of year, since I do nearly everything myself. Because I have a small shed, at any given time I can conveniently take out either the tractor or the snow blower, but not both. This means that I must finish all of the mowing and put away the tractor before the first snow. Then the snow blower can easily be taken out. I also have to clear the leaves from the yard before a heavy rain or snow, or they may still be sitting there in the spring. In addition, since I don't have a garage, I try to install my snow tires before the first snow. This all occurs within a compressed time period. One advantage at this house is the fact that I have no wood-burning stove. Though I liked having one, it was quite time-consuming stacking and moving wood and cutting and splitting firewood from the property. Also, from sleeping on hard mattresses for thirty-six years, I had developed tendonitis in my shoulders, which was exacerbated by all the wood-lifting. Since moving and buying a new mattress, my tendonitis has disappeared.

When I have free time, that doesn't necessarily mean that I daydream all day. Although I'm not as obsessive as my former neighbor, Dorothy Douglas, I don't like to see trash along the road, and occasionally I stop to pick it up. Yesterday, on a hike in Pittsford, I noticed that there had been a large beer party in the woods behind the Congregational Church. Rather than having to see the cans lying there for years, I decided to remove dozens of Labatt Ice 24 oz. cans. With winter coming, there may not be another beer party until next summer.

Since I'm tired of thinking about Donald Trump, I thought I'd say something about Dick Cheney, who just died. It is instructive to examine Cheney's political career, because he normalized self-dealing within the Republican Party well before Trump came along. He became Secretary of Defense under George H.W. Bush in 1989 after five draft deferments during the Vietnam War. Then, from 1995 to 2000 he served as the CEO of Halliburton, the energy services company which has deep connections with the defense industry. Some of his business decisions were considered questionable, and he accumulated $45 million while there. Cheney is a good example of the revolving door practice in which government officials move on to high positions in the corporate world. Later, after becoming Vice President under George W. Bush, he became the main promoter of the Iraq War, with Iraq as a major oil producer. From an ideological standpoint, he was an advocate of increased presidential power, which has probably helped pave the way for Donald Trump. However, perhaps as a form of contrition, he opposed Trump politically and voted for Kamala Harris in 2024.

There is nothing unusual about self-dealing in politics, but I have long been irritated by people who idealize democracy and present corruption as something that can easily be controlled by voters. It can't be. As I've said on numerous occasions, the underlying problem of democratic governance is that humans are simply large mammals, and, as such, are likely not only to behave irrationally much of the time, but to act primarily in their self-interest if they think that they can get away with it. So, my standing model is still an AI-based government which, if designed properly, would have the potential to permanently remove corruption and incompetence from governance. On a theoretical basis, I think it is possible that democracy may only work in very small societies whose citizens are culturally uniform and have only one class; ideally, they would all know each other. Even then there would be conflicts, but they would occur on a manageable scale.

In other news, I've done a very small amount of stargazing and did get a quick look at the Orion Nebula, though the moon was up. My new mount is working fine now. It is convenient to leave the mount and telescope set up outside, because, at this location, you never know exactly when the sky may clear up. Sometimes that lasts for only a few minutes. I'm not about to move to the Atacama Desert in Chile for better viewing conditions. I plan to bring the telescope inside rather than leave it outside all winter. The mount can handle the weather and that stays outside because it is time-consuming to set up. I've started on a new book and will probably have something to say about it on my next post.