Goodbye Dixie Lee

Just a note to remember our wonderful yellow lab, Dixie Lee, who lived with us for about 12 years, and who died yesterday.  She was a good dog who did her duty up until the end.  The day before she died, she got the morning papers and brought them in, she went with us on a shopping trip, and around midnight of her last night, she went out and did "her business" when I asked her to.  She had probably not had an accident in the house for years, and continued that up until the end. 

Most of all, she was entertaining.  She was not very obedient or affectionate, but she loved us in her way.  She would not cuddle, but was usually around, maybe just a few feet away.  And although she would not come immediately when we called, she would eventually come.  She wanted to be with us, but only after she had sniffed whatever it was that she was interested in.  She always brought in the morning papers, even when they were covered by snow, but only after she had checked out the front lawn to see what had happened overnight.  She was always ready to go with us, where ever we went. 

I wish I were as good a person as she was a dog. 

Test Post

Blogger is failing to post blogs that I have drafted in Blogger.  I want to see if it will publish something simple. 

Why Obama Failed Me 2

I didn't want to vote for Obama, but between Obama and Romney, Obama was the better choice. I was going to vote for a third party candidate, but ironically thanks to some Wall Street Journal Internet test of political positions, I found that both of the third party candidates were too radical for me. I have voted for Ralph Nader in the past, because I thought he was a good, honest man, unlike the major party candidates. This year however, I didn't know anything about the Green Party or the Libertarian Party candidates, and according to the Wall Street Journal they both espoused extreme positions. I often agreed with the Green Party on economic issues, but not on social issues. Similarly I often agreed with the Libertarians on social issues, but not on economic/financial issues. I think the Fed has saved the US from a horrible financial debacle brought on by Wall Street, which seems to be run by some of the worst people on earth. I think they are evil, but they may just be grossly incompetent.

So I was stuck between Obama and Romney, both of whom held more moderate positions on both social and economic issues, but I was closer to Obama.  However, I am unhappy with a number of things Obama did or did not do during his first term.

- He did not end the war in Afghanistan, which everybody thought was the "good" war, but it turned out that everybody was wrong (except Joe Biden).

- He did not close the Guantanamo prison, leaving the US with its own "gulag" like the old Soviet Union. It's like having a billboard that says, "The US is no longer a free, democratic country ruled by law." No wonder foreign students are going home when they graduate.

- He continued the Bush tax cuts. These tax cuts have badly unbalanced the US economy, contributing to our running up a trillion dollar deficit every year. They are unsustainable, especially when they undercut financing for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. That's one of the main reasons Rumsfeld said that you go to war with the Army you have, not the Army you want. The Republicans were happy to pocket a few thousand dollars in tax savings, although it meant many more troops would die in those wars because they did not have the best equipment.

- He did not try hard enough to get Elizabeth Warren approved as the first head of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. She created the bureau, and she should have been allowed to get it started. She would have faced fierce opposition from the Republicans in Congress, but Obama should have taken them on. It's possible that the big banks hated her so much that the bribed Obama and Democrats to desert her, too. I'm glad she was elected Senator, but I would have preferred to see her take on the banks in the bureau she created. Hopefully she will be able to do some of the same things as Senator. It will be interesting to see whether she gets on any relevant committees, or whether the banks will bribe the Democratic leadership to stick her in the boondocks somewhere.

- Obama did not give us single payer health care, i.e., Medicare for everybody. He have us expanded health care based on a Republican model that is a gift to the health insurance companies and the medical community. It means much higher costs that a single payer system would have meant.

- He has continued the Bush Administration drone strikes, which in many cases have killed innocent civilians and in some cases US citizens. This is like Guantanamo. It shows the world that the US is not longer an honest, decent, just country of laws.

I am hoping that Obama will do better in his second term. His first task is to do something about the fiscal cliff in a way that will reduce the outrageous budget deficit. So far, I am not optimistic. They may reach some sort of a deal that will allow us to muddle through, but will do little or nothing to redress the fundamental problem of the debt that is destroying America.

Where Obama Let Me Down

I didn't want to vote for Obama, but between Obama and Romney, Obama was the better choice.  I was going to vote for a third party candidate, but ironically thanks to some Wall Street Journal Internet test of political positions, I found that both of the third party candidates were too radical for me.  I have voted for Ralph Nader in the past, because I thought he was a good, honest man, unlike the major party candidates.  This year however, I didn't know anything about the Green Party or the Libertarian Party candidates, and according to the Wall Street Journal they both espoused extreme positions.  I often agreed with the Green Party on economic issues, but not on social issues.  Similarly I often agreed with the Libertarians on social issues, but not on economic/financial issues.  I think the Fed has saved the US from a horrible financial debacle brought on by Wall Street, which seems to be run by some of the worst people on earth.  I think they are evil, but they may just be grossly incompetent.  . 

So I was stuck between Obama and Romney, both of whom held more moderate positions on both social and economic issues, but I was closer to Obama. 

However, I am unhappy with a number of things Obama did or did not do during his first term. 

He did not end the war in Afghanistan, which everybody thought was the "good" war, but it turned out that everybody was wrong (except Joe Biden). 

He did not close the Guantanamo prison, leaving the US with its own "gulag" like the old Soviet Union.  It's like having a billboard that says, "The US is no longer a free, democratic country ruled by law."  No wonder foreign students are going home when they graduate.

He continued the Bush tax cuts.  These tax cuts have badly unbalanced the US economy, contributing to our running up a trillion dollar deficit every year.  They are unsustainable, especially when they undercut financing for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.  That's one of the main reasons Rumsfeld said that you go to war with the Army you have, not the Army you want.  The Republicans were happy to pocket a few thousand dollars in tax savings, although it meant many more troops would die in those wars because they did not have the best equipment. 

He did not try hard enough to get Elizabeth Warren approved as the first head of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.   She created the bureau, and she should have been allowed to get it started.  She would have faced fierce opposition from the Republicans in Congress, but Obama should have taken them on.  It's possible that the big banks hated her so much that the bribed Obama and Democrats to desert her, too.  I'm glad she was elected Senator, but I would have preferred to see her take on the banks in the bureau she created.  Hopefully she will be able to do some of the same things as Senator.  It will be interesting to see whether she gets on any relevant committees, or whether the banks will bribe the Democratic leadership to stick her in the boondocks somewhere. 

Obama did not give us single payer health care, i.e., Medicare for everybody.  He have us expanded health care based on a Republican model that is a gift to the health insurance companies and the medical community.  It means much higher costs that a single payer system would have meant. 

He has continued the Bush Administration drone strikes, which in many cases have killed innocent civilians and in some cases US citizens.  This is like Guantanamo.  It shows the world that the US is not longer an honest, decent, just country of laws. 

I am hoping that Obama will do better in his second term.  His first task is to do something about the fiscal cliff in a way that will reduce the outrageous budget deficit.  So far, I am not optimistic.  They may reach some sort of a deal that will allow us to muddle through, but will do little or nothing to redress the fundamental problem of the debt that is destroying America. 

Lincoln Movie

I just went to see the new Lincoln movie, and I think it gives an incorrect characterization of Lincoln's thinking regarding the Civil War, slavery, and the 13th Amendment.  The movie, which is mainly about the passing of the 13th Amendment through the House of Representatives, indicates that freeing the slaves was Lincoln's main motivation.  I think that his main motivation was preservation of the union.  I think that Lincoln, as the political pragmatist that the movie portrays him as, could have lived with the continuation of slavery, if that would have been what saved the union.  However, Lincoln saw that the union could not continue to exist half-slave and half-free; so, he made it all free.  No doubt he was opposed to slavery, thought it immoral, etc., but it had existed in North America for hundreds of years, and under the Constitution for almost one hundred years.  It was the westward expansion of the United States and the question of whether slavery would be allowed to expand that brought the issue to a head and that resulted in the Civil War.  Moral differences over slavery had existed for hundreds of years without producing abolition. 

Ole Miss Not So Old

There is an op-ed in the New York Times welcoming the demise of the the long-time Ole Miss mascot.  I am sorry to see him go.  While some people may use old Confederate symbols to promote racism or violence, those symbols also represent what was an important part of American history.  A lot of good men fought and died for those symbols.  While there was racism, there was also a very genteel, graceful lifestyle in the Old South.  A lot of grace and charm is being lost along with the symbols.

Also we are losing the memory of the men who fought under the Confederate flag.  Many of them, probably the majority of them, did not own slaves.  I had several great-grandfathers who fought for the Confederacy, and as far as I know, none of them owned slaves.  The most illustrious of them, Col. James M. Williams, the subject of From That Terrible Field, had only moved to Alabama from Iowa a few years before the war started. 

There were philosophical choices besides slavery.  It was the fast-paced, matter-of-fact, industrial North, versus the slower, more polite, agrarian society of the South.  It was New York City and Chicago versus Charleston, Savannah, and New Orleans. The South preserved some of its old ways, but clearly they are dying out.  That's not all good. 

Confederate Memorial Day

The normal Memorial Day has reminded me that I forgot to commemorate Confederate Memorial Day, which would have been about a month ago.  Here's to remembering my great-grandfather, Col. James M. Williams, who fought with the 21st Alabama at Shiloh and the Battle of Mobile Bay.