Obama in 2011

I am not so optimistic as to believe that hope will always triumph over fear, nor am I cynical enough to believe the opposite is true.

So here I sit not watching the State of the Union address (I’ll catch it later during one of the many times it will be replayed) thinking about how I feel about Obama these days. I’ve supported Obama since before the Democratic convention in 2008, and I haven’t regretted it since (though I have occasionally wondered if perhaps Hillary Clinton might’ve been a better choice), and will probably support him again in 2012. But not without a few reservations.

Obama’s military policies really haven’t differed much from George W. Bush’s. While we may have a clearer idea of what his “exit strategy” will be in Afghanistan, I don’t see that exit happening any time soon. You can argue whether or not this is a good thing, but I’m not going to take a position here since I can see value in arguments on both sides of this issue. My point is that Obama’s “change we can believe in” hasn’t changed things all that much.

His stand on presidential power and privilege isn’t much changed from Bush’s, either. The previous administration pushed back the restraining wall of the Constitution much farther than I was comfortable living with, but Obama has been slow (or even obstructionist) in trying to reverse that trend. Perhaps it was naive of me to hope that any sitting President would try to reign in Presidential authority. Perhaps I should have realized that that just doesn’t happen.

And as far as health care goes, Obama’s changes aren’t as sweeping as either he or his detractors would have you think. It’s still a system run by and for the profitable health care industry, and that is precisely what needed to be changed but wasn’t changed, just regulated. Barely regulated.

Still, I’ve got to hand it to Obama for the way he managed the “lame duck” session of Congress, that time when one party (the Democrats in this case) that has been voted out of power traditionally sits on its hands and waits for the victors to come in and claim their seats. Much to everyone’s surprise, Obama and the Democrats were able to accomplish more in this session than a majority party usually accomplishes in any given year. (Of course, if you’re on the other side of the fence then it probably doesn’t seem like an accomplishment to celebrate, but that’s not the point. The democrats moved their agenda ahead significantly, whether you agree with that agenda or not.)

All in all, I see Obama as a flawed President but not a bad one. I will probably support him again in 2012, even with my reservations, unless another candidate steps forward and is able to bring hope with them. You see, hope is the key. I will vote for hope over fear any day. The only Democrat I see that could do that is Hillary Clinton, and I don’t think she’s likely to break ranks with the administration and run again. And I don’t see a single Republican on the horizon that hasn’t played the fear card, or dealt the fear hand, or stacked the deck so that the fear card seems to come up no matter how you cut it.

Hope trumps fear. At least it should.

The Blues Viking

The opinions here expressed are mine and if you don’t like them you can get your own damn blog.

Facing Facebook

The Further Adventures of a Luddite in Cyberland

As you may have noticed, I have been absent from this blog for two years. Not just this blog, but completely off-line. I know that I shouldn’t be surprised at how much the computer world has changed, but I am. I am constantly trying to get a handle on the new ways that people interact online as I try to reintegrate into my friends' social lives.

(No, I wasn’t in jail. And no, I hadn’t been deported because I wasn’t able to produce the original copy of my birth certificate. Apparently that’s only considered a crime if you’re a Democrat in the White House.)

What’s really given me fits is this Facebook thing. When I bailed on the Internet I was in regular communication with my friends via e-mail on Google’s Gmail network. Gmail allowed me to communicate directly with a list of friends, it allowed me to post a picture on myself (or of anything else I wanted), it allowed me to post a brief message that would come up with that picture; it even had a “Chat” feature. I liked Gmail. All of my friends were on Gmail and those who weren’t I could always invite.

Now I'm back on the web, and my old friends hardly ever use Gmail any more. They all use this new thing called Facebook. As I am beginning to understand it, the advantages of Facebook are that you can communicate directly with a list of friends, it allows tou to post a picture of yourself (or of anything else you want), it allows you to post brief message that comes up with that picture, it even has a “Chat” feature. All of my old friends are now on Facebook and those who aren’t I can always invite.

So I’m forced to ask this question: Why the hell do I need Facebook?
In truth, there are a couple of things that Facebook does that Gmail didn’t. Facebook allows you to play on-line games without leaving Facebook, and it lets you have a “gallery” of photos for other people to see,

Is that it? That was enough to make people bail on Gmail? That’s the attraction? What the hell am I missing here? There has got to be something else that makes Facebook such an improvement that everyone just has to have it.

Seriously, what the hell am I missing? If there’s some attraction to Facebook that I’m not seeing, please tell me because I really can’t see the attraction as it stands now. If you know, please tell me. I find it hard to believe that all of my old friends, computer literate and tech savvy as they are, have moved to Facebook just because it’s the Latest and Greatest. At least I hope they haven’t.

(A sidebar…apparently the only way I could use the “Chat” thingy in Facebook would be for me to upgrade to the Latest and Greatest version of Microsoft Internet Explorer, or switch to some other Latest and Greatest browser. No, thanks. I’ve had too many computer screw-ups caused by installing the Latest and Greatest something. I can live without the “Chat” thingy.)
One other thing Facebook does; it makes it difficult to hide. If you want to find someone, you search Facebook using their real name (Facebook discourages pseudonyms) and you can see a picture (maybe) and a wealth of personal info that a cleaver person could use to divine a great deal about you. Frankly, if I wanted to be that easy to find I’d have been easier to find these last few years.

If you haven’t guessed by now, I don’t think much of Facebook.

Yet I am still on Facebook, and likely to stay there a while. At least until the next Gotta Have thingy rears its ugly head and everyone else flocks to it and embraces the New for no better reason than that it’s new.

But before I put this one to bed, there’s one thing Facebook has done for me that I can’t complain about. When I first poked my head above the rim of the dark personal hole I had dug for myself, I put my name on Facebook and was surprised to see just how many people had cared enough about me to keep an eye open for me if I should ever surface again. I had been in such a horrible funk that I had forgotten how many people there were that cared. And I’ve really needed that over the last couple of years…I am amazed I got along without it.

Maybe Facebook ain’t all that bad after all.

The Blues VikingLuddite-at-large

The opinions here expressed are mine and if you don’t like them you can get your own damn blog.