Hi Humans,

Don't be shy. If you want to comment on my blog entries, please do so. You don't have to be a dog to say what you think. or if you have a pet dog and want to have your dog speak for you, that's also OK. I would like to hear from you or your dog.

Chloe

Tuesday, December 20, 2011

Conservatives???

Hi Humans,
Have you been been watching the Republican primary debates. These people call themselves "conservatives." However, the ideas they espouse are extremely radical, not conservative. They want to radically cut government spending to the point of creating disaster. The Republican Congress prefers to create gridlock causing uncertainty and bringing down the credit rating of the United States unless they get their way completely with no room for compromise. They plainly say their primary goal is to defeat President Obama in the next election, no matter what it takes, and they back it up with realities that are harmful to the USA. They are financial anarchists, but socialists when it comes to government dictating their mores.
Actually there are 2 real conservatives in the presidential race so far, John Huntsman on the Republican side, and Barak Obama on the Democratic side. They differ in their ideas of what the country should do, but seem to have some realistic ideas of what compromises and common ground can be attained. The rest of the Republican candidates seem either crazy or pandering to the crazies.
But then, what do I know. I'm just a dog.
Chloe

Thursday, October 20, 2011

Handkerchiefs

Hi Humans,
If only I had hands like you guys and could blow my nose after I sneeze instead of just having to let it dry by itself. You humans don't realize how lucky you are. You crab about all kinds of nonsense. You should be happy with what you have. But then you don't have the maturity that we dogs have.
Chloe

Sunday, October 2, 2011

Health Insurance

Hi Humans,
If the government can not make health insurance mandatory, then how can you justify making car insurance mandatory? I guess you humans consider property value more important than the health of members of your species. We dogs would never be so silly.
Chloe

Thursday, September 15, 2011

Tycoons and Community Needs

Hi Humans,
Some of you humans say that the government should tax the very richest people (the tycoons) heavily and use that money to help the poorest people and to some extent those in the middle. After all there is only so much that one can spend on oneself. Other humans say that tycoons should make as much money as they want, it's their own business how they spend it, and if they have to give the top end of their income to the government they will have no incentive to earn that money. Well, that's a dilemma. The money is needed here, but the people who can supply it don't want to bother unless they can keep it or spend it as they please.
So, let this little doggie propose a possible solution for your human dilemma. Some tycoons who want to accummulate more more money than they could possibly spend are just hoarders or maybe selfish. On the other hand maybe they are just control freaks who don't want to lose control of the money. Some of them contribute some of their excess money to various charities or causes that appeal to them. Maybe they just like to flaunt how much money they make without necessarily hoarding or spending it.
So, this is the doggie proposal. Let's say there is only so much that is reasonable for a tycoon to spend and put away for his (or her) future security and that of his (or her) family. Let's make a number. Let's say 5 million dollars would be taxed in the usual way. Let's say any $ above 5 million should be for Community Needs. Let's take out the usual highest income tax from the Community Needs money. Isn't that about 30% Federal? And let's allow each state 10%. Then let's allow another 10% to be given to whatever charity appeals to the tycoon. That leaves 50% of all the money above 5 million (the numbers might not be exact; they are just for example).
So what should be done with the 50% of that top income that will meet the needs of the community as well as the needs of the tycoon. The government should make a list of community needs and how much the government would ordinarily have to allot to each need. Each tycoon would pick from the list of Community Needs where he wants his money invested. If possible, he would be given a role in managing that money. His name (or whatever name he chooses) would be attached to the money (e.g. if his name were John Smith, the money would form a fund named the John Smith fund or the Smith Family Fund or whatever name he chooses). If a particular need gets met and there are others unmet, then the tycoon would have to take what is available on a first come first serve basis. If he does not want to be bothered with the program, he can just give the money to the government which would use it in any way that it saw fit. So, the tycoon does not completely and blindly hand over the money to the government because he still has some control over it and can take credit for it.
Well anyway, that's what this dog thinks for whatever a dog's opnion is worth.
Chloe

Sunday, September 11, 2011

Statistics

Hi Humans,
You humans have this thing called statistics which is quite useful for sorting out observations for scientific purposes. Unfortunately some of you misuse them to try to prove a point. This is particularly popular with administrators who try to justify some idea they are pushing, often on employees and other people. We dogs only believe what we can detect with our senses (particularly smell). If someone tells you something is this way, but your smell tells you it's really the other way, I would take a careful look at those statistics with a suspicious eye (or nose).
Chloe

Sunday, September 4, 2011

If Only I Were Human

Hi Humans,
If only I were human, I could go with Mommy and Daddy to people restaurants and sit at the table and eat the delicious smelling people food. And I could go to any hotel, not just the doggy friendly ones. I promise I wouldn't bark. And I would go to school and study all those abstract people things that only humans consider important. But alas I'm a dog. When Mommy and Daddy go out to do their human things, I have to stay home in the laundry room. Although I must admit the laundry room has a doggie door which leads to a nice side yard where I can run around and relieve myself whenever I feel the need. And Mommy and Daddy do take care of me. You know, maybe my doggie life is not so bad. I guess it just depends on fate. There are plenty of humans who are poor and hungry in countries where their leaders are rich from oil and other minerals but don't know how to share. What if I were born a human Jewish child in Poland during the holocaust instead of a Jewish princess doggie in America? What if I were one of those dogs in the Animal Rescue who wasn't adopted instead of a cute little doggie who was? When you look at the alternatives, life is not so bad.
Chloe

Tuesday, August 30, 2011

Tea Party Anarchists Hold Disaster Relief Hostage

Hi Humans,
I am appalled by the cynicism of the Tea Party Anarchists who want to withhold disaster relief unless cuts are made to other government services. What are these other services that they want to cut? fire departments? police? the army? education? roads? Medicare? Social Security? Of course cutting income tax breaks (charity for the most wealthy and screw the most vulnerable) are off the table. Let us hope that enough of you humans will wake up to what those radical right wing idealogues want to do to you and vote the rascals out of office. That would make sense to us dogs. But then, you guys are just humans.
Chloe

Saturday, August 27, 2011

Semantics and Politics

Hi Humans,
You use words in strange way. If a word is supposed to be good, then you want to call yourself that even if it doesn't fit. This is especially true in Politics. In the USA (unlike some other places), Socialism is a bad word. So people on the extreme Left call themselves Progressive, Social Democrats, anything but Socialist. Some people on the Right consider Liberal to be a bad word (somehow associated with Socialism) even though Liberalism means freedom and is what America is all about. Republicans like the word Conservative even though their party is being taken over by radical zealots like the Tea Party Toddlers who espouse a philosophy that borders on Anarchy (a bad word which they would not accept).
Recently, President Obama saved Capitalism by continuing the Stimulus which was started by President Bush to save Capitalism when he realized that it was going to self destruct because of the unbridled dishonesty of Wall Street which the Republicans allowed.
So now they say President Obama's popularity is low. The extreme Left dislike him because he has turned out to be the pragmatic, slightly left of center Conservative that he always has been (they were just practicing denial). The extreme Right dislike him because they have designated him to be a Leftist, Socialist, Liberal (all the bad words they can think of) no matter what he does. They refuse to let reality get in the way of their fiction.
So what can you expect from Humans and their words? We dogs are spared the silliness of semantics because we don't speak at all.
Chloe

Sunday, August 14, 2011

Tea Party Candidate

Hi Humans,
A new Tea Party Toddler entered the race to become the Republican nominee for president, a human by the name of Governor Perry of Texas. His speech did not make sense. He promised good things like high tech stuff, education, etc. along with the Tea Party mantra of less spending, less debt, and lower taxes. So he is promising more services but less spending and less taxes to support those services. The only way to put all those together is to borrow more (like Bush, the last Republican president did). And the Republicans claim that they are the fiscally responsible ones?
If things were the way they should be, the Democratic Party would be the liberal engine of progress and the Republican Party would be the conservative brake to make sure the train does not run off the tracks. The President would be a slightly left of center pragmatist (like Obama) who would use the guidance of both parties to move things forward responsibly. However, the Republican Party that should bring conservative moderation to the process has been taken over by radicals who want to dynamite the tracks to completely stop and destroy the train.
Anyway, that's how this little doggie sees it. I hope the American people will see it as well.
Chloe


Monday, August 8, 2011

Political Foolery

Hi Humans,
Abraham Lincoln said, "You can fool all of the people some of the time and some of the people all of the time, but you can't fool all of the people all of the time." We can hope that the middle class and poor Republicans who were fooled by the Tea Party Rascals during the last Congressional election will realize that less spending and keeping taxes low means decreasing their own government services in order to give tax breaks to people other than themselves. Lowering the government's debt will mean pain for some people, but including a fair balance of both decreasing spending (services) and raising taxes (or just not keeping the Bush tax cuts) will spread the pain among everyone (rich and poor). So let us hope that the next election will be the time when some of the people are no longer fooled and will vote in a Congress that will help President Obama to continue fixing the financial disaster started by the Bush Republicans who borrowed so that they could lower taxes.
You can't fool us dogs all of the time. I hope we can say the same for you humans.
Chloe

Saturday, August 6, 2011

Tea Party Mischief

OK Tea Party Toddlers. So now your juvenile mischief has resulted in a downgrading of the credit of the United States of America. But you don't care as long as you get your way. So why should I care? After all, I'm just a dog.
Chloe

Friday, August 5, 2011

Election in 2012

Hi Humans,
Well, your 2012 elections are approaching next year. My advice is re-elect President Obama. He is an intelligent centrist leader who represents all Americans. Throw out the radical Tea Party Toddlers in the House of Representatives. You need mature Humans in Congress who deal with the real issues pragmatically, not crazy idealogues who are willing to destroy the American economy to get their way.
Even a dog like me can see that.
Chloe

Friday, July 29, 2011

Human Debt Problem

Hi Humans,
Some of you Humans can really be petty when it comes to money and politics. The American government has a problem of spending more $ than it takes in. The government receives tax $ and then spends them to provide services to you Humans who live in the U.S.A. So, to solve the problem you have to take in more tax $ or provide less services or a combination of both. Some Humans prefer less taxes and less services (especially services for someone else). Other Humans prefer to keep their services and are willing to have higher taxes (especially if those taxes have a greater effect on someone else). President Obama being a pragmatic Human (unusually intelligent for your species) wants to solve the problem with a compromise (a balance between less services and more taxes). That is the fair way. However, the radical Tea Party Children want things their way or no way and are ready to destroy the credibility of the U.S.A. to get their way. We dogs would not be so juvenile.
Chloe

Saturday, May 7, 2011

The Purpose of Religion

Belief in God is a unique ability of you humans that separates you from the rest of us creatures in the world. But you so often distort it, politicize it, and use it for devious purposes. Look at the recently killed Bin Laden. He committed mass murder in the name of religion. Bin Laden was not killed in the name of any religion. He was killed because he killed other people.
Killing people "for God" makes no sense. After all why do humans believe in God? One must assume that long ago back in prehistoric times when humans developed language and the ability to record oral history, they were now able to realize that life is temporary. This realization must have been frightening then as it is now. So, religion must have been then, as it still is, an attempt to deal with the inevitable tragic fate of all living creatures, including humans. Although this concept does not pin down the nature of God with any certainty, it does give a reason to think about Him. But to believe that one is supposed to kill people who disagree with one's fixed religious ideas, goes contrary to the purpose of religion, and is immoral as well as crazy. If I were a human and had a religion, I would not squander it on evil as Mr. Bin Laden did.

Monday, February 28, 2011

Wisconsin Teachers

Hi Humans,
Hooray for the Wisconsin teachers. Considering the time spent in getting educated and correcting homework, not to mention the administrative stuff of questionable value that teachers have to endure, the salary is not so big. So, government makes up for the low salary with generous benefits up to now. Now, some people think that teachers are getting away with something. Well it is true that the money is scarce, but why not conserve with less testing. Over testing takes time away from teaching. Also, how about less unnecessary statistics keeping. Statistics are mainly for people high up in any organization who don't really know what is going on at the ground level, so they insist on rigorous statistics to fool themseves into believing that they have their fingers on the pulse. But someone has to waste valuable time in recording those numbers.
Either raise teacher salaries or keep the benefits. Otherwise, people will not want to go into teaching, and government will have to spend money to entice people into teaching anyway.
But what do I know? I'm just a dog.
Chloe

Sunday, February 20, 2011

Teachers and Taxes

Hi Humans,
There are many humans who want the best education for their children, but also insist on keeping taxes low, even if it means cutting funds to education. Right now with the bad economy, public schools can keep teachers in spite of low wages, reducing benefits, and increasingly difficult work conditions because there are limited alternatives. But when the economy improves and other occupations open up to draw away those teachers, what will happen? Will the public accept further decline of the educational system? Or will they be willing to divert money from other areas to education? Or will they actually accept more taxes?
Chloe

Monday, January 17, 2011

Indoor toilets for Dogs?

Hi Humans,
It sometimes can be very cold (by California standards) and windy here in L.A. during the winter. I can't imagine what it would be like to live in a really cold winter climate. You humans take your indoor toilets for granted, but we dogs have to do our business outside, even if it's raining or cold or windy, whatever. If one of your inventors could invent an indoor flushing doggie toilet, that would really be appreciated. After all, you figured out how to fly to the moon! But, oh well, in the great scheme of human indeavors an indoor flushing doggie toilet must not rank as a very high priority. Maybe some day?
Chloe

Friday, January 14, 2011

Violent Radicalism

Hi American Humans,
There has been a disturbing trend in American Human politics for each party to be dominated by the exremes. Now let's say it like it is. This radicalism has been particularly virulent and even violent in the Right wing of the Republican party. This Pailinism has resulted in the recent tragedy in Tucson, Arizona. When you continuously demonize your opponents and talk about them with violent language like putting them in the "cross hairs," you can expect that some crazy person out there might actually take you seriously and literally. A generation ago during the Vietnam War the Left seemed to attract radicals, but nowadays the Republican party seems to have the edge in attracting radical crazy people.
Chloe

Wednesday, January 12, 2011

Sport

Hi Humans,
The recent tragedy in Tucson again brings us to consider the wisdom of allowing everyone to buy guns and bullets so easily in the U.S.A. Remember the purpose of a gun is to kill or injure another creature, human or otherwise. Gun people say it is their right to own one or more guns and that it is for sport. They believe that the freedom to own a gun (for sport) outweighs the possibility that this freedom can result in injury or death to someone because it allows that freedom to any lunatic who exercises that freedom.
So let's make an analogy. In most communities in the U.S. A. it is illegal for humans to expose their private parts in public. Now I am not proposing that you humans become exhibitionists (although we dogs do it routinely), but let us compare. The reason you humans don't expose yourelves is that it hurts the sensibilites of a significant part of the community. So let us continue with the analogy. Suppose some female humans decided to make a sport in which they would expose their breasts in public in order to compare which one had the best breasts in quality and quantity. Male humans might do the same in comparing their genitalia. Many of the very same people who support guns as a sport would be appalled by making a sport out of comparing breasts or genitalia. If you were to ask one of us dogs what is more immoral, shooting other creatures or exposition, isn't it obvious what the answer would be? So who is the smarter animal, the human or the dog?
Chloe