Andrew Jackson was, above many other things, charismatically convinced that his opinion was right and unswerving. It's not so hard to imagine people liking him and voting for him when it's put that way, is it? I mean, it happens all the time today, and that's not even touching the amount of money there was to be made in dispossessing the Indians.

Can someone please explain Andrew Jackson's good side to me?

I'm afraid "he loved his wife" is all that I can come up with.

Rachel Jackson had been married to a horrifyingly abusive man and finally managed to leave him. He told her that he had filed for divorce and the divorce was final. She married Jackson. Then it turned out that husband #1 hadn't divorced after all. It was a vicious, vicious presidential campaign in which Rachel was called a whore and a bigamist. She died and Jackson blamed the his political opponents.

His home, the Hermitage, is well worth visiting, but painful because of the amount of eye-rolling involved. The docents contend that Jackson really liked Indians, because he adopted an Indian child. Since he's the man who gave us the Trail of Tears, it's a difficult argument to buy.

That is really awful. Hope the specialist can think of something. One thought. Your mother is a brilliant medical researcher. Can she do some research and find out whether there is some place that might offer better pain control - either in another state or in another country. (On some medical practices the U.S. stays up with the leading edge, but given our war on some drugs, I'm not sure pain control is one of them.)

I mean I love having you in this country, but I hate having you suffer - so it might be worth having somebody investigate whether there is some place you can get better treatment.

Loving the Bad-Ass Presidents.

Favorite quote so far:

[Washington] described being surrounded by bullets and death and concluded by saying "I heard the bullets whistle and, believe me, there is something charming to the sound of bullets." When he caught news of this, King George III reportedly remarked that Washington's attitude would change if he'd heard a few more. But King George III didn't win the war, so fuck him.

While I don't consider the British Army of that era by any means paragons of virtue and goodness (because they demonstrably weren't), I've spent far too much time reading, researching, and writing about them to see them as Evil Other.

Jackson...wouldn't have felt the same:

During the American Revolutionary War, Jackson, at age thirteen, joined a local regiment as a courier.[4] Andrew and his brother Robert Jackson were captured by the British, and held as prisoners of war; they nearly starved to death in captivity. When Andrew refused to clean the boots of a British officer, the irate redcoat slashed at him with a sword, giving him scars on his left hand and head, as well as an intense hatred for the British.[5] While imprisoned they contracted smallpox, and after their mother secured their release, Robert died a few days later. Jackson's entire immediate family died from war-related hardships that Jackson blamed upon the British, leaving him orphaned by age 14.

That said, I strongly suspect that Jackson is the kind of guy who draws fans who take a somewhat...simplistic view of races and nationalities? Not saying this very well. But while I would say he's a rather fascinating and complex individual, I find myself not at all surprised that there's a certain jingoism to his fanbase.

Thanks, TB. I fear my mother's at her wit's end too.

Damn. I really really want to help. But I guess there is absolutely nothing I can do. Which is probably the same frustration you and your mother are undergoing only a billion fold. I send you my love cause I guess that is all I can do.

OMG, I so needed to see this: [link]

HILARIOUS.

According to the Road Runner Sports website (in a popup, so I can't link), Stability shoes are for average arch, Neutral shoes are for high arch, and Motion Control are for low arch.

I overpronate horribly and have extra-flexible ankles (I've had a few times when I've stumbled over something and my foot ended up bent far enough that the inside of my ankle scraped the ground), so I always need to buy the shoes at the far end of the motion-control line.

Susan, if you want a scholarly (yet accessible) defense -- indeed, hagiography -- of Andrew Jackson, check out Arthur Schlesinger's The Age of Jackson, which should be available at your favorite source for used books at the very least. Much of his argument -- "he destroyed the Second Bank, which was getting too big for its britches under that megalomaniac Nicholas Biddle."