Reaganmania
Won't people just shut up already?
Yes, Reagan was charismatic and possessed "undying optimism." Reagan was also evil and dying certainly doesn't change that. He was responsible for so many wack things--the War on Drugs, asserting that ketchup is a vegetable, slashing funding for mental health services, allowing jelly beans to determine media access to the White House, overseeing the phenomenal growth of the prison industry, inserting ridiculous martian invasion scenarios in nuclear arms negotiations with the former-Soviet Union, unprecedented nuclear buildup and military spending, insisting on an official and personal schedule determined by an astrologer and a sincere belief in Armageddon in our life time, Iran contra, dismissing striking air traffic controllers--and then shamelessly accepting the re-naming of the DC airport to Ronald Reagan International.
The list could go on and on. I'm not going to analyze--why enable this national dementia? But I can't resist a few choice quotes.
Reagan on AIDS:
"Maybe the Lord brought down this plague," because "illicit sex is against the Ten Commandments." C.Everett Coop, Reagan's own surgeon general said, "because transmission of AIDS was understood primarily in the homosexual population and in those who abused intravenous drugs, the advisors to the president took the stand, they are only getting what they justly deserve."
Reagan on homelessness: "You can't help those who simply will not be helped. One problem that we've had, even in the best of times, is people who are sleeping on the grates, the homeless who are homeless, you might say, by choice."
Reagan on Latin America: "Well, I learned a lot....I went down to (Latin America) to find out from them and (learn) their views. You'd be surprised. They're all individual countries"
Reagan on education: "The state of California has no business subsidizing intellectual curiosity." �responding to student protests on college campuses during his tenure as California governor
Reagon on unemployed workers: "Unemployment insurance is a pre-paid vacation for freeloaders."
Reagan on the environment: "Trees cause more pollution than automobiles do."