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A Proud Member of the Reality-Based Community
About Me :
I'm a grownup nerd living in the Boston burbs. I write computer programs for a living and plays for fun.
I'm married to a wonderful woman, and we share a nice little house with our daughter and our cats.
I'm a humanist, a technologist, an artist, and an idealist. I believe in reason, freedom, love, equality,
and democracy. (Did I mention that I'm
an idealist? I did, OK.)
I'm also a pragmatist and an empiricist. I reject ideology and dogma, especially when they conflict with
practical facts (i.e., pretty much always). I particularly hate willful ignorance, which tends to go hand-in-hand
with ideology and dogma.
Like the alignment of the planets, this blog gets updated as I have the time, inspiration, and inclination to do so.
Like the alignment of the planets, this blog gets updated as I have the time, inspiration, and inclination to do so.
Thursday, June 24, 2004
Remembering Ronnie Ray Gun
Now that a respectful amount of time has past since they buried poor old Ronald Reagan's body, maybe it's a good time to push back against the crass and opportunistic hero-worship and grandstanding that took the place of any serious, substantive reflection. Might I mention now that he was actually a pretty lousy president? Now that the credits have finally rolled on Ronnie's body, it's time to call bullshit on some of the stupid ideas that have been floated as to what might be a proper memorial. I was listening to the radio a few days ago, and I heard the repulsive troll Grover Norquist say that Reagan was the greatest President of the 20th century, and that he belonged on Mount Rushmore.
What???
Mount Rushmore?
Can you imagine that?
What the hell gives Norquist the idea that Reagan is in the same class as Washington, Jefferson, Lincoln, and Teddy Roosevelt?
Can you imagine George Washington secretly selling arms to Iran? And then lying to the American people about it?
Can you imagine Thomas Jefferson secretly funding terrorists and death squads in Nicaragua and El Salvador from the proceeds of that sale, in direct defiance of the expressed will of Congress? And then lying about who was really responsible for the whole mess?
Can you imagine Abraham Lincoln supporting the brutal apartheid regime of South Africa? And the thug Jonas Savimbi?
Can you imagine Teddy Roosevelt claiming that trees cause air pollution? Or appointing the right-wing nutcase James Watt as the Secretary of the Interior?
Reagan did all these nutty, stupid, evil things, and so much, much more.
I think it's instructive to ask ourselves, what would a Mount Rushmore President do about Saddam Hussein? When Saddam Hussein used chemical weapons on his own people, Reagan thought that was just fine. Reagan even pressured Congress to do nothing about it.
What would a Mount Rushmore President do when our Salvadoran "allies" brutally rape American nuns? What did Reagan do? Nothing, that's what.
Is that really the kind of hero we put on Mount Rushmore?
As part of the obligatory GOP bestowal of godhead upon Reagan, Grover Norquist said on the radio that every state, and each of the 3000+ counties in the United States, should put up some sort of monument to Ronald Reagan. OK, I'm good with that. Maybe we can find 3000+ prisons to name after him. Maybe we can find 3000+ brownfields to name after him.
I personally think the best idea, though, is to name our national debt after him. Our hero, you may remember (or maybe you don't), campaigned for President in 1980 on a platform of eliminating the federal budget deficit. Once in office, though, he proceeded to rack up budget deficits like no other president in history (until George W. Bush came into office, that is). In fact, Ronald Reagan never even sent a balanced budget to Congress.
Therefore, I propose that we rename the current federal debt to The Ronald Reagan Memorial National Debt. It's his lasting achievement and greatest legacy, after all, and it will be with us for a long, long time to come.
0 comments
Now that a respectful amount of time has past since they buried poor old Ronald Reagan's body, maybe it's a good time to push back against the crass and opportunistic hero-worship and grandstanding that took the place of any serious, substantive reflection. Might I mention now that he was actually a pretty lousy president? Now that the credits have finally rolled on Ronnie's body, it's time to call bullshit on some of the stupid ideas that have been floated as to what might be a proper memorial. I was listening to the radio a few days ago, and I heard the repulsive troll Grover Norquist say that Reagan was the greatest President of the 20th century, and that he belonged on Mount Rushmore.
What???
Mount Rushmore?
Can you imagine that?
What the hell gives Norquist the idea that Reagan is in the same class as Washington, Jefferson, Lincoln, and Teddy Roosevelt?
Can you imagine George Washington secretly selling arms to Iran? And then lying to the American people about it?
Can you imagine Thomas Jefferson secretly funding terrorists and death squads in Nicaragua and El Salvador from the proceeds of that sale, in direct defiance of the expressed will of Congress? And then lying about who was really responsible for the whole mess?
Can you imagine Abraham Lincoln supporting the brutal apartheid regime of South Africa? And the thug Jonas Savimbi?
Can you imagine Teddy Roosevelt claiming that trees cause air pollution? Or appointing the right-wing nutcase James Watt as the Secretary of the Interior?
Reagan did all these nutty, stupid, evil things, and so much, much more.
I think it's instructive to ask ourselves, what would a Mount Rushmore President do about Saddam Hussein? When Saddam Hussein used chemical weapons on his own people, Reagan thought that was just fine. Reagan even pressured Congress to do nothing about it.
What would a Mount Rushmore President do when our Salvadoran "allies" brutally rape American nuns? What did Reagan do? Nothing, that's what.
Is that really the kind of hero we put on Mount Rushmore?
As part of the obligatory GOP bestowal of godhead upon Reagan, Grover Norquist said on the radio that every state, and each of the 3000+ counties in the United States, should put up some sort of monument to Ronald Reagan. OK, I'm good with that. Maybe we can find 3000+ prisons to name after him. Maybe we can find 3000+ brownfields to name after him.
I personally think the best idea, though, is to name our national debt after him. Our hero, you may remember (or maybe you don't), campaigned for President in 1980 on a platform of eliminating the federal budget deficit. Once in office, though, he proceeded to rack up budget deficits like no other president in history (until George W. Bush came into office, that is). In fact, Ronald Reagan never even sent a balanced budget to Congress.
Therefore, I propose that we rename the current federal debt to The Ronald Reagan Memorial National Debt. It's his lasting achievement and greatest legacy, after all, and it will be with us for a long, long time to come.
