Happy (belated) birthday, Mr. President

Our 40th President would have turned 101-years-old three days ago. Although the well-known pic below has been clearly photoshopped, it’s a nice way to remember one of our all-time finest anyway.

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And remember kids. . .

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Sunday’s Quote: O’ the value of obscure sources

Note: Don’t bother reading if you’re of any Left-leaning orientation, as the following will almost certainly result in a convulsion.

I recently stumbled across a treasure trove of books I didn’t know were in my possession. By chance I turned to the epilogue of the first one I picked up, saw a 60-year-old picture of Ronald Reagan, and read a tribute that reflects the central thesis of what made our country special while validating how far the entertainment industry has fallen from the beaten path.

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“The American image is still one that celebrates freedom, space, and opportunity. It turns sour, as it has in contemporary films, when those virtues are denied or perverted. Today’s Hollywood is quick to exploit the sourness, the disillusion, and the cynicism, but for all that Americans still like to think of themselves in terms of John Wayne. Wayne took a rapping from youngsters in the seventies, but as those youngsters have grown older they tend to share the regret that the Duke is gone. The mood of America as it entered the eighties was markedly conservative.

“The election of Ronald Reagan to the highest office in the land is an affirmation of the American return to conservatism. Reagan himself was of the generation of the Hollywood macho giants. He came from that age of American innocence in which a man could make it on his way – without government help or hindrance, by God! Reagan was well in line with the good old American image. He came from a working family, worked his way through college, excelled at football, got a job as a sports announcer in small-time radio, and worked his way up.  . . .

“What could be more American? The story of Ronald Reagan is itself like a Hollywood movie of the Golden Age. The fact that the American public elected him is strong evidence of an almost desperate yearning for the images of the American past. The fact that such a yearning exists gives hope that all is not lost. The Spirit of ’76 may be battered, but it is not moribund.”
– from Hollywood and the American Image [1981] by Tony Thomas

Just Thinking Out Loud: Ronnie

There are a variety of reasons why our 40th President remains so well-regarded among a considerable majority of the American populace some 22 years after his second term ended.  In fact the central reason may have something to do with eight men in particular – the four who occupied The White House before Reagan, and the four who arrived after he left office – who have been major embarrassments in their own unique ways.

Ronald Reagan wasn't perfect.  The man himself, in the name of humility and truth, would be the first to admit it.  But when compared to Johnson, Nixon, Ford, Carter, Bush (Sr. & Jr.), Clinton and Obama, his performance was practically through the roof.

Perhaps it isn't terribly difficult to shine when sandwiched between such gross mediocrity, but don't mistake this as hero worship.  Instead, consider it simply a comparative indictment of the ineptitude and near-perpetual scandal that has impacted the highest levels of our national leadership for entirely too long.  Reagan, no doubt, would be less than thrilled.

Just sayin'

Left Wing pundit Ron Reagan, son of our 40th President, couldn't resist throwing his Conservative icon father under the bus with his recent assertion -- quite possibly partisan in nature -- that Ronaldus Magnus suffered from Alzheimer's while in office.  Although one is compelled to take the high road, another sort of reply/comparison feels more appropriate...

Sunday's Quote: Reagan

There have been six U.S. Presidents in my lifetime.  I've liked one of them.  Initially a Liberal Democrat who supported FDR's New Deal policies, Ronald Reagan ultimately turned Right when he declared, "I didn't leave the Democratic Party.  The party left me."  This was never more evident years later when then-Governor Reagan ordered more than 2,000 troops from the California National Guard to occupy Berkeley for two weeks to quell some of the characteristic rowdiness we have come to expect from many in the Bay area.

A Liberal rarely dares to do such a thing.  A Conservative rarely hesitates.

Reagan's two terms as our President -- both of which he won with unprecedented dominance -- saw a notable increase in our national debt, but dramatic decreases in unemployment, inflation and income taxes.  He also played a key role in winning the Cold War, once unthinkable, thanks largely to the "peace through strength" mantra of what became known as the Reagan Doctrine; a motto that is now central to the aircraft carrier that bears his name.

Over 100,000 people paid their respects to President Reagan (over a nonstop 34-hour stretch) as he laid in state in the Capitol Rotunda when he died over six years ago.  Over 100,000 more walked past his casket several days later as Reagan laid in repose in the lobby of his presidential library in Simi Valley, California.

He wasn't perfect; no President ever was.  But he was authentically American.  Possibly among the last of a dying breed -- Lord, I want to be wrong about that -- and some people hated him for it.  Today our 40th President would have turned 100-years-old, and part of me is glad that he's not around to see our current state of affairs.  So, for his committed detractors, I'll allow the Man to speak for himself:

"And how stands the city on this winter night?  More prosperous, more secure, and happier than it was eight years ago.  But more than that; after 200 years, two centuries, she still stands strong and true on the granite ridge, and her glow has held steady no matter what storm.  And she's still a beacon, still a magnet for all who must have freedom, for all the pilgrims from all the lost places who are hurtling through the darkness, toward home.

"We've done our part.  And as I walk off into the city streets, a final word to the men and women of the Reagan revolution, the men and women across America who for eight years did the work that brought America back.  My friends: We did it.  We weren't just marking time.  We made a difference.  We made the city stronger.  We made the city freer, and we left her in good hands.  All in all, not bad, not bad at all."
-- from Ronald Reagan's Farewell Address; January 11, 1989

Sunday's Quote: God

One of the great Conservatives of all-time perhaps said it best:

"Skepticism about life and nature is most often expressed by those who take it for granted that belief is an indulgence of the superstitious — indeed their opiate, to quote a historical cosmologist most profoundly dead.  Granted, that to look up at the stars comes close to compelling disbelief — how can such a chance arrangement be other than an elaboration — near infinite — of natural impulses?  Yes, on the other hand, who is to say that the arrangement of the stars is more easily traceable to nature, than to nature's molder?  What is the greater miracle: the raising of the dead man in Lazarus, or the mere existence of the man who died and of the witnesses who swore to his revival?"

-- from "How Is It Possible To Believe In God?" by William F. Buckley, Jr., founder of National Review, author of over 50 books, including God and Man at Yale, and possibly the foremost Conservative in American history.

And for good measure...

America's never had a perfect President, nor has any nation or municipality in history enjoyed a leader devoid of imperfections.  Yet there's something about Ronald Reagan that puts a smile on my face.  Inspired by a picture I recently came across of William F. Buckley (quoted above) at The White House with our 40th President, the following are part of a collection housed at the University of Texas:

Ronald & Nancy Reagan aboard a boat in California, August 1964 [archive catalog identifier H43-11]

Ronald Reagan celebrating is election for California Governor at the Biltmore Hotel in Los Angeles, CA; November 8, 1966 [H99]

President Reagan at Rancho Del Cielo in Santa Barbara, CA; August 13, 1981 [C3525-20]

President Reagan speaking at a rally for Senator David Durenberger in Minneapolis, Minnesota; February 8, 1982 [C6287-7]

President Reagan meeting with fellow Conservative icon British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher at 10 Downing Street in London; June 9, 1982 [C8575-32A]

President Reagan at Ashford Castle in Ireland; June 2, 1984 [C22240-34]

President Reagan poses at the White House; October 3, 1984 [C24744-22]

President Reagan salutes as he boards Marine One on his last day as our nation's leader; January 20, 1989 [C51664-20A]

On This Day in History: Happy birthday, Mickey

326 – The original St. Peter's Basilica is consecrated.  The one that currently stands in its place was dedicated on this day in 1626, exactly 1,300 years later.

1307 – Arrested for not bowing to an oppressive Austrian overlord, a Swiss man named William Tell is offered to be freed if he successfully shoots an apple from atop his son's head.

The Vogt, as the overlord was also known, noticed that Tell had removed two bolts from his holder before the shot instead of one.  Asked why, Tell replied that if he had killed his son, he would have used the additional bolt on the bailiff himself.  In the end, Tell's defiance sparked a rebellion that eventually led to the formation of a Swiss Confederation that lasted nearly 500 years.  Always the hero, Tell died in 1354 while trying to save a child from drowning in the Schächenbach river in Uri, Switzerland.

1493 – Christopher Columbus becomes the first explorer to spot the island known today as Puerto Rico.  He landed the next day.

1928 – Steamboat Willie, the first fully synchronized sound cartoon, is released by Walt Disney and Ub Iwerks.  Consequently, today is also considered Mickey's birthday by the Walt Disney Company.

1978 – Jim Jones, a practitioner of "apostolic socialism," led his Peoples Temple cult to a mass murder-suicide by drinking Kool Aid poisoned with cyanide, among other things, in the South American nation of Guyana that claimed 918 lives, including more than 270 children.  Hours earlier, Congressman Leo J. Ryan (D-CA, 11th district) was murdered by members of the cult.

1988 – President Ronald Reagan signs a bill into law allowing the death penalty for drug traffickers.  Ronnie didn't f--- around.

1999 – A 59-foot structure intended for use in the Aggie Bonfire at Texas A&M, so large that it normally required four weeks to complete, collapses at 2:42 a.m.  Traditionally built in each of the previous 90 years prior to the annual game against their chief rival, the University of Texas, 12 people were killed and 27 were injured.  As a result, bonfire festivities would not resume for three years.

Picture above © The Long Now Foundation

Guilty Pleasures: The 80's

If you weren't there, you wouldn't understand.

On This Day in History

The Scots are a proud people.

1305 – William Wallace, Commander of the Army of the Kingdom of Scotland amid the Wars of Scottish Independence, was captured by the English near Glasgow and transported to London, where he was put on trial and executed 18 days later.  Scotland would win its independence in 1328.

1583 – Sir Humphrey Gilbert establishes the first English colony in North America at what is now St. John's, Newfoundland and Labrador, located along the eastern tip of Canada.

1620 – The Mayflower departed from Southampton, England on its first attempt to reach North America.  Because its sister ship, the Speedwell, developed a purported leak (later disproved) and was docked as a result, the Mayflower would not reach Provincetown, Massachusetts until the following November.

1884 – The cornerstone for the Statue of Liberty is laid on Bedloe's Island (now Liberty Island) in New York Harbor.  Having been constructed in France, the statue was shipped in crates, assembled on the completed pedestal, and officially opened to the public by President Grover Cleveland on October 28, 1886.

1930 – Neil Armstrong, the first person to set foot on the Moon, was born in Wapakoneta, Ohio.

1944 – Polish insurgents liberated a German labor camp in Warsaw, freeing 348 Jewish prisoners.  Although the Germans would eventually quell the two-month Warsaw Uprising, the Nazi regime would be defeated by the Allies eight months later, ending World War II.

1952 – The show that would become American Bandstand debuted on the ABC television network and would remain on-air for 47 years.

1962 – Marilyn Monroe, the Lindsay Lohan of her day, died of a "probable suicide" from "acute barbiturate poisoning."  In other words, the Kennedys probably did it.

1981 – President Ronald Reagan fired 11,359 striking air-traffic controllers who ignored his order for them to return to work.

Iconic Shot: The U.S. & Russia, then and now

(click to enlarge)

President Ronald Reagan traveled to Moscow for his fourth summit meeting with Mikhail Gorbachev (far right) 22 years ago this month.  The man with the camera around his neck is the current Russian Prime Minister, and "former" President, Vladimir Putin.  At the time, Russia's new Bolshevik (descended from Lenin and Trotsky, via Stalin) was a KGB agent posing as a tourist.

Note: See comments portion for info on original source.