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10 Things..
February 10, 2011 at 1:39 pm
On the run-up to what would have been his 100th birthday this year, I've noticed attempts in the media to "canonize", if you will, Ronald Reagan as if he should be ranked with the Founding Fathers & other great thinkers & doers of our nation. This following list does a great job busting some of the myths surrounding him. He was a good man, but truly mediocre president as conservatives go.
10 Things Conservatives Don’t Want You To Know About Ronald Reagan
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RE: 10 Things..
February 10, 2011 at 2:51 pm
#11 He had early stage Alzheimer's while in the White House.
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RE: 10 Things..
February 10, 2011 at 3:36 pm
(February 10, 2011 at 2:51 pm)Minimalist Wrote: #11 He had early stage Alzheimer's while in the White House.
It's arguable that he effectively wasn't president at all during his second term. I'm speaking with the greatest sympathy for those who suffer from this terrible disease. My maternal grandmother suffered from it in her last years. The disease was showing its effect even in his first term. During his first debate with Mondale, he seemed forgetful and befuddled. I imagine that he spent his whole second term being propped up as the figure head while the powers that were ran everything behind the scene.
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RE: 10 Things..
February 10, 2011 at 4:53 pm
(February 10, 2011 at 3:36 pm)DeistPaladin Wrote: I imagine that he spent his whole second term being propped up as the figure head while the powers that were ran everything behind the scene.
Maybe that's why the current batch of conservatives idolize him so much?
"How is it that a lame man does not annoy us while a lame mind does? Because a lame man recognizes that we are walking straight, while a lame mind says that it is we who are limping." - Pascal
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RE: 10 Things..
February 10, 2011 at 5:00 pm
Quote:I'm speaking with the greatest sympathy for those who suffer from this terrible disease.
Both my parents had it. That's why the early signs are so obvious.
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RE: 10 Things..
February 10, 2011 at 7:10 pm
He also supported mass-murder and genocide in South America.
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RE: 10 Things..
February 10, 2011 at 11:01 pm
(This post was last modified: February 10, 2011 at 11:02 pm by Dotard.)
(February 10, 2011 at 3:36 pm)DeistPaladin Wrote: I imagine that he spent his whole second term being propped up as the figure head while the powers that were ran everything behind the scene.
Ain't that the case with all presidents?
(February 10, 2011 at 7:10 pm)Ubermensch Wrote: He also supported mass-murder and genocide in South America.
No shit? Got any evidence of that?
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RE: 10 Things..
February 11, 2011 at 1:16 am
(This post was last modified: February 11, 2011 at 1:17 am by Ubermensch.)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Contras#U.S...assistance
http://www.onwar.com/aced/data/november/...ua1981.htm
So maybe not quite genocide, but close enough.
There are also other examples of the US sponsoring mass-murder in South America, but I am lazy and don't care enough to find them.
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RE: 10 Things..
February 11, 2011 at 5:54 pm
I think Carleton West in The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance put it best:
When the legend becomes fact, print the legend.
In this case, it's more precise to say:
If the legend is bullshit, print it anyway.
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RE: 10 Things..
February 11, 2011 at 6:30 pm
(February 11, 2011 at 5:54 pm)Rev. Rye Wrote: I think Carleton West in The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance put it best:
When the legend becomes fact, print the legend.
In this case, it's more precise to say:
If the legend is bullshit, print it anyway.
There's a blurry line between legend and myth. One quickly becomes the other in a remarkably short period of time, even in an age of information.
It makes me think of the Jesus myth.
Let's assume that a "historical Jesus" existed. He was some mortal wandering rabbi with a group of fanatical followers, one of many doom criers that lived at that time. Generations later, people were telling tall tales about him. Maybe he was martyred by the Romans and became a symbol. A faction of Jews began to attribute all manner of teachings and miracles to him. Good luck knowing true from false.
Christians like to claim that there would have been a team of commando fact checkers who would have descended on any mythmakers to cry "false" if the resurrection or any other miracles weren't true. Only true doctrines could have stood the early tests of time, so they say.
Well, here we have the messiah of the Republican Party, who lived and reigned within recent history, within the lifetimes of those who would have known or worked with him. Furthermore, we live in an age of information where real fact checkers exist. It doesn't stop the mythmakers from rewriting history, does it?
Why should I, for even a moment, believe that it would have been impossible to imbue to the mortal Jesus the divinity that Christians now ascribe? This was a more superstitious time when crazy beliefs about the godhood of even emperors abounded. This was a time when information was less accessible. This was a country where people wanted desperately to believe that the messiah was coming to relieve them from Roman rule. And how easy would it have been to rewrite all of the teachings of Jesus to suit religious leaders, since the theoretical historical Jesus wrote nothing down that survives to this day?
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... -Statler Waldorf, Christian apologist
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