h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

There has been an awful lot of weeping and wailing this week over the funeral of the late President Ronald Reagan. I have to admit that I thought he had already been dead for some time, perhaps because, to me, he never seemed to be really alive, more a sort of larger than life political puppet.

Now it seems that the shadows behind the scenes who turned this almost actor, the quisling of the actors guild, the man who was upstaged by a chimp, into the superhero destroyer of communism have one final trick (let's hope!) up their sleeves: They have made the late President Ron into a saint, just in time to miraculously save the White House for the spawn of ultra-conservatism, George Bush the sequel. Among the undead ghouls who have crawled out of the woodwork for the Republican resurrection trick have been such political vampires as Margaret Thatcher and Canada's own talking chin, Brian Mulroney.

This seems a shallow ploy by a cabal of conservatives who will stop at nothing to make the rape of our planet seem to have a holy purpose, to make simple greed seem virtuous. But then the naked emperor looked pretty fine to most people until a kid too young to be fooled wondered aloud about his bare ass. Apparently, a lot of us still haven't caught onto the trick, and still haven't noticed that the invisible suit isn't there and that the man inside it really isn't either.

fair do's on you you just said what most people have been thinking for sometime John.

Well, maybe I was a bit harsh; it's not nice to say unkind things about those who can't defend themselves, especially the departed. But it does get under my skin a bit, the way he has been very selectively 'remembered'... very suspicious, in my view.

JTG

Hello JtG

You might be interested in this conversation: F50359?thread=431773 which has been discussing this very subject.

I agree with you entirely and as long as you're willing to critisize people when they're alive, there's no reason not to do so when they die

Fb

Thanks, Fb, for the link and the support. I'll pop over and check it out.

JTG

I think there has been plenty of the opposite view, you just have to know where to look for it. One obvious place was NPR - America's version of Radio 4. Yesterday (Sunday) morning I was listening to Morning Edition, a programme very similar to Today, and they read a few letters from people commenting on their coverage the previous week of Reagan's death. It really is like Radio 4 - on the one hand there was one person complaining that NPR is run by raving liberals and commies because they dared to criticise Saint Ron, and that was followed by another letter from a listener who bemoaned NPR's fawning all over Reagan's memory

NPR have dared to take the opposite view and talk about the... less savoury aspects of Reagan's administration, and those are not hard to find.

Popped over from Goshos page, hope it is OK - Hi

Starting yesterday more comparisons have been available.
I found it a bit heavey on the Republicans free comercial side.

I sure wondered what was going on while all of this was happening.
Lots of big issues are on and under the table.

Now that he is buried- I find it hard to believe he was in that coffin the whole time
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The best was saved for the last in my opinion.
Ron Jr standing up there saying something to the effect of My father had religion to guide him but that is far different that using it as a Federal Mandate which is wrong.

I would love the exact quote if anybody runs across it.
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Bush is no Reagan if that is what he is thinking. Reagan had humor and admitted to mistakes ( Iran contra). Bush never did come up with any.

I bet the party lives in fear of Bush wanting to crack jokes like Reagan. They would never come out well. *bush looking under the table for WMD* is a prime example when he did try

They both are scary in their black and white thinking and believing what they say while proudly admitting to not reading, newspapers or otherwise. Neither participated much in meetings

Hi there. Thanks for popping by.

I must admit to not having payed much attention to the media coverage of the funeral, deliberately. I have always felt pretty strongly about Reagan and the ultra-conservative point of view that he represents. I was dismayed that BBC World seemed to devote so much air time to his demise.

Apart from the things that were actually perpetrated on us by the Reagan administration, I've always felt - rightly or wrongly - that the Reagan presidency marked a new chapter in the evolution of political leadership towards the puppetry we see in the Bush camp.

JTG

Me too

Couldn't agree more John.

As I registered for Selective Service in the mid-1980s, I was convinced that there wouldn't be a world left by the time I reached my 30s. Thankfully, those fears of nuclear war were not realized!

But of all our presidents, I thought Ronnie was the most capable of ending it all.

Can't say I'm sorry to see him gone. Now if we could only get rid of his legacy...

Amen to that, Jimi. The sooner the Madness of President George ends, the better, in my view... though I hope saying so isn't construed by the Republicans as more dastardly Canadian interference in the election. Have you seen Fahrenheit 9-11 yet?