[Leica] Remembering the Reagan years

[timatherton at theedge.ca (Tim Atherton)]

One of our esteemed members posted this over on his own list

(My main memory of RR is the outrage caused when Maggie Thatcher let him use
Britain as an aircraft carrier for bombing the Middle East)

Uncommon  Wisdom from "The Gipper"

"A tree's a tree.  How many more  do you need to look at?"
--Ronald Reagan (Governor of California), quoted in the Sacramento Bee,
opposing expansion of Redwood National Park,  March 3, 1966

"I don't  believe a tree is a tree and if you've seen one you've seen
them all."
--Governor Ronald Reagan, in the Sacramento Bee, September  14, 1966

"All the waste in a year from a  nuclear power plant can be stored
under a desk."
--Ronald Reagan (Republican candidate for president), quoted in the
Burlington  (Vermont) Free Press, February 15, 1980.  (In reality, the
average  nuclear reactor generates 30 tons of radioactive waste per
year.)

"I have flown  twice over Mount St.  Helens.  I'm not a scientist and I
don't know  the figures, but I have a suspicion that one little
mountain out there,  in these last several months, has  probably
released more sulfur dioxide into the atmosphere than has been released
in the last ten years of automobile driving or  things of that kind."
--Ronald Reagan, quoted in Time magazine, October 20, 1980. 
(According to  scientists, Mount St. Helens emitted about 2,000 tons of
sulfur dioxide  per day at its peak activity, compared with 81,000 tons
per day produced  by cars.)

"Growing and decaying vegetation in this land are responsible for  93
percent of the oxides of nitrogen."
--Ronald Reagan, quoted in the Los  Angeles Times, October 9, 1980. 
(According to Dr. Michael Oppenheimer of the Environmental Defense
Fund, industrial sources are  responsible for at least 65 percent and
possibly as much as 90 percent  of the oxides of nitrogen in the U.S.)

"Approximately 80 percent of our air pollution stems from hydrocarbons
released by vegetation.  So let's not go overboard in setting and
enforcing tough emission standards for man-made sources."
--Ronald Reagan, quoted in  Sierra, September 10, 1980

"I've said it before and I'll say  it again.  The U.S. Geological
Survey has told me that the proven potential for oil in Alaska alone is
greater than the proven reserves in  Saudi Arabia."
--Ronald Reagan, quoted in the Detroit Free Press, March 23,  1980. 
(According to the USGS, the Saudi reserves of 165.5 billion  barrels
are 17 times the proven reserves--9.2 billion barrels--in  Alaska.)

"Why should we subsidize  intellectual curiosity?"
--Ronald Reagan, campaign speech, 1980

"Trains are not any more energy  efficient than the average automobile,
with both getting about 48  passenger miles to the gallon."
--Ronald Reagan, quoted in the Chicago Tribune, May 10,  1980.  (The
U.S. Department of Transportation calculates that a  14-car train
traveling at 80 miles per hour gets 400 passenger miles to the gallon. 
A 1980 auto carrying an average of 2.2 people gets  42.6 passenger
miles to the gallon.)

"It's silly talking about how  many years we will have to spend in the
jungles of Vietnam when we could pave the whole country and put parking
stripes on it and still  be home by Christmas."
--Ronald Reagan (candidate for Governor of California), interviewed  in
the Fresno Bee, October 10, 1965

"I have a feeling that we are  doing better in the war [in Vietnam]
than the people have been told."
--Ronald Reagan, in the Los Angeles Times, October 16, 1967

"...the moral equal of our  Founding Fathers."
--President Reagan, describing the Nicaraguan contras, March 1, 1985

"Fascism was really the basis for the New Deal."
--Ronald Reagan, quoted in Time, May 17, 1976

"I know all the bad things that  happened in that war.  I was in
uniform four years myself."
--President Reagan, in an interview with foreign journalists, April
19, 1985.  ("In costume" is more like it.  Reagan  spent World War II
making Army training films at Hal Roach Studios in  Hollywood.)

"They've done away with those  committees.  That shows the success of
what the Soviets were able  to do in this country."
--Ronald Reagan, quoted in the Washington Times, September  30, 1987. 
(Reagan longs for the days of Sen. Joseph  McCarthy and the HCUA witch
hunts.)

"We think there is a parallel between federal involvement in  education
and the decline in profit over recent years."
--President Reagan, quoted in USA Today, April 26, 1983

"What we have found in this  country, and maybe we're more aware of it
now, is one  problem that we've had, even in the best of times, and
that is the people who are  sleeping on the grates, the homeless who
are homeless, you might say, by  choice."
--President Reagan, defending himself against charges of callousness
on Good Morning America, January 31, 1984

"I favor the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and it must be enforced at  the
point of a bayonet,  if necessary."
--Ronald Reagan, Los Angeles Times, October 20, 1965

"I would have voted against the Civil Rights Act of 1964."
--Ronald Reagan, Los Angeles Times, June 17, 1966

"If there has to be a bloodbath  then let's get it over with."
--Ronald Reagan (Governor of California), quoted in the San  Francisco
Chronicle, May 15, 1969.  (Reagan reveals how he intends to deal with
student protesters at the University of California, Berkeley.)

"Today a newcomer to the state is  automatically eligible for our many
aid programs the moment he crosses  the border."
--Ronald Reagan, in a speech announcing his candidacy for Governor,
January 3, 1966.  (In fact, immigrants to California had to wait  five
years before becoming eligible for benefits.  Reagan acknowledged his
error, but nine months later said exactly the same  thing.)

"...a faceless mass, waiting for  handouts."
--Ronald Reagan, 1965.  (Description of Medicaid recipients.)

"Unemployment insurance is a pre-paid vacation for freeloaders."
--California Governor Ronald Reagan, in the Sacramento Bee,  April 28,
1966

"We were told four years ago that  17 million people went to bed hungry
every night.  Well, that was  probably true.  They were all on a diet."
--Ronald Reagan, TV speech, October 27, 1964

"But I also happen to be someone  who believes in tithing--the giving
of a tenth [to charity]."
--Ronald Reagan, from The Weekly Compilation of Presidential
Documents, February 8, 1982.  (He may believe in tithing, but  he
doesn't practice it.  Reagan's total charitable giving of $5,965  did
not approach 10% of total income.  It was more like 1.4%.)

"[Not] until now has there ever  been a time in which so many of the
prophecies are coming together.  There have been times in the past when
people thought  the end of the world was coming, and so forth, but
never anything like  this."
--President Reagan revealing a disturbing view about the  "coming of
Armageddon," December 6, 1983

"History shows that when the taxes of a nation approach about  20
percent of the people's income, there begins to be a lack of respect
for  government....  When it reaches 25 percent, there comes an
increase in  lawlessness."
--Ronald Reagan, in Time, April 14, 1980.  (History  shows no such
thing.  Income tax rates in Europe have traditionally  been far higher
than U.S. rates, while European crime rates have been  much lower.)

"Because Vietnam was not a declared war, the veterans are not even
eligible for the G. I. Bill of Rights with respect to education or
anything."
--Ronald Reagan, in Newsweek, April 21, 1980.  (Wrong  again.)

"Politics is just like show  business.  You have a hell of an  opening,
coast for a while, and then have a hell of a close."
--Ronald Reagan to aide Stuart Spencer, 1966