The ***OFFICIAL*** Weekend Singles' Thread -- Remembering/Honoring the Gipper (June 9-11, 2006)

DollyCali & All the Singles at FRee Republic | June 9, 2006 | DollyCali

[DollyCali]

“Some people spend an entire lifetime wondering if they made a difference in the world. But, the Marines don't have that problem. Ronald Reagan, 1985

~*~

Government is like a baby. An alimentary canal with a big appetite at one end and no sense of responsibility at the other. Saturday Evening Post, 1965

~*~

“Trust, but verify“

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Abortion is advocated only by persons who have themselves been born.

~*~

Above all, we must realize that no arsenal, or no weapon in the arsenals of the world, is so formidable as the will and moral courage of free men and women. It is a weapon our adversaries in today's world do not have.

*~*

Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction. We didn't pass it to our children in the bloodstream. It must be fought for, protected, and handed on for them to do the same, or one day we will spend our sunset years telling our children and our children's children what it was once like in the United States where men were free.

~*~

Politics is supposed to be the second oldest profession. I have come to realize that it bears a very close resemblance to the first.

~*~

I have left orders to be awakened at any time in case of national emergency, even if I'm in a cabinet meeting.

~*~

"Here's my strategy on the Cold War:

We win, they lose."

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"The trouble with our liberal friends is not that they're ignorant: It's just that they know so much that isn't so."

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"Of the four wars in my lifetime none came about because the U.S. was too strong."

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"I have wondered at times about what the Ten Commandment's would have looked like if Moses had run them through the U.S. Congress."

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"The taxpayer: That's someone who works for the federal government but doesn't have to take the civil service examination."

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"If we ever forget that we're one nation under God, then we will be a nation gone under."

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"The nearest thing to eternal life we will ever see on this earth is a government program."

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"Government's view of the economy could be summed up in a few short phrases: If it moves, tax it. If it keeps moving, regulate it. And if it stops moving, subsidize it."

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"Politics is not a bad profession. If you succeed there are many rewards, if you disgrace yourself you can always write a book."

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"No arsenal, or no weapon in the arsenals of the world, is so formidable as the will and moral courage of free men and women.

~*~

"A state is nothing more than a reflection of its citizens; the more decent the citizens, the more decent the state. If you practice a religion, whether you're Catholic, Protestant, Jewish, or guided by some other faith, then your private life will be influenced by a sense of moral obligation, and so, too, will your public life. One affects the other. The churches of America do not exist by the grace of the state; the churches of America are not mere citizens of the state. The churches of America exist apart; they have their own vantage point; their own authority. Religion is its own realm; it makes its own claims. We establish no religion in this country, nor will we ever. We command no worship. We mandate no belief. But we poison our society when we remove its theological underpinnings. We court corruption when we leave it bereft of belief. All are free to believe or not believe; all are free to practice a faith or not. But those who believe must be free to speak of and act on their belief, to apply moral teaching to public questions“

~*~

The nine most terrifying words in the English language are, 'I'm from the government and I'm here to help.'

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Thomas Jefferson once said, 'We should never judge a president by his age, only by his works.' And ever since he told me that, I stopped worrying.

~*~

Entrepreneurs and their small enterprises are responsible for almost all the economic growth in the United States.

~*~

My fellow Americans, I am pleased to tell you I just signed legislation which outlaws Russia forever. The bombing begins in five minutes.Ronald Reagan, Said during a radio microphone test, 1984

he ipper

Reagan was president of the United States of America from 1981 until 1989. He was the 40th person to serve as president. He died June 5, 2004 in Los Angeles. He was 93-years-old.

Reagan was the oldest person to serve as president. He was 69 when he took office. Reagan was elected to a four-year term in 1980. He defeated Jimmy Carter in that election. Carter was seeking a second term as president.

Reagan won re-election in 1984. He defeated Walter Mondale for a second term. Carter and Mondale were Democrats. Reagan was a Republican. He was elected governor of California in 1966 and 1970. He made us all chuckle when in presidential debates when questioned about the age of a president & responded he did NOT want to make the youth of his opponent an issue in the campaign.

Before entering politics, Reagan was a movie actor. He also served as president of the actors' union.

As the years passed, Reagan became more conservative. He switched from the Democratic Party to the Republican Party in 1962.

Reagan was often called "the Great Communicator." Even people who did not like Reagan agreed that he was good at giving speeches. The president also was said to have a good sense of humor.

Reagan said the nation needed to be ready to fight the Soviet Union and is considered influential in the break apart of the Union. The Soviet Union was a group of nations in Eastern Europe and Asia. Russia was the most powerful of the countries in the Soviet Union.

Reagan's health gradually grew worse in the last 10 years of his life.. He told the world in 1994 that he was suffering from Alzheimer's disease. Reagan’s wife, Nancy, spoke for him after his condition worsened. Reagan was not seen in public in recent years.

Nancy Reagan said in May of 2004 that Alzheimer's had taken her husband "to a distant place where I can no longer reach him." Reagan died of pneumonia. But the lung condition was a complication of Alzheimer's Disease.

Reagan was given a State funeral that was 10 years in the planning. Thousands filed past his coffin in California and in Washington, D.C. His funeral was attended by heads of State and former heads of State, including Margaret Thatcher, former Prime Minister of Great Britain.

Reagan was laid to rest in Simi Valley, California.

[Maximus_Ridiculousness]

Smells like something is burning outside...must go check it out. (Maybe it's Scary Tree!)

[snugs]

Link to the prayer thread for Howlin

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1646608/posts

[snugs]

What is scary tree?

To all time I turned in - see you all tomorrow night
Love
Eleanor

[ozarkgirl]

So far, I'm going to stick with "not until 30" but I may relent in time... say, 25 or so?

You must be realistic, do you want your girl to not find a life partner till she is at least 30? Actually I think 25 is good but she'd have to look before then. I can only say I had a son who was very spiritual and chose his wife at 25, I think that's a good age. If you are a male parent, please do not hesitate to be the dad and scare off any unsuitable males.

It seems to me you are the protective dad. That's not a bad thing.

[DollyCali]

thanks fpr reminder.. I have that on the list of threads to get to tonight. Howlin has shared her struggles with her mom's illness.. difficult times for our good friend

[pcottraux]

Oh no!

[Maximus_Ridiculousness]

This is Scary Tree:

It's a big scary tree that stands 5 stories tall (this picture was taken from the second story window) and leans ominously towards my window. Unfortunately it sits in the neighbor's yard and we can do nothing about it but complain.

[darkangel82]

Maybe the tree spontaneously combusted.

[Maximus_Ridiculousness]

That would be wonderful.

[Maximus_Ridiculousness]

I guess it was a false alarm. Neighbors got a new pool today. They're splashing it up and making lots of noise. Then a really funny burning smell started coming through the window. Must be firing up an old BBQ or something. It's seems to be gone now.

[darkangel82]

Another dead thread?

[Maximus_Ridiculousness]

Seems like it.

[Maximus_Ridiculousness]

[darkangel82]

I just had to leave the room for a minute, and everyone was gone when I came back.

[DollyCali]

our power has gone off a couple times. not sure what is going on but will turn off computers etc for now. If I don't see you until later or tomorrow, all have a good night & may we all remember the blessing that the Gipper was to our country & to his family.

May we all strive for a worthy legacy.

hugs FRiends!

[Maximus_Ridiculousness]

Thanks, Dolly! Night! Sorry about your power.

[Maximus_Ridiculousness]

[WFTR]

If you are a male parent, please do not hesitate to be the dad and scare off any unsuitable males.

The important word here is "unsuitable." I know a couple of guys at work who talk about the power games that they try to play with the guys who date their daughters. They always justify it with "You remember how it was." What I remember is that I didn't date in high school for a number of reasons. However, if I had started dating someone and her father played these games with me, I'd have dropped her immediately. I wouldn't have said anything like this to one of my elders, but my attitude would have been, "Hey, I'm a dedicated, born-again Christian who is committed to remaining celebate until marriage. I have enough problems and don't need your power games. I'm sure your daughter will find someone else willing to play those games with you. He'll play those games because he intends to get something that makes those games worth playing. I hope you'll be happy with that outcome." I don't try to tell these guys how to handle things with their daughters, but inside, I'm just shaking my head. I often think that those girls may be more likely to bring home the kinds of guys their dads fear because their dads have never really stopped being that kind of guy and modeling that kind of behavior.

In my case, I know that I was too passive throughout my high school and particularly my college life. I can see positives and negatives to dating in high school, but college should be a time of frequent dating. After leaving college, I rarely met suitable women and almost never met them in situations that would be conducive to starting a good relationship. College is a time when young people, particularly guys, need to "practice." I'm not saying that they should practice doing things that are immoral, but they should practice approach skills and learning to read signals. A guy who leaves college without these skills has a much higher probability of ending up single, lonely, and unhappy. Most of us are not made to be single, and remaining single past our time is not healthy.

Bill

[WFTR]

Dolly,

Thanks for posting this topic tonight. I had largely forgotten that this week marked the anniversary of President Reagan's death. I'd like to post something that I wrote for my own website two years ago (when I still had a website). As it turns out, this was my last commentary before Yahoo killed my website.

One More Tribute to President Ronald Reagan
This week will be filled with tributes to Ronald Reagan and rightly so. Understanding his place in our past will help us find the best path to our future. I'm part of that forgotten group between the "Baby Boomers" and the "Gen-X'ers," and I often feel that younger people don't understand how my generation feels about President Reagan. Others will give better reviews of his life and his presidency, but I'd like to explain why pictures of President Reagan and recordings of his words put a lump in my throat.

My earliest political memories were of Watergate and Vietnam. I barely remember the '72 election. I remember my parents saying that most politicians engaged in dirty tactics and that Nixon differed only in that he had been caught. The country had overwhelmingly rejected McGovern's liberalism, but the country was now acting as if it regretted that choice. I didn't understand many details, but that regret seemed misplaced. I understood even less about Vietnam, but the sense of having suffered a shameful loss was prevalent.

The election of Jimmy Carter in 1976 was the embrace of what he would later call "malaise." I occasionally read the history books in my junior high library, and I sensed the strength and pride that America felt after World War II. The attitude of the late 70's seemed to be that those feelings would be gone forever. The attitude seemed to be that communists were just too strong for us; we'd just have to learn to live with being subordinate to them; and maybe they were right anyway.

The communists were strong, dangerous, and wrong. I'm always amazed to hear otherwise intelligent people suggest that communism wasn't a big threat. These people talk about how communist governments have never been able to meet the needs of their own citizens as if that failure were relevant to the communists controlling the West. No communist government has ever cared whether it could meet the needs of its people. When demand rises above what communism can supply, communist governments kill their subjects until supply and demand are balanced again. Anyone who complains about either the unmet needs or the killings is killed also. In the last century, communist governments killed about 50 to 70 million of their own people. Communism is a bloodthirsty ideology. Through the late 70's, communism was expanding, and the only answer offered by the Carter administration was to boycott the 1980 Summer Olympic Games.

The Iranian hostage crisis defined the Jimmy Carter presidency and the direction that he represented. We had allowed our embassy to be taken without firing a shot. Our soldiers and citizens were bound and blindfolded in the face of our enemies. Our one attempt to rescue the hostages ended in disaster in the desert. Rescue missions are always risky, and the failure "could have happened to anyone."

Ronald Reagan was special because he reminded us that we could rise above what "could happen to anyone." He told us that we could defeat communism abroad and "malaise" at home. He told us that we didn't have to listen to those who advocate surrender and appeasement. Advocates of surrender and appeasement have never forgiven him either for being right or for telling us that we didn't have to listen to them.

President Reagan was never a certain pick for the Republican nomination or for the presidency. If George Bush had won another primary or two, he would have been the nominee. In the general election, Mr. Reagan not only faced Jimmy Carter but also faced a third-party run by John Anderson, a former Republican who was expected to take many Republican votes. A week before the 1980 election, people expected Jimmy Carter to win.

To be honest, I don't remember many details of the Reagan presidency. Eight months after the inauguration, I went to college and buried myself in books for the next seven years. My main goal was to be the best engineer that I could be, and striving to be my best fit the new attitude that most of us felt. I followed a few events, and they generally confirmed my trust in President Reagan.

I remember hearing of the Grenada invasion on a radio newscast while I was having breakfast in the dining hall. I had rejected an opportunity to join NROTC, but I halfway expected to be drafted someday. I hoped to finish college first to avoid having to start over later, but I thought my time had come. A friend and I watched the morning news in the student union building, and we were relieved to know that "the war" was already won without us.

I remember that tax cuts really did help the economy, but unfortunately, I don't remember "tear down this wall" when it was first spoken. I was vaguely aware of Iran-Contra, but even in hindsight it seems to be a great deal of prattle about very little substance. I wish that President Reagan had been able to reduce the size, scope, and cost of government as he wanted. If he had done so, we would be better off today. As it was, he did well with the situation that he had and won the Cold War.

Mostly, I remember that a future that once had often seemed dark was much brighter. I no longer feared that we just had to accept being less than the best. Certainly, we have problems that continued through the Reagan administration, but President Reagan really did move the country towards his vision of a shining city on a hill. For younger people who don't understand why some of us revere President Reagan so much, you have to know the difference between how we felt in the late 70's and how those feelings had changed by the late 80's.

God Bless you Ronald Reagan.


June 7, 2004

Copyright 2004 by William K. Kelly

[Theresawithanh]

Hi, Dolly, GREAT tribute to a GREAT President! I enjoyed reading the quotes from him, some I knew, but not all of them.

So, how's everybody doing tonight?