On This, Ronald Reagan's Birthday

This Blogger met Ronald Reagan once; in an anteroom of the Bel Air Presbyterian Church.

This Blogger was surprised at how big he was, thick; not fat, not muscle bound like gym freaks but working man thick, stoker thick.

They chatted, about a man they mutually admired, Eric Hoffer, the Stevedore Intellectual.

Reagan's political enemy, Michael Dukakis, once said he had never met nor seen a man more comfortable in his own skin that Ronald Reagan. And why not? As a life guard, he had pulled 77 people from the water, many of them lovely young ladies. And while at Warner Brothers Movie Studios, as a contract player; he had received more fan letters than Errol Flynn.

As the chat wound down, he asked this Blogger one question: "What did the Soviets make of him?

This Blogger told him the truth; they thought he was an idiot savant, sent by God to destroy them.

This Blogger was alive when the Soviet Union collapsed, without the need of a cataclysmic World War III.

Revisionist Liberal thinking attributes the collapse to the good intentions of the Soviet Communist Leader Mikhail Gorbachev. That thinking is specious.

The Soviet Union collapsed because of one man, Ronald Reagan. This Blogger knew some Russians; knew some Russian Communists; knew some Russian Communists with a voice in their nation’s future.

Ronald Reagan paralyzed their rationality; they were irrationally afraid of him.

Reagan demagnetized their will to win; he soaked up all their self-confidence; he was a giant parasite on their Communist spirituality.

Why?

One, Reagan showed Stalinist pragmatism and ruthlessness; when he fired all the striking air traffic controllers from the PATCO union; which had supported him in the 1980 election. When this Blogger informed them, that Reagan had been head of a Union, before entering politics; that cemented their respect for his Stalinist ruthlessness.

As one Russian Communist told this Blogger:” What ingratitude, what ruthlessness, only our Stalin would have done that.”

Second, they truly thought Reagan was an idiot savant; specifically sent by God to destroy them. They knew that he had a failed acting career, centered around playing second lead to a chimpanzee, in the epic film, BEDTIME FOR BONZO; yet there he was, doing what Churchill and Hitler could not do, destroying them.

To them, he was a force majeure and that depleted all their Marxist spirituality and self-confidence

When this Blogger was a student at the University of Southern California, he was dating a hot coed; who wrote for the student newspaper, THE DAILY TROJAN.

Reagan was Governor of California at the time; he has just broken his promise not to raise taxes, forcing the largest tax increase in California's history, through the legislature.

The coed thought it would be wonderful journalism to go into Reagan country and ask his mad dog supporters what they thought about his betrayal.

She picked Taft, California for that intrepid journey.

At the time, Taft was a tough town, an oil town, some cotton….many racists.

She asked this Blogger to ride shotgun for her, and to wear, his purchased in the Oklahoma panhandle, cowboy hat.

This Blogger did.

They drove up the Grapevine, to Taft; and she spotted what she wanted. An old general store, with a Coca Cola water cooler on the front porch, with six troglodytes members of the male gender sitting on the porch, fanning themselves. A California version of Faulkner’s South.

She pulled into the gravel parking lot; and in her miniskirt and white gogo boots approached the supposed Reagan devotees.

They did not move, nor greet her.

She informed them that she was a reporter for the DAILY TROJAN; she asked how many of them had voted for Ronald Reagan for Governor.

They all raised their hands in affirmation.

She then asked:” What do you think about Reagan breaking his word and reneging on no tax increases?”

They were all quiet.

They looked peeved.

Then, an old, old oil rigger said: “I like your football team…..and if Governor Reagan thinks California needs new taxes, then we are all for it. Governor Reagan knows what he is doing.”

Ronald Reagan was a leader one would follow, for his beliefs, not yours. The Soviets never had a chance.

The Urination Of Nicole Kidman's Career

I went to see EYES WIDE SHUT in total awe of its Director, Stanley Kubrick, who had in his career Directed THE GREATEST Science Fiction/Cosmological film EVER- 2001, SPACE ODYSSEY, the BEST and MOST INSIGHTFUL film essay on American culture EVER- LOLITA, arguably the greatest war movie ever- PATHS OF GLORY, and one of the best film epics ever- SPARTACUS. Mr. Kubrick died SUDDENLY, before EYES WIDE SHUT was released. Everyone was so sad. Then I saw EYES WIDE SHUT, and understood exactly why Herr Director Kubrick had croaked so suddenly; he had willed himself to death before the release of the film, so that he would not have to suffer the slings and shots against his declining genius. EYES WIDE SHUT is the WORST, laughably worst, porn film ever made, EVER. It starred that larger than life couple(at the time), Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman. The key scene in the film was Ms. Kidman peeing. I was spending over $60.00(including tickets,parking and snacks for me and my date ) to watch

The Crash of Flight 447: Fate, Moliere and Veronique Gaignard

In 1954 there was the film, THE HIGH AND THE MIGHTY about danger in the air; that was followed by the 1964 film, FATE IS THE HUNTER about a fatal airplane crash and the followup investigation; followed by the 1970 film, AIRPORT, about a bomber on a plane, starring every living star in Hollywood at the time; followed by the sequels, AIRPORT 75, AIRPORT 77, AIRPORT 79- THE CONCORDE. All that melodramatic danger in the air was laughed to death by the films AIRPLANE in 1980, followed by AIRPLANE II in 1982. Everything in air flight had been covered, both the tragedy and the comedy of air travel, until Air France Flight 447. Flight 447 was the Air France Airbus Flight from Brazil to France, which,in 2009, crashed in the South Atlantic , killing all on board,228 passengers. Airbuses fly by wire, which means they fly by computers rather than the old mechanical ways. Very up to date, except when something goes awry, then it seems it is very difficult to set right. In the wee hours

Roger Cohen's Russian Think Piece in NEW YORK TIMES Begs the Question: Was Gerry Maxey Right about Russia TEN YEARS AGO?

This Blogger respects Russians; as Frederick the Great stated :” It takes two bullets to take a Russian soldier out; one to kill him and one to stop him.” This Blogger likes Russians; even though once, in Moscow, during the Soviet era, his incredibly attractive tour guide, aka KGB agent, told him and his brother that they were in danger of being hit, fatally, by a Soviet car crossing a Moscow street. T his Blogger’s brother told her that he had ridden in a Soviet Car, the LADA; and that he could damn well survive any hit by that piece of junk. She laughed. That night, this Blogger’s brother slept in his room, under his bed, drunk. This Blogger admires the way Russians do business; when Soviet diplomats were kidnapped in Lebanon, the KGB paid the ransoms immediately, without complaint. Shortly thereafter, Beirut was flooded with Soviet agents and Soviet bribes; the kidnappers were identified. They were abducted, tortured and castrated; their dead bodies strung from l

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