Funny thought about yesterday.......REAGAN, POKER, BASEBALL, LIFE....

[citizennobody]

Last night I took the family to a local AAA Baseball game and was treated to a free fireworks show afterwards. I was busy thinking about the usual problems while trying to wrestle with my four very young kids when it dawned on me how lucky I actually am, even though I am unemployed and poker hasn't been going especially well lately (I still can't figure out how so many people have hit their 2 out draws against me lately while burning through my entire bankroll at every limit and I am now broke, stuck on the rail.)

I couldn't help but remember the discussions/arguments that I had gotten into recently with some liberals at the tables and some fellow, yet foreign, Masters of Science in Econ grad students about US foreign policy and culture. While their points are all anecdotal in nature with no real basis in fact, they are part of the world community and need to either be educated or killed (just kidding) because they influence our lives too.

All of this brings me to my main point....THANKS RONALD REAGAN. Thanks for believing in this country. Thanks for being a guiding light. Thanks for your service. It dawned on me during the fireworks show on his national day of mourning that Reagan was elected in 1980 while there were 22% interest rates, 13% inflation, and 9% unemployment. Iran had taken our embassy personnel hostage due to the fact that we appeared so weak politically because our leaders, especially President Jimmy Carter, were saying that things would not be as golden as they were in the past and that this was the new reality and that Americans should get used to it (paraphrased).

Reagan (A True American) did not believe in the roll over and die French-like mentality of the New Democrats and immediately cut taxes from an amazing 90% at the highest marginal rates and increased fiscal spending even though some people said this wouldn't work, calling it Voodoo Economics. Reagan believed in his policies despite his detractors and brought down the USSR and started one of the longest peacetime expansions in US history that didn't end until 2000. BTW, I don't want get into a debate about the semantics of economic policy because I daytrade and have a BBA in Finance, a MS in Econ and I start my PhD in Econ this Fall, which means I have opinions based in fact and not rhetoric, so if you don't agree please keep it to yourself.

America is a country of greatness that has gotten where it is today because we are bold and diligent. I say so what to the rest of the world, because if we appear self-righteous it is because we earned everything we have. We could carpet-bomb your cities with gold, cellphones, and BigMacs but that would not solve your problems, just look where the wealth goes in Saudi Arabia. You need to stop listening to your leaders that blame us for your problems when they are actually at fault. Improve your public education systems, liberalize your business environments, clarify your legal systems, and reform your governments, only then will you be able to achieve success. If you had only one Ronald Reagan to lead you, your life would be better off. I also say to all the Americans too foolish to grasp what the price has been to give them the chance to live the life they live, get a clue. There were WMD's in IRAQ www.worldtribune.com/worldtribune/breaking_1.html. 3000 innocent civilians did die for committing the sin of showing up to work on time. So in other words, quit being a bunch of whining selfish pricks, because if your life was directly affected you would be squealling like a stuck pig. If you had to pay $5.80 a gallon in gas like the British, or $4 like the Canadians, or had fewer choices at the grocery store you might change your tune. You can't have your cake and eat it too, my friend, there is and will always be a price for your sloth.

Thanks to Reagan for showing us that we don't have to bend to be proud Americans...

[twang]

I think I know why you went broke.

[eastbay]

[ QUOTE ]
I think I know why you went broke.

[/ QUOTE ]

lol... amen.

eastbay

[Myrtle]

I'm ovewhelmed and so must clearly defer to your clearly superior expertise based upon your "wallpaper"...

When do you think you'll learn how to integrate "trickle down" economics in your game?.....

[Toro]

It was voodoo economics and I don't need a degree in Economics to have an opinion. He cut taxes but not spending and that resulted in deficits that spiraled out of control. His own Veep who succeeded him was forced to raise taxes even though we read his lips that he wouldn't.

The real prosperity occurred during the Clinton administration but he'll never get any credit because he was unable to keep his pants zipped.

Reagan was a good man and it's nice to praise someone upon their death but let's not go overboard.

[Myrtle]

Voodoo economics was the popular colloquial term used....but it was the same old, tired "trickle down" smoke & mirror bs polemic that has been foisted upon the general public from time to time over the past 50 years.

As far as him being a good man…..I don’t know because I didn’t know him.

I DO know, however, that he was an actor by profession.

What, by definition, do actors do?

I try not to engage in revisionist history.

Look at the facts of his two terms and how his administrations' leadership affected this country.

[cardcounter0]

Why is any one even responding to this chatter?

The guy has a college degree, a Masters, and is working on a PHD --- AND HE DOESN'T HAVE A JOB!

Yeah, thank you Mr. Reagan. If he could have served another term you would have had to pawned your computer a long time ago. Wake Up.

[Myrtle]

...my guess would be all who have replied have done so for about the same reason you have, and so succinctly stated.....

[img]/images/graemlins/tongue.gif[/img] [img]/images/graemlins/grin.gif[/img]

[juanez]

You're right - we should deffinitly have given Carter another term. 18% interest rates were great, and that rediculous unemployment rate, gasoline rationing, hostages in Iran for 400+ days....ahhhh yes, the good ole Carter days.

Someone else needs to wake up.

[cardcounter0]

The high interest rates, etc. was the hangover from fighting a ten year war in Vietnam and putting a man on the moon at the same time. Remember Nixon and his "price controls"? Remember Ford and his "Whip Inflation Now"?

Imagine the flack the President in 2014 is going to catch when the G.W. "They tried to kill my daddy" Bush DEBT comes home to roost.