Good evening and salutations.

I’m not usually a very political kinda guy nor do I have any strong political opinions more complex than, “I hate Bush.” But allow me for once to rant about the fuss around Regan. Normally I wouldn’t give two shits about this but I’m finding myself back in the States for a change, and so, for a short time I find it justifiable to rant about US matters… (Not that I ever say or know anything about Canadian politics or political history for that matter). But I digress (again).

When I was born Carter was in power, and so by the time I finally came into consciousness the Carter administration, and its mistakes were over and done with. My early years were spent under the era of Regan and all the foreign policy and economics that went with it. Now I don’t claim to know anything about politics, but from what I remember Regan built lots of nukes, and built one of the largest deficits the US has ever known. They called it Reganomics, something I happen to know a thing or two about given my chosen path in life. Reganomics used a principle known as the Laffer Curve. Basically the idea is that you cut taxes, therefore people spend more, therefore tax revenues increase. Apparently under certain circumstances this increase can more than offset the loss achieved by tax cuts. Hence Regan cut taxes hoping to increase revenues, and become more popular. He also spent trillions on the military. Increase in government spending plus increase in government borrowing to pay off the tax cuts, equals huge deficit (A bit like what Bush is doing by the way). After he finished he was an item of humor. People constantly making fun of his Alzheimer’s. All in the spirit of good fun of course. But the fact of the matter is that it took several years to undo the damage which the Regan administration did to the US economy. I would also tend to argue that the number of nukes we had back then was and is still dangerous. But OK we got out of it fine and after all he didn’t destroy the country. He was an uneducated actor who managed to rally the people around him thanks to his charisma and popularity in the movies. Regan was above all an actor.

So now he is dead and the country is covered in flags flying half mast for days (And let me tell you there are ****loads of US flags flying around here). He gets a state funeral the likes of which we haven’t seen since JFK who, I might add, died while still in office. The country is taking a holiday tomorrow, Friday, in memory of him. And now they are talking about slapping his face on the ten dollar bill. Sounds rather comical to me. What I don’t understand is why. Perhaps the US government is trying to bring the American people into a sense of unity by using this man’s death as an excuse. He wasn’t a hero. Perhaps the Republicans are trying to use it as a means of gaining votes? Regan was a Republican. Something doesn’t ring right to me, and I can’t get anyone to give me a satisfactory answer. I found out about Regan passing away on Sunday morning. My reaction was an, “Ohh… That’s too bad.” My reaction is probably not representative given my loose affiliation with the US over the past ten years, but seriously, the US ten dollar bill? I read articles in “The Onion” with titles like “Regan may have been sworn in, doesn’t recall.” It was funny.

Now take a man like Jimmy Carter. OK fair enough he screwed up a couple of times during his administration, but he is still the US’s number one diplomat, and has done countless numbers of things to promote world peace, and save lives. He won a Nobel Peace Prize, and he is still active doing many things for his country. A real patriot. Maybe I’m wrong but somehow I doubt that when he passes away he's going to replace anyone’s face on a bill. In fact, I doubt that they will extend any of the honors they are giving Regan, and in my mind Carter is a much better human being.

Anyways I invite anyone to give me an explanation to illuminate my rather confused reaction to all this hype. I want to stress I’m not angry just confused, so if I’ve offended anyone out there with my potential ignorance, eat me.