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“The 5 Best Ronald Reagan Tattoos Found On The Internet”

Fifth on their list, but somehow on top thanks to use of revered “countdown” format.

Wall Eyed 

“In a world where more and more borders are being opened up – to trade, to travel, to movement of peoples, to cultural exchanges – it is tragic to see walls still being erected,”

In a development sure to irritate both Ronald Reagan’s traditional American fan base and Israel’s, Pope Benedict drew comparisons to Reagan’s immortal Berlin Wall speech during his visit to the occupied Palestinian territories.

The Pope called for Palestinian statehood, and denounced Israel’s “anti-Fascist protective rampart” in classically vague Papal pronouncements.  The Holy Father said walls “do not last forever” and “can be taken down.”

In Vatican terms, almost a declarative statement!

Perhaps Israel needs to work up a variation on another Reagan infrastructure declaration:

“We bought it. We paid for it. It’s ours. And we’re gonna keep it“

Reagan: The Road To Victory 

Grizzled Reagan era schemer [and Iraq War facilitator] Michael Ledeen has offered his insights into Iran’s release of  journalist and former North Plains beauty pageant winner Roxana Saber.

Ledeen says those Teheran rug merchants are always dealing.

“anyone familiar with the workings of the Islamic Republic has to assume that there was a payoff“

The Economist calls attention to an interesting response from one of Andrew Sullivan’s readers.

” …he insists there were no exceptions; Iran never gave up hostages without getting something in return.   This is in obvious contrast to the mythology that the right has built up that Iran was afraid of Reagan; it is not inconsistent with speculation of an October Surprise that has been part of conspiracy theories on the left.

Tell us, Mr. Ledeen, what was that something that Reagan gave Iran in 1979/80?”

                                             

He Kept Us Safe!

One of George W. Bush’s most exciting legacies is the deal de-nuking Libya, bringing Ronald Reagan’s “Mad Dog of the Middle East” into our family of nations. Now we are learning just how friendly our man in Tripoli became.

From the Great Socialist People’s Libyan Arab Jamahiriya comes word of the prison death of al-Qaeda suspect Ibn al-Sheikh al-Libi.

  Al Libi was arrested in Pakistan, tortured by the United States and our partners in peace, Egypt, and dumped on our new revolutionary guide friend.  Despite Bush administration hopes, al Libi would not claim ties between Iraq and al-Qaeda except under torture, so we hid him away in freedom’s new frontier.

Dead Man To Tell No Tales           
Libya says he was a suicide, although Human Rights Watch reports Al Libi seemed healthy if huffy when encountered recently, asking “Where were you when I was being tortured in American jails.”

Making A List, Not Checking For Nice     

We’re working on that too, as our gallant Libyan allies are making visitations to fellow countrymen at Guantanamo.

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Freedom’s New Face  

Kids Explain The Darnedest Things

John Emerson’s Social Design Notes blog studies recent self-explanations by museum and presidential library creators, and sums up the their evil work:

“I keep seeing this trend: stories of monuments and memorials sold on infantilism, using the lens of “childhood” to conjure an air of authenticity and gravitas.“

Emerson quotes the Washington Post on presidential library market maker Ralph Appelbaum’s Nigeria project:

“What does it take to make a Nigerian child?’ It’s an unanswerable question, but it provided the necessary aha moment that made it all come together, a positive theme that finesses some of the philosophical problems of a presidential library in a country riven by corruption, violence, and religious, ethnic, linguistic and economic divisions.”

Stiff Competition

Applebaum’s firm is the American equivilant of Lenin’s embalmers touching down in Angola and Vietnam, loosing upon the world our packaged solutions for immortality.