RONALD REAGAN - FURTHER COMMENTS

Ronald Reagan has been deified by many Republicans (for example, the pundit Peggy Noonan, also a former Reagan speech writer, is an extreme case.) and even some Democrats have shown their appreciation. I have made some comments on him at http://stopcontinentaldrift.blogspot.com/2011/02/ronald-reagan.html. Yet, these people who have deified Reagan have had to overlook a lot. The following is taken from an article in Newsweek, July 19, 2010.

Taxes

Though Reagan is particularly remembered by many for his 1982 tax reduction action, they also overlook that he raised taxes a number of times when he saw the loss of Federal revenues as a result. In 1983 he restored about a third of the cuts from the 1982 bill, the largest tax increase ever.

In 1983, he raised the gasoline tax by 5 cents and established a pay-roll tax hike.

In 1984, he did away with some tax loopholes, saving $50 billion over 3 yrs.

In 1986, he was for the Tax Reform Act that raised $420 billion in new fees on business.

Federal Employment

I have previously mentioned that Reagan increased the number of Federal employees though many remember him as a small government advocate. The Newsweek article gives this number as 60,000 whereas they say that Clinton decreased Federal employees by 373,000 (including me).

Federal Budget

The Newsweek article states that the national debt increased from $700 billion to $3 trillion during Reagan tenure as president.

Miscellaneous

Ronald Reagan did a number of things with which I agree, but the religious right core of the Republican party, in particular, abhors today. Among other things, he had a lot of sympathy for gays.

As governor of California, Reagan signed an act that legalized abortions into law.

He opposed proposition 6 that would have barred gays from participation in public schools.

He was the first president to have a gay couple stay overnight in the white House.

He signed the Immigration Reform and Control Act that gave amnesty to millions of illegals though it had provisions that were to end illegal immigration. Unfortunately the 50% increase in border guards did not stem the tide and businesses outsourced a lot of their employees through subcontractors to avoid having to certify that they were not hiring illegals.

There is much to many pundits opinions that Ronald Reagan couldn't get the Republican nomination today.

WOULD MC CAIN HAVE BEEN A BETTER PRESIDENT?

I ‘ve had another comment (#55) published by the NY Times on the op-ed by Ross Douthat, "Dreams Of a McCain Presidency: Would the country have been better off with McCain in the White House? "

John McCain's time to run for president was the 2000 election. The trouble is that John McCain was senile by the time of the 2008 election. He kept saying things like the Iranians (Shiites) were training the insurgents (Sunnis), and he is a bigger war monger than Obama. He doesn't want to reduce troops in Afghanistan, he wanted a bigger effort in Libya, and seemingly wanted to go to war over the country Georgia being disciplined by Russia. The surprise was that he did as well as he did in the election. It is fruitless to speculate on what he might have done as president. It could have been a horror.

What we had was a not well-qualified candidate against a senile candidate. I think the electorate chose the right person who I believe will go down as the Best One Term President Ever!: http://stopcontinentaldrift.blogspot.com/2010/08/best-one-term-president-ever.html

HISPANIC STATE POPULATONS (%) - 2010

The three states with the highest percentage of Hispanics are: New Mexico 46.3%, California 37.6 & Texas with 37.6%.

The states with the lowest percentage of Hispanics are: West Virginia 1.2%, Maine 1.3% & Vermont 1.5%

The two states passing highly restrictive immigration laws for Hispanics are: Alabama with only 3.9% (the most restrictive) & Arizona 29.6%.

The entire list is:

Ala. 3.9%... Miss. 2.7%... Va. 7.9%

Alaska 5.5... Mo. 3.5...Wash. 11.2

Ariz. 29.6... Mont. 2.9... W.VA. 1.2

Ark. 6.4... Neb. 26.5... Wis. 5.9

Calif. 37.6... Nev. 26.5...Wyo. 8.9

Colo. 20.7... N.H. 2.8

Conn. 13.4... N.J. 17.7

Del. 8.2... N.M. 46.3

D.C. 9.1... N.Y. 17.6

Fla. 22.5...N.C. 8.4

Ga. 8.8... N.D. 2.0

Hawaii 8.9... Ohio 3.1

Idaho 11.2... Okla. 8.9

Ill. 15.8... Ore. 11.7

Ind. 6.0... Pa. 5.7

Iowa 5.0... R.I. 12.4

Kan. 10.5... S.C. 5.1

Ky. 3.1... S.D. 2.7

La. 4.2... Tenn. 4.6

Maine 1.3... Texas 37.6

Md. 8.2... Utah 13.0

Mass. 9.6... Vt. 1.5

Mich. 4.4

Minn. 4.7

Taken from aarp.org/bulletin June 2011. Data source: U.S. Census Bureau.

DEPRESSION (Poem)

She is an accomplished pianist

Who likes to spend her days

Looking out the window

Or playing the darker

Pieces of Beethoven.

At first I didn’t understand

Why She is depressed.

Then it turned out that

She had a talented son who

Might have been a concert pianist,

But was killed in the crush

At a rock concert.

Many women have had children die

And never get truly over it,

But they soldier on.

Not She who felt Her life was over

And was waiting to die.

Of course, this was unfair to her

Daughter, a pianist of modest abilities,

Who came in the afternoons

Daily to try to cheer her Mother

And get Her to reenter society.

She would have none of it,

But finally She had an epiphany

And decided on a mission

To improve Her daughter’s

Piano skills.

This poem was stimulated by and abstracts a short story by Sally Whitney, “Grace Notes”, Main Street Rag, v. 16, no. 3, p. 31-45, 2011 that much impressed me.

WILL INCANDESCENT LIGHT BULBS BE BANNED? II

It seems as if the insanity over incandescent light bulbs is still with us, and this is an update on a previous post of the same name.* The question is, can an incandescent light bulb of lower wattage give off as much light as a standard incandescent light bulb. Right now there is a 72 watt halogen light bulb that gives off the same light as a standard 100 watt incandescent light bulb that is covered by the new rules.** So the answer is yes! I saw them on the counter in Lowe's Hardware and it has the same shape as a standard incandescent light bulb (which seems to be important to some people).

Now for Compact Fluorescent Lights (CFL) that in general give the same wattage light as an incandescent bulb but using only approximately one-fourth the wattage. They come in Bright White, Soft White, and Day Light. You can get CFLs in Bright White, (running on 23 watts as bright as 100 watts incandescent, 4 for $2.98, Utilitech). These use a bit less than a quarter the energy as the conventional incandescent light bulb. You can also get CFLs in soft white (running at 18 watts and giving the light of a 70 watt incandescent light bulb, 6 for $3.18, Utilitech). You can also get dimmable CFLs, but they are more expensive at $9.76 each for a 100 watt equivalent. In our experience you cannot mix dimmable CFLs with conventional incandescent light bulbs. They dim at different rates. You can get 3-way CFLs (We have one in day light) of 50-100-150 watts equivalent for $8.27 in bright white. You can get CFLs flood lights in bulb shapes and cone shapes (the CFL light is inside the bulb or cone). Lastly they come in lots of colors. Some I saw a Lowe's were pink,light blue, light red, blue, red, green, orange, even black.

Also coming along are Light Emitting Diodes (LED) that use even less energy than CFLs to produce the equivalent light of incandescent bulbs. Currently they are quite expensive because they are made by hand in the U.S., but plans are to have them made as soon as next year in a lower cost nation. At that the price drop will initially be only in half. Right now an 18 watt LED giving light equivalent to a 75 watt incandescent bulb costs $44.98. Like CFLs, they are a bit strange looking because they have to have cooling fins at their base.

But if you cannot tolerate any of the advanced lights, please just hoard the old incandescent bulbs. Go buy them by the case, buy two cases each of different light strengths, but please don't try to stop progress.

*http://stopcontinentaldrift.blogspot.com/2011/05/will-incandescent-light-bulbs-be-banned.html

** http://www.topbulb.com/find/incandescent.asp