All posts by Rand Simberg

General

A Little Obscene

I found the last ceremony at the grave site the most emotionally wrenching.

The eulogies of the children were not about his impact on the world, but about his impact on them, as a father. It seemed much more personal and heartbreaking to me, because while I admired Reagan, I knew him only as a politician, and I didn’t love him.

Holding the folded flag, Nancy goes up to the now-bare casket, and lays her head on it one last time, saying goodbye to her husband of over half a century. Her children come in to comfort her. I hear a lot of chattering noise in the background, and I suspect that it was a multitude of camera shutters.

Somehow this last seemed, to me, a huge invasion of privacy of the family. But as Patti said in her written eulogy last weekend, she knew she had to share him with an entire nation. Apparently, right up to the end.

General

Family Resemblence

I’ve never noticed it before, but looking at the audience as the president speaks in the National Cathedral, and seeing them side by side, Patti Davis shares many of her mother’s facial features.

Political Commentary

An Interesting Thought

From James Taranto today:

We didn’t have time to see the casket, but we did see the people lining up for the viewing–the backdrop for Couric’s makeshift outdoor set. Reagan, of course, was more responsible than anyone else for the end of communism, a system among whose lesser horrors were that it forced people to spend much of their lives in queues for such necessities as food and toilet paper. Somehow then it seems a fitting tribute that thousands of free men and women would voluntarily wait in line to pay their last respects.

General

Poor Schmuck

I just got a call on my business line from a guy who was peddling the dead-tree LA Times.

Me: No, thank you. I’ve no use at all for that paper. My parakeet died, by puppy’s been trained, and I don’t fish any more, so I don’t need the wrap.

Him: But it’s only $2.75 a week! What can we do to get you to subscribe?

Me: How much will you pay me to read it?

Him: I love this job. Have a good day, sir.

Space

Major Shakeup?

Brian Berger has a preview of the Aldridge Commission report. This is the part that (obviously) piqued my interest:

Specifically, the commission will recommend that:

…NASA allow the private industry “to assume the primary role of providing services to NASA, and most immediately in accessing low-Earth orbit…”

I’ll be interested in seeing the elaboration on this topic. As usual, the devil will be in the details.

Political Commentary

Oops!

I’m watching the ceremony as the casket is being taken down the Capitol steps, and the cannons firing on the mall, and just thinking about how embarrassing it would be if they screwed up and put real loads in them, and took out a few government buildings.

Somehow, considering who it was in honor of, it would have been fitting, especially if they were pointing south toward HHS. If I ever get a state funeral, that would be one of my requests. They’d need a little more range, but I might have them target a certain building over on E Street, too.

Political Commentary

False Premise

Andrew Sullivan has a nice collection of foolish quotes about Reagan from the eighties. This one in particular caught my eye:

“Are we rushing headlong into the next step of those 40 years of progressions by which we do something then they do something, by which we pretend that we’re going to build this and it will somehow strengthen our deterrent then they do it, and low and behold, the next thing we know is, the President of the United States is addressing the nation saying,

Political Commentary

A Return To Sanity

Krogers and the Perkins restaurant chain are taking down their idiotic “Please Come In And Rob The Disarmed Victims In Our Establishment” signs in Ohio.

In a letter announcing the removal of the signs, Marc Teaberry, the executive vice president of Perkins Family Restaurants, noted that the restaurant chain has “numerous locations in Pennsylvania, which has always had a concealed weapon law, and have never had any problems.” Teaberry added that the company, in posting the signs, had received “bad advice” from its attorneys.

That’s putting it mildly.

Ohioans For Concealed Carry said it also has received reports that Kroger stores in the Cincinnati Division (which includes greater Dayton) had begun removing their “no guns allowed” signs.

“It is not yet known if this action is in any way related to the assault and robbery of a 70-year old Kroger customer outside a posted store on May 23,” Ohioans For Concealed Carry said in a press release.