Relic of Cold War will mark Reagan's tomb

The Times ^ | June 9, 2004 | Chris Ayres

[Physicist]

Very appropriate that there will be a piece of that hated wall next to the man who brought it down.

That's right. It's best to put the damned thing where he can keep an eye on it.

[Interesting Times]

A section of the Berlin Wall is good.

Don't forget the ears and tail of a Soviet MiG-25...

[facedown]

Glad to see you back!

[oyez]

Only the Left can fathom the purpose of a wall erected to keeps a population inside.

[oyez]

Didn't Reagan insinuate that Soviet fighter pilots were half blind?

[oyez]

How does this get past an editor?

Editor too stoned to notice.

[Joe Hadenuf]

There were three-hour traffic jams on California’s crumbling motorways yesterday

I read that. Little do they know that California's freeway system is probably the best and smoothest in the world, easily designed for 80 plus mph speeds. The only problem with them is there is too much traffic using them most of the time.

[Joe Hadenuf]

The mourners who turned up to yesterday parked at a community college and were bussed to the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library, which is accessible only by a winding mountain road.

Mountain road? That barely qualifies as a hill in California.

[Bubba_Leroy]

John Kerry, the Democratic presidential candidate, also made the journey to California last night to pay his respects.

Kerry went for a campaign photo op. They should have made him wait in line with everyone else.

[BobS]

"Mr Reagan played a major role in ending the Cold War, and only yards from his tomb is a 3ft 6in by 10ft chunk of the Berlin Wall. The former symbol of communist power and the division of Europe weighs 6,000lbs and is surrounded by flowers and a sign giving warning of rattlesnakes. "

Give me a F'n break! These reporters don't have a clue. I was there and saw that wall 2 times before this and it is well landscaped there. Unless recent construction disturbed things, it's a beatiful place to bring a date or your wife for a nice quiet Sunday afternoon. 150 feet away is a little restaurant. The people that write this crap have never been there!

[Vineyard]

Actually, Peter Robinson, who drafted the speech for Reagan, relates the story (Hugh Hewitt radio show, and once when he guest hosted when Hugh was on vacation) tells the story more accurately -

In essence, the "tear down this wall" kept getting red-lined out of the speech by State (and Colin Powell, Asst. NSA) .. and everytime Peter Robinson met with Pres. Reagan - the President stated that the words would stay in.

The text that Pres. Reagan had included the phrase. (I recall the story being told in greater detail several years ago ... Pres. Reagan basically told the people - including Robinson and those opposed to the phrase ... sort of a questioning line ... I am the President? right?, and if I want it to stay in, it gets to stay in, right? well (in his famous drawl) - it stays in!!)

But, as Peter Robinson related (listening 2 days ago on Hugh Hewitt) .. Reagan had been told that there might be East Germans on the opposite side of the wall who would hear him, and he looked forward to giving them hope ... but after several hundred E.Germans had assembled near the site (other side of wall)hours before his speech - the Polizi moved everyone away, so that there were no people near by on the other side when Reagan came to the site. The whole idea of such police state tactics really infuriated Pres. Reagan, made him even more animated with his insistance to Gorbachev to "tear down this wall".

Quite an impressive story.

Mike

[Brad’s Gramma]

Do you know when that picture was taken?

[facedown]

I don't. I just googled images and found it. I'd never seen it before so I saved it and posted it for posterity.

[Wolfstar]

Mountain road? That barely qualifies as a hill in California.

Good morning, Joe. Just saw your comment and had to laugh. I guess whoever wrote that must think the Sierra Nevada mountains are in some other state.