"Facts are stupid things.." Reagan, '88
"...a faceless mass, waiting for handouts."-Reagan, '65, describing Medicaid
recipients.
"Because Vietnam was not a declared war, the veterans are not even eligible for
the G. I. Bill of Rights with respect to education or anything." Reagan, '80
"Taxes should hurt. I just mailed my own tax return last night and I am
prepared to say `ouch!' as loud as anyone." Reagan, '70, after approving
California's largest tax increase in history. Reporters soon pointed out that
Reagan didn't pay a cent on state taxes that year. For all his talk about
shrinking government, California's state budget more than doubled under his
governorship, from $4.6 billion to $10.2 billion.
"I know all the bad things that happened in that war. I was in uniform for four
years myself." Reagan, '85, justifying laying a wreath at a Nazi cemetary in
Bitburg. Reagan spent WWII in Hollywood, making films.
"They haven't been there. I have." Reagan, '85, justifying his policies on
Nicaragua. Ronald Reagan had never visited Nicaragua.
"They have eliminated the segregation that we once had in our own country..."
Reagan, '85, praising the government of P.W. Botha in South Africa, during the
height of Apartheid.
"I cannot recall anything whatsoever about whether I approved an Israeli sale
in advance or whether I approved replenishment of Israeli stocks around August
of 1985. My answer therefore and the simple truth is, 'I don't remember,
period'"
Reagan, Feb. '87
"Mr. President, why don't we openly support those 7,000 guerillas that are in
rebellion rather than giving aid through covert activity?"
"Well, because we want to keep on obeying the laws of our country, which we are
now obeying."
"Doesn't the United States want that government replaced?"
"No, because that would be a violation of the law." Reagan, ''87. At the time
of the press conference, the U.S. was giving the indiscriminately murderous
Contra guerillas covert aid, in direct violation of the law. Reagan's lie was
so obvious that members of the press corps laughed loudly and openly at his
statements.
"A few months ago, I told the American people I did not trade arms for
hostages. My heart and my best intentions still tell me that's true, but the
facts and evidence tell me it is not." Reagan, Mar. '87
"If the question comes up at the Tower Board meeting, you might want to say
that you were surprised." Reagan, '87, accidentally reading the notes for his
stage directions aloud which told him to act surprised should the issue of
arms-for-hostages come up.
"They are the moral equivalent of America's founding fathers." Reagan, '85,
referring to the brutal Contra rebels in Nicaragua, who indiscriminately
attacked civilians.
"...an example to the world of the ideals we hold most dear, the ideals of
freedom and independence." Reagan, '85, praising the Afghan Mujahaddin. These
"freedom fighters" included prominent leaders of Al Qaeda, such as Osama Bin
Laden, as well as many of the leaders for the Taliban.
"Hollywood has no blacklist." Reagan, '60. FBI records have since shown that
this was a lie, and that Reagan personally informed on several actors, later
shown to be innocent, destroying their careers in the process.
"I would have voted against the Civil Rights Act of 1964." Reagan, '66
"If there has to be a bloodbath, then let's get it over with." Reagan, '69,
prior to having national guard soldiers break up a peaceful protest on the UC
Berkeley campus. The protesters were teargassed and fired upon with buckshot,
killing one protester and wounding at least 128 others.
"... a tragic illness." Reagan, '67, desribing homosexuality. When two of his
aides were found to be gay that year, he asked for their resignations.
"Maybe the Lord brought down this plague [because] illicit sex is against the
Ten Commandments." Reagan, '89. Reagan didn't even mention AIDS until 1987, by
which time it had spread into the heterosexual population and over 25,000
Americans had died.
"What we have found in this country, and maybe we're more aware of it now, is
one problem that we've had, even in the best of times, and that is the people
who are sleeping on the grates, the homeless who are homeless, you might say,
by choice" Reagan, '84.
"For the first time ever, everything is in place for the battle of Armageddon
and the Second Coming of Christ. It can't be too long now. Ezekiel says that
fire and brimstone will be rained upon the enemies of God's people. That must
mean that they will be destroyed by nuclear weapons." Reagan, '71
"It's silly talking about how many years we will have to spend in the jungles
of Vietnam when we could pave the whole country and put parking strips on it,
and be home by Christmas" Reagan, '65
"Trees cause more pollution than automobiles do." Reagan '81
"A tree is a tree. How many more do you have to look at?" Reagan '66, opposing
expansion of Redwood National Park
"I have flown twice over Mt St Helens out on our west coast. I'm not a
scientist and I don't know the figures, but I have a suspicion that that one
little mountain has probably released more sulphur dioxide into the atmosphere
of the world than has been released in the last ten years of automobile driving
or things of that kind that people are so concerned about." Reagan, '80. At its
peak, Mt. St. Helens released 1/40th as much sulfur dioxide as cars do every
day.
"All the waste in a year from a nuclear power plant can be stored under a
desk."
Reagan, '80. (In fact, a single nuclear power plant can produce up to 22,000
cubic feet of of radioactive waste per year.)
"There is today in the United States as much forest as there was when
Washington was at Valley Forge." Reagan, '83. The US Forest Service estimated
only about 30 percent of forest lands of 1775 still existed 208 years later.
"80 percent of air pollution comes not from chimneys and auto exhaust pipes,
but from plants and trees." Reagan, '79
-
Bob Hare Jr aka 'Animated GIF Man'
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