"Nil mortuis dire nisi bonum."

[DemoTex]

My Latin is very rusty, but that old Latin proverb speaks to what the bard said ( ..the evil that men do lives after them; the good is oft interred with their bones- Shakespeare), and roughly translates, "of the dead say nothing but good." That's no problem with the likes of gushing Peggy Noonan, Halliburton board member Larry Eagleberger, and the bizarre James Watt on camera (Keith Olberman, MSNBC). Know what I mean, Vern?


The late, also great, Jim Varney

[pinto]

1. Watt was very bizarre, no?

[NoPasaran]

2. By the standards of the time, yes

In the Texas Rethug party of today, he'd be a moderate.

[madrchsod]

3. hey christ is coming back,,so.....

what the fuck! -lets sell off everything in the usa..hell we don`t need parks,etc,etc cause we will all be in heaven!!!!!

[mahatmakanejeeves]

4. James Watt

Ahh, who can forget the summer of 1983, when James Watt and his lovely wife whatshername decided that the Beach Boys were a bad element that should not perform at the Fourth of July festivities at the Mall? (The one in front of the Capitol. The U.S. Capitol. Just so we're all on the same page.) Who would be more appropriate? Why, Wayne Newton.

http://www.icmtalent.com/musperf/profiles/70011.html

>>
They played the first of their Fourth of July concerts at the Washington Monument in 1980, returning again in 1981. Banned in 1983 by then Secretary of the Interior James Watt, The Beach Boys returned to the monument on July 4, 1984 by a personal invitation from the First Lady Nancy Reagan after a national uproar. The concerts in 1984 and 1985 were attended by crowds of approximately 750,000 people.
<<

http://www.alternativetentacles.com/bandinfo.php?band=jello&page=2&sd=fRocsh7UWyEZEHQhlBw

[havocmom]

8. Was on a flight in '83. Stopover in Billings to take on more passengers,

one of whom was none other than Watt.He stood there (in starched shirt and creased blue jeans, with carry on bad and bright,white, un-sweat-stained stetson. He poised and postured, smiling and waiting for recognition. Could've heard a pin drop in that cabin but we all knew who and what he was. The glares from everyone must have been felt all the way to the cockpit of that 737!

His smile faded to a tight grimace and he finally sat down, with a dejected sigh. He didn't move for the duration of the flight. It is my favorite memory of the Reagan years!

[DemoTex]

9. Too bad it wasn't MY Boeing 737.

I'd have given Watt a Greenpeace welcome aboard.

[havocmom]

10. DemoTex, I am not a brave air passenger, but you at the controls for that

flight would've been a hoot and a hollar!

[DemoTex]

11. Yep. I'd hoot ...

And you'd hollar! Thanks for the compliment havocmom.

Mac

[starroute]

5. An attitude originally based on fear of the undead

The general idea in most cultures throughout human history has been that you really, *really* don't want the dead coming back and making trouble for the living.

So you bury them in holes in the ground with big heavy rocks on top of them. Or you burn the bodies or otherwise reduce them to little dried-up bits that can't reconstitute.

But even disposing of the body doesn't necessarily prevent the spirit of the dead person from coming back. So you do your best not to summon it up. You avoid using its name, or you refer to it by a different name than when it was alive. Or you bring offerings of food and drink to its tomb to keep it happy. Or, at the very least, you do your best to say only nice things about it, so it won't get pissed and come after you.

So, yeah, I suppose we're best off not to have an undead Ronald Reagan hanging around and making trouble. You got a problem with that?

[DBoon]

6. A Reagan Zombie? How hideous!!

Fortunately we know the dead do not come back,

[DemoTex]

7. Not me!

Nor do I want the hallowed spirit of Reagan around causing even more trouble. Much more of Peggy Noonan's gushing and I'll be looking for RR (or an archangel) to roll back the rock in three days.
Again, know what I mean?

[Ilsa]

12. Borrowing from JK Rowling:

He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named must not be allowed to return, even in syndication or on memorials.

[DemoTex]

13. Good stance for the soon-to-come fights

RR holiday. RR currency. RR tokens. RR sculpture on Rushmore. Etc, etc, ad nauseum. Steel-up. Lawyer-up. We are in for yet another cultural fight. Like someone said the other night, and I have stolen the term, "Dogs and mice know." Indeed they do.