Ronald Reagan Mark II (the soap box thread)

The friendliest place on the web for anyone that follows U2.
If you have answers, please help by responding to the unanswered posts.
nbcrusader said:
I'm confused now. Did Reagan fail to address the metric situation adequately? :wink:

It wasn't that he didn't address it. It had been addressed earlier and there were plans to change over by a certain date, that's why they were cramming us and force feeding it to us in school in the mid-late 70's. Reagan only dismantled the program and cut off its funding after research proved it was not economically feasible or necessary for the U.S. to switch everything over. I think he did the right thing.

To all you moaning about having to do conversions on your jobs, it couldn't be anywhere near as bad as those blackboards full of dozens of problems I had to convert day after day for years. I hated the metric system and was overjoyed and relieved we didn't have to switch.
 
Post Office to Issue Reagan Stamp




WASHINGTON - A postage stamp honoring Ronald Reagan (news - web sites) will be issued next year, the Postal Service announced Wednesday.







Postal policy is to honor prominent Americans with a stamp no sooner than 10 years after their death, except for former presidents who, the agency said, can be honored on their first birth anniversary following death. Reagan was born Feb. 6, 1911 and died June 5.


In announcing the Reagan stamp, Postmaster General John E. Potter said, "The Postal Service will be proud to add a commemorative postage stamp to recognize the many honors that President Reagan, a man of diverse talents, accumulated throughout his life and beyond."


The design of the stamp hasn't been completed, the agency said.
 
Seabird said:

To all you moaning about having to do conversions on your jobs, it couldn't be anywhere near as bad as those blackboards full of dozens of problems I had to convert day after day for years.

Temporarily. I had to master the metric/imperial conversion in the 70s also. But my children dont, its the only system we have. :up:

My first job was a telex operator - a skill that is no longer required as its been replaced by email.

My second job was a blue print tracer - again a job that has been replaced by the computer, in this case a plotter.

Im full of useless skills that went by the way side. The price of improvements is to relearn some things, and I like it. :up:

I cant tell you the amount of times we received telexes over night and the tape wrapped itself around a chair or something and RIPPED! No such problem with email.

</of side note>
 
Last edited:
deep said:
Post Office to Issue Reagan Stamp




WASHINGTON - A postage stamp honoring Ronald Reagan (news - web sites) will be issued next year, the Postal Service announced Wednesday.





be sure to include your return address

these stamps are 'teflon' and nothig will stick to them.
 
If they wanted a tribute for Reagan, his supporters could be lobbying for stem cell research the way his wife is.

But that doesn't fit in with the conservative agenda, so they will honour him with a piece of paper that's got glue on one side. Woohoo!
 
verte76 said:
Thanks TG. That's an excellent history of apartheid. I agree, you can't exactly credit Reagan with ending apartheid. Credit goes to de Klerk and Mandela, who earned that Nobel Peace Prize.

Good article, interesting details about South Africa.

South Africa?s first known inhabitants were the "Bushmen" and "Hottentots", who left fine stone drawings. They were chased to desert by Dutch settlers, who clashed with Bantu tribes arriving at about the same time. In the 19th century, Boer "treks" (which had started in the 18th century) went inland to seek freedom from British rule, which also meant freedom to treat their slaves as harshly as they thought fit, whereas the British tried to preserve internal peace by protecting the natives. This opposition between the colonial government, whose function was to secure profits for the merchants residing in the European home-country, and the white settlers in the colony had existed before between the (Dutch) Boers and the Dutch East India Co., and later, the Dutch government. Yet, the British ensured victory for the Boers fighting against Blacks when the latter were becoming too powerful.

Later, South Africa ceased to be a member of the Commonwealth, because the white population did not want to give up "Apartheid". In 1994, after the abolition of the Apartheid system and the implementation of Black majority rule, South Africa rejoined the Commonwealth of Nations.

Apartheid meant a state of "apartness" or separateness existing in the Republic of South Africa. Racial discrimination has always been a fact in South Africa, though it was legally established only by the Boer (Dutch) government, when the English lost their influence after World War II. The English part of the white population has always been less racialist than the Afrikaner, or Boer, part, because they were in trade rather than in farming, i.e., they were less interested in keeping most of the (good) land. South Africa is no longer ruled by its white minority. Apartheid was in fact a means to maintain white rule. Under Apartheid rule, Blacks and Whites were not allowed to marry, and they lived in different areas. After work in the white areas the Blacks returned to their slum-like townships. The Whites could afford luxury, because they paid low wages to the Blacks. Black areas, so-called independent "Bantustans", were too small to support the Black population. Family life among Blacks was destroyed by the necessity for fathers to work very far from their homes. Their continuous absence was forced on them by a conservative Christian regime.

Reforms were introduced by the last white government, intending to change the constitution in co-operation with the Blacks (ANC) and the Indians and "Coloureds". Black majority rule came about in 1994 without Blacks taking revenge after decades of oppression; Whites were largely kept in the country by anti-apartheid hero Mandela, but there still are violent incidents: tribal rivalries cause bloodshed, but most crimes are now committed by uprooted Blacks whose hopes to escape poverty have been disappointed. The Black middle class, re-emerging after apartheid, now moves away from the masses of their former comrades (since their former common enemy, the White man, is now less frightening than the Black robber). The black government?s privatization policy seems to corroborate the view that the anti-Apartheid campaign waged by Western governments otherwise indifferent to human rights violations served only to give Western business a South African counterpart that was easier to deal with.

South Africa has more violence against whites now as only little part of the land has so far been re-distributed by its black government. After expelling 3.5 millions of Blacks from their lands between 1913 and 1970, Whites still own about 69% of the land.
 
Back
Top Bottom