From: jerry@cs.mcgill.ca (Gerald (Jerry) KUCH)
Subject: Re: PC, Redneck President, and other bad news. (was Re: Amiga 1200)
Organization: SOCS - McGill University, Montreal, Canada
Date: Sat, 7 Nov 1992 22:19:49 GMT

In article <1992Nov6.000536.22326@ra.msstate.edu> skip@tacky.cs.olemiss.edu (Skip Sauls) writes:
>In article <36732@cbmvax.commodore.com> daveh@cbmvax.commodore.com (Dave Haynie) writes:
>>In article <1992Nov4.202447.10362@ra.msstate.edu> skip@tacky.cs.olemiss.edu (Skip Sauls) writes:
>>
>Funny, I don't seem to recall saying anything about supporting Bush.  If I'm
>anti-Clinton, does that make me automatically pro-Bush?  Hell, I'm pretty 
>liberal for a white-boy from the South: I don't believe in deities, I support
>a woman's right to have an abortion, I don't believe in censorship, and I'd
>love to see a lot less government involvement in people's private lives.  But

This was something that Reagan and Bush harped about extensively in the early
1980s during a period when they set out to help "mom and pop businesses tied
up in government red tape."  Of course it made the most sense to appoint to
the head of the Task Force on Regulatory Relief a Texas oil tycoon and former
head of the CIA... none other than George Bush.  Also during this period 
corporations lobbied Congress to the extent of $1 billion dollars in order to
sell deregulation to the public.  Then Reagan decided that the person most
suited to heading OSHA (which presumably is interfering in private lives 
too much already) a contractor who had received 48 safety violations form 
OSHA in the past.  The EPA was taken over by a Colorado politican who had
resisted toxics regulation, fought controls on strip-mining and obstructed
various pieces of state hazardous waste regulation.  When Reagan deregulated
buses, trains and airlines, 3763 communities lost interstate bus service, 
1200 towns lost rail service and 150 airlines went bankrupt.

All the while, as Reagan harped about regulation "holding back free
enterprise," polls showed that only 5% of the public thought that workplace
and consumer protection regulations were too strict.

Although it may not have been your intention with your reference to "private
lives," you've conjured up images of a lot of the rhetoric used to justify
inanity like the above.

>>Get a clue.  If you're comparing IQs, the Bush/Quayle administration set an 
>>all time low (its only close competition was the Reagan/Bush administration).
>>I'm proud to have helped to elect a President and Vice President with at least
>>above average intelligence (you don't get to be a Rhodes Scholar by being a 
>>"stupid hillbilly").  
>
>Again, where have I said anything about supporting Bush or Quayle?  If IQ is
>so important, why don't we have nuclear scientists and other smart folks in
>office instead of a bunch of asshole lawyers?  And Dave, Ole Miss has never
>had the reputation of being a great school except maybe at the state level,
>but we've had a few Rhodes Scholars.   

Jimmy Carter was a nuclear engineer.  And with respect to Ole Miss, wasn't
Clinton at Georgetown when he received his Rhodes Scholarship?  Deserved
or not, its reputation is hardly terrible.

A technically literate and educated political elite is something that is
growing more overdue.  I once had an instructor who harped against technical
specialization in education, claiming that industry was suffering and that
glorious success stories like Chrysler were brought about by broad minded
and generally educated individuals like Lee Iacocca.  The value and
necessity of a well balanced and varied education aside, I'd hardly call
a corrupt technocrat whose company was saved from the grave by federal
loan guarantees and some interestingly loosened safety regulations that
enabled new cost cutting measures that were previously illegal a glorious
success story...   just a thought.

>>Politically ignorant sounds more like it.
>
>Oh no, flamed by an Amiga god!  What am I to do?  Cancel the A4000 order
>that I placed today?  No, I forgot, you don't fool with that sort of mid-range
>non-SCSI crap, do you?  Too bad you can't seem to get anything that you are
>working on out the door in a timely manner.

Ouch... cheap shot.

>
>>Dave Haynie / Commodore Technology, High-End Amiga Systems Design (cool stuff)
>> "The Crew That Never Rests"  {uunet|pyramid|rutgers}!cbmvax!daveh   BIX: hazy
>>		SCIENCE:	"I'll believe it when I see it"  
>>		RELIGION:	"I'll see it when I believe it"
>
>Skip Sauls
>skip@tacky.cs.olemiss.edu
>
>
>


-- 
 Jerry Kuch (jerry@cs.mcgill.ca)  |  Author of "Death By Boredom" Vols I - IX
 "I was wrong to play God.  Life is precious, not a thing to be toyed with.
  Now take out that brain and flush it down the toilet."
                  --- M. Burns  "Treehouse of Horror II"
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.hardware