Le·gal In·sur·rec·tion

I'm missing that man terribly.

I'm currently reading Rendezvous with Destiny by Craig Shirley. I bought it about a year ago, I think, and it sat around gathering dust. I don't know what I was thinking when I ordered it but once it got here I kept thinking "as interested as I am in politics I still don't know what possessed me to buy a 700+ page book about a presidential campaign." Sheesh.

Anyway... I finally picked it up and it's not putdownable. Even though I know how it's going to end. ;)

I hear the same author has written another one about Reagan's 1976 campaign. I guess I'll end up reading it next.

Speaking as a "white suiter", I can assure everyone that the Tournament of Roses Parade has been and continues to be a very patriotic event. A political float is very rare but Reagan is still very popular out here.

It was at this parade 8-9 years ago that the B-2 Stealth Bomber was unveiled to the public as an unannounced surprise fly-over during the opening ceremonies and has returned every year since except one. It was surreal to watch it approaching as a thin line in the distant sky. I'll never forget the audience's reaction once they realized what they were looking at. It really did look like something from another world. I still get goosebumps when I see it. It flies right over my home twice every January 1.

And when the national anthem is sung at the various events surrounding the parade, people stand and sing. If you've never attended New Year's week events in Pasadena, you are really missing one of America's great events.

This is a great photo! We watched via HGTV and were really pleased to see the crowd stand at the float passed. A pleasant surprise, in fact.

Mr. Reagan really was the 'Stuart Smalley' (not a tip of the cap to the buck-toothed moron Al Franken) of sorts when it came to the United States. Downplay the negatives, eccentuate the positives. That's what we like about him. He wasn't a downer. An 'amiable dunce'? No. People like him precisely because he was positive.

Not like the group of statist-socialist wet blankets and self-flagellators we have now.