• 1:08 AM
  I'll have a Ronny Reagan

Former leader of the free world, Ronald Reagan, is dead. He's really the first president I can remember being a president. I had no qualms about it at the time: he was the good guy. Gorbachev was the bad guy. They told me Russians were evil and had weapons of mass destruction pointed at us, and that we should prepare ourselves to wipe them out. (Whoa, deja vu?) Oh, and also to be prepared for utter annihilation at the hands of our enemies, since they had pretty much the same weapons as us.

Growing up, as I did, in a nuclear-armed world, I never really thought about there being any other way. Yep, so any moment of any day could be the last one for everyone in my city. Would they nuke my little rock of a state out in the middle of the Pacific Ocean? Let's see.. Army, Marine, Air Force, and 2 Naval Bases, all clumped together in an isolated area of heavy tactical significance.. oh yeah, we were boned. I saw "The Day After". I saw "Wargames". I imagined global nuclear annihilation, the prize and punishment for calling someone's bluff in the poker game of M.A.D..

How can I blame that on Reagan? Was it possible for things to play out any other way? These days, we're pretty certain no one else has quite the ability to obliterate us that we do for them. Maybe we don't have to constantly be threatening or attacking people. Back then, hey, those Russians were smart! They could put stuff in space, too. They might've had flying saucer death rays for all we knew.

I guess, from a child's perspective, he wasn't a bad president. He may have turned out to be a !@$#, but in the words of Berke Breathed, a SINCERE $#!@. Way more convincing than his vice president or the kids thereof. Rest in peace, cowboy.

Note: you should still consider me a bleeding-brain progressive or whatever party it is which thinks that maybe people should think ahead a little before doing something. I'm sure an argument could be made for or against any party.

On a lighter note, I made another cake. Wanna see? Yes you do.

Maybe the next one could have, like, a mushroom cloud and cities in flames. Or no, just a frosting MX missile