Obviously the big story of the weekend was the death of Ronald Reagan. We've heard a lot over the past two days about how Reagan made the country feel good about itself again and how he changed American politics. It's difficult for me, or anyone of a similar age to mine to judge the former, simply because we didn't live through it. Obviously, the cumulative effects of the long defeat in Vietnam, the embarrassment and corruption of Watergate and the Nixon administration (remember, Gerald Ford was appointed VP because Spiro Agnew was a common grafter, and was as Vice-President, never trust Maryland politicians), and then having the joy of the bicentennial counteracted by oil shortages and the taking of hostages in Iran had America down. Reagan's brand of conservatism, equal parts Goldwater's western libertarianism, John Birch Society type anti-communism, and an appeal to evangelical Southern Christians did seem rosier and genuinely more appealing than the malaise of Jimmy Carter or the depressing style liberalism of Walter Mondale. The "It's Morning in America" Spot is still one of the great ads ever done. Obviously, Reagan was the Great Communicator" and most people genuinely thought him a good man, on both sides of the aisle.

On the other hand, Reagan brought to Washington a new kind of conservative. The kind of conservatives who worship Reagan today because he did everything they would love to do, project American power through bombings and invasions (Libya and Grenada), lower taxes AND increase spending on defense, and cut sopcial welfare programs. George Bush has onsciously tried to emulate Reagan more than his father. Bush 41 was never trusted by conservatives, he was from the northeast, went to Yale, seemed a member of the eastern establishment they so hated. When Bush failed to do what the conservatives wanted, they simply stayed home in 1992, or voted for Perot. Bush 43 has done nothing but appeal to the religious right, perhaps alienating many Republicans more concerned with fiscal discipline than the end times.

Reagan was a good man, and probably history will remember him as a good, but not great president. He will be credited, unjustly, with winning the Cold War, though he only continued a policy begun with Truman and pursued by every president afterwards. He created huge deficits. But he did inject a sense of optimism into the country when it needed it.

The Pistons win last night was surprising, especially because of the way they did it in the second half. The Lakers have won their series by winning the third quarter, either taking teams out or erasing leads and taking them in the fourth. Larry Brown brilliantly realized that Kobe and Shaq will score, and its very difficult to stop that What they can do is make Kobe a volume-scorer, force him to put up as many shots as he gets points, and stopping everyone else. No other Laker scored more than 5 last night, and the other Lakers had a total of 16 points, that is insanely good defense on everyone else. They have no answer for Shaq, but that's probably ok, so long as the supporting cast is kept in check.

I saw a rather odd play yesterday for my reviewing the Arts class. It featured lots of very short scenes in this young Chicago man's apartment, and the various people in his life. The problem was that none of the characters weren't very well developed because of the style of the show, and because we only saw the main character against all these other characters, we ended up not really caring about him very much.

I will leave you with the following thoughts:

"Von Braun developed the V-2 during World War II for Hitler, emigrated to the USA to create rockets for NASA, and became something of national hero in the space agency's heyday of the 1960s. Mort Sahl once quipped that von Braun's autobiography 'I Aimed For the Stars' should have been subtitled "but Sometimes I Hit London."

Rank
Team
Win
Loss
Tie Games Pct. PF
PA
Delta

1
Michigan
833
274
38
1145
0.744
27898
11774
16124

2
Notre Dame (IN)
796
258
41
1095
0.746
27391
12631
14760