I can’t comment on which President or party chairman or sheik is most responsible. I can comment that I and more than about 100 (or 150 or 200 – depending on how generous you are with the blame and honest you are about your own role) million other Americans just like me (and you) have consumed (and I don’t mean just energy) ruthlessly, recklessly, for the past half century or more. The greenhouse gases in the atmosphere now have accumulated, some for several decades or more, from our combustion of fossil fuels, use of air conditioning refrigerants, blind release of methane from landfills and barnyard (stockyard) manure piles, and the list goes on and on and on. If you are still eating meat, count yourself in too.

I am certainly no admirer of Reagan’s policies, either here in California where I voted against him four times for Governor, or in the White House, again where I voted against him twice. Yes, four times against him for Governor — I registered as a Republican just to be able to do that in the Primary Elections.

But he didn’t cut all those budgets without some help and support and it certainly wasn’t on our minds as we drove our gas guzzlers and consumed as we have become accustomed to doing.

No, we have many more people to thank than just Ronnie. Until we adjust our behavior to the point where we can actually claim to be “climate neutral” — and I don’t mean by paying for tree-planting or other “offsets” — I think we should always acknowledge our past and present contributions. Then, OK. let’s sentimentalize about what it might be like if Carter had been re-elected… or some other wishful fantasy.

- mea culpa

The Soviet Union was well on the way towards falling apart before Ronald Reagan was elected President. Just read the CIA’s Soviet economic & social assessments from the 1970’s. They were eerily prescient of what happened in the late 80’s.

Wonder where the US would be today if we had a president during the last seven years who told us the truth?

Even the truths that we might not want to hear.

Perhaps an artful politician is the last thing we want for our President.

The Saudis also deserve much of the credit for bringing down the old Soviet Union. By depressing world prices so much, they were able to “bleed” the less-efficient Soviet petroleum industry dry (effectively turning the Soviet Union’s primary cash-cow into a money-pit). This helped to bankrupt the communist Soviet regime, contributing mightily to its collapse.

So the heroic icon representing those responsible for bringing down the old Soviet Union shouldn’t be that of a man on a horse wearing a cowboy hat — it should be that of a man on a camel wearing a ghutra.