2 replies on “The Stratosphere Lounge Episode 364”
My favorite Reagan joke was an unintentional open-mike moment. He was joking around during sound checks and the engineer asked him to say something to test levels.
He replied, “I’m pleased to announce that I’ve just signed legislation declaring the Soviet Union illegal. Bombing starts in 5 minutes.” With that classic Reagan sly grin.
The media got their hands on it and started screaming about him being a war-monger and was going to get us all killed in a nuk-u-lar attack by Moscow!
But any normal person who looked at it understood that it was >a joke<.
The draft, I am a Vietnam veteran Navy 1964-1967, Vietnam 1967. I grew up with the draft as a fact of life, we thought it had always existed ( it started in 1940), in that world just about everyone a few years older had been in one of the services, those that hadn’t would often volunteer the reason why, usually a physical ailment. Many of us, including me enlisted to get it behind us rather than wait around to be drafted. I was a positive experience for me, I’m glad I did it., It cannot be emphasized enough that this was a very different country prior to 1965, think Happy Days on one side Woodstock, sloppy clothes , love beads and protests on the other. Before the late 60s there existed concepts of shame and disgrace, to not go when called or to be thrown out of the service would be a disgrace that would follow you ( we thought). In just a few years we had people running to Canada often with their family’s blessing, people bragging about how they evaded the draft, faking illnesses. Like so much else in that rotten decade honor, shame and disgrace just ceased to exist. For that reason I’m against bringing back the draft, it would be impossible in today’s world.
2 replies on “The Stratosphere Lounge Episode 364”
My favorite Reagan joke was an unintentional open-mike moment. He was joking around during sound checks and the engineer asked him to say something to test levels.
He replied, “I’m pleased to announce that I’ve just signed legislation declaring the Soviet Union illegal. Bombing starts in 5 minutes.” With that classic Reagan sly grin.
The media got their hands on it and started screaming about him being a war-monger and was going to get us all killed in a nuk-u-lar attack by Moscow!
But any normal person who looked at it understood that it was >a joke<.
The draft, I am a Vietnam veteran Navy 1964-1967, Vietnam 1967. I grew up with the draft as a fact of life, we thought it had always existed ( it started in 1940), in that world just about everyone a few years older had been in one of the services, those that hadn’t would often volunteer the reason why, usually a physical ailment. Many of us, including me enlisted to get it behind us rather than wait around to be drafted. I was a positive experience for me, I’m glad I did it., It cannot be emphasized enough that this was a very different country prior to 1965, think Happy Days on one side Woodstock, sloppy clothes , love beads and protests on the other. Before the late 60s there existed concepts of shame and disgrace, to not go when called or to be thrown out of the service would be a disgrace that would follow you ( we thought). In just a few years we had people running to Canada often with their family’s blessing, people bragging about how they evaded the draft, faking illnesses. Like so much else in that rotten decade honor, shame and disgrace just ceased to exist. For that reason I’m against bringing back the draft, it would be impossible in today’s world.