Jellybeans

Ronald Reagan, de in Europa zwaar ondergewaardeerde president van de Verenigde Staten tussen 1981 en 1989, is zaterdag overleden.

Tim Blair heeft al een uitputtend overzicht met rouwbetuigingen. Als necrologie volstaan daarom enkele citaten:

'How do you tell a Communist? Well, it's someone who reads Marx and Lenin. And how do you tell an anti-Communist? It's someone who understands Marx and Lenin.'

'Abortion is advocated only by persons who have themselves been born.'

'I have left orders to be awakened at any time in case of national emergency, even if I'm in a cabinet meeting.'

'You and I are told we must choose between a left or right, but I suggest there is no such thing as a left or right. There is only an up or down. Up to man's age-old dream -- the maximum of individual freedom consistent with order -- or down to the ant heap of totalitarianism. Regardless of their sincerity, their humanitarian motives, those who would sacrifice freedom for security have embarked on this downward path. Plutarch warned, "The real destroyer of the liberties of the people is he who spreads among them bounties, donations and benefits."'

'You can tell a lot about a fellow's character by his way of eating jellybeans.'

9:14

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Voor ge- en te vallen soldaten

Tired
And lonely,
So tired
The heart aches
Meltwater trickles
Down the rocks,
The fingers are numb,
The knees tremble.
It is now,
Now, that you must not give in.

On the path of the others
Are resting places,
Places in the sun
Where they can meet
But this
Is your path,
And it is now,
Now, that you must not fail.

Weep
If you can,
Weep,
But do not complain.
The way chose you -
And you must be thankful.

(Dag Hammarskjöld, vertaling Leif Sjöberg en W.H. Auden)

9:00

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