Ronald Reagan: “I do believe that an AK-47, a machine gun, is not a sporting weapon or needed for defense of a home.”

History’s a funny thing, ain’t it?

FaceBook The Internet is full of false “quotes” attributed to such luminous historical figures as Benjamin Franklin, Abraham Lincoln, George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, and other Founding Fathers, along with fallacious – even mean-spirited and evil – attempted parallels to Hitler and the sitting President Barack Obama.

It’s just pure hatred. That, ignorance and selfishness.

But when it comes to one of the most iconic figures of the 20th century, a two-term Republican President held in high esteem by Democrats and Republicans alike, no one really likes to recall the things he said.

And so, here for your perusal and consideration, is an historical redux.

Enjoy.

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Reagan’s 78th Birthday Includes Posh Party, Campus Speech, Courtesy Call

JEFF WILSON , Associated Press
AP News Archive Feb. 7, 1989 5:54 AM ET

LOS ANGELES (AP) _ Ronald Reagan celebrated his 78th birthday by saying he’s had enough of retirement and was ”saddled up and ready to ride again” for a balanced federal budget and repeal of the two-term presidency.

The 40th President’s birthday celebration Monday included an office chat with Japanese Prime Minister Noboru Takeshita, a black-tie party and a speech to students at the University of Southern California, where he was serenaded by the USC Marching Band.

”One of my biggest disappointments as president was I wasn’t able to balance the budget,” Reagan told the college audience.

Reagan received extended applause when answering a question about over-the- counter military weapons, such as the AK-47 assault rifle used to gun down five Stockton schoolchildren last month.

”I do not believe in taking away the right of the citizen for sporting, for hunting and so forth, or for home defense,” he said. ”But I do believe that an AK-47, a machine gun, is not a sporting weapon or needed for defense of a home.”

The speech was Reagan’s first public event since a spirited welcome home airport rally Jan. 20, the day he relinquished the presidency to George Bush. The former president said

USC SoM Professor: “There’s life there” on Mars!

It’s official now.

Scientists have re-examined 36-year old data from NASA’s Viking mission to Mars, and claim to have found alien life based on the complexity of experimental results.

Great.

Any damn fool can to a bar or nightclub on the weekend and find genuinely alien life, and in the process, become alienated themselves.

Doubtless, by comparison, their problems are genuinely complex (or so they think), by comparison to those of others.

Say… Jackie Gleason wanted to sent Alice “to the moon!”

And now, we’ve been.

Didn’t George W. Bush say he wanted to go to Mars?

Maybe we could send him.

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Mars Viking Robots ‘Found Life’

Mathematical analysis adds to growing body of work questioning the negative results of a life-detection experiment 36 years ago.

By Irene Klotz
Thu Apr 12, 2012 12:23 PM ET

THE GIST
•    New results question the finding that the Mars Viking experiments did not find life.
•    The analysis was based on studying the mathematically complexity of the experiment results.
•    The idea is that living systems are more complicated than purely physical ones, a concept that can be represented mathematically.

April 12, 2012 -- Viking 2 Lander image (dated Nov. 2, 1976) showing the rocks of Utopia Planitia in the background.

Viking 2 Lander image (dated Nov. 2, 1976) showing the rocks of Utopia Planitia in the background. Click to enlarge this image. 
NASA

New analysis of 36-year-old data, resuscitated from printouts, shows NASA