The greatest U.S. president in recent history, Ronald Reagan, died today. [Article]
I was pretty young when Reagan was winning the Cold War and curbing the tyranny of absurdly high taxes, and these are a couple of things I remember from then:
My parents let each of us stay up late one night a week when our siblings went to bed. One night when it was my turn to stay up late, I was watching TV and the show I wanted to watch was not being aired because every station was showing the video of our President getting shot. (Later, there would be a successful infringement to the right of US citizens to keep and bear arms, in large part due to this shooting.)
Ronald Reagan was president while I was teaching myself to program BASIC on my Commodore 64. There is a bizarre connection in my mind with the boombing prosperity of the 80s, a great president, and a great computer. I tend to think of all three at the same time.
