And you know the economic collapse? God is just getting around to START punishing us for Reagan. Take cover.

We will know this is true if Jelly Belly allergies increase.

YOU CAN'T HANDLE THE TRUTH!

I was 9 when Reagan was elected. All I remember is that the peanut jokes became jellybean jokes overnight.

You know, I can understand blaming Jimmy Carter for stuff, but holy crap! I actually liked Jimmy Carter. So sue me. He was cool enough to perform "Salt Peanuts" with Dizzy Gillespie.

He's a crazy awesome former President, that's for sure.

As for peanut allergies, I blame 'em on industrial agricultural chemicals.

There used to be this guy who would go down to the street corners in west Little Rock, sometimes when it was damn hot outside. He was this old guy, lean as hell but you knew he was a tough old bastard just looking at him. He'd go out there with a good sun hat and an umbrella to keep him in the shade, and he'd preach to traffic.

What made him remarkable was that he had a ventriloquist's dummy strapped to his front, and preached through a bullhorn with his head cocked down as if the dummy were preaching. He never bothered to move the dummy's mouth or anything, just preached to traffic ducked behind that dummy.

He had sandwich boards up with his message stenciled in 2-inch-high letters, which meant it was totally unreadable unless you were at a red light and very near the front of the line. After maybe a dozen sightings, I finally got close enough for a read.

Most of it was harmless Christian uplifting stuff, dummy-themed: God loves you, and even I can see that, and I'm a dummy. God wants you to be like him and come home to him when you leave this earth, and even I can see that, and I'm just a dummy. Kind of sweet, really.

But then dude turned around and I read the sign on his back. He. Had Seen. The Antichrist.

It was Ronald Wilson Reagan.

His proof?

Count the number of letters in each of those names.

I was flabbergasted. Suddenly, it all made sense.

But Reagan didn't produce jellybeans like Carter grew peanuts. (And I was allergic to peanuts before it was cool)

He did make movies, so we could say God punished us for Ronnie via the Star Wars prequels...

i really think Reagan punished us for Reagan, but it just kept on coming with Bush.
Maybe what we get is people finally understanding what that means with the unstoppable return of the swallows come home to roost.

When Reagan beat Carter, I wrote a very impassioned letter to Carter saying how I was devastated that he lost, and even I could see that Reagan was going to spell bad news for the country, and that history would judge Carter well. (I think I also wrote a nasty screed to Reagan that night, which my parents wisely talked me out of sending.)

Carter wrote me back -- a very warm, heartfelt, kind, and comforting letter, which he signed "your friend, Jimmy." I've still got it in a scrapbook.

That's freaking adorable.

Pips told me she was watching the Paula Deen show where she had Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter as guests. She said that Paula was so blatantly flirting with Jimmy that Rosalynn was staring daggers at her.

Ha, i hear you don't mess with Rosalynn and she makes a mean chocolate chip cookie.

Well, she's gotta be protective, what with Jimmy lusting in his heart and all that.

"your friend, Jimmy."

Aw. I'm glad you kept it. I lost my autographed picture of the Carter family long ago.

I've mentioned this before but...when I was little, our basement served as the neighborhood polling place. I used to stand outside and tell people to vote for Jimmy Carter--for, like, every election, regardless of what kind it was. I was a big fan.

By the way.... the link in the original post is my sis-in-law's blog. Don't be afraid to stop in and say hi.

Middleclasstool, I have seen that guy. Right down the street from me, at one of Fayetteville's (NC not Arkansas) major intersections.

I kid you not. Complete with dummy and Ronald Reagan diss.

Seriously? There's some X-Files shit going on here, I just know it.

I used to stand outside and tell people to vote for Jimmy Carter--for, like, every election, regardless of what kind it was. I was a big fan.

Aww! A kid after my own heart!

Late jumping in here, but I had to add that, in the late 80's, I was in a therapy session, and the therapist, a manly Robert Bly type, asked me what men I admired. I said "Jimmy Carter."

I could tell this guy was less than impressed.