Bunch

The Baby Bunch - Medium Pink Baby Bunch
$48.00
This delightful bouquet of baby girl clothes comes wrapped in tissue and snuggled in a gift box decorated with a floral motif and sealed with a crystal clear presentation lid. Each Medium Pink Baby Bunch includes: one pink bib, one pink t-shirt, one pink hat, two pink one pieces, one pink pair of socks and one white pair of socks (because girls love choices); the super-soft 100% cotton is perfect for your little princess and sized for a baby girl 0-6 months, or up to 16 lbs. The clothing buds are encircled by pretty pink fabric and wooden rosebuds and gentle green leaves; save them to treasure as a lasting keepsake bouquet.

Tear Down This Myth: How the Reagan Legacy Has Distorted Our Politics and Haunts Our Future
$25.00
In terms of historical analysis and integrity, I'm not certain as to which is more reprehensible: the fact that there are Liberal Demagogues who continue to revise or redefine history according to their emotional needs and ideological bigotries or that there are some so ignorant, they would actually believe such "revisionism" as quintessential and the final word on the subject. For years, there are many on the Left - and thus Reagan's most predisposed critics - that simply cannot accept or believe that Reagan succeeded in doing most everything he said he would: Restore our economy, military power, global prestige/respect, national confidence, and marginalize the USSR and, with it, diffuse the Cold War (CW). On all of these fronts, RR was verifiably successful (which I'll get to in a moment). However, as Ambassador Jack Matlock (to the USSR) remarked regarding the CW, many will simply never give RR credit for ending it because "doing so is counter-intuitive to preserving their (ideological) preconceptions and even their (egos)" on Reagan or how the CW should have been fought. In a word, they are too bigoted and narrow-minded ever to reconsider RR. Thus, despite the fact that more than 650 books and 12.5 million new documents have been written or released about RR in the last decade, they still believe as they did 20+ years ago. The first sign of bigotry is the inability to even consider new information, blissfully and ignorantly contented to preserve their original thoughts - based on emotional need. However, RR's critics are "distressed" today because the overwhelming evidence illustrates that they were WRONG and most appear too immature or pig-headed to accept it.

Bunch's book centers on three "myths": 1) RR's popularity was illusory/average; 2) Tax cuts triggered the 96 months of uninterrupted economic expansion of the '80's; 3) an apparent conspiracy of RR "boosters" are responsible for rehabilitating his reputation. On all three fronts, this book fails miserably to prove that these are "myths" at all - creating the impression that Mr. Bunch had to write this himself as a form therapy or balm to diminish the resentment of how dismal and inaccurate his original assessments of RR and his policies were. More to the point, like Lincoln, TR, and Truman in their times, they missed one of the great Transformational leaders in our history - thus calling into question their judgment, insight, and expertise.

So-called "Myth #1:" Reagan entered office at roughly a 51.3% favorability rating (indexed with policy/job approval ratings) and, while Bunch is correct in characterizing it as "average," he fails to mention that RR left with an average approval rating of 64.4% (Wirthlin, Gallop averages) - the highest exit rating of every President since FDR- and his Quinnepac legacy index is the highest of any former president. In other terms, his approval rating have steadily increased to now where Americans routinely rate him in the Top 10 of US Presidents (CSPAN, Federalist Society, MNBC, CNN surveys among them) and over 76% of American rate him as an "above average" to "great president." Hindsight is necessary and beneficial to such assessments, so to make the point of his popularity in his time (like JFK or FDR) is pointless. Transformational leaders (like RR) rarely command consistently high ratings in their time, as change creates resentment among many. However, just because RR might have been less popular initially in his time doesn't diminish his stature nor call into question his superiority over other presidents - like JFK. The point is "pointless" and, when put into the context of the preceding, RR's popularity is not a myth at all.

So-called "Myth #2": Bunch's economic treatment is perhaps the book's biggest failure, seeming to discount RR's mostly Supply-Side (with some Keynesian applications) Fiscal, Monetary, Trades and Incomes policy approaches while focusing mostly on the tax cuts. Few economists doubt the favorable impacts of tax cuts on our economy - whether it be Capital Gains, marginal and progressive reductions, or corporate rates. Three major tax cuts occurred in the 20th Century: 1921, 1961, and 1981. Each decade afterward experienced unprecedented economic growth. There's a reason why each decade was called the "Roaring Twenties," "Go Go Sixties," and "the Greatest Peacetime Economic Expansion in US History." Yet, while Bunch seems to undermine RR's economic legacy by espousing the very geriatric and invalid leftist argument against tax cuts (i.e., redistribution), he rarely seems to realize that the tax cuts were ONLY ONE ASPECT of RR's program. Under RR, we saw a comprehensive reduction in tariffs (spurring more free trade), elimination of price controls and cumbersome regulations that often hamper growth (Clinton took a similar approach in the 90's), stabilization of oil and energy prices, tax incentives for increased technological approaches in industries (which created a renaissance in the steel, automotive, and semi-conductor industries), and even the first vestiges of "Globalization" with NAFTA and GATT. All conspired to create a comprehensive recovery, in which inflation averaged only 3.5%, unemployment 5% (creating 19.9 million new jobs), interest rates 10%, and a 10-year growth rate of over 3.5% (including 5 straight quarters of over 6% growth) - about the same rate as the 90's. Of course, bunch answers none of this, citing inherit flaws in Capitalism that automatically create disproportionate incomes during prosperity because those with more money invested in the economy will inevitably make more money when those investments grow. Yet, he uses the antiquated "the rich got richer, the poor got poorer" myth - when, in fact, all income and social classes increased at an average of 18% among middle class and 30% among the upper class. Mr. Bunch fails to make the argument that increasing everyone's income and standard of living is a bad thing - unless, of course, it is a Socialist trying to convince other socialists of the argument. RR's economic policies were a revelation, transforming our traditional labor-market-industrially based economy into a market-service-technology-labor-industrially based one. If this sounds like an expansion, you are right. To his credit, Bill Clinton used a similar formula in the 90's, which yielded similar (and spectacular) results.

So-called "Myth #3": Like many clueless leftists, Mr. Bunch would have one believe that RR's increasing historical reputation is a "conspiracy" among a small elite of "Reagan Boosters" trying to spin and deceive the US population and History alike - all for the sake of some ulterior political motive or to simply embarrass RR's Liberal critics. I don't think I've ever heard a more self-righteous, condescending argument (against US citizens, historians, and even academics among others) in my life - but such is typical of an intellectually wounded yet clueless Left. RR's rehabilitation has not come from "boosters" but historians themselves. James MacGregor Burns (FDR biographer) cites RR as a "near-great" president, while Douglas Brinkley, Michael Becheloss, Robert Dalleck, Richard Neustadt, Edmund Morris, Lou Cannon (longtime RR biographer), and even permanent RR critics Richard Reeves and Sean Wilenz (among others) have written books that have either catalogued RR's greatness or have at least illustrated how profound, relevant and generally positive RR's legacy is. As stated earlier, the American people already decided long ago what they thought of RR as president, and the results add up to essential greatness. The idea that Americans, historians, even academics (many of which - despite their generally leftist leanings - now generally rate RR highly) could be bamboozled by a tributary cabal of Reagan worshippers - spurred onward by sympathy over his illness - is pathetic, unsupported and absurd. No matter what their sympathies, no historian or academic is willing to stake their reputations on sanctioning a position or opinion if the facts are not there to back it up. And neither are the American people. Mr. Bunch never seems to understand that RR's escalating historical reputation is not a conspiracy or affirmation among fools, but an assertion - with the benefits of hindsight and generational analyses - that what RR did was leave the country and world better than when he found it. He never seems to understand that - despite the anguished and "distressed" outcries of the left - his opinion is in the vast minority and it's getting more invalid as more information is released. He never gets the fact that, despite his obsession over policy trends that don't achieve results palatable perhaps to only liberals, he is simply wrong about the overall benefits of the Reagan presidency.

Before RR came to office, the Cold War was not any closer to ending - despite the efforts of his 7 predecessors. In other terms, the stalemate continued - and then Reagan turned the policies of Containment and MAD on their heads. His approach was ideological (communication to the Eastern Bloc; "Evil Empire" and "Tear Down This Wall" speeches, etc), social (supporting dissidents), military (Peace through Strength created a stronger negotiating position, which made better agreements possible), and technological (SDI - which shook up the USSR negotiating strategies and forced them to reconsider their own build-up). with Gorbachev - who saw the folly in trying to keep up- RR forced the Soviet's hands. By December 8, 1988 - when RR was introducing his successor to Gorbachev at governor's Island, NY - no one believed that we were in a Cold War any longer. Subsequent changes and internal strife brought down the USSR. However, the end of the CW - a separate event - occurred because Reagan pursued it comprehensively. Today - despite denials by a stubborn and clueless Left - nearly everyone polled cites RR's indispensible leadership in achieving what Henry Kissinger (no Reagan fan) the "greatest diplomatic achievement of the 20th Century."

Overall, this book speaks to none of this and provides only theoretical correlations that neither explain RR's successes nor provide a reasonable context for his failures. Like most critics, he magnifies the failures while discounting the profound successes. The title alone would tell the reader the skewed approach he takes, and he executes it poorly. All in all, he - and other dubious critics - will have to do MUCH BETTER if they are going to make a dent in Reagan's historically profound, successful and important legacy. The only "myths" this book proves are those concerning its historical accuracy and overall credibility.

The Wild Bunch [Blu-ray]
$28.99
This movie was made in 1969, but you can't tell that from the Blu-ray version. The picture quality on Blu-ray with an HDTV is exceptional.
Not your typical John Wayne/Henry Fonda western. Sam Peckinpah does what Quentin Tarantino would have gotten away with in 1969. Lot of violence and a little off-kilter. A classic.

It's A Sunshine Day
$0.99
The loved dolls did a great cover of this song, but nothing beats the brady bunch.