Cellar Blast from the Reaganaut Past

[Urbane Guerrilla]

he Cellar: We've just outlawed all other messageboards. The bombing starts in five minutes.

Or, as I put it back when I worked in intelligence and the usual soft-on-despots suspects were in a scandalized flutter over Reagan's joke, "Nachnyem bombardirovku cherez pyati minut."

The Sovs did not launch.

[Crimson Ghost]

This was also when common sense was common.
You could never get away with that today.
The Imus thing is a perfect example.
All Imus did was say something questionable on the radio.
Reagan, however, made a joke that could have started a world war.
The Russians, however, were able to understand that it was a joke.
----
Reagan In 2008: He's Tanned, Rested, And Ready

[Kitsune]

Originally Posted by Crimson Ghost

The Russians, however, were able to understand that it was a joke.

Jokes aside, we should thank this man for understanding an instrument error!

Just past midnight, at 00:40 hrs, the bunker's computers indicated that a US missile was heading toward the Soviet Union. Petrov reasoned that a computer error had occurred, since the United States was not likely to launch just one missile if it were attacking the Soviet Union — it would launch multiple simultaneously. Also, the satellite system's reliability had in the past been questioned, so he dismissed the warning as a false alarm and did not notify his superiors, concluding that no missile had actually been launched by the United States.

A short time later the computers indicated that a second missile had been launched, followed by a third, a fourth and a fifth...

[Crimson Ghost]

Greetings, Professor Falken. Would you like to play a game?