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::::*No time now, but while I agree with you about the Berliner thing, my recollection the last time I looked into this was that Reagan really did say something about trees and pollution in which he misspoke or used badly chosen language such that the actual words he used really did say something stupid. I.e. he knew better but did say something dumb. Just as he undoubtedly knew better when he made some crack into a mike he didn't know was open about nuking Moscow or something. Will check later. Not that it matters. [[User:Dpbsmith|Dpbsmith]] 07:00, 12 April 2007 (EDT)
::::*No time now, but while I agree with you about the Berliner thing, my recollection the last time I looked into this was that Reagan really did say something about trees and pollution in which he misspoke or used badly chosen language such that the actual words he used really did say something stupid. I.e. he knew better but did say something dumb. Just as he undoubtedly knew better when he made some crack into a mike he didn't know was open about nuking Moscow or something. Will check later. Not that it matters. [[User:Dpbsmith|Dpbsmith]] 07:00, 12 April 2007 (EDT)
::::*Ah. Still haven't pinned it down, but the issue was whether Reagan said that trees cause 80% of all pollution (ludicrous), that trees cause more pollution than automobiles (ludicrous) or whether trees cause ''certain kinds of'' pollution (true and never disputed). See http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qn4196/is_20030323/ai_n10851446 . The Reagan defenders tend to say things like "Reagan was right: trees do cause pollution," but that's silly, because that was never in dispute. (I believe I've read--probably in a Nevil Shute novel, but, hey--that in Australia under some conditions one can see visible plumes of ''flammable'' fumes coming from eucalyptus trees). But the whole thing is stupid, because assuming that Reagan had done his homework, did not misspeak, and was not misquoted, it was still a ''tendentious'' and somewhat dishonest thing to say. It's a phony argument to say that because X is not the only source of pollution, we shouldn't try to control pollution from X. And if, as I suspect Reagan simply misspoke slightly (or forgot a qualification to the statement that he had meant to include) then it was phony and dishonest to portray it as a patently stupid remark. [[User:Dpbsmith|Dpbsmith]] 09:54, 12 April 2007 (EDT)
Just because a true understanding of events is lacking, does not mean that they did not take place. Kennedy's reference to the Berliner (whether real or imagined) is, without any doubt, the '''most important''' Berliner-related event in history. For all mention of it to be removed makes a mockery of this article. A short factual (and ideally non-speculative) summary of his remark, at the very least, is absolutely required here. --[[User:Jeremiah4-22|Jeremiah4-22]] 08:45, 12 April 2007 (EDT)
Just because a true understanding of events is lacking, does not mean that they did not take place. Kennedy's reference to the Berliner (whether real or imagined) is, without any doubt, the '''most important''' Berliner-related event in history. For all mention of it to be removed makes a mockery of this article. A short factual (and ideally non-speculative) summary of his remark, at the very least, is absolutely required here. --[[User:Jeremiah4-22|Jeremiah4-22]] 08:45, 12 April 2007 (EDT)