Ted is Dead

[AZRedhawk44]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20090826/us_nm/us_kennedy

Swim in peace, Teddy.

[mtnbkr]

If this thread goes down the same path as the previous one, it too will be locked.

Chris

[Nightfall]

If this thread goes down the same path as the previous one, it too will be locked.

Chris

In that spirit, I offer up "no comment."

[buzz_knox]

In the new spirit on various boards of showing sympathy to famous criminals, we simply need to adopt Orrin Hatch's viewpoint and call the recently Martyred St. Kennedy's transgressions "water under the bridge."

[AZRedhawk44]

 

In the new spirit on various boards of showing sympathy to famous criminals, we simply need to adopt Orrin Hatch's viewpoint and call the recently Martyred St. Kennedy's transgressions "water under the bridge."

My new sig line, if you don't mind...

[mtnbkr]

In the new spirit on various boards of showing sympathy to famous criminals, we simply need to adopt Orrin Hatch's viewpoint and call the recently Martyred St. Kennedy's transgressions "water under the bridge."

We're not showing sympathy, we're simply not going to drag his corpse through the street. 

I'm not sure why this is so hard to grok especially considering the righteous indignation if this were Reagan being trashed on DU.

Chris

[AJ Dual]

We're not showing sympathy, we're simply not going to drag his corpse through the street. 

I'm not sure why this is so hard to grok especially considering the righteous indignation if this were Reagan being trashed on DU.

Chris

I agree, and temper my comments thusly: I suspect that inside he was a deeply unhappy person.

Generaly, those who are associated with womanizing and alcoholisim fit that mold. Something akin to Bill Maher who's well known for off-camera benders and frequenting prostitutes. Essentialy covering pain with addictions.

And I further suspect it found it's roots in his brothers being "rising stars" within the family and local community long before Joe Kennedy's other two boys were household names, which then only added to the pathology. Then their deaths compounding it further, with a double whammy of grief over the loss of close family, the public reaction and lionization, and perhaps guilt, and other troubled emotions from whatever else he had felt for them.

There is something to the "Kennedy Tragedy", in the family's blood, or psychology. I think Ted could have been the ideal Constitutional die-hard conservative-libertarian of all time, and he would still have been a very troubled man.

[buzz_knox]

One small difference is that Reagan never left a woman to drown to death in a river and didn't bother to tell anyone until the cops contacted him.  

It's not dragging a corpse through the road to 1) state that someone who pretty much epitomized everything wrong with this country (creation of a ruling political class, abrogation of the Constitution, advocacy of the elimination of specifically enumerated rights, the avoidance of personal responsibility, etc) is no longer in a position to do direct harm and 2) to hope that his legacy will not be used to ramrod through legislation that fulfills his goals at the expense of the nation and the people.

Honestly, this guy did more damage to the nation than an 18 year old who knocks over a convenience store.  Yet, there's not much outrage if the 18 year old gets eliminated by any means from the gene pool and people are glad of it.

[Headless Thompson Gunner]

I won't speak ill of Kennedy specifically.  I will say, in general, not everyone deserves respect after their death.  Respect is earned, and some people just plain don't earn it. 

Respect those who deserve it, not those who don't.

[roo_ster]

I have sympathy for the family & friends who loved him, despite his flaws.  I read elsewhere, from a conservative journal, that he was frequently at R Catholic Mass.  For the sake of his soul, I sincerely hope that he repented of his sin and had a genuine faith in Christ as his savior.

His passing can not, uh, pass without noting that his influence was the most damaging to America since that of Woodrow Wilson and that the damage caused by EMK has been more lasting and profound that that of WW.  

That he is gone is a burden and grief to his loved ones and a relief to the rest of America.

[charby]

Ted Kennedy at times was a helper/voice for the working class people, well I don't agree with many of the things he did in his life, he did at times try to take of the little guy.

[AJ Dual]

Honestly, this guy did more damage to the nation than an 18 year old who knocks over a convenience store.  Yet, there's not much outrage if the 18 year old gets eliminated by any means from the gene pool and people are glad of it.

On one hand I agree.

On the other, the 18 year old does not have ramifications beyond his individual personhood. An elected official of the Republic does.

Even if you disagree with their politics, when someone is summerialy removed from office, the institution and that office are weakened. And the state and the people themselves often respond in ways that dilute the republic even further. If JFK and RFK hadn't been assasinated, would we ever have had the '68 GCA? Would Ted himself have ever been elevated to office?

So while I'm unhappy with his political legacy, I'm glad he only left office through living out his natural life span.

In a less extreme example, the "societal outrage" that "ought" to be there over Ted Kennedy's political beliefs and votes and personal character had removed or blocked him from office via quasi or extra-legal means peacefully, would still have damaged our institutions more than the man himself could have. A pendulum swings both ways.

Unfortunately, suffering legislators like Ted Kennedy is one of the prices of having a free society and limited government.

[AZRedhawk44]

he did at times try to take of the little guy.

Indeed.  Take of, take from, however you phrase it... I'm the little guy and he sure as heck tried to take of me.

[209]

If this thread goes down the same path as the previous one, it too will be locked.

Chris

I obviously missed how the last thread degraded to the point it was locked.  It's hard to stay up on the minute to minute postings.

Was it totally deleted?

Meh... never mind, I have to follow my wife down to the car repair place and then bring her home.  She needs to drop the tractor off to have a nail removed from a tire.  Life intrudes on the internet.  In the scheme of things, that has much more impact on my life than the demise of a politician.

[taurusowner]

Rest in peace Mary Jo.

[Lee]

I'll give him one thing - he was dedicated and worked hard.  Perhaps on the wrong things...but still.  It would have been very easy for him to pursue a quiet, comfortable, privileged, private life.  You'd think that seeing two brothers die in the line of duty (so to speak), he would have gone the private route.  I won't miss him, but I'll let him RIP.

[grampster]

I'll say this:  Ted Kennedy's death got one column on the front page of our local paper and a finishing column on page 12 with the headline stating he had a checkered past.  The article said he was a champion of the working class and the poor.  I was offended by that characterization.

On the other hand, Army Cpl. Nick Roush had 2/3 of page 3 and all of page 4 of the same edition of The Press.  This was the 3rd story about Cpl. Roush.  He's had the front page and at least 2 full other pages in each of two earlier editions of the local paper in the last week or so.

Cpl. Nick Roush, age 22, United States Army, Middleville, Mi., a town nearby, a son, brother, with many friends, was laid to rest yesterday with full millitary honors.  Cpl. Roush gave his life in Afghanistan a week ago Sunday in defense of the innocent Afghan people, on behalf of the people of the United States of America.

[makattak]

I'm sure he had good intentions for the poor. He was mistaken in how to do that and vilified his opponents because they disagreed with him, but I will not do the same. Like most liberals, he thought his position was one of empathy and mercy. 

I am glad he is no longer able to affect this country. I am not glad he's dead. May God have mercy on his soul.

[brimic]

Cpl. Nick Roush, age 22, United States Army, Middleville, Mi., a town nearby, a son, brother, with many friends, was laid to rest yesterday with full millitary honors.  Cpl. Roush gave his life in Afghanistan a week ago Sunday in defense of the innocent Afghan people, on behalf of the people of the United States of America.

RIP to an American Patriot.

[Firethorn]

My response here will be similar to another board where I first read about it.

1.  He had longer from when he was diagnosed than my grandmother did.
2.  I disagreed with his politics, but did not wish him dead.  Retired maybe, though I'll acknowledge that death was likely the only thing to budge Kennedy from his seat.
3.  The incident, in my opinion, would have been manslaughter at most, not murder.

[Gowen]

As a religious man, I truly hope and pray he repented before he died.

[Standing Wolf]

I've thought of several snotty things to say à propos his death, but will forego the admittedly dubious pleasure.

Jack Kennedy had the courage to take a (reluctant) stand against racial segregation. He had plenty of flaws, some deeply serious, but that much courage at a time when America was unpersuaded that kind of segregation was a terrible wrong.

Bobby Kennedy was a statist-socialist-leftist extremist; to his credit, however, he had the courage to stand up against racial segregation.

The last of the political Kennedy brothers stood for everything that was wrong and nothing that was right. The so-called "welfare" he championed was at least as great an evil as all the Jim Crow laws that were ever passed, and the rest of his leftist extremism was every bit as bad. He could have transcended his brothers' deaths.

I won't be surprised if the Kennedy name ends up being attached to the socialist horror that's being passed off as so-called "health care reform," which Jack Kennedy would have vetoed.

[Jamisjockey]

We're not showing sympathy, we're simply not going to drag his corpse through the street. 

I'm not sure why this is so hard to grok especially considering the righteous indignation if this were Reagan being trashed on DU.

Chris

Mtnbkr echoes the sentiment of pretty much the entire staff. 

[seeker_two]

As a religious man, I truly hope and pray he repented before he died.

Agreed....and I'll continue to pray for his family in this difficult time, too.....

[Jamisjockey]

Some religions don't require repentance.