Posted on 07/06/2013 9:03:06 PM PDT by lee martell
I certainly miss having a President I can respect and admire without holding my hands over my eyes. Former President George W. Bush turns 67 today! Like many conservatives, I wish he was still president, maybe just under the guidance of someone other than a certain Karl Rove, who discouraged President Bush from pushing back on the incredible level of disrespect the left dumped on him for eight long years. I can only wonder what it means that this many influential people are from the same family line? It's amazing when you think about it all, but quite true. The Bush family is related to Obama, they are cousins 11 times removed. I already knew that the Bush's were related to John Kerry. I recall thinking during the 2004 campaign, how can Kerry be so cruel to his cousin? However, I figured that the potential power of holding the presidency would easily trump any flimsy family ties. All I can figure is wealthy families tend to marry other wealthy families, so the money remains somewhat concentrated within certain professions and certain organizations run by those families. Still, It's a little disconcerting, to be more or less 'owned' and utilized by just a few family lines, even today. I think the 'most friendly and trustworthy' John Huntsman is also related to the Romney line. And the beat goes on.
Obama IS Bush on steroids.....
Yes, pick any two random people on the street of a small town, and they will typically be related at most 7 times removed.
I am a hobby genealogist, and have identified by name roughly 5,000 people in my mother's family tree, alone (I estimate that there are another couple thousand "missing.") There are several fair-sized towns in Redwood County and Brown County, MN - towns I've never visited, incidentally - where I would be third-, fourth-, fifth-, and sixth-cousins with a large percentage of the people I met randomly on the street. (Being a sixth-cousin means that one has a pair of great-great-great-great-great-grandparents in common with the other person.)
My most-interesting observations about my family tree:
1) Lots of people in the U.S. are born, grow up, and die within 100 miles of the same spot. This was especially true of my grandparents', great-grandparents', and great-great-grandparents' generations, but even of my generation, unbelievably many maintain residency in the same corner of the state (apart from their college days, etc.).
2) Americans of Scandinavian descent are remarkably long-lived.
3) After a while, most obituaries become boringly similar (Note to self: Write your own obituary while you still have the time!).
4) Establishing a "dynasty" requires - besides herculean efforts - that the members of that nascent dynasty be aware of and have agreement on what they have set out to do, but it is possible to achieve and maintain "super-wealthy" status by dint of one's collective efforts - by essentially forming a "family syndicate." The main barriers are a) divorce, and b) the resultant dispersal of wealth to non-family members (step-relatives). (However, the one instance of success I've identified in my own extended clan was founded in the gray beginning on what would be considered today to be a grossly unethical act.)
Regards,
Your posting is very well stated and capsules the issue.
Same thing.
I, too, am a Bush cousin. But think about it: anybody whose ancestors were early American settlers, as the Bush family ancestors were, is likely to be related to other descendants of early American colonists. There were so few people — and they had such large families — that it’s not in the least bit surprising. So the Bushes and I share one set of many greats grandparents, big deal.
Oh Geez, we have George Walton, one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence in our family.
“If you have family dating to colonial times chances are you are related to others who can date that far. I am related to Bush through the Bollings, who happened to be a most fertile family.”
I wonder if Eric Bolling, on Fox News Cable TV (The Five and Cashin In) is also related to Bush and you.
Y’all should be happy. I have a branch in my family tree that leads to none other than former WV Senator “sheets” Byrd! Talk about embarassing...
I do not desire Bush back- any Bush. We would not be any better off with Bush now than we are with the kenyan. Bush would get more of hiss own brand of socialism through the Congress than the kenyan is getting and the logic of the situation and his previous Acts suggests he would have given us full on Single Payer Bushcare by now.
It is a family dynasty. All Presidents except for one(Van Buren) are descended from King John of the Magna Carta Robin Hood fame.
There were not that many people here during the 1600’s, so the families that were here are possibly related to most of the population back then. I know I am. I’m even related to Hugh Hefner, whose family goes back to Gov. Bradford, as mine does, and probably the Bush family, and even the (ugh) president’s mother’s family.
Certain organizations have already selected the next president we just don’t know it yet.
Don’t know what organizations but bet you have to be a made man to know.
“Wish I could take back my first vote for him”
I wish I could take back my second vote for him. It appears I’m a slow learner.
As near as I can tell I’m not related to any of them and damn sure wouldn’t admit it if I was.
My clan tended to stay out in the mountains, where I wish I was now.
I’m not related to any of them. I go back to a Jacob Urban who arrived here in 1753, fought in the American Revolution and moved to Pike County. You can watch every ten years in the census and watch the name move westward down the coal strip in Pennsylvania. Nobody is a relative of Obama, Bush or Kerry. Thank Goodness!
You may have a point there, I probably should have reversed the two statements, logically speaking. Some more of my ADD tendencies shining through...Oh look! a grey squirrel eating a raspberry!!
You should be and rightfully are proud of your Mayflower ancestors. Lucky for you the records are available and accurate. Can you imagine how scary I must have been to literally leave everything behind like that? The fact that many left due to political oppression served as a catalyst, but one still needed to be strong to do this with any modicum of satisfaction. The closest we may get to that kind of Marco-Polo courage is going to be maybe 15 years from now, when the man who owns Virgin Air has raised enough money to start the first colony on Mars. He will provide for your one way ticket to Mars. Your space ship will be designed to disintegrate once you reach the red soils of the Martian lands. I probably will NOT be among the first ten people.
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