Ted Kennedy and the Death (Hopefully) of an Era

Reason ^ | 26 August 2009 | Nick Gillespie

[BluesDuke]

A sober analysis, that.

[Darkwolf377]

I don't think you could find a sitting senator right now, Democrat or Republican, who would disagree with that assessment

It's sadly amusing how consistently all the media figures are pushing this claptrap, like we HAVE to agree with it.

[Doc Savage]

Liar, cheat, adulterer, drunk, communist, murderer, rapist, pig, obese, petty, should have been ex-communicated for being pro-abortion murder. I’m sure I missed a hell of a lot, but I got so tired typing!

[Uncle Ike]

” First is the endless, generally uncritical encomia that journalists and other public commenters immediately generate “

Is anybody (besides me, who can’t avoid it) listening to the slobbering FNC coverage of some kind of Kennedy Procession??

Just now, the three or four airheads discussed the Mary Jo incident - and stopped just short of declaring that *Teddy* was the ‘victim’ of Chapaquiddick...

Sickening...

[Jo Nuvark]

When the righteous prosper, the city rejoices;
when the wicked perish, there are shouts of joy.
(Proverbs 11:10)

[BluesDuke]

"I don't think you could find a sitting senator right now, Democrat or Republican, who would disagree with that assessment"

It's sadly amusing how consistently all the media figures are pushing this claptrap, like we HAVE to agree with it.

It isn't claptrap to acknowledge that Kennedy was an effective legislator. What would be claptrap would be to follow the acknowledgement by saying his effectiveness was good for your health, my health, or the country's health.

[BluesDuke]

Just now, the three or four airheads discussed the Mary Jo incident - and stopped just short of declaring that *Teddy* was the ‘victim’ of Chapaquiddick...

What a surprise.

[BluesDuke]

When the righteous prosper, the city rejoices;
when the wicked perish, there are shouts of joy.
(Proverbs 11:10)

"I have never wished a man dead, but I have read a great many obituaries with a great deal of pleasure."---Clarence Darrow.

[Welcome2thejungle]

Unfortunately Ted Kennedy’s “dream” (our nightmare) and vision live on. Look who is in the White House now. The Left has achieved their long time goal. Now the rest of the country is going down the toilet. Al Franken in the senate is the equivalent of defacating on the American flag.

Things could not possibly be worse.

[Cheetahcat]

NO he was the Biggest Traitor in the Senate and Hopefully the end of this Camalotism/Communism fore-ever.

[Uncle Ike]

” When the righteous prosper, the city rejoices;
when the wicked perish, there are shouts of joy.
(Proverbs 11:10) “

I wonder if they’ll make accomodations for a band stand and dance floor over his grave....

[Americanexpat]

The Kennedy era is dead? Good.

[BluesDuke]

The Kennedy era is dead? Good.

I believe the writer's emphasis was on "hopefully." Ted Kennedy is dead. The era of big government, alas, ain't over until it's over.

[Americanexpat]

I had to turn off Fox news it was getting pretty sickening. I resent some crap head on television telling me what i can say about kennedy’s passing. If I hayted him when he was alive I refuse to say how good he was after he is dead.

I know John kennedy sent me and other young men to fight in Vieynam and when the going got tough, ted Kennedy turned on us. I have no rspect for any of them.

[Americanexpat]

I had to turn off Fox news it was getting pretty sickening. I resent some crap head on television telling me what i can say about kennedy’s passing. If I hated him when he was alive I refuse to say how good he was after he is dead.

I know John Kennedy sent me and other young men to fight in Vietnam and when the going got tough, Ted Kennedy turned on us. I have no respect for any of them.

[skully]

Fat, drunk and liberal was no way to go through life Ted.

[Sherman Logan]

During the 1970s, Kennedy was instrumental in deregulating the interstate trucking industry and airline ticket prices, two innovations that have vastly improved the quality of life in America

Don't know about trucking, but it is difficult to argue that airline travel is of higher quality than when it was regulated.

It's certainly a great deal less expensive in real terms, but the quality of the experience has gone down pretty dramatically.

[Sherman Logan]

"I think they're gonna say he is one of the greatest legislators, or most effective legislators—if not the most effective legislator—the Senate has ever seen,"

I nominate Stephen A. Douglas. His Kansas-Nebraska Act led directly to the Civil War.

Now there's an effective piece of legislation!

[floozy22]

Bigger was better, and government at every level but especially at the highest level, had to lead the way. In an increasingly flat, dispersed, networked world in which power, information, knowledge, purchasing power, and more was rapidly decentralizing, Kennedy was all for sitting at the top of a pyramid and directing activity. In this way, he was of his time and place, a post-war America that figured that all the kinks of everyday life had been mastered by a few experts in government, business, and culture. All you needed to do was have the right guys twirling the dials up and down. As thoughtful observers of all political stripes have noted, this sort of thinking was at best delusional, at worst destructive. And it was always massively expensive.

Another perfect definition of American liberalism.

[BluesDuke]

It's certainly a great deal less expensive in real terms, but the quality of the experience has gone down pretty dramatically.

I haven't had any poor service whenever I've flown since deregulation, and I'm pretty sure the competition has a lot to do with that one. (Even if I still do miss Eastern Air Lines, which was a hell of an airline before it was destroyed by monkey business management---union and boardroom alike---in the 1980s.) I'll admit that airport security is a big pain in the ass and has a small truckload of problems that impact a flight, above and beyond the bare necessities of security, but I don't think that's the airlines' fault.