Posted on 08/29/2009 2:01:07 PM PDT by kristinn
Two kinds of people reacted to news of Ted Kennedys death last week. The first not all liberals, either spoke of Kennedys hard work in the United States Senate, his dream of universal healthcare, his commitment to working people, civil rights and equality.
This most imperfect man, wrote analyst William Bradley, was also a powerful advocate for progressive principles. Barack Obama predictably (though accurately) observed that for America, he was a defender of a dream. In another variation on the visionary theme, Joe Biden said of his old friend, He was never small.
The other kind of reaction to Kennedys death could be summed up in one word: Chappaquiddick.
Not vision or health-care reform, not peacemaking or even Camelot. Just the controversial 40-year-old event, the ugliest single moment from the late senators 77 years on Earth, nearly 47 of them in public service. The small souls who spend their days hanging out in discussion forums at Free Republic, one of the U.S ultra-rights more popular online homes, greeted news of Kennedys death characteristically, flinging around words like traitor, coward, disgrace and, yes, references to the 1969 event. Chappaquiddick minds in a narrow, ungenerous world.
But the Chappaquiddick faction is not limited to either the United States or the senior senator from Massachusetts. Its a state of mind, a summation of everything that is small and cribbed and contemptible not unlike the sour (and embarrassing) one-line statement of perfunctory condolence on Wednesday from our own prime minister.
Chappaquiddick-type people possess a meanness of spirit that goes beyond simple politics. Theyre responsible for a creeping diminution of vision and values. In Canada, which used to appreciate largeness of soul, they even have a government platform, thanks to Stephen Harper and company.
Consider the dramatic case of Guantanamo detainee Omar Khadr, picked up by the U.S. military in Afghanistan at 15, or child-soldier age. When Harpers government announced last week it would appeal again a ruling that it demand the Canadian-born Khadrs repatriation, lawyer Dennis Edney said he wasnt surprised. We are used to this mean-spirited approach.
But this governments disgraceful stand on Khadr the only Western detainee still in Guantanamo is just part of it. The limited worldview, the impulse toward whatever is most ungenerous, is how it operates.
SNIP
Anyone who bestows any accolades on that worthless bag of skin is so far in the Communist hate real America mentality there is no salvation.
What ‘type’ is Janice Kennedy?
A b*&^!
Read this mean spirited drivel(bashes Sarah Palin and anyone that likes her):
http://www.ottawacitizen.com/news/Heading+right+White+House/1894408/story.html
Keep in mind that to keep the justification level up for the MADD types, alcohol is equally blamed whether it was an at-fault driver or a passenger or even a pedestrian who was soused.
Janice is a bitter little old woman.
She consistently uses the term “ultra right”.
It doesn’t go far enough for me.
First I was the “far right”, then they called me the “radical right”, then I was part of a Vast Right Wing Conspiracy (which was true by the way).
Their description of me keeps getting a little more “out there” sounding. Which is odd, because I haven’t changed.
So I say let’s get this over with. Why stop at ultra?
Granted, it is more right than say “far”, but I’m asymtotically approaching conservative infinity.
They need a new label to descibe that.
"He only directly killed one person that we know of, and those nasty people have to keep bringing that one little bad night up."
This Kennedy is a hopelessly idiotic--and condescending-- as the Hyannis Port in her righteous brand of hateful bigotry.
Teddy wouldn't have had the opportunity for "nearly 47 of them in public service" had he been treated like a mere mortal in 1969.
His "public service" would have ended at 7 years, and he wouldn't have been heard from again.
Then maybe more attention would be given to what he did to this help ruin this country in those first 7 years with the Cedar-Hart bill that transformed immigration from a stead trickle of those who wished to take advantage of the greater freedom of opportunity in the U.S. to the flood of those who just wanted to take advantage of the U.S. through entitlements.
THAT is the true legacy of The Lord Kennedy.
Right. I saw that in the statistics as I examined them. Even if you hit someone intoxicated walking in the road, it is an alcohol related accident.
My point was, I don’t think Massachusetts is all that far outside the average in this respect, and is CERTAINLY not the worst.
Something like an East Pole.
Dug up this gem looking for Kennedy quotes:
Ted Kennedys America
The Borking of American politics.
By Jonah Goldberg
If you think American politics have gotten nastier, crueler, and more symbolic over the last 20 years, blame Ted Kennedy.
(continue at link):
http://article.nationalreview.com/?q=YjdhNDY1NmY4NmM4ODJiZDNlNDFmZDQ2ODRhZjQ3OTY=
Wow. That was aweful, top to bottom. It isn’t jounalism or even a good attempt to fake jounalism. It was a bitter screed aimed at people she has never met.
Over the top.
I feel sorry for the people of Ottawa who might be duped into believing Janice Kennedy is someone worth reading.
How do you get so corrupted? It’s breathtaking.
Here is my own composition:
There once was a Senator Ted
Who wanted a girl in his bed
He went off the side
Of that bridge and she died
Cause he had to save his damn head
I am not inclined to participate in this mass hysteria up here. If he had died and been buried, I probably wouldn’t say squat to anyone. But having to hear this stuff against my will is really pissing me off. If you even pass by a television in a gas station, there is some breathless reporter talking about what a dedicated and tireless public servant he was.
I’m not having any part of it. If people want to canonize the guy, power to them. I don’t have to play along.
—”the ugliest single moment from the late senators 77 years on Earth”
The only ugly moment??? Barf!!
What about Fat Teddy’s arrogance? Socialist policies that steal from free people, silver-spoon hypocrisy?
Intellectual dishonesty is not merely the hallmark, the metier, the forte, the oeuvre of the liberal, it is the very sine qua non of liberalism. Compared to this, hypocrisy is a mere spear-carrier in the liberal’s limping army of sophistries, prevarication, and false moral equivalences.
The liberal himself somehow manages to suppress awareness of his own detachment from both reality and honesty, and in fact spends great volumes of energy swanning about in high dudgeon, gushing forth banshee wails of rage at the purported dishonesty and malice of his opponents. Spraying poison in all directions like a rabid cobra on meth, the liberal walks closed-minded through a world in which only he is open-minded, bigoted through a world in which only he is tolerant, ignorant through a world in which only he is educated, consumed by rage, hatred, and malice through a world in which only he is kind and nice.
I also guess that we would probably reflect first and formost on the killing of an innocent woman if we were discussing OJ Simpson despite his many achievements in sports and (gag) show business.
I guess having the drunken, irresponsible homicide of an innocent woman should not be mentioned in polite company if the killer is a devoted leftist. It just isn't done.
OJ Simpson. Ted Kennedy. The parallels are interesting.
Good poem. Ours suffered from having to rhyme “Nantucket” after someone started it off!
I’ve been at home, fortunately, with nothing on tv but kids’ DVDs.
Love your profile page. My father, “The Captain” was a career Navy man, too. 27 years.
I hope Janice takes a moment to read that on her next lurk.
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