Grancey

U.S. Senator Ted Kennedy dies at 77 - Capitol Hill- msnbc.com

The Kennedy family has always been surrounded by unfortunate circumstances. Whatever contributions Sen. Ted Kennedy has made will always be marred, in my mind, by the Kopechne incident. I could never get past that.

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Charlatan

I wonder how many times he will get called, a Liberal Lion, in the next few weeks.

I've already seen this phrase a few times and I've known of his death for under 10 minutes.

Sorry for the threadjack... I just thought it was odd.

I hope this can somehow knock loose the impasse on healthcare in the US.

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Reese

I'm sure the whole chappaquickdick[sic] incident would have ended differently if he had a cellphone to call for help. It was an odd moment and I'm sure panic really determined his actions that night and not some kind of malicious intent.

Ted, you were my favorite Kennedy, You did so much for this Country. RIP.

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“It is better to be rich and healthy than poor and sick” - Dave Barry

Willravel

He lived a life to be proud of.

Crack

He was 77 years old... how old does someone have to be before it is no longer a "tragedy"?

This is not an unfortunate circumstance... he was old. Old people die, that is what they do, hell, I am looking forward to it myself one day.

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Crack, you and I are long overdue for a vicious bout of mansex.

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Reese

You're the only one that said tragedy.

I do believe Grancy was talking about him not reporting his accident in which someone was killed as the unfortunate circumstance.

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“It is better to be rich and healthy than poor and sick” - Dave Barry

Vigilante

Another politician dead. He led a long life, good for him. Not everyone gets to.

I'm moving on.

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Fremen

RIP, funny man.

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jewels

I think he ended on the plus side of the karma scale. RIP, Ted.

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We are always more anxious to be distinguished for a talent which we do not possess, than to be praised for the fifteen which we do possess.
Mark Twain

SSJTWIZTA

crap.

first michael jackson now this. does it make me a bad person if i dont fucking care? because i dont.

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First they came for the Jews and I did not speak out because I was not a Jew.
Then they came for the communists and I did not speak out because I was not a communist.
Then they came for the trade unionists and I did not speak out because I was not a trade unionist
Then they came for me And there was no one left to speak out for me.
-Pastor Martin Niemoller

uncle phil

my sentiments exactly...

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"We were wrong, terribly wrong. (We) should not have tried to fight a guerrilla war with conventional military tactics against a foe willing to absorb enormous casualties...in a country lacking the fundamental political stability necessary to conduct effective military and pacification operations. It could not be done and it was not done."
- Robert S. McNamara
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"We will take our napalm and flame throwers out of the land that scarcely knows the use of matches...
We will leave you your small joys and smaller troubles."
- Eugene McCarthy in "Vietnam Message"
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never wrestle with a pig.
you both get dirty;
the pig likes it.

BadNick

For me the Kopechne tragedy is something I can't forget, but in the overall checks/balances scheme of our government and life, Ted Kennedy played an important role and like jewels said, I also put him on the plus side. His death also reminds me of how the Kennedy family's political power has changed from the time JFK, RFK, and TK were all on the top rungs of political power.

Lucifer

There was a young Senator from Mass,
Who tried to get himself some ass,
But before he could pound her,
The fool went and drowned her,
And so his future became past!

(see on a men's room stall in Hyannis, MA)

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I am a brother to dragons, and a companion to owls.
- Job 30:29

1123, 6536, 5321

Fotzlid

Well, the inevitable has finally happened.

At least I know what will be on local TV for the nest week or two, Kennedy retrospectives.

Psycho Dad

RIP Mary Jo Kopechne.

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Anormalguy

Ted Kennedy appeared to truly care about social change in the US.

RIP, Senator.

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In a society where the individual is not free to pursue the truth...there is neither progress, stability nor security.--Edward R. Murrow

Bill O'Rights

Rest in peace, Ted. I disagreed with your politics about as much as I agreed with them, but you always stood up and fought like hell for what you believed. For that, you earn my respect. As for that..."other thing"...well, let's just say that that's now all so much water under the bridge? You can take all of that up with Mary Jo now. As was mentioned earlier, you came out ahead on the kharma scale.

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"Hedonism with rules isn't hedonism at all, it's the Republican party." - JumpinJesus

It is indisputable that true beauty lies within...but a nice rack sure doesn't hurt.

Xerxys

lol, you guys are terrible.

Er ... I really don't know who ted kennedy was so ... yeah I really don't care.

filtherton

If we held all of our politicians (instead of just the ones we don't like) responsible for the deaths they've caused the world might be a better place.

girldetective

Jeez, filtherton. If we did that our jails would be riddled with them. I dont know that we could call the House to session in the Big House.

besitos to you Ted. I loved you.

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As far as possible, without surrender, be on good terms with all persons...be cheerful; strive for happiness - Desiderata

Vigilante

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We contend that for a nation to try to tax itself into prosperity is like a man standing in a bucket and trying to lift himself up by the handle.
-Winston Churchill

Reese

Vigilante, ROFL! That's such poor taste. I love it.

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“It is better to be rich and healthy than poor and sick” - Dave Barry

Vigilante

Hehe. I was thinking to myself "too soon?" but fuck it. I was rolling so I had to post it.

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We contend that for a nation to try to tax itself into prosperity is like a man standing in a bucket and trying to lift himself up by the handle.
-Winston Churchill

djtestudo

I didn't like Ted Kennedy, either for his politics or his personal life.

However, when I take everything about him into consideration, all I can say is that for the rest of my life whenever I hear the word "Senator" my first image will be Ted Kennedy. Both the good and the bad.

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Fremen

Ted only outlived Eunice by a couple of weeks or so.
I'd rather mourn her for her contributions, than his.

RIP, Eunice Kennedy Shriver.

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percy

He was certainly loved by many and had an extraordinary life dedicated to public service. With the family he came from, he could have done anything but chose to make the lives of others better.

He made mistakes but that is life. I think sometimes those critical of him and others of achievement are so because they have done nothing, and certainly have never made mistakes.

levite

I for one will mourn Ted Kennedy. The Chappaquidic thing was a long time ago, and it was a different time, and he was a different man.

Ted Kennedy was a great senator. He fought for civil rights, for people's right to education, for their right to vote, for their right to have affordable health care, and many other rights. He was a supporter of art, culture, and tolerance, and was a lifelong Catholic who nonetheless stood for a firm separation between church and state.

His strengths were professional and very public, and his flaws were personal, and mostly private.

He worked his entire career with professional integrity, a willingness to cross party lines and compromise, and a willingness to forego political glory in order to achieve necessary results. What is more, he always stood up for what he believed in, even when it was not popular. More than his party, more than his career, more than the dollar value of his campaign war chest, Ted Kennedy loved and tried to serve the People of the United States of America.

I wouldn't wager even one dollar that there is a senator left seated right now of whom the same could be said.

May his memory be a blessing.

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Dull sublunary lovers love,
Whose soul is sense, cannot admit
Absence, because it doth remove
That thing which elemented it.

(From "A Valediction: Forbidding Mourning" by John Donne)

Daniel_

I despair for my co-workers, here in England.

When talking about this news, I joked "I hear he's to be buried at sea off a bridge", and not one of them knew it was a joke.

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Overhead, the Albatross hangs motionless upon the air,
And deep beneath the rolling waves,
In labyrinths of Coral Caves,
The Echo of a distant time
Comes willowing across the sand;
And everthing is Green and Submarine
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SecretMethod70

QFT. It was interesting today, listening to Orrin Hatch talk about Ted Kennedy. It says a lot that he was able to form such strong friendships with people he disagreed with so vehemently. He was a great politician from a time long gone, and they really don't come like that anymore.

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Le temps détruit tout

"Musicians are the carriers and communicators of spirit in the most immediate sense." - Kurt Elling

warrrreagl

He's been physically dead to me since they diagnosed his tumor. He's been politically dead to me since Jimmy Carter whooped his ass in 1980. And he's been non-existent to me since Chappaquiddick.

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SecretMethod70

Amazing how someone so apparently worthless could, at the same time, be one of the most influential senators in American history and one of the most respected as well, on both sides of the aisle.

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Le temps détruit tout

"Musicians are the carriers and communicators of spirit in the most immediate sense." - Kurt Elling

warrrreagl

I apologize. I didn't know I wasn't supposed to form my own opinion about the man.

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Living is easy with eyes closed.

SecretMethod70

Nothing wrong with forming your own opinion, I'm just saying it wasn't very constructive. Forming your own opinion doesn't mean no one will challenge it If all Ted Kennedy was is the way you summarized his life, the response to his death would be quite different from what it actually is. Dislike the guy all you want, but that doesn't make his accomplishments and stature - most of which has come after 1980 - go away.

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Le temps détruit tout

"Musicians are the carriers and communicators of spirit in the most immediate sense." - Kurt Elling

warrrreagl

I summarized what Kennedy meant "to me," and I think the keyphrase in my original post was "to me." I said it three times - "to me." How is that challengeable? I didn't say anything about what Kennedy meant to the Senate, or what Kennedy meant to the grand scheme of American political history, or what he meant to any segment of society. I summarized what he meant "to me," which was not much.

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Living is easy with eyes closed.

filtherton

Since when are opinions sacred? Geez. You're challenging SM's opinion on your opinion by claiming that opinions shouldn't be challenged.

warrrreagl

I just said it was how I feel, and SM said it was challengeable. How do you challenge how someone feels? I never liked Ted Kennedy, and I don't like the Rolling Stones or chicken salad, either. How do you challenge that? Tell me that I'm wrong, and I actually do like them?

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Living is easy with eyes closed.

The_Jazz

I'd say you never had my grandmother's chicken salad and that if you'd tried a few other recipes, you might have found some you could tolerate. And the Rolling Stones are an iconic band with sounds that stretch far into various genres of music and that if you sat down to listen to more of their stuff you might find something you like.

See what I did there?

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warrrreagl

You are so my hero.

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Living is easy with eyes closed.

roachboy

it's kinda strange reading this thread.

to remain vaguely on topic at the outset, i live in massachusetts these days: local media are all over this like white on rice. so i'm already vaguely irritated about the spectacle. on aesthetic grounds, because of it's bizarre-o mix of the maudlin and tastelessness.

but it also turns out that i have alot of friends who knew ted kennedy as an actual human being and for them, and others who knew him in real life, and his family, it's hard not to feel sympathy. in the way one feels sympathy for any actual human beings who pass through this aspect of the cycle of things.

as for people's relations to the imaginary teddy kennedys, their own private tks, the one they cobble together from interacting with various spaces of grouphate, which has been a cottage industry in conservative circles for years and years--i hope you're having fun with it.
but what are you going to do now that your imaginary tk is gone?
it must be like losing a favorite toy, one of those you liked to hit and throw around and get mad at. i would expect that folk might be a little sad about this turn of events--for themselves of course, because obviously having an imaginary tk to punch about and dispise is all about the people doing the hitting.

i don't say this out of any sense of moral outrage. i just think the construction of the imaginary tk as Villian non-pareil by the right has been an odd thing. people like having Villians around, i suppose. they help provide a sense of direction, of purpose.

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a gramophone its corrugated trumpet silver handle
spinning dog. such faithfulness it hear

it make you sick.

-kamau brathwaite

loquitur

Sorta like the way certain groups did all Iran-contra all the time when Reagan died, I suppose..........