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Ted Kennedy has died

nytimes.com

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Re: Ted Kennedy has died

#61

Post by unalone »

spking wrote: post #57
unalone wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Both of you, stop it. There is a place for both government and the free market in society. An unchecked free market is insanely unstable; an unchecked government is controlling and corrupt. To suggest that entrepreneurs are largely wasting money is as wrong as suggesting that politicians are leeches. spking: Implying that Ted Kennedy didn't fight hard every day of his life in politics is as cruel and stupid as sugges…

unalone: Having a strong opinion about something (or someone, in this case) doesn't make me tasteless or a douche. And frankly, the issue isn't whether or not Ted Kennedy fought "hard every day of his life in politics". Pirates fight very hard every day in their lives of theft. I'd say get off your high horse, but I think instead that you should enjoy your false sense of superiority. Clearly, it gives you great pleas…

Yeah, superiority on a web site. Not everybody online with a sense of propriety has it to look good. Some of us might hope that people learn from what they read online.

The issue I'm talking about isn't whether Ted Kennedy is good or bad. The issue is that he was a man who spent a lifetime doing what he thought was right, and that it takes a fool or a sociopath to look at a lifetime and spit at it. There's a difference between being critical and being destructive. Your attitude is the latter.

If you're going to attempt to put me down, can you at least attempt to be clever with it? The only thing worse than negativity is bluster.

Re: Ted Kennedy has died

#62

Post by danielrhodes »

For those of you who are questioning why this deserves to be here: obviously HN is predominantly tech/entrepreneur related, but don't be so fundamentalist about it. Ted Kennedy was a prolific senator who was one of the most influential members of the most powerful government in the world -- his death deserves discussion not just among those interested in politics but in other circles as well. HN has a great community where people value good analysis and feedback, why not occasionally apply those positive aspects to other topics as well?

Re: Ted Kennedy has died

#63

Post by davidw »

plinkplonk wrote: post #60
stevoski wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Right on. Those of us outside the states just don't care that one of your politicians died - unless he was a competent computer expert. I come here for "Hacker News", not political death notices. Shall I post here when a long-serving New Zealand politician dies?

"Shall I post here when a long-serving New Zealand politician dies?" Ahh but you aren't going to get the upvotes to get it onto the HN front page. HN membership is dominated by Americans. No harm in that really except for stuff like this. As an Indian, I don't particularly care to have US politics / news of the demise of sundry USA politicians on the HN front page either, but the "intellectually interesting" filter i…

There's also a "no politics" bit, and I don't know if there's much to discuss about Ted Kennedy if you're not talking politics. See comments below.

Re: Ted Kennedy has died

#64

Post by unalone »

danielrhodes wrote: post #62

For those of you who are questioning why this deserves to be here: obviously HN is predominantly tech/entrepreneur related, but don't be so fundamentalist about it. Ted Kennedy was a prolific senator who was one of the most influential members of the most powerful government in the world -- his death deserves discussion not just among those interested in politics but in other circles as well. HN has a great community…

There's a value in asking whether something's Hacker News or not. In the end, we are the users, and we decide what we want to see. When we don't like what we see, however, there's no harm in discussing it, in the hope that like-minded people see it and are inspired.

Re: Ted Kennedy has died

#65

Post by patio11 »

fretlessjazz wrote: post #33
patio11 wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The comment was probably in reference to the incident at Chappaquiddick rather than a suggestion that one would be more effective at saving lives as a lifeguard than as a Senator wielding enormous influence. In the version of events most favorable to Kennedy, he suffered a tragic lapse in judgment (failing to summon aid) which compounded the results of an unfortunate auto accident, and a young woman drowned as a resu…

Thanks for your clarification and insight:) Being born in 1981, I'll write my previous comment off to generational ignorance. I appreciate your thorough and thoughtful response.

I was born in 1982, you geezer.

Re: Ted Kennedy has died

#66

Post by blasdel »

larryfreeman wrote: post #10

He did the seeming impossible: he lived up to the reputation of his brothers as their equal. An amazing senator. A very great loss.

While Ted was a pretty cool guy, eh garnered appropriations and doesn't afraid of anything, I don't think anyone could really live up to his brothers.

John was an order of magnitude greater, and Bobby was at least an order of magnitude greater than that!

Bobby was everything Obama aspires to be and more. His assassination was probably the worst event of '68 -- and a fuckton of awful shit happened that year: the crushing of Prague Spring, the events of May in Paris, MLK's assassination, the DNC in Chicago, the burning of DC, Nixon's election -- it was the last gasp of modernity. I can't think about it without crying.

Re: Ted Kennedy has died

#67

Post by palish »

stevoski wrote: post #54
fauigerzigerk wrote: post #27

So you're posting this here just in case hackers don't read newspapers?

Right on. Those of us outside the states just don't care that one of your politicians died - unless he was a competent computer expert. I come here for "Hacker News", not political death notices. Shall I post here when a long-serving New Zealand politician dies?

So click the "flag" button on the article. If enough of us flag it, then the article gets killed.

Re: Ted Kennedy has died

#68

Post by roundsquare »

muriithi wrote: post #44

What I can gather from his Wikipedia page is that Kennedy, like Clinton was a good politician but a consummate womaniser. I have always wondered why citizens expect politicians to be 'moral' and whether 'immoral' politicians are necessarily bad leaders?

> I have always wondered why citizens expect politicians to be 'moral' and whether 'immoral' politicians are necessarily bad leader

I think its the need to relate it to something easier to understand. Policy positions can be complex and subtle, but for a lot of people, "don't cheat on your wife/husband" is an absolute and a convenient/simple (albeit horribly inaccurate) metric.

Re: Ted Kennedy has died

#69

Post by JacobAldridge »

fauigerzigerk wrote: post #27

So you're posting this here just in case hackers don't read newspapers?

Firstly, I think this has a place here, and I think the votes reflect that (I'd also be happy if it were submitted and received no votes - that's the purpose of the site).

I'd be interested in any discussion about the impact this may have on more relevant areas of ours lives - areas that unite us under the HN brand, that probably won't be discussed in newspapers.

How might this impact the Health Care debate, with the subsequent impact on start-ups hiring staff or freelancers / solo businesses for whom illness might sicken them but kill their business aspirations?

Kennedy's death also minimises the possibility of Cloture in the Senate, since short-term Democrat thinking in the Mass. congress means their Senate seats can only be filled by special election, not appointment. If the Washington Democrats were to push for legislation that would support tech development, broadband access, or small business, might it be blocked by filibuster techniques?

Perhaps even a broader debate on hacker perception of the role of politicians, using Kennedy's legacy as a focal point, or the role of power in an age of information far removed from when Jackie, Bobby and Teddy sought politics as the only way to influence national policy?

Re: Ted Kennedy has died

#70

Post by TomOfTTB »

rogerthat wrote: post #59
TomOfTTB wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Especially this one. I'm hesitant to comment on this because this article really doesn't belong here. But the fact remains Ted Kennedy left a woman for dead after driving his car into a body of water. He didn't contact the authorities when it happened, he instead went back to his hotel. When at his hotel (and I take this quote from the Wikipedia entry) he... "According to his own testimony, Kennedy swam across the 50…

"You hypocrite! First remove the beam out of your own eye, and then you can see clearly to remove the speck out of your brother's eye." - Early Hacker

The point of the quote you are using is that judgement should be left to God and not man (the statement itself is kind of judgmental but I guess that's accepted because Jesus and God are both part of the trinity in Christianity). If you subscribe to that theory of life than more power to you. I do not. I have no problem passing judgement on someone who killed an innocent young woman and honestly my experience is that most Christians will pass judgement on a person for far less.
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