Sad to see him go-- on the upside, he can finally be reunited with his brothers and old family friends like Mary Jo Kopechne and Martha Moxley.
Except that he won't.
Ted Kennedy has died
41–50 of 151 posts
Re: Ted Kennedy has died
#42Earlier quoted context omitted.
What is Ted Kennedy's lesson for the world? From my perspective, the guy was a career politician and part of an unpleasant dynastic trend in American government. How would the world be different had Kennedy not lived?
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…
Perhaps those of us that like Ted Kennedy weren't the ones bashing Michael Jackson?
I'm inclined to forgive people their many, many errors. I see no harm in looking at a man's accomplishments and ignoring his failures.
Michael Jackson was a man who changed the entertainment world. Ted Kennedy spent decades fighting for his causes without rest. Each did unpleasant things, but those things don't eliminate the good each did.
Re: Ted Kennedy has died
#43Earlier quoted context omitted.
Surprisingly from Digg: o The Civil Rights Act of 1964 o The Voting Rights Act of 1965 o The COBRA Act of 1985 (ever lost a job and still managed to keep your health insurance for 18 months?) o The Americans with Disabilities Act in 1990 o The Family and Medical Leave Act in 1993 o Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996
The Civil Rights act and Voting Rights act aren't something you can credit Kennedy with - he was a junior senator. That leaves four pieces of major legislation (or six, if we throw in a couple of increases in minimum wage) in a fifty year career. This seems out of proportion to the hagiography; I would be curious to know how we would be covering this story if his name weren't Kennedy.
I wasn't a huge fan of Ted Kennedy but after reading the list of major legislation he was involved with I have to admire the work he did.
Re: Ted Kennedy has died
#44What 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?
Re: Ted Kennedy has died
#45Earlier quoted context omitted.
Income inequality is the wrong metric - the right metric is real income for the bottom 10% of America in 1950 vs. today. Of course there are many factors at work, but rising income inequality isn't bad if it's bringing everyone up. Also keep in mind that today's healthcare debate is one that he has been fighting for 50 years (along with many others), and that whatever does happen, whenever it happens, will have more…
The decades after 1950 were times of huge growth in real income across the developed world for reasons that didn't have much to do with Senator Kennedy. I'm evaluating his accomplishments with a bias to what he did in his later career, when he was presumably at the peak of his influence. And there the answer seems to be 'was skillfully co-opted by the Bush administration'. I do agree that he was tireless in pushing h…
Yes, you cannot attribute economic growth to Sen. Kennedy. That's why you have to look beyond the numbers to see his impact.
You're incorrect if you think that the peak of his influence was in his later career, when the glamour of the Kennedys had largely passed, and the House, Senate, and White House were controlled by Republicans. The peak of his influence was in the 60s-80s, but from that day onward he has been pushing health policy, and although he didn't get the ball to the top of the hill he's pushed it farther than anyone else.
To say that he was ineffective because the goal wasn't accomplished on his watch is like saying that Elizabeth Cady Stanton was not an effective suffragette because she died 20 years before women got the vote.
Re: Ted Kennedy has died
#46Earlier quoted context omitted.
Useless companies which simply take from the productive sectors of the economy are also the rule, with the few amazing companies being the exception. You can't have a new Google or Voting Rights Act every week.
The difference here is that any exchange with a useless company is on a voluntary basis, whereas any exchange with the government is completely compulsory. If I don't give Useless Company X my money, they go out of business for not adding enough value. If I don't give my money to the government, they garnish my wages, put liens on my house and put me in prison, and continue to run inefficiently whilst piling up massi…
I think this idea that we can punish ineffectiveness in the private sector is pleasant to think about, but doesn't reflect our actual experience.
Think of all the ineffective or downright hateful businesses you give your money to because there is no practical alternative: cable and internet providers, health insurers, banks, credit cards, ticketmaster, airlines, big box stores, domain registrars...
Re: Ted Kennedy has died
#47Earlier quoted context omitted.
Useless companies which simply take from the productive sectors of the economy are also the rule, with the few amazing companies being the exception. You can't have a new Google or Voting Rights Act every week.
The difference here is that any exchange with a useless company is on a voluntary basis, whereas any exchange with the government is completely compulsory. If I don't give Useless Company X my money, they go out of business for not adding enough value. If I don't give my money to the government, they garnish my wages, put liens on my house and put me in prison, and continue to run inefficiently whilst piling up massi…
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 suggesting that a man can't grow up after a reckless youth is as cruel and stupid as a reaction to a man's death being "Good riddance." While I find the bickering on both sides to be tasteless, akd isn't being a douche the same way you are.
Re: Ted Kennedy has died
#48Re: Ted Kennedy has died
#49I heard some young girl was drunk and got in a car accident, and left him for dead. (too soon?)
I heard that some guy joined Facebook and left TipJoy for dead. (too soon?) ;)
Re: Ted Kennedy has died
#50What 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?
America's got a fucked-up sense of morality. Everybody's messed up in one way or another romantically. We have a distorted sense of expectation, mixed with a bunch of weird ideas about what's appropriate and what isn't.
There've been many perfect gentlemen politicians that were terrible. I hope one day we start judging politicians the way we would businessmen, wherein personal life matters less than performance.