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Political Hay
The Kopechne Effect
Thursday afternoon, libertarian journalist David Weigel sent out a message on Twitter that struck me as profound: "The proliferation of liberal media watchdogs has led to much, much, much more repetition of what conservatives say."
Watchdogging is perhaps the sincerest form of media flattery. If what was written and said by conservatives on the Internet, radio and TV had no influence on public discourse, liberals would not be constantly monitoring Mark Levin, Glenn Beck and Michelle Malkin. What is amusing, to anyone directly familiar with the haphazard operating environment of right-wing communications, is the liberal suspicion that everything conservatives do is carefully orchestrated.
When news broke that Ted Kennedy had died, many people had a reaction quite similar to my own: "Mary Jo Kopechne could not be reached for comment." It's an old line I'd used often over the years whenever Teddy made news. While I thought I'd stolen it from Ann Coulter, someone else said it actually originated more than two decades ago as a Chevy Chase punchline on Saturday Night Live.
Tasteless as that punchline may be, certainly liberals have often shown much worse taste in their utterances about dead Republicans who never killed any campaign aides. Turnabout may not always be fair play, but I was not the only American who thought the events of July 19, 1969, to have been the definitive moment in Senator Kennedy's career.
"The No. 1 search term at Google Trends Wednesday morning was 'Ted Kennedy.' Nos. 2 and 3: 'Mary Jo Kopechne' and 'Chappaquiddick,' wrote Politico's Michael Calderone, noting that not everyone was observing the Massachusetts Democrat's death in the hagiographic style of the mainstream press.
Consensus or conspiracy? The liberal watchdogs were vigilant, and Carly Carioli of the Boston Phoenix pounced, decrying evidence of "a right-wing smear campaign…an orchestrated movement" on the part of "ghoulishly insensitive right-wingers."
Oh, yes, like the conservative blogger who quite touchingly recalled Kopechne's civil-rights activism, and pondered what the promising 28-year-old might have become, had she lived.
Democrats immediately politicized Kennedy's death, seeking to enlist their departed comrade -- in a manner reminiscent of Weekend at Bernie's -- as the leading advocate for passage of health-care legislation. No liberal complained about that, but when some Republicans mentioned how Sen. Paul Wellstone's 2004 funeral became an ad hoc campaign rally, there was an outcry from the Left.
"It looks like word went out yesterday about what leading conservative voices should say about Ted Kennedy's death: complain about the memorial service that hasn't happened yet," wrote Steven Benen of the Washington Monthly.
All this watchdogging indicates a paranoid tendency among soi-disant "progressives," a fear that has its source in their own ideology. To the liberal True Believer, "rugged individualism" is not a lifestyle nor an attitude, but rather a false myth propagated by Republicans for political purposes. The liberal cannot admit that ballets and operas would exist without taxpayer support from the National Endowment of the Arts, nor that a family could provide for its health-care needs without government subsidies and bureaucratic superintendence.
Therefore, it never occurs to liberals that their political antagonists are capable of independent thought and action in the field of communications. If Mark Levin, Michael Reagan, Glenn Reynolds and Ann Coulter say similar things about any particular phenomenon -- e.g., the media's absurdly hagiographic tributes to Ted Kennedy -- this can only reflect a purposeful coordination of effort. Somewhere, there must be some right-wing Gepetto pulling the strings.
Note how this parallels the usual liberal explanations of how the world works. If a teenager skips school, smokes dope, hangs out with hoodlums, accumulates a record of juvenile crime and fails to graduate high school, no well-meaning liberal would ever suggest that this teenager is responsible for his own failures. No, if this youth turns 18 inside a jail cell, becomes a repeat offender when paroled, and spends the rest of his life as one more statistical data-point proving the "socio-economic inequality" that liberals insist the taxpayers must pay to alleviate, the criminal himself cannot be blamed.
Instead of considering the role of individual responsibility, the liberal habitually attributes all human misery to nebulous forces of evil -- greed, discrimination, "Corporate America" and so forth -- which serve as ready-made scapegoats in liberal demonology. Occasionally, when these reliable bogeymen lose their power to terrify the gullible, liberals will conjure up new demons -- global warming, suburban sprawl, Halliburton -- representing the evils from which liberals courageously offer to rescue the helpless citizenry.
This ideology of disempowerment, portraying the downtrodden as passive victims of malevolent forces beyond their control, expresses itself as paranoia whenever liberals find themselves at a political disadvantage. If President Obama's poll numbers are down, if conservatives seem on the verge of defeating the decades-old liberal dream of an all-encompassing federal health-care bureaucracy, the consistency of their worldview prevents liberals from accepting the most obvious explanations for these setbacks.
It cannot be that Obama is inept, or that citizens have examined and rejected as unworkable the legislation Democrats have proposed. Rather, the liberal believes, there must be some right-wing bogeyman to blame.
Enter -- deus ex machina, as it were -- the "orchestrated movement" that liberals so quickly perceived in the wake of Ted Kennedy's death. Even as MSNBC's Chris Matthews twisted himself into ridiculous knots to declare Obama "the new brother…of the Kennedy tradition," liberals fumed over the "right-wing smear campaign" which reminded America that Teddy's most memorable contribution to that tradition was to get drunk and drive an Oldsmobile off a bridge.
Whatever liberals want to blame on "ghoulishly insensitive right-wingers," we have yet to match that.
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Pingback| 8.28.09 @ 6:10AM
The Greenroom » Forum Archive » Liberal Paranoia and the Kopechne Effect links to this page. Here’s an excerpt:
Robbins Mitchell| 8.28.09 @ 6:28AM
Is Nazi Joe's last big mistake still dead?
Bram| 8.28.09 @ 7:16AM
I am an insensitive, uncaring conservative with libertarian leanings. But, I'm not insensitive enough to walk home and go to bed while a young woman slowly dies of asphyxiation.
Kitty| 8.28.09 @ 7:27AM
"If Mark Levin, Michael Reagan, Glenn Reynolds and Ann Coulter say similar things..."
The half-vast left-wing has taken a collective step forward. They used to say (in unison) that we got our marching orders from Rush.
...
Michael Dooley| 8.28.09 @ 7:32AM
It is true that we wish that Conservatives were a quarter as organized as Liberals think they are; but Liberals look to derail Limbaugh, Beck, and all for other reasons other than what these Conservative talkingheads are saying. What Liberals have found difficult to deal with since the beginning of talkradio is that the rise of "Conservative" media began to allow Conservatives talk to one another and let the individual Conservative know he is not alone out there. That's why Liberals will try again for some form of the fairness doctrine. They may look to get it in by the backdoor; but divide and conquer worked before so why not again?
Robert Rosencrans| 8.28.09 @ 8:25AM
I agree with your article. However, it should be pointed out that the punchline that Mary Jo Kopechne could not be reached for comment is not tasteless. It is accurate. The best humor is always factual.
The act that lead up to the punchline was beyond tasteless. Senator Kennedy was a killer and only a massive character flaw could account for his failure to take action to save Mary Jo Kopechne. The liberal press will never embrace the concept that Kennedy was a killer and in fact cannot embrace that concept because they bought into his success.
The happy ending is that he is no longer available for comment.
GringoBob| 8.28.09 @ 8:30AM
Ted Kennedy had a great career as power broker of the Senate due to his perpetual elections back to back forever and enough earmarks to give everyone in Massachutes a million bucks -
OJ Simpson had a great career as a running back in football due to his extrodinary individual talents and skills -
both men snuffed out the life of a former lover - neither man saw any jail for their homicide - one never even saw a court room -
two great careers and two dead women - is this the American dream ?
Mary Jo Kopechne and Nicole Simpson Brown could not be reached for comment -
GringoBob in the republic of Costa Rica - remember those days ?
Glenn Beck - Fox news channel - Monday thru Friday - 5:00 pm EST
here is the Voting matrix = http://Group912.org
help stop the EPA = http://StopEPA.com
Karen Schell| 8.28.09 @ 8:35AM
"Instead of considering the role of individual responsibility, the liberal habitually attributes all human misery to nebulous forces of evil"
And yet, oddly enough, in the next moment the liberal becomes highly agitated at just hearing the word "evil" and, in fact, actually deny it's existence. It must be a world of constant cognitive dissonance in which the liberal dwells.
Curly Smith| 8.28.09 @ 8:52AM
Mary Jo Kopechne was the first patient treated in KennedyCare. Sadly, the Quality of Life Board determined that heroic life-saving measures would consume precious resources that could be better utilized in furthering the career of "a man of the people".
LarryK| 8.28.09 @ 8:54AM
"Mary Jo Kopechne could not be reached for comment.". The question of Ted Kennedy and his character was answered on July 18, 1969. I believe that everyone experiences a moment in their lives that reveal their true character. As human, I realize that we all waffle on the line between good and evil (bad). However, there comes that defining moment that reveals our true character in that moment of crisis. John Farrar, the diver who recovered Mary Jo Kopechne's body, in a statement, revealed that her body was found in a pocket of air and that the cause of death was probably due to suffocation. No autopsy was performed. We can never know for certain the cause of death for Mary Jo Kopechne, but we can know for sure that "The Lion of the Senate" decided to save his pudgy white a** and worry about his "career" instead of getting help to try to save Mary Jo Kopechne's life. Talk about a "Profile in Courage", and that revealed his true character and no amount of “life’s accomplishments” can change the fact that Ted Kennedy was/is a no good SOB who only thought of himself!
Michael L. Hauschild| 8.28.09 @ 9:02AM
Now we need an enterprising Photoshop artisan to redo the “movie marquee” with Obama, Teddy, and Pelosi and title it “Weekend at Hyanisport.”
Michael L. Hauschild| 8.28.09 @ 9:53AM
Excuse me, not the war heroes and not the Hoffa antagonist.
Mike| 8.28.09 @ 9:57AM
"Oh, yes, like the conservative blogger who quite touchingly recalled Kopechne's civil-rights activism, and pondered what the promising 28-year-old might have become, had she lived." Had she lived, she would have been vilified by the conservative blogger referenced in this article, Limbaugh, Coulter, Malkin, Beck, TAS et. al. Why? Because she was liberal. If Mary Jo Kopechne could be reached for comment, the wingnuts probably would not like what she would have to say.
Anthony| 8.28.09 @ 10:05AM
Your thoughtful article gives insight as to why the Left is clueless when it comes to conservatives. Not thinking, (but that's redundant) that we conservatives might have opinions that echo thoses of the more prominent conservatives, we are demeaned to be blind followers. Of course, what real life on Earth shows us daily, is that said appellation more accurately describes the "moon bats" (Howie Carr's great one liner) on the Left, who instinctively follow the herd mentality, on ALL issues.
At the risk of being accused of non - originality, let me repeat the observation that we are in a titanic struggle with the Left, who appear to view the world from some parallax perspective, truth be told, co-existence appears to be more remote with each passing day.
Bobbi| 8.28.09 @ 10:16AM
Mike-So it's a good thing Ted killed her, I guess. He saved her from being verbally "attacked." You guys are really ghoulish. It's disturbing.
Bill Hussein O'Stalin| 8.28.09 @ 10:21AM
Senators,
Senators who kill people
are the most liberal Senators
in the world
With one person
one very special person
with water deep in your soul
says you are half of a hole
but first be a person who drowns people
people who drown people
are the most liberal people
in the world
Bill Hussein O'Stalin| 8.28.09 @ 10:21AM
Senators,
Senators who kill people
are the most liberal Senators
in the world
With one person
one very special person
with water deep in your soul
says you are half of a hole
but first be a person who drowns people
people who drown people
are the most liberal people
in the world
FL| 8.28.09 @ 10:28AM
I have to say that as a liberal, I was disgusted with that conspiracy idea, and felt that my opinion was politicized, as unfortunately happens in this article too.
The news media has completely, and stupidly, attributed the searches about Mary Jo Kopechne to conservative "conspiracy." Did anyone ever, think, for a second, that maybe a lot of WOMEN feel quite different about the kind of guy Kennedy was?
Not one woman I know, work, friends, acquaintances, mentioned his death.
The news media doesn't seem to get that murder is not a partisan issue. And the liberals who think that human rights are so important but that "Mary Jo, well, she was just one woman, I mean, look at all the stuff he did" disgust me. Her right to be alive is ignored by all of them. His cover up and lack of apology to the family says more about his character than any legislation he would ever pass.
I had previously been angered at conservative kool-aid group think, and now I'm absolutely enraged by comments from media and the left. How dare they say that Kennedy was more important than Kopechne. Murder is a non-partisan issue. Does anyone know how to think for themselves anymore?
It disgusts me to hear the terms "hero" and "great" applied to a cowardly murderer. No legislation can justify this.
As a liberal, I am ashamed and disgusted with liberals. If I didn't disagree with many conservative ideas so much, this ignorance of murder would definitely turn me conservative.
Maybe we should only have one party, or none. That's independent. As in thinking independently and recognizing that crime is crime and politicians are not above the law.
LQQKY| 8.28.09 @ 10:30AM
What probably bothers me more than all else is that the murdering, besotted,whoremongering, divorced (his money probably bought him an annulment, making children of that marriage bastards), remarrying, ad nauseum is hat he is still getting a Catholic mass and burial. Methinks that the archbishops and responsible cardinals should be recalled by the Pope.
Barbarian Heretic| 8.28.09 @ 10:43AM
The Dem/Lefts' penchant for seeking an "organized effort" behind every Conservative message is easily explained:
That's how they do it, so they assume that's how everone does it. It's called projection.
Ran| 8.28.09 @ 11:02AM
"If Mary Jo Kopechne [had not been murdered in cold blood], the wingnuts probably would not like what she would have to say."
Yeah, well, it *is* a free country. Until you go along for a ride with the Kennedy's.
Ned S.| 8.28.09 @ 11:05AM
I always thought Senator Kerry was, the not quite right reincarnation, who came a knocking at the door when someone had perhaps dug up President Kennedy's body and buried it in Stephen King's "Pet Cemetery".
Since President Obama showed up before the demise of Senator Kennedy, this is not an explanation for his existence, but I won't lose hope. I am sure that in the future the Democrats will come up with some presently unknown aberration to fill this bill.
FG| 8.28.09 @ 11:54AM
A few words from Mary Jo. Hello Ted I've been waiting for you.
Todd| 8.28.09 @ 12:02PM
I appreciate your comment FL, nice to see that their are a few liberals out there who won't make excuses for Ted Kennedy because of his liberalism. Like you said the cover-up and lack of an apology tells the true story of what kind of man he was regardless of any legislation. You might like his legislation and us conservatives hate it but that doesn't change what he did. He may receive the praise of man in this life but that will count for nothing where he is going.
Maura| 8.28.09 @ 12:04PM
The lionizing of this man who showed his true character in his life-defining event--Chappaquiddick--is repugnant on every level. The fact that he remained on the political stage for 40 years after the terrible event seems for some people a basis for this revisionist character assessment. In fact, it shows a lack of shame that is consistent with the reality of this man's virtue-challenged life. Remember John Profumo who resigned from British politics, shamed and disgraced by scandal; he dedicated the remainder of his life to charitable work --literally cleaning toilets as well as helping to direct the charities. Ted Kennedy does not deserve to be treated as though he redeemed himself because lacked the decency to resign and because in every subsequent election the Massachusetts voters did not recognize his essential unfitness.
Brian| 8.28.09 @ 12:11PM
I have had a gnawing suspicion for a while that the left's allegations of a vast right wing conspiracy are based on their own experience as part of the vast left wing conspiracy. Astroturfing would be an example of this - "that's how we do it, so they must do it the same way". Sorosbots each and every one.
Mike| 8.28.09 @ 12:38PM
Bobbi,
"Mike-So it's a good thing Ted killed her, I guess. He saved her from being verbally "attacked." You guys are really ghoulish. It's disturbing."
You guessed wrongly. I didn't even come close to saying what you suggest. Your post make abundantly clear who is ghoulish.
Robert Rosencrans| 8.28.09 @ 12:46PM
Some of you may have misread the Senator. Here's an article that indicates Senator Kennedy had a sense of humor.
http://corner.nationalreview.c.....k4MWExZGY=
'One of his favorite topics of humor was Chappaquiddick' [Mark Hemingway]
Jules Crittenden mentioned on his blog he heard Ed Klein, former foreign editor of Newsweek and editor-in-chief of The New York Times Magazine, recalling on air that Ted Kennedy liked to joke about Chappaquiddick. It seemed to defy belief, so I listened to the episode of The Diane Rehm Show in question and sure enough — I've transcribed what Klein told guest host Katy Kay (Here's a link to the audio in WMA format, relevant portion starts at about 30:15):
I don't know if you know this or not, but one of his favorite topics of humor was indeed Chappaquiddick itself. And he would ask people, "have you heard any new jokes about Chappaquiddick?" That is just the most amazing thing. It's not that he didn't feel remorse about the death of Mary Jo Kopechne, but that he still always saw the other side of everything and the ridiculous side of things, too.
EXCUSE ME? If that's true, it makes Kennedy kind of a monster. The odd thing is that if you listen to the whole show, the tone of everyone involved is nauseatingly hagiographic and reverential. Klein apparently let his guard down a bit; after he lets it slip Kennedy liked to joke about the woman he killed you can actually hear in his voice that he's trying to backpedal. The show actually cuts to a break as he's trying to explain himself, and I seriously wonder if it wasn't the producers trying to do Klein a favor. But I'm sorry, there appears to be little to that could explain this. It goes way beyond "you had to be there."
UPDATE: Blogging software was a tad buggy and didn't respond to repeated attempts to fix audio link — it should be fixed now. Also, Ed Morrissey has the audio much more convinently packaged at this YouTube link.
08/28 12:09 AMShare
Jeff Carlson| 8.28.09 @ 12:51PM
I am a lifelong atheist and even I know that Teddy K. will not be joining Mary Jo in heaven. He is exactly the type of soulless ghoul that a devil would really appreciate.
Any pain or suffering Teddy experienced over the last year was well deserved since 1969 and anyone who can bring themselves to ignore his crime is not actually godless but a true believe in a Satan because they saw the devil in Ted Kennedy every time that man went off the deep end and think he was admirable. You have to have sold you soul to do that and I only know of one buyer of souls.
I don't believe there is a god but I do believe in the devil. Its is in each of us and in the case of Ted it took him over than day in 1969 and never let go.
Rest in hell you sorry excuse for a human being.
Jeff Carlson
www.harlemghost.blogspot.com
Dean| 8.28.09 @ 12:57PM
I recall the scene from the movie "Animal House" in which Dean Wormer counsels a student that "Fat, drunk, and stupid is no way to go through life, son." I am not so sure about that; it seems to have worked very well for Ted Kennedy!
Mary Louise| 8.28.09 @ 12:58PM
You know what? Even Vanity Fair has a piece on the absence of discussion of Mary Jo Kopechne, and the sin of negligence it is for the drive-by media.
Per Hot Air, Ed Klein, in an NPR interview on the Rhem show (what a soporific, vacuous and left-of-the bell curve interview) recalls how EMK would ask people if they'd heard any new jokes about Chappaquiddick. You should see how Klein tries to justify it.
The Michael Kelly piece you posted on your own site is something to read. That waitress sandwich tale of him and Dodd made me nauseous. You don't have any idea what it's like to be manhandled by someone you work with or for or someone whose table you've been assigned to wait on. Who can imagine sleeping with these sweat hogs: "There isn't enough voltage in the world to electroshock you back into coherence."
Rush was right (as he often is) about the redemption of liberals being something akin to being justified by intent to redistribute. They are cheap, and they are misanthropic. For Kennedy and for them, mankind in the abstract is to be appreciated and the individual to be despised. As Kelly's chronicle of Kennedy's actions show.
They never speak of real virtue, that would require a much deeper intellectual capacity and tradition than they're capable of and noted for. To speak of real virtue, both public and private, takes a whole lot more smarts and efforts. And the beauty and convenience for these misanthropes is that securing their redemption through redistribution of other's goods and property makes the absence of those ancient, irreplaceable virtues nothing to concern yourself with.
They are hateful, spiteful, envious, duplicitous, miserable, sanctimonious, half-educated, inadequate, vituperative, bitter, megalomaniacal, clinical, cynical and addicted to hyper-rationalism.
They stand on the shoulders of giants who paved the way for progress, ameliorating the problems of station of birth. The frugal conservative allows for creation and expansion, and the open-assed liberal breeds degeneration and eventually a return to serfdom. As those of us who have not created opportunities for others to feed, house and clothe themselves and their families find fewer and fewer places where we can honorably, with head held high, plug in our umbilical chords.
You understood a long time ago, what I'm just coming to realize, when you wrote of not disadvantaging (word?) oneself playing by rules the oppostion (who wants to send you to the morgue) neither accepts or respects.
Robert Rosencrans| 8.28.09 @ 1:01PM
Mary Louise: That's very good.
Dawn| 8.28.09 @ 1:17PM
I'm a Democrat who always revered the Kennedy's. I was only 10 in '69 so it wasn't a story I knew about until years later when I read an accounting of it. Its no conspiracy that top search was Chappaquidick or Mary Jo Koepechne, anyone under 60 might not have much knowledge of the events and lord knows the MSM isn't talking about it. To me as a woman, not just the events of 7/19/69 revealed his true character but so did the decades of reckless living and demeaning of women that came afterwards.
ds80| 8.28.09 @ 1:23PM
Mary Louise: home run! -- Please post here more often.
Listen| 8.28.09 @ 1:45PM
Mike sez .... "If Mary Jo Kopechne could be reached for comment, the wingnuts probably would not like what she would have to say. "
Well, we really would rather she had lived a full life.... she had every right to live and to express herself. Unfortunately her life's potential was cut short by a very small, selfish, spoiled man.
Todd| 8.28.09 @ 2:21PM
A very impressive list of adjectives and great post overall from Mary. Ayn Rand would be proud of that characterization of the liberal mindset, I have no doubt Mary has read Atlas Shrugged very intently.
Pingback| 8.28.09 @ 2:33PM
Ed Driscoll » Quote Of The Day links to this page. Here’s an excerpt:
Josie| 8.28.09 @ 2:38PM
Mike, hate to burst your bubble, but I have the sneaking suspicion that Mary Jo is not longer a liberal democrat. Moron.
gill.Oteen07041776@gmail.com| 8.28.09 @ 2:41PM
Mr. McCain, you wrote “If a teenager skips school, smokes dope, hangs out with hoodlums, accumulates a record of juvenile crime and fails to graduate high school, no well-meaning liberal would ever suggest that this teenager is responsible for his own failures.” You forgot to add that if this adolescent manages to graduate, he is a future president.
On another note, I recall vaguely a story I read years ago. It seems toddy-boy was ‘entertaining’ a young woman on his yacht in full view of his audience on shore. One of them was overheard to remark that he didn’t know the senator was an advocate of off-shore drilling.
Gill O’Teen ✝✡
gill.Oteen07041776@gmail.com
Don’t Tread on Me!!
Angel| 8.28.09 @ 2:50PM
Mary L, I read about that NPR interview, too. (I'm afraid to read the waitress sandwich story.) Klein said that Kennedy frequently asked friends if they had heard any new Chappaquiddick jokes. Kennedy enjoyed hearing new ones and would laugh heartily when he heard them.
I had to read it a few times before I could wrap my brain around Klein's statement.
What kind of a human being could think or behave that way? A sociopath?
SoCon| 8.28.09 @ 2:53PM
LOL! Sweat hogs; haven't heard that one in a long time. Perfectly apt description of Dodd and Kennedy.
Ew.
Famine in America| 8.28.09 @ 3:06PM
Famine in America? Why 99% of the U.S. Is in Danger of Starvation
November 26, 2008 by Juniper Russo Tarascio Juniper Russo Tarascio Published Content: 407 Total Views: 249,948 Fans: 86 View Profile | Follow | Add to Favorites Recommend (9)Single pageFont SizeRead comments (7) Share More topicsFamine | Starvation | Demographic | Cooking from Scratch Nearly everyone recognizes that the U.S. may be in for very hard times in the near future. Some economists are predicting financial collapse as catastrophic as the Great Depression. With a significant number of people now living in cities, far away from their food sources, one may be left to wonder if the degree of famine this time around may result in the starvation of the roughly 240 millionn Americans who are incapable of growing their own food.
The idea isn't as farfetched or alarmist as it may seem at first glance. At the turn of the 20th century, more than fifty percent of the American labor force earned a living through direct involvement in agriculture, but this number decreased to just 2% by the year 2000. Even more frighteningly, only .8% of Americans are involved in the industry full-time.
This transition is a distressing one indeed. While demographic shift from rural to urban lifestyles may seem like a blessing to many who loathe the hard labor associated with rural, agrarian life, it may spell disaster for those who are struggling through life in the Big City, hundreds or even thousands of miles from their food sources.
During the Great Depression, formerly wealthy executives stood in line for hours waiting in ragged clothes for a hand-out of hot soup, while the rural "poor" went about life as usual, barely noticing the Depression. Survivors of the Depression who lived in agrarian regions often joked that they were "too poor to notice the stock market crash", but they were, in fact, better off than the majority of inner-city workers in that they never went hungry. As a result of this, the one-half of Americans with access to their own home-grown foods were exempt from the horrors of the Great Depression.
Patriot| 8.28.09 @ 3:15PM
Well, at least we won't be a fat, fatty, fatso country anymore. Silver lining and all.
Screw you, Daphne Kenward.
Famine Coming to America| 8.28.09 @ 3:16PM
Is Famine Coming to America?
By Carol Forsloff.
Subscribe to author Published Jan 30, 2009 by ■ Carol Forsloff - 14 votes, 3 comments
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Permission: Eric Harrison
Harare backyards are turned into survival gardens thanks to Zimbabwean dispossessed farmer Eric Harrison, here with his worm collection, who teaches hundreds of poor UK pensioners how to survive the present Zimbabwean famine.
Vote up this image!
If you take some preachers and books literally, you will be panicked enough about potential famine to start storing food now. In some pulpits, books, magazines and Internet sites folks are predicting serious food shortages and famine in America.
Who is making this type of pronouncement and is it a possibility? A few in a small town called Natchitoches, Louisiana have made the prediction that the wars and famines may be signaling Christ's coming, but what do others think?
On a Christian website someone by the name of Kay Arthur warns of impending famine in America. God has spoken to her and revealed that because the United States has adultery and other sins, it will be punished by having famine. Because of this, people must now turn to God in order to save themselves, she declares. Her statements came during early 2008.
By November the warnings came louder, on a screaming headline on a website that makes the statement that “Famine is Coming to America” in bold, red letters, after which it is said, “Store Food Soon.”
One dire prediction on the web is that the end of America is coming soon. Sherry Shriner believes that the enemies of God’s people will organize the United States into 10 regions, then take people by train to incinerators. People will then be taken to underground places where they will be incinerated. She goes on to say,
“Many of the coming weather disasters are man-made for the very purpose of causing death and destruction and the implementation of martial law. I think the reason this plan of incineration will eventually be pushed aside and switched to beheadings is because they will need the bodies of the murdered people to eat to survive on. By this time the coming famine will be bad throughout the country and the world...and humans will become food.
After giving vivid details of how that extermination and eating of people takes place, Shriner goes on to declare,
“It won't be the same country that it once was, the Satanists who rule behind the scenes won't be hiding who they are anymore...Obama, George, Hillary, they're all snakes from hell who worship THE SNAKE.”
To many people these writings may appear irrational beliefs, but given the number of disasters, anticipated disasters, economic warnings, weather problems, violence through wars, more and more people are coming forward and making declarations about the end times, including issues about starvation. There are, however, legitimate concerns about seeds and regeneration.
Ron and Cheryl Barber, who were interviewed for this article in Saline, Louisiana, emphasize that it is likely a good idea for people to learn to plant food because it's practical, saves money and could become essential. They, like another source , talk about terminator vs heritage seeds and advise folks to make sure they buy the latter. Terminator seeds are the type that don’t allow plant offspring or germination, where heritage seeds do. Of course, the same website goes on to consider government plots and farm biases towards keeping seed companies in control, but no matter there is some agreement with a conservative food-planter that the type of seed for growing food is important.
So is famine coming to America? Some soothsayers and religious folk may say so, but within the conservative view, there is still concern about the future of food on a global scale. The Catholic Relief Service states that we face a global food crisis. Their website details the areas where food crises are presently happening or anticipated to occur.
We may not know if famine is coming to America, but given the Catholic Relief Service’s concerns, it’s likely many of us might want to learn to farm our own forty.
Famine in America 2010| 8.28.09 @ 3:37PM
Legume varietes (Image at www.cintdis.org)
by MADGE
Erik Scott is a seed dealer and agronomist from South Dakota in the US. In this interview, he states that a famine in the US is quite likely for two reasons:
Very narrow seed genetics
Dependence on imported nitrogen fertilizer
Erik explains that farmers in his area used to grow a wide variety of crops, saved and developed their own seed varieties. Now the main crops are corn and soy, both of these are genetically modified. These crops are grown for several reasons:
They attract subsidies
They can be insured against failure
They require less labour than other crops
They are GM. The takeover of the seed industry has removed competition and made it hard to find non-GM seed
Farmers are now trapped into growing GM seeds which means they can’t save or develop their own
Limited genetics in seed – like the Irish potato famine.
A farmer may buy hybrid seeds from 5 different companies but the seeds can all be from the same genetic family. This is setting the US up for a similar disaster to the Irish potato famine of the 1840’s. The Irish grew the “lumper” variety of potato. They were all clones of each other. So when a fungal disease hit, the lumper potato harvest failed. The Andes, where potatoes originated, have 5000 varieties of potatoes. When disease or adverse weather conditions occur there, some potatoes varieties always survive. Famine is avoided by having diversity.
Nitrogen fertilizer
Crop rotation and animal manures were the traditional way to enrich the soil with nitrogen. Then the Haber Bosch process allowed inorganic nitrogen fertilizer to be produced. It is very energy intensive to manufacture but it allows the continuous growing of corn and soy on the same fields year after year. The US imports this nitrogen fertilizer and Erik Scott sees this dependence as equivalent to the US’s dependence on imported oil.
Does it matter?
Use of nitrogen fertilizer depletes the soil of the organic matter that stores water and gives it life . Dirt – the movie shows that we depend on this tiny layer of soil to purify and heal the systems that support us. In the last 100 years, one third of our topsoil has been lost and 25% of greenhouse gas emissions are produced from our war on the soil. The fertilizers, pesticides and chemicals industrial farming uses kill soil life and release stored carbon from the soil, worsening climate change and reducing soil fertility.
Plants need healthy soil to grow. They use water, sunlight and carbon dioxide to make carbohydrates. They use their roots to trade the carbohydrates they’ve made for the nutrients they need from the soil. The soil is like a giant playground at lunch time – endless and intricate food swaps are going on all the time. If the soil is dead, plants can’t grow and we can’t eat.
Blight in the US
The importance of the whole agricultural system is playing out in an interesting way in the US this year. The same strain of fungus that caused the Irish potato famine is attacking tomato plants in North-eastern USA. It is being caused by:
Cool, wet weather
Home gardeners. There is a big increase in gardening and tomato seedlings for the big stores like Walmart were grown in vast industrial breeding operations where the fungus spread. Once planted in the home garden it can spread to neighbouring gardens and farms
What can be done?
Buy plants from local nurseries
Grow from seed
Understand we’re all part of the whole and what we grow affects others
Realise the importance of a variety of tomatoes, both heirloom and new varieties
Grow lots of different crops
One farmer “pulled out his late blight-infected tomato plants and replaced them with beans and an extra crop of Brussels sprouts for the fall. He won’t make the same profit as he would have from the tomato harvest, but he wasn’t complaining, either.
“Sometimes giving in to nature can be the biggest victory of all.”
Ninja farmers to the rescue?
So maybe crop failure can be avoided by diverse crops and intelligent, responsible farming. Luckily it appears that in the US there is a new breed of young “ninja” farmers. They are “fluid, flexible, an activist and an entrepreneur…. We’re working against the odds. The educational system, the economic system, the subsidies, the tax structure for landowners,” none of them are focused on helping tiny organic farmers.
Interestingly, some of these new farmers are from Ivy League schools. “Farming actually is a good fit for many graduates, Philpott says. “There’s very little to do for educated college graduates besides sit in a cubical and punch (a) computer all day,” he says.
“Small-scale farming is management-intensive. It’s an incredibly intellectual exercise, but you’re also getting your hands in the dirt — that’s why it’s so attractive. There’s a hunger for that.”
Liberal Reader| 8.28.09 @ 3:44PM
Again, McCain --
Your writing about Kennedy in this way before he's even buried is sordid, nasty business -- in keeping with the dominant ethos at the American Spectator.
You're a phony.
The only response to Kennedy's death I read here that had any decency at all was Jeffrey Lord's.
Yours was by far the most sleazy.
Famine drew & Famine Flee| 8.28.09 @ 3:47PM
19th century(1) 5-shelf 2(1) American History(1) diaspora(2) emigration(2) England(1) Europe(1) Europe PB - $16.00(1) European History(1) famine(4) history(13) immigration(4) Ireland(11) Irish(1) Irish Emigration(1) Irish famine(2) Irish History(5) Irish History Great Hunger(1) Irish-American(1) Irish-Americans(1) maritime(1) migration(1) nautical(1) non-fiction(5) potato famine(1) sailing(1) sea(1) ships(1) United States(1) US History(1) ▼Recommendations
LibraryThing recommendations
The Great Hunger: Ireland: 1845-1849 by Cecil Woodham-Smith
Black '47 and Beyond: The Great Irish Famine in History, Economy, and Memory (Princeton Economic History of the Western by Cormac Ó Gráda
The Irish in Philadelphia: Ten Generations of Urban Experience by Dennis Clark
The Great Shame: And the Triumph of the Irish in the English-Speaking World by Thomas Keneally
Robert Whyte's 1847 Famine Ship Diary: The Journey of an Irish Coffin Ship by Robert Whyte
Paddy's Lament, Ireland 1846-1847: Prelude to Hatred by Thomas Gallagher
This Great Calamity: The Irish Famine 1845-52 by Christine Kinealy
Ireland and Anglo-American relations, 1899-1921 by Alan J. Ward
The Fenian movement by Mabel Gregory Walker
A south Roscommon emigrant: emigration and return, 1890-1920 by Diane Dunnigan
see more recommendations for this work
Todd| 8.28.09 @ 4:22PM
How dare we speak the truth about fat Ted right LR? Did you see what your fellow liberal FL has to say LR? The fat bastard never saw fit to apologize to her family for causing her death and even apparently enjoyed to joke about the matter according to one of his friends. http://hotair.com/archives/200.....ck-itself/
Put that in your pipe and smoke it jerk.
cl| 8.28.09 @ 4:25PM
to FG: ted won't see mary jo, they are in different
areas.
if teddy was so concerned about providing heath care to those who cannot afford it, will he leave some of his millions in his will to set up a fund to pay for heath insurance? or will his money be protected in the trust funds?
Todd| 8.28.09 @ 4:40PM
Here is an excellent article from GQ (hardly a conservative bastion) from 1990 showing exactly what a reprobate the fat bastard was. http://men.style.com/gq/featur.....ntent_5585
Alan Brooks| 8.28.09 @ 5:00PM
Very few hate Ted, they don't stay up at night cursing him. But most of us don't love him-- he violated the social contract. Better the wealthy run our lives than the counterculturalists-- but after the left co-opted America, Ted himself became a victim, of his own hubris.
And he had PULL.
Alan Brooks| 8.28.09 @ 5:02PM
now there is scientific progress but no morality.
Ted definitely was a part of how America reached its Romanesque state.
FamineHunger&StarvationIn; USA| 8.28.09 @ 5:22PM
New Food Crisis Looms! Famine, Hunger, and Starvation is Coming to America! Prepare Now!!!!
Veronica - Rodents and flying creatures eating the crops. A plague. The boats will not anchor to the land. A just punishment upon man. Famine in America the beautiful. No one shall have the price of the wheat. Man shall become like animals, killing their neighbors. It will be like dog eating dog. – July 15, 1977
"Storms shall ravage the shores; crops will rot in the ground--famine.” – Our Lady, July 25, 1978
Famine, starvation, your crops will rot. The heat will burn, the cattle will starve. And why? Because you refuse to turn back, complacent in your arrogance.” – Our Lady, May 30, 1981
"How many shall be prepared? Do you have your candles? Do you have your water, your canned food, and your blankets? It will become an extremely cold day with the start of the tribulation, and you will welcome having these on hand, My children." - Jesus, November 1, 1985
New food crisis looms. This means lower output from the United States, the world's top food producer, at a time when world stocks are already low, and farmers are blaming the difficulty in getting credit and the high costs of key inputs like fertilizer.
Mother Nature is making things worse, with the worst drought in almost 70 years hitting northern China and devastating the winter wheat crop. More than 200 million acres in China's top six grain-producing provinces have been hit, and yields are down by as much as 40 percent.
The problem is not just hitting grains. With world soybean stocks 9 percent lower than they were this time last year, a further drought in Latin America is a new concern. Yields in southern Brazil, Paraguay and Argentina are also running at 40 percent of last year's levels. All this is triggering concern in the markets, where analysts are warning that price hikes are looming, and the speculators coming into the market could drive prices even higher.
"It's my opinion that producers feeding livestock need to protect against a possible sharp rise in corn prices," said Dennis Smith, a food-price specialist at Archer Financial Services. "This trade idea would also apply to a speculator looking to profit from a sharp move upward in the corn prices as well."
Smith also factors in the prospect of biofuels distorting the markets again, as they did last year when high oil prices triggered a demand for biofuels like ethanol, which sent crop prices higher. "What happens if crude oil prices continue to move higher and ethanol margins expand?" Smith asked.
BR| 8.28.09 @ 5:42PM
What bad taste! Don't you people know that it's not polite to talk about lecherous drunken silver-spoon demagogues for socialism before they're even buried?
Mary Louise| 8.28.09 @ 6:04PM
Thanks for the kind words, Robert, ds80 and Todd.
Robert,
You sent me to Mises. I knew who he was but reading your posts piqued my interest. I printed out and read (and keep) his tract on Socialism. Perfectly logical. Perfect common sense, and historically astute.
I'm a peasant kid and happy for it. My maternal side of the familly teaches that it's a mark of an inferior intellect to hate on the rich. My grandfather was a powder-monkey in Italy, in the 30s and during periods of construction. He had some books; his favorite novel was Dumas' Count of Montecristo. Every time they amassed a tidy sum of money an illness would come along and take most of it, and they would begin again.
He died of stomach cancer on Good Friday. My mother said that he told them, body area by body area, that his soul had receded to here and here and here. His dying words were: Adesso spiro (now I give up the Ghost). Gesù, Giuseppe e Maria ti dono cuore e l'anima mia. His was a tremendous life lived.
I've read Hayek. His Why I am Not a Conservative is a good and necessary read for we who call ourselves conservatives. It's important to remain a body in motion. And I think it's possible, not easy, but possible, to hold on to ancient and irreplacable virtue while giving free reign to the march of time.
ds80,
I've read some of your posts defending the faith (I'm an agnostic and lapsed RC) and I really appreciate them. Just because I'm confused doesn't mean I don't have affection toward the Church that formed me. It built Western Civilization, and these mediocre men that we're surrounded by think they can replace the Total Society of the Church with their half-educated, polymath free, cabal.
I hope the American people realize what an act of self-doubt and self-loathing electing PBO was, so that we can change course sooner rather than later, and continue as the United States of America, geniune article.
Todd,
I tried to read Atlas, but put it down because I kept thinking I already know this. But the book is huge and I'm thinking I should not have written it off so easily. Autumn is closing in; it's a perfect time to pick it up again.
Angel,
Don't read the account if you don't want to. You have daughters, and I'm thinking that a Mom's imagination can sometimes get the better of her. Suffice it to say that Michael Kelly's piece reveals a privileged, brutish and dangerous (to women) man.
Mary Louise| 8.28.09 @ 6:08PM
Todd, sorry for the lack of bold with your name. Just an html snafoo of mine, nothing else.
Marc Jeric| 8.28.09 @ 6:16PM
Massachusetts - what a state, so sophisticated, smart, educated! And they keep sending us those bottomfeeders, scum, lying cretins like Kennedy, Kerry, Frank - not to mention that far-left racist governor. Well, that murder was necessary to preserve Kennedy's political viability - don't you see? Shades of that disbarred felon Clinton with his draft-dodging maneuvres!
Famine comes to America| 8.28.09 @ 6:43PM
The End of America
By Sherry Shriner
Hundreds of thousands without electric in the east, barraging snowstorms in the west, and people often ask me where the safest place to live is.
I often wondered that myself but I've seen the picture of the end for America and I'm real hesitant to say or write a thing about it, but I feel led to, so those with ears can see what's ahead and the naysayers can stick their heads back in the sand...I don't care what they do.
As I've said there's much destruction ahead. Natural disasters, man-made disasters, wars, famine, plagues, diseases...the destruction of America so the NWO can rise. It is the last part of their plan and they've already been working on it for years to destroy America. The secret societies who run our government work in cohoots with Lucifer and his plan of a New World Order. President Bush and former president Clinton and the last umpteen presidents have also been aligned with this end goal of destroying America so the NWO could rise. Acting as patriotic Americans these scoundral and scandalous politicians that have dominated Washington DC the past 30 years have all been working on a master blueprint together on building and establishing the NWO. It shouldn't surprise you that the destruction of America itself is the last part of their plan. And they themselves may be in for a big surprise because Yah is going to see to it that America is indeed destroyed. Perhaps not the utter and complete destruction the Satanists had in mind, but that's exactly what's going to happen.
The Satanists who run our government and federal agencies and the unwitting pawns who carry out their plans are all part of the plan to bring America under control of Lucifer himself. The plan is to divide America up into 10 regions, and another calls for the total alignment of all of North America together as one region. Eventually the strife and civil war this causes amongst the patriotic Americans and the coming weather disasters will lead to martial law and the imprisonment and death of millions of Americans and Christians. They will be gathered up and ultimately taken to their final destination of death by incineration and beheadings. The plan for now is that these people will be incinerated and so our government has built underground incineration facilities to haul people to them via trains they have built with shackles in them as human carriers to the incinerators. Many of the coming weather disasters are man-made for the very purpose of causing death and destruction and the implementation of martial law. I think the reason this plan of incineration will eventually be pushed aside and switched to beheadings is because they will need the bodies of the murdered people to eat to survive on. By this time the coming famine will be bad throughout the country and the world...and humans will become food.
This gross abomination of eating the flesh of humans and the slaughter of Yehovah's people will bring the final and complete wrath of Yehovah onto America.
Tens of millions of Americans will be killed and die in the coming destructions and the war to exterminate the Saints of Yehovah.
It won't be the same country that it once was, the Satanists who rule behind the scenes won't be hiding who they are anymore...Obama, George, Hillary, they're all snakes from hell who worship THE SNAKE.
Once the martial law starts here it will never stop, the population extermination program will begin on a broader and more bold scale. They had some practice with New Orleans because there's still thousands of adults missing who were taken off on buses....never to be heard from again and the media blackout on what really goes on continues. And there's not much of a blimp in the media about it if any.
The safest states to be in before the total and complete destruction of America are South Dakota, Nebraska, Kansas (center to eastern parts of the states). And western parts of Iowa, Missouri, Arkansas and Oklahoma.
I had a vision and I saw 90% of America being drowned by water, coming in all directions, everywhere. There was only a strip of land left and I believe it's the states I've listed. I'm not 100% sure but that's the closest I can remember from looking at a map of the USA to what I saw.
Everything else is gone. Canada is gone although parts of Alaska are left. Mexico is gone. Paraquay seems to become a safe haven for people who survive the coming devestation. In my dream/vision Paraquay and Brazil were ok.
This dream/vision affected me for days. I didn't even want to write about it but feel compelled to do so. Perhaps because so many have asked me where are the safest places to go to or where should they head to and perhaps that's why Yah showed me what is eventually coming to America. All I know is that it was the very end of "America" and it takes everyone by complete surprise. No one expects it or sees it coming. The Great Lakes dump their water on surrounding states, the Pacific, the Atlantic, almost every state is destroyed but 7.
It just makes me ache.
There will be no warning. The water will come upon people unexpectedly and as they see these huge Tsunami waves coming towards them there will be nothing they can do. These waves will crush everything in their path. And it won't just come from the east but the west and the north. To me it seems like it happens all at once and literally gives meaning to a literal "America being destroyed in one hour." America drowns.
I was shown the end of America. There is still much to happen here as far as misery, suffering, and death before it comes.
ConservativeAnchor| 8.28.09 @ 6:48PM
The Kennedy Kopechne Memorial Fund. All funds will be used to build a bridge.
Alan Brooks| 8.28.09 @ 7:09PM
worst of all is Daphne and her "starvation is coming to a pantry near you."
I wish she'd been drowned instead of Mary Jo.
where does Daffy live? Quebec?
France? Well, with all their farms and chefs the French will never go hungry. They'll just need us to set up another SHAEF when they're invaded next time..
Scottygoodwrench| 8.28.09 @ 7:12PM
Let's hope that the Teddy rallying cry works as well as the Wellstone one did. Mondale's double digit lead in that senate race turned into a loss when (even) the people of Minnesota were outraged by turning Wellstone's memorial event into a political rally (complete with the Clintons).
Alan Brooks| 8.28.09 @ 7:13PM
Daphne's repost was by "Sherry Shriner"
sounds like a real name, right?
maybe she runs a midwestern real estate consultation.
"buy land out here to escape the Great Flood!"
Alan Brooks| 8.28.09 @ 7:19PM
what was I thinking?! the counterculturalists ARE as wealthy as anyone!
All that funding from Hollywood and the Miley, I mean, Music, INDUSTRY. people with no taste anymore who are exponentially more commercial than they were '64 - '65.
Daisy| 8.28.09 @ 7:53PM
You're right, Alan--that's good old dependable psychopathic Daphne K. What makes her think she's immune to America's flood and famine?
Certifiable, as always.
Josie| 8.28.09 @ 8:04PM
Sordid, nasty, sleazy and phony: All words that described Teddy. Couldn't have said it better ourselves, LR/J.
Liberal Reader| 8.28.09 @ 8:29PM
McCain has no honor.
You wait for a man to be buried, at least.
What a squalid stew: this website it s a sewer.
Pingback| 8.28.09 @ 9:05PM
Latest » The Ted Kennedy Memorial Stand-Up Routine Will Be Continued . . . links to this page. Here’s an excerpt:
cheap jordan shoes| 8.28.09 @ 9:06PM
Great piece. You're one of the lucky few who gets to put on a resume' that you were a graduate of the University of Robert Novak. If you're a reporter it doesn't get any better than that.
Leo| 8.29.09 @ 12:25AM
Liberals always know a fetid, stinking sewer when they see one. Sewers provide the primordial ooze from which liberals spring: Good liberals like fetid, stinking Teddy. You like, Jeremiah?
Dave Lincoln| 8.29.09 @ 12:25AM
" McCain has no honor.
You wait for a man to be buried, at least."
WTF, LR? R.S. McCain didn't even say anything bad about Kennedy (least in this article). He leaves so much more to be said, but you could read the Daniel Flynn article to get the picture.
I don't think you have to wait for the guy to be buried; I heard there was some type of 24-hour waiting period. It's over, so "glad he's dead, mainly because he can do no more harm to our country."
Now, bury the asshole, so we can get back to those American Idol episodes that got pre-empted. ;-)
Dave Lincoln| 8.29.09 @ 12:26AM
oops
WAS: "asshole"
S/B: "Masshole"
Liberal Reader| 8.29.09 @ 12:32AM
Dave Lincoln --
I'm sorry. Did you say something?
LJC| 8.29.09 @ 1:03AM
the Five Greatest Senators(Clay, Calhoun, Webster, LaFollete, and Taft) have their pictures on the wall in the Senate area. You can argue whether they were the Greatest, but what will they say to one another in the beyond when TK's picture is put up beside them? I assume that will eventually happen.
chen| 8.29.09 @ 1:33AM
the Five Greatest Senators(Clay, Calhoun, Webster, LaFollete, and Taft) have their pictures on the wall in the Senate area. You can argue whether they were the Greatest, but what will they say to one another in the beyond when TK's picture is put up beside them? I assume that will eventually happen. http://www.theaf1shoes.com/ nike af1 shoes
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JAMES STONE,| 8.29.09 @ 1:54AM
No, the people of Afghanistan will decide in the end. They know that like the British and the Russians before them, eventually the Americans will leave defeated by the will and pride of the people, and terrain of the country. This is a Muslim country, and it's for them to decide whether they want fundamentalist Islamic laws and means of enforcement, or whether they want a more liberal society. It's certainly not for western Christian governments to impose their ideas of society by force,
JAMES STONE,| 8.29.09 @ 1:55AM
No, the people of Afghanistan will decide in the end. They know that like the British and the Russians before them, eventually the Americans will leave defeated by the will and pride of the people, and terrain of the country. This is a Muslim country, and it's for them to decide whether they want fundamentalist Islamic laws and means of enforcement, or whether they want a more liberal society. It's certainly not for western Christian governments to impose their ideas of society by force,
Pingback| 8.29.09 @ 2:04AM
The Greenroom » Forum Archive » Ted Kennedy Memorial Stand-Up Routine: One Man’s Well links to this page. Here’s an excerpt:
Dave Lincoln| 8.29.09 @ 2:49AM
L.R., yep, I'll repeat:
" McCain has no honor.
You wait for a man to be buried, at least."
WTF, LR? R.S. McCain didn't even say anything bad about Kennedy (least in this article). He leaves so much more to be said, but you could read the Daniel Flynn article to get the picture.
I don't think you have to wait for the guy to be buried; I heard there was some type of 24-hour waiting period. It's over, so "glad he's dead, mainly because he can do no more harm to our country."
Now, bury the Masshole, so we can get back to those American Idol episodes that got pre-empted. ;-)
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Mike| 8.28.09 @ 9:57AM
"Had she lived, she would have been vilified [here]..."
Nah. Chances are that Mary Jo would have outgrown her liberal delusions and become conservative, after having known Kennedy and his ilk for more years.
Back when Teddy was leaving her to die, I was into radical feminism -- but a few years later, it finally dawned on me that Gloria Steinem and her harpy friends were demanding that mothers have the legal right to kill their helpless, innocent babies. That made me take a fresh look at radical feminism, the Democrat party, and liberalism, all of which advocate killing babies.
So there's a good chance that Mary Jo also would have come to her senses. A lot of us did, back then, and a lot more are today.
Dave Lincoln| 8.29.09 @ 9:15AM
Mr. Shoes of 5:07 and 5:08 AM: Thanks very much for the great deals - appreciate it.... now, if you could do something about these pesky liberals so we could have our country back, we'd be truly obliged.
Oh, BTW, why is Nikee spelled wrong all over my shoes?
KYMouse, I thought of that too. The girl was young and apparently a little foolish. Most of us grow out of that.
Coastie CPO| 8.29.09 @ 10:04AM
Is there no one who remembers Ted's letter to Yuri Andropov the former KGB chairman and at the time the General Secretary of the Soviet Union? Ted Kennedy deliberately attempted to undermine negotiations on theater and strategic nuclear weapons. He cared nothing for the fate of eastern europe or our security.
JoshinHB| 8.29.09 @ 11:33AM
Maybe the socialists believe in a vast right wing conspiracy because the have a puppet master named Soros
D. Mark| 8.29.09 @ 4:50PM
From Mary Louise's stellar post:
"They never speak of real virtue, that would require a much deeper intellectual capacity and tradition than they're capable of and noted for."
Not to mention, humility. Harkening back to watching Mr. Chappaquiddik sit in "judgement" of Robert Bork, the santimonious accusations made by him make me ill to this day. Hopefully, some of the thoughtful youth among us will use this as an object lesson in assessing true virtue as opposed to "circling the wagons" for one of "your own". If you have ever read the book "Sellout" by Democrat David Schippers, here is another example of an utter dismissal of honor or decency, in favor of political expediency.
Mary Louise| 8.29.09 @ 6:17PM
Not only that, D. Mark. He said to Bork: "nothing personal," as he so dishonestly made him the source of so many evils. It was amoral. There was never an apology.
All the best.
Cris Worth| 8.29.09 @ 10:09PM
Facts are persistent little devils. Fact One: Ted drove a 1967 Oldsmobile off a bridge on Chappaquiddick Island on the night of July 18. 1969. Fact Two: Ted drove that night with an expired driver's license. Fact Three: It took Ted 10 hours to report the incident meanwhile trying to establish a phony alibi. Fact Four: Mary Jo did not drown she found an air pocket in the back seat and then suffocated in a vacuum because Ted did not summon immediate help. Fact Five: Local and state authorities did not enforce laws in relation to vehicular mishaps resulting in death. No DMV check, no check for prior auto mishaps, no blood alcohol test and no autopsy on the dead girl. In fact when questioned Ted could not produce his driver's license or registration. History was made at Chappaquiddick...no doubt Mary Jo's death kept Ted out of the White House but it's sadly incomplete. The people of Massuchusetts had a chance to correct a mistake but let Ted go on a 40 year rampage doing irreparable harm to all Americans including the unborn and that is the great tragedy of Chappaquiddick.
Alan Brooks| 8.29.09 @ 10:55PM
If Ted's admirers would just leave it at: ''Ted was talented'', then okay. His talent was political-- which is-- was-- not a positive, but he did possess negative talent.
Ted's fans make it sound almost as if he were some sort of saint.
Alan Brooks| 8.29.09 @ 10:58PM
And what platitudes!
Niece Caroline says Ted is a part of history.
Well of COURSE! He has no future, does he? except as a ghost.
Pingback| 8.29.09 @ 11:01PM
Removing Mary Jo Kopechne « The Western Experience links to this page. Here’s an excerpt:
spongey| 8.30.09 @ 12:59AM
40 years goes by and some things are still very clear in our minds. For Teddy to put himself in this position and risk his career and dignity of the family, you might think there was a motive- and there very possibly was- Mary Jo was pregnant. Let it be known - everywhere Teddy went there was always a full closet of skeletons lookin at him.
jmcaul| 8.30.09 @ 2:22AM
The inaccuracies and outright lies of this article are outrageous! The author claims that "liberals fumed over the "right-wing smear campaign" which reminded America that Teddy's most memorable contribution to that tradition was to get drunk and drive an Oldsmobile off a bridge. "
CORRECTION: He got drunk and drove an Oldsmobile off a bridge AND LEFT A WOMAN TRAPPED IN THE CAR TO DIE WHILE HE WENT AND SLEPT IT OFF.
How the author of this column can look themselves in the mirror after writing such an inaccurate statement is beyond me.
Other than that, GREAT ARTICLE!!!
Cris Worth| 8.30.09 @ 9:50AM
Devilish coincidences: Ted, the passenger, survived a 1964 airplane crash but the pilot died. Five years later Ted now the auto pilot survived a car crash but this time the passenger died. Mary Jo Kopechne's roommate Nancy Carole Tyler, Bobby Baker's secretary, died in a 1965 plane crash. Coincidences? Ted outlived Mary Jo by 40 years and Baker is still alive. The devil do take care of its own.
Richard Baker| 8.30.09 @ 10:46AM
He was a drunk, a murderer, and contemptuous of women (ask the waitress at La Brasserie) and the country. For what is he to be lauded?
Good Bye Trolls| 8.30.09 @ 11:22AM
Hey LR and tother trolls---since you think this site is a "sewer" and you hated the article---- leave.
Now.
Don't come back.
Buh-Bye-
Dagny Taggart| 8.30.09 @ 12:44PM
Michael L. Hauschild| 8.28.09 @ 9:02AM
Now we need an enterprising Photoshop artisan to redo the “movie marquee” with Obama, Teddy, and Pelosi and title it “Weekend at Hyanisport.”
Thank you for the goo idea Michael
http://tinypic.com/m/5fetxw/1
Dagny Taggart| 8.30.09 @ 12:46PM
"good" not goo
d.smith| 8.30.09 @ 5:29PM
Didn't we have some hint of Teddy "No Pants " 's character before Chappaquiddick?
Cheating on an exam at Harvard - having someone take one for him, I believe was the story.... Once driving through town and speeding, Being chased by a cop - turns down side street, parks and huddles down in floor boards of car in hope he has "lost" cop. Cop a little smarter than Teddy. Pulls up at "unoccupied" car, rousts our hero up and gives him a ticket. This kind of avoidance of a ticket requires a cowardly, near criminal mind.
The "No Pants" reference. That is what he was called by a local radio host, Jim Eason. It referred to Teddy's state of dishabille described at his nephew's rape trial by the rapee, herself, who said Teddy was wandering about the Palm Beach house in his shirt and no pants.
Teddy was cause of Mary Jo's death of likely the reason for Joan Kennedy's alcoholism.
Chris Wallace, Fox News, lamented "Another fallen Kennedy..." Doesn't fallen usually refer to being killed in battle? The first two were shot and the only "fallen" Ted was, was maybe fallin' down drunk at some night club while carousing with Chris Dodd. The brain can only take so much alcohol.
Alan Brooks| 8.30.09 @ 7:38PM
"My uncle Ted is a part of history"
really?? you mean he wont be in the Senate anymore?
Dave Lincoln| 8.30.09 @ 8:47PM
Here is a very fair article by a libertarian columnist who writes for the Las Vegas Review Journal newspaper on Ted Kennedy:
http://www.lvrj.com/opinion/56171917.html
Vin Suprynowicz tells it like it is. great reading.
Mary Louise| 8.30.09 @ 9:24PM
I like Vin Suprynowicz too, so thanks for the link. This from his piece is just perfect:
"The welfare classes will do all right -- for a while. But what favor have the condescending handouts of the Ted Kennedys of Washington done them, by locking them into multiple generations of fatherless, spiritless, smoldering angry dependence, while gradually sapping and enervating the larger, entrepreneurial, once-vibrant free market economy that could have offered them real opportunity?"
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That is what he was called by a local radio host, Jim Eason. It referred to Teddy's state of dishabille described at his nephew's rape trial by the rapee, herself, who said Teddy was wandering about the Palm Beach house in his shirt and no pants.
Yellowstone| 8.31.09 @ 12:38AM
Wouldn't it be a trip to learn that the fat bastard wasn't dead when they buried him?
Dave Lincoln| 8.31.09 @ 2:58AM
"Wouldn't it be a trip to learn that the fat bastard wasn't dead when they buried him?"
So long as he can't cast any votes, I'm good.
Nobama| 8.31.09 @ 3:36AM
That's gross, Dave.
I'm sick of thinking about Teddy; what a disgusting pig of a man. Good bye and good riddance.
Dave Lincoln| 8.31.09 @ 4:55AM
Well, Nobama, maybe I phrased it wrong. As long as he's not casting any votes, I don't care what happens to the man. If he had retired and not died, that would have been fine with me too (well, that's under the big, big assumption that he could shut his mouth - probably not possible).
Yeah, true, enough about him.
Ohio| 8.31.09 @ 9:04AM
lqqy, for the record, an anullment does NOT "make the children bastards." it never has.
RUFUS LEVIN| 8.31.09 @ 10:48AM
With ALL the leftist praise for Kennedy for his 47 years of dedication to the public, in the light of mere value received for value given, I wonder if anyone has a handle on what the US Taxpayers Paid Kennedy for his 47 years of service in his Congressional Budget, staff and personal travel and expenses, his salary and perks, his total bill to the taxpayer.....vs, what dollar benefit the USA received directly from things that Kennedy himself actually accomplished....not including merely supporting other people's bills and legislation....net net....what did we get for his cost, assuming we are not from Massachusetts and got nothing from any pork obtained?
Watchdog| 8.31.09 @ 7:39PM
I know the first thought I had when I heard the news. That Mary Jo Kopechne would think it was 40 years overdue. The second was shame on you Massachusetts for electing him to office all of these years rather than sending him to prison where he belonged. I vote they succeed from the union in disgrace. taking the almost as equally despicable Barney Frank with them.
Richard Baker| 8.31.09 @ 9:10PM
Hauschild:
Did you get another P-38?
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Big Hollywood » Blog Archive » Mary Jo Takes One For The Team links to this page. Here’s an excerpt:
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Greg Zotta| 9.11.09 @ 2:50AM
Ted Kennedy, Sainthood?
Ted Kennedy was the Patriarch of the Democrat Party. Some Democrats called him the “Lion” of the Senate; unfortunately some of us were his prey. He was the champion of nationalized/socialized medicine. There were tributes to Ted Kennedy, detailing his life’s accomplishments. After all, his name was attached to several hundred pieces of legislation, but what did you expect from a big government socialist.
Just because there are laws on the books does not mean these elitists have to follow them. Look at the tax problems Tim Geithner, Tom Daschle, and Charlie Rangel had, to name a few. If the law affects them they can change it. Like the one Ted got passed in 2004 where the state of Massachusetts needs to have a special election to replace a US senator. Mitt Romney was a Republican Governor at the time, and Democrat Senator John Kerry was running for President. Now, there is a Democrat Governor and Ted wanted to have the law changed where the Democrat Governor could appoint his replacement.
Speaking of accomplishments, I wonder what Mary Jo Kopechne would have accomplished in her life if Ted had not left her in his car to die at Chappaquiddick. She may have found the cure for cancer, but we will never know because this selfish Senator from Massachusetts was so concerned about himself and his career that he left her in the car to die of asphyxiation.
If Ted Kennedy would have reported the accident immediately she may have lived. However, he never reported the incident and in fact the authorities found him the next day on the phone when they were organizing a search party for him.
Not to worry though, he was a member of the “Royal” Kennedy family and it did not hurt his career. He received a citation for leaving the scene of an accident and paid a fine, which was more in line with a parking ticket than vehicular manslaughter and that was the end of it.
Bill Maher states there are a lot of stupid people in America. For once, I have to agree with him, and I would put Maher at the top of the list because I believe he voted for Obama. Then there are the people in Massachusetts who elected and reelected a socialist, elitist, self-centered Senator named Ted Kennedy.
There was reference made about a letter Ted gave to President Obama to give to the Pope and the media was fawning all over it. In it he praises Obama, and why not, he endorsed and supported this radical “community organizer” who wants to transform (change) America. He also wrote he was dying and pats himself on the back for all of his accomplishments.
In the letter he states Obama is a man of deep faith like himself. Let’s see, Obama is for partial birth abortions, infanticide, and attended Rev. Wright’s radical church for twenty years. Oh, has he found a church in Washington D.C. yet?
Also, Obama’s advisor and friend William Ayers, an unrepentant terrorist, praised Sirhan Sirhan (Robert Kennedy’s assassin), in his book.
Ted asks for the Pope’s prayers as his health declines and states that he has been an imperfect human being. He then goes on to state that he has been the champion for the rights of the poor and opened doors of economic opportunity. He’s worked to welcome the immigrant, fight discrimination and expand access to health care and education. He opposed the death penalty and fought to end war. Though he is dying, he is committed to achieving his political cause of his life, which is health care for everyone in the county.
He was a proponent of the poor and is for open borders because he was a big government, socialist and wanted to keep people dependent on the government for votes. What’s more everyone already has access to health care in this country.
What the democrats are proposing is a takeover of the healthcare system in this country to control the populace. The government will have access to your tax returns, medical information, and your bank account. They will control your lives by telling you what you can do, and what you can eat, because it will be tied to healthcare. They will use the IRS to intimidate you into compliance.
The press made reference to the letter from Ted to the Pope, but did not mention another letter that Ted sent to the Soviet Union. In 1983 Senator Ted Kennedy sent a letter to the Comrade Y.V. Andropov, of the Soviet Union undermining what President Ronald Reagan was doing to protect the United States and its allies in Europe from the Soviet Union. I wonder why the press is reluctant to make reference to that letter from selfish Senator Ted. Maybe it’s because they are looking for “Sainthood” for him.
Hopefully, the proposed Government takeover of the healthcare system will die with him. Unfortunately, I believe now there will be a big push by the Democrats to get the legislation passed and put Ted Kennedy’s name on it.
Greg Zotta
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