As of late, I really can't get enough of ragging on the Kennedy family. I don't normally think about them, I swear my blood pressure is relatively low, but I keep seeing stories pop up about them and the glossy picture writers paint has never ceased to irritate me. (Probably because I was born to an Irish Catholic family that didn't bother with mob connections to make it in America...) Today was no different, as it is the fiftieth anniversary of JFK swearing in. "[When] President John F. Kennedy took the oath of office [he] called for a fresh start with a reminder that "civility is not a sign of weakness" and [said] his famous request to "ask what you can do for your country.""
Personally, I find the "ask what you can do" line a bit dated. In the age of Obamacare, internet censorship, large public unions (thanks in part to you, JFK!), and sky-high taxes, I think it is more relevant to ask what my country is doing to me. I will gladly celebrate a president who asks that!
But it goes on... "On Thursday, Caroline Kennedy will gather members of her father's administration, civil rights activists, astronaut Buzz Aldrin and others to celebrate the 35th president's legacy. She and Jimmy Fallon also plan to talk about a new public service campaign aimed at youth." I give Caroline credit, she's had a busy week between lobbying for the History Channel to nix a miniseries and trying to arrange this thing. Maybe she's preparing to run for office --- again.
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"internet censorship"? What?
ReplyDeleteMaybe you mean the government's war on WikiLeaks?
Ted Kennedy Jr. now thinking about running for Joe Lieberman's seat. Might as well have a Kennedy represent all of New England, no matter where they live.There sure are enough of them.
ReplyDeleteJust got into my car and heard Rush reading from this blog!
ReplyDeleteWell, if by "run for office" you mean "wait for the party bigwigs to ask her to allow them to put her name on the ballot, but only if she doesn't have to actually do any work", then I suppose she runs for office quite regularly.
ReplyDeleteRecalling JFK ought to be an occasion for conservatives to point out how radically far to the left the Dem Party has moved since the 1960s. JFK was a tough cold warrior who built up our defenses and checked the Soviets in Cuba and Berlin. Faced with recession, he responded by calling for the biggest slashing of taxes in US history. He was determined to protect and extend American leadership in the world by strengthening the alliance system, ensuring our dominance in space, and building up our economy. All this at a time when the Republican Party was not in any current sense of the word a conservative party. Sure, in some ways" JFK was an FDR-Truman liberal, but really, was that such a bad thing when it meant mainly civil rights bills and the Peace Corps?
ReplyDeleteI would however, much rather have JFK running the show than the empty suit running it now.
ReplyDeleteDon't forget, JEB, that JFK got us firmly embroiled in Viet Nam, leaving poor LBJ to try to pull out a victory with that idiot Robert MaNamara at the helm. MacNamara did as well with my war as he did with the Edsel.
ReplyDeleteFunny how all that has fallen down the memory hole and it all became "Nixon's War".
I can't find the link, but after Ted Kennedy died and liberal journalists extolled his "generosity," someone on the Right pointed out that he was generous with other people's money in terms of supporting redistributionist legislation (while parting with very little of his own money).
ReplyDeleteBut then, that's the liberal way. http://rosscalloway.com/2010/12/31/liberals-more-generous-with-your-money/
"Ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country" is "a bit dated"! If Ronnie Reagan had said it it would be hailed by La McCaffrey for what it is, a rock-solid conservative principle. This post and the egoquoque comments are Kennedy Derangement Syndrome in full bloom.
ReplyDeleteGod bess Jack Kennedy? No! I say Goddamn JacKKKennedy! He finagled the Gulf of Tonkin resolution, started the Vietnam War and bombed seven kinds of bejaysus out of Cambodia and got good ol' Lyndon and Honest Dick Nixon to take the blame. And all from beyond the grave. The dastard. He nudged Teddy into Poucha Pond and cackled evilly into the ether as Mary Jo gasped her last.
He's not lying beneath the eternal flame up in Arlington but spectrally stalking his surviving child, muttering inane counsel into her privileged ear and empty head. He sprinkles angel dust upon the loins of his descendants so that they become overbearingly fruitful – tho' what else can you expect from a swarm of Papist Paddies. And these very descendants may then run for office, perhaps even the highest, they are after all natural born citizens, unlike the present incum...but I digress.
The Missile Crisis, the Civil Rights Legislation, aiming for the Moon? So he solved a problem or two, big deal. And yeah, he had "the vision thing". Khruschev woulda backed down anyway, a level-headed, well-adjusted guy like him. And what's the Moon? A bare airless rock, right? We don't need no stinking idealism, no shining hope, no jejune celebration of our mythical exceptionalism, no mindless belief in the ability of Americans to accomplish anything they set their minds to.
No. This man was savagely done to death in his prime by an insecure narcissistic neurotic we despise who was an adherent of an ideology we loathe and, by jimminy, we're going to do the same to his memory and his legacy.
Because? Well, because the Left's got Sarah and we've got Jack.
I'm with Phil. Maybe Ms. Kennedy is preparing to <strikeout>run for</strikeout> be appointed to office --- again.
ReplyDelete