They were deliberately over the line. I actually thought they were bizarre when I encountered them and was challenged to post them. (Why? This is a liberal site and is associated with politics that involves venom much more [and truly] vicious directed at Bush, as it was at Reagan before that.)

I chose to post them even even though I thought they were bizarre and I knew they would be provocative (especially to worse Bush-haters). I'll admit here that they were cruel and I knew it.

For what it's worth, I truly view Kennedy's passing as I wrote elsewhere, as the passing of a 60s liberal era dinosaur along with the passing of that era, and the end of the Kennedy (Brothers) mystique. That he went radical along with liberalism (to remain a standard-bearer and to keep in stride with the lib-forefront politics of his constituency in places like Cambridge, don't forget) is fact and harmed him, though he was on borrowed time anyway and as I also said, he faded except as a kind of Sixties-and-Kennedy-nostalgia celeb by the 1990s.

And, of course, my active response to his death is shared by many a liberal as well as many a non-liberal like me: I'm more motivated now than before to visit the Kennedy brothers' site in Arlington the next time I'm in DC. (I thought of this immediately on learning of his death, as a matter of fact.)

I've lived and traveled all over the USA (and elsewhere) and understand completely what you're writing.

Actually, the South is the PC target of bigotry and much worse, while it's become far from the old pre-Civil Rights stereotype. (Even the older whites, such as the guy in Selma who was there during the marching at the bridge, the event that made the news so long ago, told me that race relations in the South are nothing like they were, and are arguably the best in the nation. And that's in addition to the many people relocating there from the Northeast and Midwest, with blacks reversing what their elders did long ago, and a migration that includes many a liberal as well as Democrat.)

It is nice when we here as a collective group can, when the occasion warrants, put our political differences aside for a second or two, and focus on the simple reality that we all are caring individuals in our private lives.

Thanks for your comments on the offensive Kennedy brothers comments. You could have stayed silent, but you didn't…That's another mark of courage, as is apologizing.

Dorian

That's good news, and thanks to your daughter for her sacrificial service to us all.

Thanks AR,
dr.e
p.s. for those not in military, bravo-charlie, that is bc, means 'birth control.' I sure hope that made you all laugh.

Regarding your other note about how to expose without according a national stage, I think that time of throwing a blanket over Franklin's wheelchair to hide his frailty from the public, is over, has been over perhaps from Nixon/Bernstein/Woodward et al, onward.

In part, perhaps even mostly, the MSM would have a hard time subverting stories, because the public has become the media manipulators' worst nightmare: educated… smart, and thereby far less gullible, far more Missourah.

I am not sure there is a way of warning the public that can somehow bypass the fatuous gloating of the not-well subject. Fred Phelps comes to mind also. And others. thanks Tidbits

dr.e

Hours back I read Dorian's comment about your comments on his previous post, and read your reply. Please understand that I speak with respect for you in saying this.

DLS, you and I have have exchanged pleasantries about our experiences in the Phoenix area. We have shared ideas, sometimes agreeing, sometimes disagreeing, but always on amicable terms and with mutual respect. But your comments on the Kennedy's being “worm food” are unacceptable.

Real courage DLS is not measured by the ability to rationalize (I know, I've done it). Rationalization is fundamentally cowardly, someone looking for an easy way out. You are a conservative. As a conservative, you do, or should, believe in traditional values. Those values, damn it, include not speaking ill of the dead and certainly not engaging in the kind of despicable, and yes hate-filled bile that Dorian quaoted from your prior comment.

DLS, as someone you know in a way, I call upon your your integrity. I call upon you as an American. I call upon you as a fellow commenter. I call upon your courage and your ability to reflect. Admit that your comments were over the line.

Ronald Reagan once famously said, “Mr. Gorbechev, tear down this wall.” I say to you, “DLS retract those statements.

I've known real hard core 'national front' nazi types and they do scare me the most. However, having been a socialist/communist most of my adult life I know for a fact that there is plenty of hate on the other end of the spectrum, 'The Left' has many adherents that would attempt to manifest their agenda through violence given the opportunity. Please do not diminish the argument against hate expression (no matter the source) by disparaging an honest reminder of the universality of hate.

We may be dealing with a perceived majority's opinion being more vocally or more forcefully expressed with a comfort available to the dominant when we see the so called 'christian' conservative extremists share their viewpoints However, when there has been a riot in the inner city over the last few decades it is a majority therein that rises up and expresses its often poorly defined and poorly conceived and poorly communicated rage. I was outside L.A. during the 1992 riots and I can tell you it felt more like our country was 'at war' then it did when I watched the 9-11 WTC attacks unfold on TV that fateful morning. Wake up to the reality of explosive potential in all parties, in all peoples, in all areas, in all ways. Attempting to lend legitimacy to Jeremiah Wright by saying he's not as open in his expressions of hatred doesn't wash with me. Defuse all bombs everywhere or when it becomes a wholesale free-for-all it will boil down to evolution – survival of the fittest – determining the outcome and dominance in numbers could easily purchase a false “fitness” for a particular grouping. I am not wanting that and I am praying earnestly against such. This great country I love is defined for me through its defense of the under represented, its protection of the oppressed, its history in attempting to lead towards peace. Let us join in hating ALL hatred and not tolerating false validations or legitimacies no matter how earned that would attempt to lend credibility to anyone's malignancies.