Comments on: Ted Kennedy, RIP

By: Michael Hardesty

Michael Hardesty — Mon, 31 Aug 2009 17:13:08 +0000

What an absurd rhetorical question ! Robert Taft, Joe McCarthy, Ayn Rand, Ludwig Von Mises, Ron Paul,
James J. Martin, Harry Elmer Barnes, Robert Welch,
David L. Hoggan, Robert Faurisson, Germar Rudolph,
Paul Rassinier, Francis Neilson, Isabel Paterson,
H.L. Mencken, Porter Sargent, F.J.P. Veale, David
Gordon, Murray Rothbard, Dr. Thomas S. Szasz,
Carl Snyder, David Irving, Murray Bookchin, Albert
Jay Nock, Dr. Peter Breggin, M. Stanton Evans, Jr.,
Pat Buchanan, Luigi Villari, John T. Flynn are some
of the people I strongly admire.

By: David Lindsay

David Lindsay — Mon, 31 Aug 2009 16:38:51 +0000

Is there *anyone*, living or dead, of whom you approve?

By: Michael Hardesty

Michael Hardesty — Mon, 31 Aug 2009 14:59:33 +0000

Buckley was recommending a TERRIBLE book, a monstrous
piece of Rooseveltian hagiography which he along with other
stupid, unprincipled “conservatives” like Wolfe, Will, Kissinger
and Lukacs were endorsing ! How you can rationalize that is
beyond belief.
JFK’s commitment to a ground war on the Asian mainland was insane and helped to discredit anti-communism.
One stolen election in 1960 doesn’t justify another stolen election in 2000. I don’t think Nixon would have been all that different anyway, so I’m missing your point, if any, here.
I’ve known lots of Labour Party Fabian Socialists from the UK
and they all liked the Kennedys. Ergo for the ADA Fabian types over here.
If McCarthy had friends like JFK and RFK he didn’t need enemies. RFK joined the anti-McCarthy Democrats on McCarthy’s committee in early 1954 and worked with them
to sabotage McCarthy. JFK’s favorable review of what is still the most vicious anti-McCarthy book hardly testifies to any real friendship with McCarthy.
Your analogy of the Test Ban with other events fails. The
reasons for its defeat were clearly stated by Senator Goldwater at the time in 1963. Nixon’s detente with China
was a disaster. It was only after the overthrow of Mao and Co.
that China changed. Nixon’s toadying to Mao helped reinforce
his control another three years until his death. Ike never even
MENTIONED the Palestinians and from 1958 onward had a
totally one-sided pro-Israel policy similar to Truman’s and
later JFK’s. We ended the Korean War on disastrous terms,
we are still there and it was a forerunner of another disastrous
war in Indochina. Ike was recycling New Left founder C. Wright Mill’s agit-prop on the Pentagon-industrial complex but he in fact supported it throughout his Presidency and overthrew governments from Guatemala to Iran.
Nixon’s ending of the war never took place. When Ford ended
it it was to totally capitulate to the Communists in all of Vietnam, Laos and mass Communist genocide in Cambodia.
Some “honorable” end !
Gorbachev introduced the discussion towards arms controls
and Reagan very reluctantly came around.
Again, you sound like you get your “history” from NPR or
The New York Times.
There’s no way I get mine from neocon central because they
agree with you on all these matters and they are as wrong as
you too.

By: David Lindsay

David Lindsay — Sun, 30 Aug 2009 20:57:37 +0000

Let me begin by saying that I am no great defender of the Kennedys.

That said:

“JFK was certainly not anti-Communist at all as President”

They may have disagreed with that in South-East Asia.

“the Test Ban Treaty”

Firmly in the tradition of Republican calls on Europe to make peace by returning to 1914 borders, of America First, of Eisenhower’s ending of the Korean War, of his even-handedness between Israel and the Palestinians, and of his denunciation of the military-industrial complex.

Firmly in the tradition continued by Nixon’s ending of the Vietnam War, by his pursuit of detante with China, by Reagan’s initiation of nuclear arms reduction, and by Republican opposition to Clinton’s military adventures.

“JFK favorably reviewed Richard Rovere’s savage hatchet job on Joe McCarthy”

JFK and RFK were both close to McCarthy.

“Fabian Socialists like the Kennedys”

Not the view of any Fabian Society member that I’ve ever met…

“yet another FDR hagiography by the convicted criminal Conrad Black”

Bad men quite often write good books. Good men quite often write bad books.

“Where do you young conservatives get your history? From neocon central?”

You seem rather more guilty of that yourself.

“William F. Buckley, Jr.”

I think we can safely say that he was simply commending a good book, not commending FDR himself. I might be wrong, But it would have been very, very big news if I were. Wouldn’t it?

I think there is still a genuine bitterness, not conservative but simply Republican, about the 1960 Election. Well, perhaps there deserved to be. But since that bitterness is partisan rather than ideological, didn’t you get your own back forty years later, nine years ago now?

By: Michael Hardesty

Michael Hardesty — Sun, 30 Aug 2009 18:06:55 +0000

“scam” has a “Q” in error in line ten.

By: Michael Hardesty

Michael Hardesty — Sun, 30 Aug 2009 18:04:33 +0000

When did JFK call for abolishing the Fed ?
He and RFK were anti-Communist but both
went sharply leftward after 1956 to obtain
the 1960 nomination. JFK was certainly not
anti-Communist at all as President. The US
backed UN invasion of Katanga, the Test Ban
Treaty, shutting down Cuban exiles from attacking
Castro, the list goes on. RFK became even much
more leftist when he ran for President in 1968.
In 1959 JFK favorably reviewed Richard Rovere’s
savage hatchet job on Joe McCarthy in the
Washington Post but refused to allow the Boston Globe
to reprint it for fear of antagonizing his Irish
constituents. Some profile in courage !
RFK went to bat for one of the convicted Communist
Party leaders in the 1950 Smith Act trial so that this
traitor could be buried in Arlington because he was a WW2
vet ! He did this in 1965 as Senator.
JFK ‘s “national defense” was another socialist scaqm to enlarge FedGov and get them into education. There was never
any Soviet military threat to the US or western Europe,
the danger was always internal. Fabian Socialists like
the Kennedys were and are the threat. Who cares if
EMK was consistent when he was consistently wrong.
JFK campaigned on the “missile gap” lie.
Where do you young conservatives get your history ?
From neocon central ? Next we’ll be hearing what
a great guy that Marxist Socialist MLK was !
Two or so years ago there was yet another FDR
hagiography by the convicted criminal Conrad Black,
800 plus pages of solid lies. And who were the endorsers
on the back cover, William F. Buckley, Jr., John Lukacs,
George Will, Tom Wolfe and Herr Kissinger.
As The Other Senator McCarthy (Gene) once put it,
Conservatives are fundamentally stupid people who always
come around to endorsing bad liberal laws, people and ideals.
We ought to be disrupting this disgusting bit of media
hagiography, not mindlessly paying tribute to our worst
Senator of all time.

By: Patrick

Patrick — Sun, 30 Aug 2009 15:57:34 +0000

While I disagreed with Ted Kennedy on most issues,he nonetheless was very passionate about his beliefs and never wavered,,much like conservative stalwart Jesse Helms on the right. Like the saying goes,if you stand for nothing,you’ll fall for anything. I respect people with strong convictions and passionate beliefs,left and right. Also,not all Kennedys are created alike. JFK advocated a strong national defense,tax cuts to stimulate economic growth,abolition of the Federal Reserve, and,was staunchly anti-communist. He and Robert were friends with Joe McCarthy.. While they have their flaws and I have my differences with them on most issues, the Kennedys have served this nation well for the most part. RIP,Senator.

By: David Lindsay

David Lindsay — Sat, 29 Aug 2009 17:03:53 +0000

I was pleasantly surprised by his funeral. I’d expected the Mission Church to be something like the Paulist Center attended by John Kerry. But it wasn’t at all.

By: Michael Hardesty

Michael Hardesty — Fri, 28 Aug 2009 17:20:25 +0000

The JBS was and is an excellent political forecaster. See The
Politician by Robert Welch on Ike, The Actor by Alan Stang on Dulles, The Fearful Master by G. Edward Griffin on the UN
And It’s Very Simple by Alan Stang on “civil rights.”
An agnostic, all their evasions aside, is an atheist. Anyone
who is not a theist is an a-theist. Joe Kennedy was an honest businessman who made the mistake of supporting
the New Deal. The way he handled his kids, particularly Rosemary, left much to be desired. Politically he broke with
FDR after Joe, Jr., was killed and courageously tried to keep
the USA out of the Second World War For World Communism and Zionism. That he fooled around with Gloria Swanson is irrelevant politically.

By: David Lindsay

David Lindsay — Fri, 28 Aug 2009 13:38:45 +0000

“people in Massachusetts are pro-choice and pro-gay marriage”

They can’t all be. Quite a lot of them aren’t, I bet.

They managed to find an NRA Democrat in New York. How hard can it be to find an anti-war, pro traditional marriage, more-or-less pro-life Democrat in Massachusetts? Two of those are Obama’s own views, and rumor has it that Boston is even more Irish than he is, if you can believe such a thing.