Bonneville America Forums Forums Off Topic Discussion Forums Lounge the lord of Chappaquiddick

yup Edward Kennedy KBE

What?

He will be your Knight in shining armour coming to your emotional rescue.

how long before one mod had to lock another mod's thread?

Well fellas, BEFORE this whole thread turns into a "royal" bloodbath here...I HEARD it had somethin' to do with him being one the key arbiters in FINALLY gettin' those TWO friggin' RELIGIONS to STOP their FRIGGIN' FIGHTIN'(aka: "The Troubles") over on the northern end of what is known as "The Emerald Isle"!!!

(AND, of course, they probably ALSO figured that IF they were going to "Knight" the poor sap, they better do it before he kicks the friggin' bucket, which looks like THAT'S comin' reeeeeeal soon!!!)

And when I returned, Mary Jo and the car were gone.

that's funny

breathe deep the gathering gloom
watch the appointed one move about the room
a bedsit of people look back at the mint
anothere day's useless pennie is spent.

...

cold hearted gurggles
that echo the night
remove the colours
from our sight
red is grey
and she be dead
oh teddy oh teddy oh teddy

Hey! Not bad, Moe!!! Not bad AT ALL!!!

Now. An American senator of Irish lineage being given an honorary "your frikink lordship" minus the sir of course.


Now that is FUNNY....if nothing else

I think I may hurl....

Please have look dont lock the thread this is the view of many British people why should we honour a man who has no shame and has shown in thought action and deed a complete disregard for the majority of British citizens. Rather than being honoured he should be shown to the war mongering terrorist supporting coward that he really is. Why does he not now stand up and confess his part in the death of 29-year-old Mary Jo Kopechne.

It is important to go back to that horrific incident - and to Kennedy's despicable behaviour on the night - to explain why his character alone ought to disqualify him from any British honour, irrespective of his shameful support for the terrorist IRA.
At 12.45am on July 18, 1969, and with Mary Jo in his car, Kennedy - who had been drinking and partying - drove off the Dike Bridge connecting Martha's Vineyard (where the Kennedys had their holiday retreat on America's East coast) with Chappaquiddick Island.
He managed to extricate himself, walk back to his motel, complain to the manager about a noisy party, take a shower, sleep the night, chat to a friend the next morning, order two newspapers, meet his lawyers and finally report the accident to the police at 9.45am.
By then, however, his car had been spotted and Mary Jo's corpse had been found by a fire department diver, Captain John Farrar, at 8.45am.
She had not drowned, but had survived in an air pocket inside the car, only to asphyxiate when the oxygen finally ran out several hours later. The brutal fact is that had Kennedy alerted the police earlier, Mary Jo might be alive today.
She was given no autopsy and Kennedy was not charged with drink-driving, but merely given a two-month suspended sentence for leaving the scene of an accident. To this day, Kennedy has not apologised to Mary Jo's family, and, of course, the tragedy did not for a moment affect his future rampant drinking and womanising.




To bestow such a distinction on a man who has spent almost all his adult life profoundly opposed to the United Kingdom's best interests also makes a mockery of the honours system.

It is true that he lobbied President Clinton hard in 1996 to award Gerry Adams an American visa (Adams promptly used his subsequent U.S. visit to raise money for Sinn Fein) and later to get him invited to the White House. But it is quite wrong to suggest, as the American historian Arthur Schlesinger does, that these initiatives 'led to the IRA ceasefire and the Good Friday accords'.

These, in fact, only came about as a result of the IRA's political and military leadership recognising that they had been defeated on the ground by 1996-98. All that these American invitations afforded Adams, apart from flattering his ego, was to lend Sinn Fein an utterly spurious respectability on the world stage.

Only after 9/11 - when Americans discovered on their own soil how loathsome terrorism truly is, and how far from a noble romantic struggle - did Kennedy cynically distance himself from Adams and fellow Sinn Fein stalwart Martin McGuinness, refusing to meet them in 2005 after the IRA brutally murdered Robert McCartney in a Belfast bar in January that year.


Over all matters concerning Ireland, the Kennedys have taken a pro-Nationalist line that has been deeply antagonistic to the Union of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. That is why it is absurd for Gordon Brown to make this award, in the words of its official citation, 'for services to U.S.-UK relations and to Northern Ireland'.
For it is no exaggeration to say that Ted Kennedy did his damnedest to poison U.S.-UK relations over Ulster during the long decades in which he has castigated successive British governments. Rather than expressing any genuine commitment to peace in Northern Ireland, he would always play exclusively to his own Catholic-Irish voters in Massachusetts, whom he has represented in the Senate for more than 46 years.

Although he was always careful to use weasel words to condemn violence on both sides, it was always for Britain and the Ulster Protestants that he reserved his most withering rebukes. For the Queen to be obliged to honour this man is nothing less than an obscenity.
He went on to state that the Protestants of Ulster 'should be given a decent opportunity to go back to Britain'. The fact that they had been in Ulster for 360 years - three times as long as the Kennedys had been in America - clearly passed him by. It was not until St Patrick's Day 1977 that Ted acknowledged that the Protestants might be allowed to remain in their homeland.

It was no coincidence that he raised the flag of Irish nationalism whenever his Senate seat came up for re-election. His call for British withdrawal from Northern Ireland in 1980 was condemned as ignorant grandstanding by the great Irish statesman Conor Cruise O'Brien, but it went down well in the Irish pubs in Boston where money was raised for the shamelessly pro-IRA fundraising organisation Noraid.

Stop yur bitchin'. He's not accountable. He's a Kennedy and a politician.

Now Now boys and girls, It's not nice to pick on fat,bloated, alcoholics that should have retired 20 yrs ago.
But I guess he's dropped a few pounds.

***Kevorkian post suspiciously hovering near thread life support system!***

The best on I've heard about Ted came from David Letterman who reported that Teds last campain cost was over 7 million dollars........but 4 million would be refunded when he returned the emptys

Should have been prosecuted for past transgressions not knighted.

I would think at the very least it should have been vehicular homicide, negligent homicide, or something along those lines. Maybe his brain nugget will get him, who knows, I don't wish the guy harm but he really should have paid for his actions and tried to make amends even though nothing can replace a lost life.

ok as you guys have guessed this little incident has really ****** me of somewhat so I have been doing a little bit more digging.

Article I, Section 9, U.S. Constitution: No Title of Nobility shall be granted by the United States: And no Person holding any Office of Profit or Trust under them, shall, without the Consent of the Congress, accept of any present, Emolument, Office, or Title, of any kind whatever, from any King, Prince or foreign State.

Insofar as this clause is to ensure allegiance to the United States and the supremacy of its legislature, it must surely include any honourary titles bestowed by a ‘King, Prince or foreign state’. Under this provision, those US citizens who served as high-ranking military officials in the Iraq War and who received British honours are also constitutionally barred from serving in the federal government - unless Congress specifically exempts them from this limitation and retrospectively grants consent.

A proposed amendment to this clause in 1810 went further, declaring that ‘If any citizen of the United States shall Accept, claim, receive or retain any title of nobility or honor, or shall, without the consent of Congress, accept and retain any present, pension, office or emolument of any kind whatever, from any emperor, king, prince or foreign power, such person shall cease to be a citizen of the United States, and shall be incapable of holding any office of trust or profit under them, or either of them.’

It was clear that by virtue of these titles and honours, it was assumed that recipients enjoyed political and economic advantages over the majority of citizens, and this was antithetical to the egalitarian spirit of the Constitution. The prohibition of titles of nobility have been a corner stone of republican government, for so long as they are excluded, there can never be serious danger that the government will be any other than that of the people.

Sir Edward Kennedy is no longer of the people, for he has been elevated by a foreign Queen to a status which is above the people. And let us not be deceived by this 'honorary' deflection. A knighthood is a knighthood: what on earth is an honour if it is not honorary? This knighthood both dishonours the British honours system and contravenes a founding principle of the US Constitution. It is not only immoral; it is illegal.

possibly one of my American friends can confirm if this actually the case. I am pretty sure my research is thorough in this case. Just wondering how it would be perceived across the water.

eric,
keeping it civil, i wholeheartedly agree with you.

Wow this must really have gotten under your skin to have done so much research. It bothers me too since I can't think of very many men more undeserving of such a title. That is interesting but as was pointed out above he is a Kennedy, considered by many sort of US royalty (not by me you can rest assured) I feel he should be held to that clause if it is still binding since he,nor anyone else ,should be above the law. That law makes sense to me if a person is beholden to any other power how can that person be totally loyal to their own. Not that that person would betray the original but it does open the door to unacceptable doubt.

and now for the motorsickling aspect of this thread.

hum. i think i know why i didn't spend much time in Massachusetts motorsickling to/from the 2008 NH Rally.
(nor kennebunkport either.)

Some really cool places to ride to in Mass. I want to get back to Battleship Cove for one. Wendy has never been there and I would like to go back.

Thanks for the research, Eric.

See just cause we are bikers dont make us stupid ..ugly maybe dumb we aint ..I knew a good university education would stand me in good stead.....now why didnt I get one....

I don't find it appropriate for any American to be bestowed the honor, regardless of political affiliation. Congress doesn't throw out titles like "Honorary Senator" to anyone, do they? Not that they are anything alike, but you get my point.

easy wilber.

Wow Moe! I'm actually kind'a pleasantly SURPRISED that after my butchering of that OTHER "Sacrificial Lamb" in my above retort, after of course jabbin' ol' Teddy and HIS daddy(once again showing that I have few "Sacred Cows"), that I wasn't accused of "my prejudices showing" and that this thread wasn't then locked up!!!

(wow...will wonders never cease around here?!!!)

Quote:

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Article I, Section 9, U.S. Constitution: No Title of Nobility shall be granted by the United States: And no Person holding any Office of Profit or Trust under them, shall, without the Consent of the Congress, accept of any present, Emolument, Office, or Title, of any kind whatever, from any King, Prince or foreign State.

---

Yeah Eric, that's what pizzed me off first thing. In accepting this he has dishonored the concept on which our nation was founded. We don't need no steenkin' royalty.

(And just for you Larry: He's betrayed the revolution )


Hey!!! "sir" Teddy

WOW Bill!!!

Let me guess here...You've recently watched that Mel Gibson movie "The Patriot" again, RIGHT???!!!

(yep...I gotta admit, that dude who played that brit officer in that flick sure was a b*stard alright!!!)

Nah, everybody knows that Mel's story line was an analogy about how the Jews are running everything and the common people must kick them out.

Don't they??

You aren't trying to say it isn't true? are you?

Nah! That's not true, Bill!!!

(well, at least according to my what my friends Steven Speilberg and Jerry Weintraub tell me anyway!!!)