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He did the seeming impossible: he lived up to the reputation of his brothers as their equal. An amazing senator. A very great loss.

oldgregg 17y ago
Indeed, nobody can question the reputation of this mans virility.
blasdel 17y ago
While Ted was a pretty cool guy, eh garnered appropriations and doesn't afraid of anything, I don't think anyone could really live up to his brothers. John was an order of magnitude greater, and Bobby was at least an order of magnitude greater than that! Bobby was everything Obama aspires to be and more. His assassination was probably the worst event of '68 -- and a fuckton of awful shit happened that year: the crushing of Prague Spring, the events of May in Paris, MLK's assassination, the DNC in Chicago, the burning of DC, Nixon's election -- it was the last gasp of modernity. I can't think about it without crying.
- jhancock 17y ago
  I was just thinking of those events this past week as I see how the media is assisting corporate/industry status quo to fight health care reform. Regardless of what you think of the details of this current legislation (I'm not a fan of some details myself), a key thing, and HN appropriate, to understand is this is the battle ground for change of any sort, not just health care. Industry will fight these sweeping changes since if they win this battle, they feel the momentum for other change may be curtailed. Media doesn't work for the viewer/reader, they work for the advertiser. This fundamental is mostly the same since 1968. A key difference between 1968 and 2009 is the level of refinement and completeness of this control. Is this comment HN appropriate? Most startups talk about being disruptive. That's not so hard to do if your building a web-widget. But that's hardly being disruptive. You want to do something BIG? Be prepared for lots of opposition from industry status quo. You want to be disruptive like John or Bobby Kennedy or MLK Jr.? You have to be prepared to die to be that kind of Hacker.
- aquateen 17y ago
  How are you quantifying greatness? Everyone on this site loves to say "order of magnitude."
  - blasdel 17y ago
    It lets you specify scale without any unwanted precision
- mynameishere 17y ago
  and Bobby was at least an order of magnitude greater than that How in hell did you arrive at that? What's next...Edsel Ford an order of magnitude greater than Henry? Is nepotism really that powerful?
cwan 17y ago
An alternative viewpoint from Reason - Ted Kennedy and the Death (Hopefully) of an Era: The controversial senator belonged to a different age, one ill-suited to today's increasingly decentralized world (http://www.reason.com/news/show/135658.html http://www.reason.com/news/show/135658.html) Excerpt: "The legislation for which he will be remembered is precisely the sort of top-down, centralized legislation that needs to be jettisoned in the 21st century. [...] Bigger was better, and government at every level but especially at the highest level, had to lead the way. In an increasingly flat, dispersed, networked world in which power, information, knowledge, purchasing power, and more was rapidly decentralizing, Kennedy was all for sitting at the top of a pyramid and directing activity."

oldgregg 17y ago

Indeed, nobody can question the reputation of this mans virility.

blasdel 17y ago

While Ted was a pretty cool guy, eh garnered appropriations and doesn't afraid of anything, I don't think anyone could really live up to his brothers. John was an order of magnitude greater, and Bobby was at least an order of magnitude greater than that! Bobby was everything Obama aspires to be and more. His assassination was probably the worst event of '68 -- and a fuckton of awful shit happened that year: the crushing of Prague Spring, the events of May in Paris, MLK's assassination, the DNC in Chicago, the burning of DC, Nixon's election -- it was the last gasp of modernity. I can't think about it without crying.

jhancock 17y ago
I was just thinking of those events this past week as I see how the media is assisting corporate/industry status quo to fight health care reform. Regardless of what you think of the details of this current legislation (I'm not a fan of some details myself), a key thing, and HN appropriate, to understand is this is the battle ground for change of any sort, not just health care. Industry will fight these sweeping changes since if they win this battle, they feel the momentum for other change may be curtailed. Media doesn't work for the viewer/reader, they work for the advertiser. This fundamental is mostly the same since 1968. A key difference between 1968 and 2009 is the level of refinement and completeness of this control. Is this comment HN appropriate? Most startups talk about being disruptive. That's not so hard to do if your building a web-widget. But that's hardly being disruptive. You want to do something BIG? Be prepared for lots of opposition from industry status quo. You want to be disruptive like John or Bobby Kennedy or MLK Jr.? You have to be prepared to die to be that kind of Hacker.
aquateen 17y ago
How are you quantifying greatness? Everyone on this site loves to say "order of magnitude."
- blasdel 17y ago
  It lets you specify scale without any unwanted precision
mynameishere 17y ago
and Bobby was at least an order of magnitude greater than that How in hell did you arrive at that? What's next...Edsel Ford an order of magnitude greater than Henry? Is nepotism really that powerful?

cwan 17y ago

An alternative viewpoint from Reason - Ted Kennedy and the Death (Hopefully) of an Era: The controversial senator belonged to a different age, one ill-suited to today's increasingly decentralized world (http://www.reason.com/news/show/135658.html http://www.reason.com/news/show/135658.html) Excerpt: "The legislation for which he will be remembered is precisely the sort of top-down, centralized legislation that needs to be jettisoned in the 21st century. [...] Bigger was better, and government at every level but especially at the highest level, had to lead the way. In an increasingly flat, dispersed, networked world in which power, information, knowledge, purchasing power, and more was rapidly decentralizing, Kennedy was all for sitting at the top of a pyramid and directing activity."