Redemption Song

he withdrew his support from a candidate whose victory would have meant the continuation of the dynastic politics represented by the family names Bush, Gore, and Clinton. What a favor he did us all by that repudiation! And how fitting that it should have been a Kennedy who did it.

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I didn’t have much to say about Senator Kennedy passing away, nor did I feel any particular emotion after the event. In large part this is because I know so very little about him, and it is only with his passing, and the revolving news stories about him that I began to learn what he stood for. I found myself thinking that he seemed to have been a pretty good guy that had supported some good legislation for good causes, but as the story points out and I’m sure so many of know that the eulogized stories don’t tend to focus on someone’s negatives. Still, I thought the above story was interesting in that it points out some of the flaws that most powerful people possess, and indeed I think the Kennedys possessed in spades. I would think most powerful families do.
Both JFK and Bobby have always been presented to me as these holy, tragic figures, and on more than one occasion I’ve heard wispy recollections as to how the country would have been better if only both of them had lived. Having grown up way after both of their deaths I’ve always kind of rolled my eyes at those statements, and as I learned a bit more about what their real legacies were I began to wonder why they were remembered so fondly. The Kennedys were, and maybe still are, our royalty, and people tend to love their royals even when they don’t really want to. Add to that the early death of those two brothers and you get that ‘died before their time’ dichotomy that almost always seems to embellish the popular memories of most every one. And, or course, there’s always looking back at those tumultuous times, especially the ugly scar of Vietnam, and it’s easy to wonder if history could have been better had someone else been at the helm. Hard to say.
Senator Kennedy was always presented to me, by no one in particular, as the lesser brother, and while I never held any opinions about him myself I always saw him in a kind of negative light. I’m glad that now I can look at the man and see him a little more clearly, and perhaps that will be the way most everyone remembers him from now on. He had a lot to live up to, because the fantasy legacies of his brothers, all of the what-if’s, only grew their legends without them doing anything, while he was left the much more daunting task of living, making mistakes and carrying out his ideas and thoughts. He seems to have lived well, worked hard, and he met his challenges, learned from his mistakes, and I think when you take all of that into consideration that you can say that he did admirably. He went out with his boots on, and that’s all anyone can ask for.

Mystery solved! Evidently the Alabama Leprechaun is Jason Mraz.

One of the great things about the lowering of standards is that it allows people like me to do well on Internet science quizzes. I have proof below, and if you feel like you need a quick ego boost then you can go here to do such things. For those of you unwise in the ways of bar graphs I scored in the 100 percentile range, of which only 10 percent of participants have achieved. I’m better than 90% of you according to this data, and that makes me feel better, I’m good with this bar graph.

Still, I worry about getting stopped on the street to be asked a basic random math problem, because I’m not good with fractions and percentages. Also included in this would be basic grammar rules, which should come as no surprise to anyone who reads this, because I really don’t have the capacity to grapple with dangling participles and/or dipthongs.
Found via SEB