Wednesday, March 04, 2009
Ted Kennedy, KBE
Ralph. In the sense of "barf," "yack," or "blow chunks."
Not to mention that any real American is an anti-royalist and does not go in for this peerage nonsense. That an Irish-American Kennedy would accept a British knighthood is hilarious final proof that the family has not expunged its longstanding social insecurity.
25 Comments:
By 
RPD, at
Wed Mar 04, 10:28:00 AM:
"The father-of-five, who was elected in 1962 ..."
He's been Senator longer than I've been alive. This is the kind of thing that makes me pine for term limits.
By MEANA55, at
Wed Mar 04, 10:34:00 AM:
He should be crowned king.
He knew the Lady of the Lake.
By 
, at
Wed Mar 04, 10:39:00 AM:
But, um, President Reagan also accepted a knighthood, kneeling before the Queen.
I thought that was a terrible thing, at the time. Still think it set a bad precedent...
By TigerHawk, at
Wed Mar 04, 10:41:00 AM:
Yeah, that was not Reagan's finest hour, either.
By Viking Kaj, at
Wed Mar 04, 11:14:00 AM:
Highly ironic considering old Joe Kennedy's efforts to abandon the British to the Nazi's in 1939-40 when he was the ambassador to the court of St. James, don't you think?
I'll bet this gave the House of Windsor more than a little heartburn, after all they have extremely long memories. QE will probably be holding her nose a little as this one gets granted.
By , at
Wed Mar 04, 11:25:00 AM:
I'm no fan of Teddy, but really, what's Camelot without a few knights?
By Viking Kaj, at
Wed Mar 04, 11:27:00 AM:
By , at
Wed Mar 04, 11:30:00 AM:
Ireland had a civil war in the 1920s because many who fought for independence couldn't abide a peace treaty that required allegiance to the British Crown. The effects of the Irish Civil War were especially felt around my father's home town of Skibbereen, County Cork, as many of the locals would rather have died or be kicked out of the country than swear an oath to a British King. Michael Collins -- a Cork man who led the fight against the British -- was shot not ten miles from father's home -- because he supported the treaty.
Back then people took the British Crown seriously -- now it's just a tabloid joke.
Link
By Viking Kaj, at
Wed Mar 04, 11:39:00 AM:
^ If that is your position I would beg to point out that until recently the British have persisted executing a very bad joke in Northern Ireland.
By , at
Wed Mar 04, 11:54:00 AM:
What happened to Article I, Section 9 of the Constitution?
By MTF, at
Wed Mar 04, 12:10:00 PM:
Same thing that happened just last week to Article 1 Section 2, allowing only "states" to vote in the House and also what will shortly happen to the the provision requiring an"actual enumeration" of the census. Down the memory hole.
By Viking Kaj, at
Wed Mar 04, 12:14:00 PM:
Hey, just a question. Do they have any kind of a lunch after they grant these things?
By , at
Wed Mar 04, 01:14:00 PM:
Did it come with a floatation device?
By , at
Wed Mar 04, 01:18:00 PM:
Mary Jo Kopechne did not attend the Knighting as she had a previous engagement.
By , at
Wed Mar 04, 03:11:00 PM:
That an Irish-American Kennedy would accept a British knighthood is hilarious final proof that the family has not expunged its longstanding social insecurity.
They should be insecure. 160 years ago all the Kennedys were poor dirt farmers, scraping out a living, as it happens, on my family's estate in County Wexford. IMHO we'd all be better off if they'd stayed.
Celtic Tiger
By , at
Wed Mar 04, 04:12:00 PM:
Not seeing this as a big issue, really. Quaint, meaningless homage to our ancestors is simply showing respect to a great nation, most of the time who has been a great ally.
Now that it has been bestowed on Kennedy, it just reinforces the meaninglessness of the honor. I think it meant more in the days when the likes of Bob Hope and reagan were deemed worthy. Now it seems to be falling by the wayside along with the Nobel Prize (Algore or Carter for example).
By Christopher Chambers, at
Wed Mar 04, 04:15:00 PM:
Celtic Tiger:
I howled in mirth (as I sat with my even more liberal...liberaler? Liberalest? Anyway, with some of my senior colleagues waiting for Tavis Smiley to speak some internecine harshness and ego in Obama's direction here at Georgetown) at you comment.
You don't have to own the DVD of Gangs of New York (with leo and Daniel day Lewis) to understand the interesting relationship the Irish have had with African American even before the 1840s.
However, your comment sank in more and I recalled something similar. A bumper stick I saw on I-20 in S. Carolina: "If I'd know it was going to be like this, I'd have picked my own cotton."
If someone else had to pick the cotton (and a host of other farm and skilled labor), there'd have been no USA. If the Irish--yes bandy legged pie faced sots who practice a dark and barbarous religion they may be (just kidding--listening to too much Rush lately)--hadn't been suffering as serf-tenant farmers for your ancestors, well...let's say your bloodline doubtless marked by some devine right of arrogance, snark and entitlement'd be a bit more subdued. ;-)
By JPMcT, at
Wed Mar 04, 04:18:00 PM:
Man, those poor Brits must REALLY want some of that bail-out cash!
By , at
Wed Mar 04, 04:47:00 PM:
What happened to Article I, Section 9 of the Constitution?
Since the Constitution specifies no penalties for violating that section, nothing will be done about it.
By , at
Wed Mar 04, 05:08:00 PM:
I did a little fact checking.
It turns out Ted Kennedy single handedly (and single maltedly) saved CHAVIS REGAL and GLENFIDDICH from bankruptcy.
One bottle at a time.
This is his reward.
By , at
Wed Mar 04, 05:56:00 PM:
Titles such as KBE, MBE, OBE are normally reserved for British/Commonwealth country citizens who have done something noteworthy for the UK or for their home country. Since the US is not part of the British Commonwealth, I wonder what the reason is for such a title, and how the British people would feel about it. It's quite meaningless in the US.
Peter Jennings once said that the Kennedys were "the closest thing America had to royalty". Why do we need vestiges of royalty here? That's what we fought for independence from in the first place.
By clint, at
Wed Mar 04, 09:22:00 PM:
Re: Article 1, Section 9...
It says, "without the Consent of the Congress."
I'd guess the founding fathers never imagined that Congress would routinely grant such a thing... but there's a whole lot about today's America that the founding fathers would never have imagined.
By , at
Wed Mar 04, 09:33:00 PM:
I don't care. I've had enough and I'm sinking to their level. Just die already Teddy.
By , at
Wed Mar 04, 09:46:00 PM:
My dear sir,
I was born and raised in America. After some 40 years of studying, I have come to realization that I have been living a lie. So this once US Marine, a high-priest of America, is Now a Monarchist.
If you study real traditional Catholic thought---Americanism is a heresy.
The Natural Law, and God, ordains hierarchy. And it is NOT true that true Americans are anti-royals. You forget the Loyalists. Just because revolutionaries won, doesn't make it that they write the rules. If I lived back then, I would surely fight for the King. The only and truest conservatives in the land of America were the Loyalists.
Americanism is a Masonic creation and should be resoundly condemned by all right-thinking Catholics.
Long live the Monarchy.
By , at
Thu Mar 05, 12:48:00 AM:
Is there any evidence that Congress has given its consent?
