I have a dear friend who is convinced that we’re living in a simulation. Some of his arguments have been compelling, especially as the country got really, really weird between 2001 and 2005. But he was always kidding; it was just a way to explain away the strange.

Until The Russert Rainbow, which is when I went full-in. We are living in a simulation. :-)

http://www.flickr.com/photos/c.....591737594/

I’m not sure that MSNBC and CNN are reporting TMK’s death so much as they’re waxing nostalgic for the era of his brothers’ triumphs and promises.

Perhaps there’s less hysteria and hype (yes, I know, everything is relative) because Senator Kennedy’s death is hardly a surprise and he perforce has been less visible than usual for more than a year.

Agreed. For me, the really tragic news was when I heard about the brain tumor. The terminal news of his passing came almost as a final, poignant note in a sad song.

Yes, the Adam’s did have a huge impact, specially since they were during the early formative years of the Republic. The Kennedy’s are in that league and like you say, that says a lot.

As my neighbor said yesterday, now that we’ve lost it, we in Massachusetts are going to find out soon just how much power and impact the senator really had for and on the commonwealth. I hope the same isn’t true for the nation and health care reform.

You’re not going to get an argument from me about the value of dynasty. I’ve never been very much impressed with any of the kids.

I think the Roosevelt’s could give the Kennedy’s a run for the most influential family, but point taken. The Kennedy’s have had an almost unimaginable level of influence on a country the size of the US, given that they’re just one family (even if it is an Irish Catholic one that pumped out kids like Starbucks does coffee).

Here on the West Coast, we have our own offshoot of the Kennedy clan married in to the Governator. She might be a swell gal in her own right, but the governor still sucks.

More locally, the dynasty that we have is the Duncan Hunter clan. Now THERE’s an argument for term limiting whole families.

and it’s not too much to ask of the country to understand the role that family has played in its history.

So it’s not just me, then. It does seem that the death of Anna Nicole Freaking Smith got about 10 times the coverage of Teddy Kennedy’s death. Mind you, not that I’m wishing a media circus upon Teddy’s family, but it just seems really…odd.

Yes, this. Today I haz a sad! Back in the 60’s my MIT trained physicist uncle travelled the world. He’d come back with stamps and coins and stories of strange places, but he would always marvel that whatever little shop in whatever little godforsaken hamlet he was in, there would be a picture of JFK pinned to the wall by the cash box, carefully wrapped in plastic for posterity. That’s some legacy. Now trashed, which is where my undying contempt for Bush and Cheney originates.