Over at her place, B has a thoughtful appreciation of Ted Kennedy.
Also, Erik Loomis asks if Kennedy was the nation’s greatest senator.
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The Edge of the American West 
21 comments
August 26, 2009 at 3:58 pm
ben
What we need in this country is a stronger sense of noblesse oblige, though I guess that doesn’t comport well with the myth of self-making.
August 26, 2009 at 4:06 pm
oudemia
You mean Eleanor Roosevelt and Paris Hilton aren’t pretty much doing the same thing?
August 26, 2009 at 4:13 pm
ari
Wait, you’ve got a copy of the Eleanor Roosevelt sex tape?
August 26, 2009 at 4:29 pm
Vance
Could one argue that through all the dim episodes that, contra Anderson and Historiann, seem to me to have been remembered pretty consistently today, Kennedy burned up his unearned privilege, so that the power and eminence he attained over decades of hard work in the Senate were after all the good kind of privilege, such as B celebrates?
(Also, perhaps this is ungenerous, but how is it that a ride on a Coast Guard vessel was Kennedy’s to give?)
August 26, 2009 at 4:46 pm
oudemia
Ari, no lie, my pops (50 or so years older than me), told me that one of his service buddies in WWII kept a pic of Eleanor Roosevelt where all the other guys had Betty Grable or whatever. I asked my father if the guy was being cruel or goofy or? And my father said, no — the guy was just really devoted to Eleanor Roosevelt.
August 26, 2009 at 5:21 pm
bitchphd
I have totally argued in so many words for noblesse oblige and had people tell me I’m an asshole for saying so. But I still think it’s true (with the clarification that I consider most educated and financially comfortable Americans to be part of the contemporary world “nobility”).
August 26, 2009 at 5:22 pm
bitchphd
Also, Ari & co, I’m pleased you liked the piece.
August 26, 2009 at 5:37 pm
oudemia
Really, b? Who doesn’t like a class traitor?
August 26, 2009 at 5:56 pm
Charlieford
I met him back in 1974. Whatever it is, he had it.
August 26, 2009 at 6:01 pm
TF Smith
Ungenerous?
You do realize that to the Coast Guard, everything that floats is a cutter?
Based on the context, it could have been an Auxiliary, which basically means it is some private citizen who volunteers on their own boat.
Even if it was the USCGC Eagle, cutters exist to be on the water. BFD.
August 26, 2009 at 6:06 pm
Ben Alpers
Really, b? Who doesn’t like a class traitor?
Depends on the class. This is, after all, also Joe the Plummer territory.
August 26, 2009 at 6:20 pm
oudemia
b’s (and my) poor in assets rich in cultural capital swpl class, of course.
August 26, 2009 at 6:38 pm
kevin
This is, after all, also Joe the Plummer territory.
I always preferred the work of Christopher the Plummer myself.
August 26, 2009 at 7:18 pm
bitchphd
Who doesn’t like a class traitor?
Poorer-than-thou lefties who think you’re arguing in favor of patronizing liberalism. Interestingly, ime they’re usually also rich in cultural capital, poor in assets, white, and young. But then I’m the kind of asshole who would notice that and take it into account.
August 26, 2009 at 7:24 pm
Jason B.
Wait, you’ve got a copy of the Eleanor Roosevelt sex tape?
Holy crap. I just went blind in my brain.
August 26, 2009 at 7:28 pm
bitchphd
You know, I’m pretty sure that Eleanor Roosevelt enjoyed sex as much as anyone else.
August 26, 2009 at 7:46 pm
Jason B.
You’re probably right, b. But I’m guessing I enjoy thinking about her having sex about as much as I enjoy thinking about other people having sex.
That would be: I don’t.
And that would also ignore the fact that I was joking. Which, you know, I’m alright with you not thinking it was funny.
August 27, 2009 at 7:51 am
bitchphd
You were obviously joking. Nonetheless, I think you got my point.
August 28, 2009 at 1:19 am
dave
“enjoyed sex as much as anyone else”… Which is to say, for some, not at all. Don’t want you missing the asexuals off your list. And in point of fact, have you any evidence that she didn’t just lie back and think of the Empire State?
August 28, 2009 at 8:15 am
Vance
Hey, a genuine historical question at EotAW! (My impression is that we don’t know either way, but that we do know she had a number of close personal relationships, including FDR, Hick, and others. But I’m no historian.)
August 28, 2009 at 10:46 am
bitchphd
have you any evidence that she didn’t just lie back and think of the Empire State?
No, but there’s plenty of evidence that older women who don’t look like supermodels have healthy sex lives, even if it’s icky to imagine them doing so.