an interesting moment in Kennedy's questioning

[Cocoa]

http://freeinternetpress.com/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=5801

<snip>

Later, Senator Edward M. Kennedy, Democrat of Massachusetts, suggested that it was wrong to think of the late 1970's as somehow inherently safer than the 21st century. "We've got terrorism now, but it was a nuclear threat then," he said

more...



This exchange I thought really highlighted the vast difference in experience between Kennedy and Gonzales.

In 1978, Kennedy had been a senator for 16 years. Gonzales was an undergrad.

In 1962, when Kennedy was first elected to the Senate, the country had just survived the Cuban Missile Crisis. Gonzales was 7 years old.

Kennedy knows something about dangers to the country.

[Mike Nelson]

1. Senator Kennedy has survived mucho more tragedy...

...than the little attourney general

[in_cog_ni_to]

2. That is replaying RIGHT NOW. He just said it. Great reminder for

the little rat bastard. That was the point Gore made in his speech. Are we really in so much more danger now? After living through a Nuclear threat and the cold war? Their war on terror is a crappy excuse.

[NanceGreggs]

3. To be fair ...

... I grew up during the Cold War, and the Cuban Missile Crisis.

The difference for us was that (according to those endless PA films and commercials) hiding under a formica-topped desk in your classroom was all the protection you needed from nuclear destruction.

[Bjornsdotter]

4. Under your desk

...after the shades were pulled down, then you were totally protected.

I wonder what those shades were made of?

Cheers

[NanceGreggs]

6. Flexible formica?

It seemed to be the answer to everything in those days ...

[Bjornsdotter]

7. Lol

Today it would be duct tape.

[Cocoa]

5. and the only protection we have against the terrorists

is this guy. We must give this guy unlimited power, otherwise Osama'll get us.

http://www.smh.com.au/ffximage/2005/11/21/bush2_wideweb__470x358,0.jpg

[rucky]

8. where's the money in duck & cover?

or in new Homeland Security terminology: duct & cover

we need TRILLIONS of dollars to protect us from terra nowadays.

[TahitiNut]

9. Gee... that must be why the 1964 "daisy commercial" was so ineffective.

Not. :eyes:


I did "duck and cover" in grade school in the 50s. I sat in an eerily silent U.S. Coast Guard Academy dining room at breakfast watching atomic submarines (SSN-571, SSN-575, et. al.) cruise down the Thames and out to sea the October 23rd morning after JFK's address to the nation about the Cuban Missile Crisis. I remember when the Cheyenne mountain command center was built and I remember minuteman bases and the Strategic Air Command and Civil Defense Shelters and backyard bomb shelters. Very, very few people (including kids) were under any illusion those measures would help much. We weren't that stupid.




http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daisy_(television_commercial)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cuban_Missile_Crisis

[FreedomAngel82]

10. Damn straight

Hell he knows it better than any of them from his brothers.