Ann Althouse: Epic Fail

Geez. Andy Williams calls Obama a Marxist. Ann Althouse must not know anything about politics and the sixties. Her post is actually a little insulting. Ann gives with the serious insight on Andy Williams, politics and the sixties. Fail.

In case you weren't around then and can't quite figure it out, let me assure you that this sort of thing was disturbingly square at the time. I'm laughing at it now, but I remember that back then, it would actually make me angry. No one in the 60s, when he was popular in some quarters, would have cared what Andy Williams thought about politics. I can't imagine why anyone cares now. Really, that linked story looked like it belonged in The Onion.

Yeah, no one, I'm sure. Well, maybe one or two people. And he was there when he was killed, unlike Ann.

Williams was close friends with Robert F. Kennedy and Ethel Kennedy, campaigning for Kennedy '68 for President. Williams was present at the Ambassador Hotel when RFK was assassinated in June 1968. Williams solemnly sang "Battle Hymn of the Republic" at RFK's funeral, by request of widow Ethel. By August 1969, over a year after Bobby Kennedy's death, Andy and Claudine named their newborn son 'Bobby' Williams. The Williams' friendship with Ethel Kennedy has endured, with Andy even serving as escort to Ethel, during events in the 1970s. Although Williams was a friend of Bobby and Ethel Kennedy's, he said he is a lifelong Republican who grew up in Iowa singing in church choirs and feels right at home in Branson.

Comments

[JimBobForksin]

You got great taste in music. Andy Williams is great!

[Nahanni]

Ouch! That is going to leave a mark...

I think Ann is beginning to show signs of having Sullivan-Johnson syndrome.

[David R. Graham]

Dan, good, thanks for pointing this out! Ann is not a friend of human values.

[Matt Osborne]

Really? Proximity to the Kennedys = political cred? For a man anyone under the age of fifty will have to Google?

Fail.

[Dan Riehl]

Thanks, Matt. Next time just type "Please like me, Ann" and we'll get it, bubba. Sail on captain airhead. Her quote pertained to the sixties, doofus. Try not to be so transparent, or so clueless, whichever it is - if not both.

[Ran]

Note to Althouse: The term "square" didn't mean uncool... the term "square" referred to the unwillingness to break the law, as in preference to remain square with the Law and G-d: Not take illegal drugs, steal, destroy other people's property in protest... (One, like me, could be "square" in long hair and bell bottoms simply because I refused to do dope or drugs.)

Further, in the '60s there was nothing "disturbingly" out of place criticizing a President by anyone... That's an old American tradition.

The point you raise is interesting Dan, because it describes Williams as yet another case of the 'Reagan Democrat.' It's obvious to just about anyone who isn't a "Party animal" - especially to "independents" that both main Parties have drifted well tot he left of their centers. Obvious to not all, however.

Althouse is sharp. I can't say I see the world through her prism, though. This is just me speaking -

Reynolds could do better, I think, in terms of diversity and interest to replace Althouse with Mr. Dan Riehl when he takes a blogatus. 'Twould make for more interesting contrast with the other guest host. Just sayin'.

[syn]

"Ann is not a friend of human values"

This is because Ann Althouse is a Law Professor; Darwin's hairy ape does not have much to offer in the ways and means of wisdom.

But that's okay, she's a Law Professor among so many hairy apes who have convinced themselves their high position obtained by cheap affirmative action degrees give purpose to their backward brains.

,

[FeFe]

I was taught to respect my elders. Just another example of the elderly being marginalized in society, and dare I say it...given "death panels." Pop culture didn't create the Greatest Generation.

[Fen]

Cute. Pandagon's little Direct Action moonbats are having another meltdown because they've been denied the use of Sparkman's corpse as a political weapon. So they spike a blog post about Al Queda sneaking a bomb past screeners.

At least they reveal their priorities. Party trumps Country. But we already knew that.

[David R. Graham]

Ran is right on a little historical note which probably has wide and deep significance, i.e., "square" then meant not doing drugs. It also meant not being promiscuous.

I was in private college and graduate school continuously from 1961 to 1969, Southern California and New York City. Ground zero of the times. I was squarely at it.

Althouse is an ignoramus on this and other matters touching "the 60s." So is Reynolds. So are a lot of people who think they are really cool by knowing what was going on then -- because some unsquare Ps told them "how it really was" and made them read unsquare books to that effect.

'Nuf said. My point is a small one: to the best of my knowledge, the term "square" derived then from the Masonic "square deal," "square meal," etc. The square is a carpentry/masonry tool and is an element of Masonic iconography, as everyone knows, or should.

A square person was one who could be relied upon, trusted, was "straight" and honest in that they thought, said and did one and the same thing. They spoke the truth, were fair and never, ever stole. They did not deceive. Vogue for deceiving entered with homosexuals, as did drugs, which are a requirement for their conduct.

Square people were ignored or despised by "the 60s generation" because they didn't "fit in" with "what's going on," "what's happening." "The 60s generation" is a modern ignoramus term meaning, though its users don't think of it consciously, people who "did" drugs and promiscuity.

Square people are who anyone in their right mind wants as neighbors and governmental representatives, not to mention teachers, producers and merchants.

US Military personnel still use a derivative of the word "square:" "squared-away." They use it in its original meaning.

I am not Mason, never have been and it's sure too late now! :-)

So square all of that away and see if it doesn't in fact support the building and all dwelling in it. Althouse is a cracked block.

[Rob Crawford]

Ann's just pissed that Andy Williams shows more political insight than she did.

[Jon H]

I am a liberal. Here me whine!! Waah! Waah!

[salvage]

So because he was friends with the Kennedy's people should care about his insane ramblings of regurgitated teabagger pablum?

You must be very smart, the average person wouldn't make the connection.

Certainly smarter than Ann!