breaking news: if my name was Kennedy, I'd change it.

[lagilman]

Doctors say Sen. Edward Kennedy has brain tumor; condition discovered after he had seizure.

Seriously. If you're a scion of the Kennedy family? Change your name. It may not help, but it might buy you a few more years while the Universe hunts for you.

*sighs* I've oft disagreed with Teddy, and wanted to smack him around the room more than once, but hasn't the family Had Enough, already? More than enough?
--------------------
Also via Reuters:

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A U.S. Senate banking panel on Tuesday passed legislation that would create a new government-backed mortgage rescue plan and a new regulator for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. Lawmakers passed the legislation on a vote of 19 to 2 after the top Democrat and Republican on the panel crafted a compromise that won broad bipartisan support.

The plan would enable the Federal Housing Administration to guarantee billions of dollars in refinanced mortgages for homeowners whose properties have fallen in value since they took out their loan.

The legislation would also create a stronger regulator for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

Now that the legislation has cleared the banking panel, it will be reconciled with a similar plan that cleared the U.S. House of Representatives earlier this month. Sen. Christopher Dodd, chairman of the Senate Banking Committee, has said he hopes to see the mortgage rescue package reach President George W. Bush by July 4.

Lawmakers and policymakers in Washington have come under pressure in recent months to do something to a stabilize the national housing market that has been shaken by sinking home values and a rise in foreclosures.

(Reporting by Patrick Rucker, Editing by Chizu Nomiyama)

My feelings about this are...mixed. But it would be very nice to see Joe and Jane Homeowner get some help, and not just the corporations who were playing games all along. We'll have to see what batshit bullshit Bush pulls out of his pocket, when it finally hits his desk.

Comments

[fakefrenchie.livejournal.com]

I just read about this tumor in the Globe. I'm more concerned about who will replace him in MA.

[ex-fashioni.livejournal.com]

One has to wonder what kind of deal, exactly, Papa Joe made with Old Scratch.

[lagilman]

Seriously. Starting with Rosemary and working its way down...

[lauriemann.livejournal.com]

Um....

OK, I'll say it - he's 76 years old.

That means he, like his mother and father before him, lived longer than average.

He's not part of any mythic "Kennedy curse" (though you could certainly make a case for some of his older siblings and two of his nephews).

He survived a plane crash in the mid-60s (with a broken back), a car crash in 1969 (that killed his companion) and more eating, drinking, and fooling around (when he was younger apparently) than most people.

If anything, he's been the luckiest Kennedy of them all.

Think about it - we all die. He's not 26 - he's 76.

Sorry, I've generally liked Teddy and voted for him at least once, but I'm not in denial about his age or condition physical condition.

Last I looked, dying in old age wasn't a curse.

[lagilman]

I'm not sure where you got that I was in "denial" about his age or physical condition-- all I said was that his family seems to get hit with more shit than most. That list of things he survived could also be taken by some to say that he's just been better at dodging than his brothers (that's what the weight gain was about! A disguise!)

[lauriemann.livejournal.com]

Stastically, he's done pretty well.

His diagnosis is sad, of course. He's still a vital man.

But I can't look at it in the same way as what happened to his siblings. He's gotten to live a long and useful life. Two of his siblings died in plane crashes in their 20s and two others were murdered in their early 40s.

[ex-fashioni.livejournal.com]

One could argue too, that going through chemo/radiation at his age could be considered its own form of a curse, too, wouldn't you say? (Or any age, really.)

[arouraleona.livejournal.com]

Actually, about the Kennedy's... I've always had a theory (which ended in a high school short story) that involves the catholic church, Castro, and a deal with the devil. Kennedy males for everlasting domination.

Could be true. You are right; they do get hit with enough crap to justify a curse or two.

[arouraleona.livejournal.com]

Also, as an epileptic, I might add that seizures and MRI's suck major hardcore (as does the blood-dye for the test), but at least they caught it. He's a tough old man.