You’re looking pretty good for someone 232 years old!

Ted Kennedy. A long-standing politician from a historical political family. He is the remaining brother of two murdered men who were his betters. He is the son of a bootlegger.

Like all families, the Kennedys have had their good, their great, and their unfortunate.

Edward Kennedy is also a murderer. Unlike Jack, and unlike Bobby. Ted caused a young woman to die. He cut short a life before it really began, and then used his family’s money and sway to cover his ass. He set a precedent for future Kennedys to shrug off the consequences of their actions. He truly is a product of Joe the Bootlegger.

Edward Kennedy is not a terrorist. He is not Osama bin Laden or Yassir Arafat. I will not dance at his demise. He is an American senator of long standing, and he deserves respect.

But before we all get whipped up in the frenzy of pre-mourning being perpetrated by the media, I suggest we do our utmost to put things in perspective. Has Ted Kennedy’s service to the nation been enough to wipe the stain of murder from his hands? And can we please spare a thought - as he goes into the great beyond - for the woman who long predeceased him. The woman who never had a chance to shine.

Which, given my overall temperment, is a surprise.

Yesterday a new Facbook group was created by the Republican students of Clarion University in Pennsylvania (I met some of them at CPAC).

Bring Wendy Home (you have to have a Facebook login to see it)

Jaycey remembered the story I told over breakfast the morning we saw the President, of how I started my life believing Canada was a part of America, and that Reagan was our president. Only to be devastated and feel totally robbed when my father explained that we were two seperate countries. Oh the humanity!

So now these students want to bring me “home”. It is such a nice gesture, and as usual makes me feel more American than I do Canadian.

You have so much to be thankful for. I hope you count the fact that you are America, American, Free among those things you are thankful for this year.