Tuesday, November 18, 2014

Sight For Sore Eyes

This has to be sorriest picture to see print history.

For years President John Fitzgerald Kennedy suffered from severe back pain. He took pills and received shots regularly to numb the pain, according to a biography by Robert Dallek, who reviewed the president's medical records. The pain was so severe, Dallek notes, that Kennedy couldn't put a sock or shoe on his left foot without help.

If he had not been wearing it during the motorcade at Dallas on November 22, 1963, he might have lived. Dr Kenneth Salyer, then a 27-year-old resident and doctor on duty at Dallas' Parkland Hospital, said: "He's still upright as a target because he has the brace on, which makes it possible for Lee Harvey Oswald to hit him with a second shot."

The lifelong health problems of Kennedy constitute one of the best-kept secrets of recent U.S. history — no surprise, because if the extent of his health problems had been revealed while he was alive, his presidential ambitions would likely have been dashed.

There's no need to disguise the ill health of the nonagenarian. Kennedy sometimes used crutches or a stick – never in public though - but he did not stoop to depraving a human being as a inanimate walking stick. During his interview of the old man, Tom Plate noted that there were two attendants installed at the Istana just to ensure the supply of hot towels for his aching joints. All this just to prop up a system long past its expiry date?

20 comments:

  1. This comment has been removed by the author.

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  2. They are not propping him. They are propping the son.

    Most observers don't expect him to resign the papacy. His son will not do it, and everyone else around who has a wife will stop their husbands to please the paymaster.

    One may say LKY's dedication and willingness to suffer for the church he loves is admirable. Others have said that having a leader who is so physically debilitated is pathetic, and that this may make people--whether believer or not--wonder why the institution allows him to continue in office.

    After all, a pragmatic man like himself will concur with the pragmatic man on the street, that you need strength of mind and body to continue the work in the grassroots, and for the people. This sight, unfortunately, is a dramatic reminder of the frailty of its leader, and the consonant weakness of PAP institution and its future governance.

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  3. A stint at the mineral waters of an outdoor onsen, instead of hot towels, will do wonders for his aching joints, eh Tattler? However no amount of water however mineralised can wash away the mean and vindictive streak in him, or the pain he has visited on his opponents. Nor to rejuvenate him enough to earn his keep.

    In the Conversations with Mahathir, Tom Plate wrote:
    "I know, but the old guy's still in the saddle you know?"
    "What?"
    "LKY is still there. He never lets go. I let go. He is keeping a lid on the [indistinct]…."
    "The what?"
    "The purse strings. He controls them."

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  4. If you look carefully, you can see that the son is actually HOLDING his hands, NOT shaking it. Pathetic; for both father and son.

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  5. What a son, should have get the old senior to retire the last GE instead of this pathetic state. Hearing and reading all the negative and horrendous comments from the social media is definite not a pleasant feeling for the family. For fame, definitely not for monetary gain or too many skeleton in the cabinet which will be exposed (without the backing of hidden power to suppress it thus the unwillingness to retire the old senior)

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  6. Come on, PAP is desperate.

    There is no other good reason to explain why they had to do it to an old man like him by just paying a monthly salary to act like an MP but not doing the real stuff.

    It's almost like they are deceiving his constituents and the people at large, isn't it?

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  7. 奇虎难下
    Once on the tigers' back,
    no dismount. Or will
    be destroyed.
    Power, gain and glory
    All in jeopardy.

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  8. This is the almighty tough hatchet man, who does not care what people think.

    Did he ever imagine himself like this?

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  9. When I saw the photo, my first thot was;
    "Why is the old man still propping up the son?"

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  10. this is power he is the father of Singapore, you all speak so freely but if not for him you will have no voices...........you speak on the freedom he has given...........pui to you keyboard
    wayang queers

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    Replies
    1. Father of Singapore my arse.
      Stamford Raffles is the Father of Singapore.
      Stamford Raffles founded Singapore long before LKY started working as a translator for the Imperial Japanese in World War Two.

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    2. that was in the past, now he lacks the power even to stand on his own two feet.

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  11. Founding Father of PAP lah!
    LKY is the father of PAP.

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  12. "this is power he is the father of Singapore, you all speak so freely but if not for him you will have no voices...........you speak on the freedom he has given."
    Anonymous11/19/2014 10:39 AM

    Before LKY became Prime Minister.
    Who gave LKY the freedom to speak?
    The British government or the Japanese Imperial Government?
    What do you think?

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    Replies
    1. i suggest you then crawl back to your british masters

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  13. The father looks stronger than the son. It is because the son is extremely weak in his leadership that his father has to suffer the existence of his own pain to ensure his son remain in power.

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  14. Redemption lost.
    Dignity gone.
    Yesterday's cockerel soon to be tomorrow's feather duster.

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  15. Sight to make sore eyes.

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  16. Unfortunately, despite what the PAP expouse about meritocracy, they do not practice it within the party. LHL is the chosen one, but not the best person to lead the party and ultimately the country. He gained the leadership by the sheer power of LKY's personality and drive that scared everyone else into submission.
    Singapore is in the state it is now, because we do not have the best man on the job. We had a chosen man on the job.

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  17. They are both weak. Junior is weak in the head, Daddy is weak in the legs. So they form a tag team, with Junior doing the carrying, and Daddy doing the thinking (if he still can). A sight to behold. Which reminds me of the story about the blind man and the cripple.....

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