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Time to lay Kennedy conspiracy theories to rest
The Chicago Sun-TImes ^ | November 23, 2003 | Editorial

Posted on 11/23/2003 6:40:47 AM PST by GaryL

CNN reporter Kelly Wallace stands in Dallas' Dealey Plaza and points to the Texas School Book Depository window where, she says, Lee Harvey Oswald is "thought'' to have shot President John F. Kennedy on Nov. 22, 1963 -- 40 years ago Saturday. Then she and the anchor chat about the various conspiracy theories surrounding the assassination and conclude that the truth will probably never be known.

That's nonsense. And worse, it's popular nonsense. The truth is known. Oswald, acting alone, murdered JFK. We know this with as much certainty as we know anything in history. And just as we don't speak of the "alleged Civil War'' or the "supposed sinking of the Titanic,'' so to give credence to the lingering and numerous wild theories about the assassination of JFK is an unwise pandering to folklore and uncritical thinking.

Rather than continue to ask if there is any validity to these imaginings, we should wonder why they are so popular in the first place.

Several answers come to mind. People equate skepticism with independence. If the government says the sky is blue, a certain slice of the population would begin to doubt it. People also seek meaning in their lives. The idea of random tragedy, of a lone lunatic being able to destroy a man such as John F. Kennedy, is difficult to accept. They would rather cling to enticing accidents of history -- did you know that Richard M. Nixon was in Dallas the day before the assassination? -- than face a world where bad things happen for no reason at all.

Credulous media coverage by shallow reporters makes the situation worse. Balancing unequal arguments seems like fairness to them. Thus the Warren Report is weighed against Oliver Stone's fevered fantasies, just as science is pitted against UFO fanatics or, occasionally, the historical record of World War II is forced to justify itself to Holocaust deniers.

There is a human need to see order in chaos. We see it in every corner of human experience. It's what causes us to see animal figures in the stars. But the beauty of Western Civilization is that we have a commitment to empirical reality, and dry fact tells us that, despite the desires of our hearts, Elvis is not alive. The Jews don't run the world. And Kennedy was killed by Lee Harvey Oswald, acting alone.

The Italians have a word, "dietrologia,'' which translates as the tendency to find shadowy motives behind the obvious. That is what is going on here. Oswald was a skilled marksman. He shot Kennedy at what amounted, for him, at close range. The endless skepticism and analysis are a waste of time, and, worse, they distract attention that might otherwise be devoted to the actual trials and triumphs of Kennedy's short-lived, long-ago administration. Forty years is long enough for wild speculation to be indulged. It's time to stop humoring the conspiracy buffs.


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Editorial; Extended News; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: assassination; conspiracy; jfk; kennedy; oswald
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Wow! This may be the best editorial I've ever read on the Kennedy assassination.

I used to be a conspiracy buff: I read all the books, atteded symposiums, visited Dallas, wrote articles. Then I read "Case Closed" and - thank God - I'm "free at last!" What a great feeling!

Thank God for Gerald Posner.

1 posted on 11/23/2003 6:40:48 AM PST by GaryL
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To: GaryL; Admin Moderator


I'm deeply saddened about Breaking News Abuse.
2 posted on 11/23/2003 6:45:01 AM PST by ConservativeMan55 (The left always "feels your pain" unless of course they caused it.)
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To: GaryL
Gary, you ignorant slut! Johnson did it! heh heh
3 posted on 11/23/2003 6:46:04 AM PST by Ditter
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To: Ditter
Johnson didn't do it! Elvis Shot JFK!!!
4 posted on 11/23/2003 6:47:56 AM PST by ConservativeMan55 (The left always "feels your pain" unless of course they caused it.)
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To: GaryL
Posner was on the History Channel today debating David Lifton and Mark Lane and he blew them out of the water. Eventually, he showed that Lifton is a kook---and that for anyone to accept L.'s ideas, you had to discount ALL physical evidence as "fradulent" or "forged," and then he turned Lifton's own evidence against Lane and said that even Lifton held out the possibility of a shooter from behind.

I've invited Lifton to the university campus twice in 10 years---very popular---and when you get him alone, his notions just collapse because he claims all the audiotapes were doctored, the Zapruder film was doctored, and, of course, all autopsy photos and x-rays were frauds. I admit he has some fascinating evidence on changes between Dallas and Bethesda on the body (which, to my mind, Posner did an unsatisfying job of explaining or refuting) but once you get past that, his ideas totally collapse. Oh, and for all those who saw "smoke" on the grassy knoll. Funny, my ammunition is smokeless. Guess those Corsican/Mafia/Vietnamese/Cuban/LBJ hitmen weren't smart enough to use smokeless ammo.

5 posted on 11/23/2003 6:51:18 AM PST by LS
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To: Ditter
And Michael Jackson helped!
6 posted on 11/23/2003 6:51:41 AM PST by LS
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To: GaryL
I just watched the piece our local CH 4 (Dallas) put together on this - ALL the detectives they interviewed point to Oswald as the shooter ... one of them after talking to him while fingerprinting him called him a 'mifit and a kook' ...
7 posted on 11/23/2003 6:52:45 AM PST by _Jim ( <--- Ann Coulter speaks on gutless Liberals (RealAudio files))
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To: GaryL
trust your govt.....
go back to sleep now...
it was the lone gunman....
8 posted on 11/23/2003 6:53:01 AM PST by joesnuffy (Moderate Islam Is For Dilettantes)
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To: ConservativeMan55
John Fitzgerald Kennedy has three names.
Elvis Aron Presley also has three names.
Both names are, amazingly, comprised of consonants AND vowels.
Kennedy was born in 1917, and died in 1963.
Elvis was born in 1935, and died in 1977.
All 4 years have EXACTLY 4 digits.
Kennedy was 'The President'. Elvis was 'The King'


This is all it took for me.
9 posted on 11/23/2003 6:54:35 AM PST by microgood (They will all die......most of them.)
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To: GaryL

Gary ..

That "thank God for Gerald Posner" WAS "sarcasm" wasn't it???
Watching him for the first time on TV I got the same chills and vibes I had the first time I saw dog -hit face clinton.
11 posted on 11/23/2003 7:01:00 AM PST by late bloomer ( Neglegere homo pone aulaeum)
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To: microgood
Your#9.......LOL

And,.....El-vice was a 'special' (secret-secret agent of JEH) hero of Hoover.

LOL

/sarcasm

12 posted on 11/23/2003 7:03:10 AM PST by maestro
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To: GaryL
"Time to lay Kennedy conspiracy theories to rest"

I agree. There's really no credible evidence that anyone else was driving the car Mary Jo was riding in, no matter how hard Ted tries to convince us.
13 posted on 11/23/2003 7:05:02 AM PST by Spok
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To: GaryL
We were talking about the Kennedy assassination and someone referred to the famous Dallas sniper roost as the "Texas School Book Suppository." (Boy, now that is gonna hurt somebody!)
14 posted on 11/23/2003 7:05:04 AM PST by NoControllingLegalAuthority
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To: late bloomer
No it was not sarcasm. I've seen him many times and never got that impression. You're reacting emotionally, not logically. Have you read the book?
15 posted on 11/23/2003 7:08:59 AM PST by GaryL
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To: GaryL
.. Oswald, acting alone, murdered JFK..

....and that's your final answer. How tidy.

LBJ did it!

Future history will show that during the Clinton Presidency (Conspiracy) many executions were committed, but were called suicides.

16 posted on 11/23/2003 7:09:44 AM PST by JesseHousman (Execute Mumia Abu-Jamal)
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To: GaryL
"He shot Kennedy at what amounted, for him, at close range"

He was behind the stockade fence?

17 posted on 11/23/2003 7:10:26 AM PST by Senator Goldwater
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To: ConservativeMan55
Thanks for the warning. I'm new around here and still learning the ropes. I'll be more careful in the future.
18 posted on 11/23/2003 7:11:21 AM PST by GaryL
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To: joesnuffy
trust your govt.....
go back to sleep now...
it was the lone gunman....
I apologive for my previous post; I reacted from the heart (I had it pulled as it was over the top).

Now, on the subject of 'your govt' that day - it was in the form of the Dallas Police Department - officers that day put their lives on the line in finding the culprit, Oswald, and attempting to apprehend him - ONE of those officers that day paid for that effort with his life (Officer JD Tippet).

The detectives working that case (JD Tippet's murder) and the Kennedy Assassination (it wasn't a federal crime to shot the presient at that time) have said that they "had enough evidence to convict Lee Harvey Oswald and get the death penalty" - there were NO DOUBTS in their minds who shot JFK ...

19 posted on 11/23/2003 7:13:53 AM PST by _Jim ( <--- Ann Coulter speaks on gutless Liberals (RealAudio files))
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To: maestro
El-vice was a 'special' (secret-secret agent of JEH) hero of Hoover.

LOL..That pretty much nails it.
20 posted on 11/23/2003 7:14:59 AM PST by microgood (They will all die......most of them.)
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