Posted on 06/21/2013 12:35:07 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
This is a distasteful subject to write about. But Los Angeles talk radio is obsessed with the death of Michael Hastings and the insinuations that somehow he was killed by unknown forces attempting to silence him.
Yesterday afternoon, I drove to the scene of the car crash. Several bouquets of flowers ringed a tree. I saw candles and notes. It's very sad.
Trutherism (the catch-all term for instant conspiracies based on extreme mistrust and/or unfounded supposition) makes me angry.
I would much rather have Hastings' life work be the subject of discussion and criticism than to hear L.A. radio jocks gawk at Hastings' personal history and demons.
Maybe it's a little too personal for me.
1. Cars don't often crash and burst into flames. Especially not cars that are new and well-made, not Mercedes, and especially not cars that are designed to eject their engine blocks when a major compression is detected. So the fact that Hastings' car burst into the flames on impact is unusual. But it is not impossible. It happens.
2. If you were attempting to engineer a death by making a car burst into flames, you would probably not know a heck of a lot about how hard it is to rig a car to explode like this, absent propellants and ordnance. (There were none detected at the scene.) If you wanted to make a homicide look like a suicide, you wouldn't rig a car to explode on impact precisely because it is out of the norm and doesn't often happen. It draws attention.....
(Excerpt) Read more at theweek.com ...
“Trutherism” is not a real word.
What makes a word “real”, pray tell? Is it “fake” until Webster’s gets around to recognizing it?
Try as I might, I can’t seem to find a photo of a car without a trailer “jackknifing.” Could you find me a picture of one? Because if there isn’t a picture, it didn’t happen.
As far as a car crash causing an explosion, my understanding is that is a very rare thing, but tragic when it does happen. Movie SFX people have to load cars up with incendiaries to get them to do that thing we see every time a car crashes on TV or in the movies. If I wanted to make something look like an accident, I think I’d be looking at some other way of staging it. OTOH, a burnt up car is a good way to eliminate a lot of forensic evidence.
“It would take tremendous speed or force to throw one nearly half the length of a football field.”
Actually, it would not take any additional force at all, because of a little something called “conservation of momentum”. If the engine somehow broke free of the vehicle it was mounted on, it would continue at the vehicle’s rate of speed until friction brought it to a stop.
So what you have is zero expertise. Just supposition. Thanks.
“Amateurs leave clues.
Professionals leave unanswerable questions.”
Seems to be a standard made to find a conspiracy anywhere you care to look. Hmm... no clues of a conspiracy, must have been a professional job!
That caught my eye too. “Ejected” in which direction? To the left or the right sounds like a huge liability lawsuit waiting to happen. Up sounds like something from Wile E. Coyote’s blueprints that sounds like it will rarely turn out well. Forward sounds like you’re making a bad situation worse — what kind of force is being used, and where does the reactive force go?
What do you mean somehow? Don't you know this is a feature designed to save a driver and take out a sidewalk cafe or line of schoolchildren?
Thanks; forgot to point a link to it.
I can't help myself. I grew up in cyberspace tracking the Clinton Crime Family on websites like the Whitewater Forum.
Jerry Luther Parks was quoted in Ambrose-Evans Pritchards book The Secret Life of Bill Clinton that "I am a dead man" upon hearing of the suicide of Vince Foster. So he would be, a few months later he was ambushed and killed on a country road in Arkansas.
The shooters have never been found and there were no clues of conspiracy left at the scene of the Arkancide.
Us tin foiled hat people think it was darn curious that a guy who committed suicide in Fort Marcy Park would signal to murder victim his impending demise.
There were no clues of conspiracy left at the crime where Mary Mahoney was shot and killed.
But somewhere in cyberspace you will the quote of Marcia Lewis which may or may not be true, which is the only really plausible explanation for Monica Lewinsky not cleaning the blue dress. Monica's mother is reputed to have said that we kept the blue dress because we did not want Monica to end up like Mary Mahoney.
Amateur leave clues and professionals leave unanswerable questions is my world view and I am sticking to it.
I don’t believe in the “stories” circulating about Hastings death.
There is no doubt he was speeding as more than three witnesses saw him race by them and others just before he hit... they attested to that immediately after the car exploded “On impact”.
Yes it did leave the ground ‘some’ before impact...but there is a bump in the road he drove over, known to all in the area, which elevated his car as it did...and would going at the speed he was. It’s not like a vehicle would rise in a bomb explosion at all.
Fine, it’s just quite convenient for those prone to seeing conspiracies, to have such a standard. It’s self-reinforcing and not really open to critical examination, which isn’t a good thing if you ever want to get at the truth.
“It’s not like a vehicle would rise in a bomb explosion at all.”
Yeah, for that to happen, it seems like there would need to be something strong enough on the underside of the car to absorb the force of the blast without fracturing or vaporizing. No car that I know of is built with thick steel plates on the undercarriage or anything like that.
So you are calling the eyewitnesses liars because you can't find a picture.
Do you have information about a motive that would cause eyewitnesses who happened in the area to make up lies out of whole clothe?
It appears you have some kind of agenda.
The whole point is what happened is extremely rare. It would not have happened unless there were some other things going on that are not acknowledged in any of the accounts. In short, something is wrong.
Are you telling me you don't know the difference between a word that someone makes up to suit his own purpose and a word that has common accepted usage and is recognized in the dictionary?
I would recommend you take a remedial English class before you write things to send to others.
Maybe you need several remedial English classes.
Most people learn the difference between real words and made up words around 2nd grade if not earlier.
IOW, you haven’t heard of a car “jackknifing” either. Waving your hands about, throwing verbiage at me does not conceal that fact that you cannot explain the observation made by another.
When you figure out what a “jackknifed” car looks like, get back to me. Until then, the witness is either witless or a liar. Your call. Any true “detective” will tell you the flimsiest evidence of a crime is an eyewitness.
Is this evidence of a larger crime? Damifino. Do I have an agenda? Hardly (you I’m not so sure about). I quit allowing people to stampede me into conspiracy theories a long, long time ago. I’m not about to start now.
Wow! I haven’t heard of the “Whitewater Forum” in a long time. Did you find it from Drudge? I’m most interested in knowing. Oh, welcome to FR!
I am not investigating a crime. I have not espoused any conspiracy theory. I have not been “waving my hands”. What you call flimsey eveidence is better than no evidence. You have zero evidence.
I don’t know what happened. The story is not right. If you want to assume with no evidence that the eyewitnesses are lying or “witless” go ahead. I don’t care.
Just don’t insult people who are interested in what really happened.
Where did I come up with the term Whitewater Forum? There must be something called cyber reincarnation because it is as if I was on this forum a long time ago. Screen names keep popping into my head from bygone days such as Saved by Grace, Fred Mertz, and Uncle Bill. Maybe there is such a thing, as in cyberspace all things may be possible. Cyber reincarnation or not, I certainly believe in your screen name, Cyber Liberty.
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