And this guys puffy jowls are caused by shots of scotch.
Posted on 11/19/2002 9:23:44 AM PST by Tumbleweed_Connection
Shortly after John F. Kennedy's death, his brother Robert was examining a sculpture of the slain president and pointed out that the puffiness around the jowls was an effect of cortisone shots. "You know, he never had a day without pain," he said.
The country at large did not know. A bad back, a brace, a famous rocking chair, a certain stiffness in his bearing were the glimpses most Americans had of the president's health problems. But now that a biographer has been granted access for the first time to Kennedy's medical files, a radically different picture emerges, one that reminds us — as other Kennedy revelations have — that he and his inner circle were masters at controlling how the public perceived him.
The biographer Robert Dallek examined the medical files in the Kennedy Library with a physician, Jeffrey Kelman, after being given permission by the committee that controls access to the Kennedy papers. The files reveal a man not only in almost constant pain, but under nearly constant medication — from a longstanding series of ailments including irritable bowel syndrome, osteoporosis, Addison's disease and a serious propensity for infection. Even a partial list of medications that Kennedy took during the last eight years of his life is a daunting one, including hydrocortisone, testosterone, codeine, methadone, Ritalin, antihistamines, anti-anxiety drugs, barbiturates to help him sleep, and regular injections of Procaine to ease his back.
It's possible to argue that this litany of drugs was merely the scaffolding that supported Kennedy, that made it possible for him to bring his character and intellect to bear on the presidency. And one has to marvel at the brave stoicism that allowed him to carry on from day to day, impersonating not just a healthy chief executive but an athletic one. Still, it's hard to read the list of ailments and medications without wondering whether there were times when he may have been too impaired to do the job he was elected to do.
While John Kennedy was in the White House, deciding what Americans should know about his health would have seemed like a straightforward political call. But Kennedy died 39 years ago this coming Friday. There is no longer any need to guard his legacy as closely as it is being guarded. The committee that controls access to the Kennedy papers includes Theodore Sorensen, who has been a part of the Kennedy team since 1953. He hesitated at first to admit Mr. Dallek to the archive, in part because Mr. Sorensen, like every Kennedy insider, was constantly obliged to refute rumors of the president's health problems. But those days are long gone. The time for making careful judgments about what the public should know about John F. Kennedy is past. The truth, at last, is more important than political necessity.
what other uses does this drug have other than as a substitute for heroin?
It is also possible to argue what the meaning of "is" is. Character and intellect? The same "character" that smuggled prostitutes into the white in the trunks of cars? The same "character" that allowed him and his brother to use Marilyn Monroe as a toilet? The same "character" that was humping an Eastern Europeon spy before he was President? And intellect? Would that be the intellect that ghost writed his only book? Would that be the "intellect" his own father called abysmal? The man was taking 10 different HEAVY narcotic medications and the Times thinks it was just for "pain?" Are they this stupid on purpose on only when it comes to their phoney saints the Kennedys? It is laughable at this point!
While John Kennedy was in the White House, deciding what Americans should know about his health would have seemed like a straightforward political call. But Kennedy died 39 years ago this coming Friday. There is no longer any need to guard his legacy as closely as it is being guarded.
Now is the Times talking about themselves here in a Freudian slip? Why does this legacy have to be "guarded"? Why are 40 year old medical records state secrets to Liberlas in the first place?
The time for making careful judgments about what the public should know about John F. Kennedy is past. The truth, at last, is more important than political necessity.
Oh thank you- the Pravda of American liberlism thinks that Saint Kennedy doesn't have to be protected any longer - 40 years later! I guess we will wait at least as long for the Times to tell us what we already know about Coke Head, rapist Clinton! This is just par for the course for the Times. LOL!
And this guys puffy jowls are caused by shots of scotch.
One of the assertions Hersh makes early on is that in the weeks leading up to the assasination, JFK was playing poolside grab-a$$, slipped and aggravated his back problems. On the day of the assassination, he was held rigidly upright by the brace, making him an easier target for the fatal shot.
Since he was shooting blanks in both departments, character and intellect, he should have been able to "bring those to bear on the presidency" with little more than a pair of aspirin every 5 hours.
UNDERSTATEMENT OF THE YEAR....
Our President, pondering nuclear weapons in Cuba and what to do about it, while floating on demerol, codeine or methadone, or a combination of the three, just a little injection of methamphetamine before news conferences (rumored, but not confirmed), chased with a little Librium for those anxious moments and then finally, after a scotch or two in the evening, some nice barbituates to get a safe and restful sleep, sleep, sleep.
What a picture!!!!!
I hope I live long enough to see Clinton's list of medications when they finally unseal his medical records.
Her name doesn't come to me right now, but the broad JFK was sharing with Sam Giancanna said Jack was there to be serviced.
In other words Billy Jeff Blythe was just emulating his scumbag idol when he was getting BJs in the Oval Office.
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