Monday, February 18, 2013

The Enemies of Truth: A Familiar Stench

They are the enemies of truth, posing as its champion.

They are all over the Internet: apologists for the Warren Commission and its lone nut lie. They'll be getting louder as we approach the fiftieth anniversary of the JFK assassination.

Does the assassination even matter anymore? You may wonder. Well, if democracy matters then the JFK assassination matters.

The dishonesty of WC apologists is self-evident, yet some of us are still drawn into debates with them – often over points of evidence that were resolved in the 1960s. The truth they rail against is that the assassination was a criminal conspiracy conceived and carried out by JFK's political opponents.

I don't know why anyone spends any time dignifying these people. We should know better. Debating them is a fool's errand, and it distresses me to see anyone on the correct side of history wasting time and energy playing their game.

George Seldes said to tell the truth and run. We need not run from the liars, but neither should we let them put us on the defensive.

The arguments offered by the enemies of truth can almost be persuasive – until you know a few facts. None of their bluster changes the following:
  1. The Zapruder film unambiguously shows JFK's head and upper torso slammed back and to the left. In accordance with Newton's third law of motion, this is an equal and opposite reaction to an applied force – a gunshot from the right front.
  2. The majority of the medical personnel at Parkland Hospital described a large exit wound to the rear of the head.
  3. Autopsy doctor James J. Humes admitted having burned some of his notes, and told reporters he had been forbidden to talk.
  4. CE 399, which according to the Commission caused multiple wounds in two men, is virtually undamaged. Yet CE 856, an identical bullet test-fired only through the wrist of a human cadaver, is severely mutilated. (See comparison photos below.) Ergo CE 399 did not do, and could not have done, what the Commission said it did.

The enemies of truth never give an inch of ground on these matters. But the points above are not open to debate; they are established facts.

It is only natural to speculate on what makes these people tick. But doping out their motives is, in my view, a fruitless endeavor – throwing darts in the dark.

These enemies have been around, with one face or another, since the 1960s. Know their stench for what it is. They have nothing to offer except lies, distraction, confusion, and disinformation.

"It is not the critic's responsibility to explain why the Chief Justice signed [the Warren] Report," Sylvia Meagher wrote long ago. "Nor is it the critic's responsibility to name the person or persons who committed the assassination if  Oswald did not."

Beware these enemies of truth.


Thursday, February 14, 2013

What Time Is It?

Does this ever happen to you?

I'll look at a digital clock, and immediately think of something other than the time of day – make some deeply ingrained association.

Eleven minutes after seven? Why, that's a convenience store. Three minutes later? Babe Ruth hit 714 home runs.

12:25? Happy holidays! 2:55? A terrible plane crash back in '87.

There are several associated with the Kennedy case, like 11:22, 11:24, and 5:44 (Camp Street).

And then there's 9:11.

6:26 was part of my phone number as a kid, in the pre-smart phone era. The area code was 3:13. Later I moved to 3:03.

My birthday shows up on the clock twice a day, but is a closely guarded secret I shan't reveal here.

Every now and then I make some new association.

I don't dwell on these things, but they do crop up. Damned unconscious! I can't seem to help it.