The Debate Club, Part Two

To my surprise, US News and World Report has published my 500-word op/ed on the question of whether there was a conspiracy in the JFK assassination.

Here is a link to the item, which is included in what the magazine calls the Debate Club.

The appearance of my essay is a little ironic, since one of its points is that on the "Was there a conspiracy?" question, there isn't anything to debate.

All told, five opinions are offered. Four answer the question, "Yes." The lone defender – sort of a lone nut – makes empty, meaningless arguments that do not so much defend his position as ridicule anyone who might answer yes.

The Debate Club

The "Debate Club" is a feature of US News and World Report, or at least its online edition, which is billed as "a meeting of the sharpest minds on the day's most important topics."

I don't know about that – but I'll take them at their word.

A few weeks ago an editor from US News contacted me and asked if I would contribute a 500 word Debate Club op/ed on the question, Was there a conspiracy to assassinate JFK?

He asked because I wrote a book on the subject, first published in hardcover in 2007. It re-emerged as an e-book this past October.

He also asked because the 50th anniversary of the assassination is coming up.

Within a day or so I'd completed the 500 words (550, as it turned out) and sent them along. I have not heard a peep out of USNWR since.

I had to sign a contract that, among other things, prevents me from quoting my op/ed here. I'll link to it from this blog if they use it. If they don't, it still belongs to me and I'll be free to post it. I'm not all that confident they will use it. I'm sure they asked a lot of others to contribute.

Ego being what it is, I hope to reach the wide audience the Debate Club might afford. But of course, I'm no Vincent Bugliosi. I toned down the rhetoric, but the thrust of my essay is that the Debate Club's question is stupid. So I'm not holding my breath.

The current Debate Club topic, as this is written, is whether the Washington Redskins football team should change their name. Coincidentally I just blogged about that. I did not tone down the rhetoric on that one!

Sparks, Nevada: More Senseless Death

Perhaps the most remarkable quote to filter out of Sparks, Nevada today – where some troubled middle school kid shot and killed a math teacher, then himself – is the mayor's observation, "This is just an isolated incident."

The mayor was almost certainly speaking through shock and confusion, and maybe even grief. And the incident itself was indeed isolated. Armed hordes were not invading.

But in a nation armed to the teeth and lovin' it, the shootings were not unusual. And not so isolated.

In Colorado, where I now live, an almost certainly deranged gunman [*] didn't yell, but opened fire in a crowded theater. That same calendar year the state supreme court said it was okay for university students to pack iron on campus.

In Michigan, where I'm from, state lawmakers passed a measure allowing concealed weapons in day care centers – day care centers! – and other supposedly "gun free zones."

In America, it seems, there are no gun free zones.

You can legally take a loaded weapon into a bar, in some states. Loaded guns, loaded patrons – an outstanding combination.

Not even the slaughter of innocents in Connecticut last year has fazed the pro-gun crowd. We continue to reap what we sow.

Next shooting, any minute now.

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[*] The guy is nuts. I'm talking about Holmes. No doubt about it. But legally? That's another matter. For the courts to decide, as they say. For the courts decide as a legal issue, not a psychological one. Which in itself is nuts.