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50th Anniversary of Kennedy Assassination

  • 22-11-2013 03:50AM
    #1
    The Dom
    Closed Accounts Posts: 236 ✭✭


    Just reading through much of the news articles commemorating today's 50th anniversary of the Kennedy assassination and find it amazing that after almost 50 years, people are still arguing about the single bullet theory and also if he had an overall positive impact on world politics.

    Vietnam and the Cuban missile crisis seem to be the topics most discussed regarding his political decision making, the moon landing his most lauded but he also obviously played a large role in the civil rights movement and some feel that this was most likely the reason he was murdered above all else.

    Really good article in The Guardian but it's far too long to post and so here's a short one from CNN instead:
    Dallas Prepares for JFK Anniversary

    Today marks the 50th year since the assassination of President Kennedy in Dallas. Politicians, Kennedy friends and family members, as well as thousands of tourists will gather for a memorial ceremony at Dealey Plaza.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4sKRIuwLUNE


    To honor the 50th anniversary of President Kennedy's death, President Obama and the first lady laid a wreath at his gravesite in Arlington National Cemetery, joined by former President and Mrs. Clinton.

    Meanwhile in Dallas, curious tourists still come to the place where those fatal shots were fired half a century ago. For this city, tomorrow will be a delicate balancing act of honoring Kennedy's memory without sensationalizing his murder.

    Kathleen Kennedy Townsend, the late president's niece and Robert F. Kennedy's daughter, spoke about her uncle's legacy on "New Day" Thursday.

    She said: "What President Kennedy gave us is his great sense of spirit... He challenged, it's the spirit of youth. To take challenges, to do things that were difficult. To raise us up as a people and as individuals. "

    The new JFK monument will be unveiled in Dallas during Friday's ceremony and it is located in the ground on the infamous grassy knoll.

    The inscription on the monument is the final paragraph of the speech JFK intended to deliver at the Dallas trade mart on November 22nd, 1963.

    Have spent the last few hours watching Discovery documentaries and reading interviews regarding the assassination and I feel if anything, I am more unsure now about who did what to who and why, than before I started. Watched the following video also, where Oliver Stone gets interviewed by his son and in it they discuss the 50th anniversary and also the reaction that the film JFK received, and he for making it, over 22 years ago (mad to think it's been that long):

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l_ejzGPryL4


    So, two questions:

    Do you think Kennedy ultimately had a positive or negative effect on the world?
    Who do you believe ordered the assassination and do you believe it was carried out by a lone gunman?


«134

Comments

  • #2
    IvaBigWun
    Banned (with Prison Access) Posts: 5,368 ✭✭✭IvaBigWun


    Discussion on this already on another thread.


    See the last few posts here


  • #3
    Senna
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 8,800 ✭✭✭Senna


    I think Red Dwarf covered the Kennedy Assassination best.


  • #4
    shedweller
    Closed Accounts Posts: 4,023 ✭✭✭shedweller


    Didnt he change something around so the govt could issue dollars instead of the fed? How did that pan out?


  • #5
    The Dom
    Closed Accounts Posts: 236 ✭✭The Dom


    shedweller wrote: »
    Didnt he change something around so the govt could issue dollars instead of the fed? How did that pan out?

    Read the following on that last night:
    Perhaps the wildest accusation against the Fed is that it was involved in Kennedy's assassination. This idea was promoted by a 1989 book Crossfire: The Conspiracy That Killed Kennedy, by a writer named Jim Marrs, who also has written about conspiracies involving Freemasons, psychics and extraterrestrials. Crossfire was an influence on Oliver Stone's film JFK.

    The alleged Fed conspiracy has to do with Executive Order 11,110, which was signed by Kennedy on June 4, 1963. It delegates to the Treasury secretary the president's authority to issue silver certificates, paper dollars that were redeemable in silver coins or bullion. Marrs presented this as an effort by Kennedy to replace Federal Reserve notes with silver certificates, thus transferring power from the Fed to the Treasury -- and providing a possible motive for the president's assassination less than half a year later.

    However, the executive order was just a technicality. It did not expand the issuance of silver certificates -- which actually were being phased out, since rising silver prices had raised concerns that redemptions would drain the Treasury's silver supply. Indeed, Kennedy also signed a bill giving the Fed authority to issue small-denomination notes to replace the silver certificates, something hard to explain if he were trying to reduce the Fed's involvement with the money supply.

    Someone tell Oliver Stone.


  • #6
    castletownman
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 13,249 ✭✭✭✭castletownman


    It's testament to the legacy of the man, that some fifty years on he's still probably the most beloved "Irish-American". And that conspiracy theories are still abound. The latter kind of paper over his achievements actually.

    His assassination is to our parents generation what 9/11 is to us. So from an Irish perspective, for that reason alone, I feel that he did have a positive impact on the world.


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  • #7
    Wacker The Attacker
    Closed Accounts Posts: 7,473 ✭✭✭Wacker The Attacker


    JFK was a whoremaster who was probably elected fraudulently.

    Why is this guy even discussed anymore let alone lauded?


  • #8
    Wacker The Attacker
    Closed Accounts Posts: 7,473 ✭✭✭Wacker The Attacker


    castletownman wrote: »
    It's testament to the legacy of the man, that some fifty years on he's still probably the most beloved "Irish-American". And that conspiracy theories are still abound. The latter kind of paper over his achievements actually.

    His assassination is to our parents generation what 9/11 is to us. So from an Irish perspective, for that reason alone, I feel that he did have a positive impact on the world.


    Why?

    What aspect of the moden world can you look at and say JFk did that?


  • #9
    SEPT 23 1989
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 43,038 ✭✭✭✭SEPT 23 1989


    I thought Bobby's assassination was a much more sadder affair


  • #10
    Mint Aero
    Closed Accounts Posts: 3,570 ✭✭✭Mint Aero


    He was abducted by Rock'n'Roll lovin' aliens


  • #11
    Wacker The Attacker
    Closed Accounts Posts: 7,473 ✭✭✭Wacker The Attacker


    SEPT 23 1989 wrote: »
    I thought Bobby's assassination was a much more sadder affair


    Whats the difference?

    Why would you consider one worse than the other?


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  • #12
    Wacker The Attacker
    Closed Accounts Posts: 7,473 ✭✭✭Wacker The Attacker


    Mint Aero wrote: »
    He was abducted by Rock'n'Roll lovin' aliens


    He aint dead baby he's just havin' a break


  • #13
    Duckworth_Luas
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 5,746 ✭✭✭Duckworth_Luas


    Wacker The Attacker wrote: »
    Why?

    What aspect of the moden world can you look at and say JFk did that?
    That men no longer wear hats!


  • #14
    anncoates
    Closed Accounts Posts: 13,925 ✭✭✭✭anncoates


    Wacker The Attacker wrote: »
    JFK was a whoremaster who was probably elected fraudulently.

    Why is this guy even discussed anymore let alone lauded?
    Wacker The Attacker wrote: »
    Why?

    What aspect of the moden world can you look at and say JFk did that?
    Wacker The Attacker wrote: »
    Whats the difference?

    Why would you consider one worse than the other?

    Is it your time of the month?


  • #15
    Wacker The Attacker
    Closed Accounts Posts: 7,473 ✭✭✭Wacker The Attacker


    anncoates wrote: »
    Is it your time of the month?

    Probably yours. ANN


  • #16
    Wacker The Attacker
    Closed Accounts Posts: 7,473 ✭✭✭Wacker The Attacker


    Duckworth_Luas wrote: »
    That men no longer wear hats!


    At least they put their hats on the right way round.

    http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/12/29/obamas-backwards-hat-love_n_154013.html


  • #17
    [Deleted User]
    Posts: 26,920 ✭✭✭✭ [Deleted User]


    There's a lot about the Kennedy assassination that just doesn't make sense. Been reading into some conspiracy theories and some of them are absolutely fascinating! Also from watching those, I had no idea that he was shot more than once - I always assumed it was just that single shot that did it, but he was shot twice. It's one of those times where I would love to be able to go back in time and see exactly what happened.


  • #18
    mike65
    Closed Accounts Posts: 88,968 ✭✭✭✭mike65


    Thank **** I'll long be dead by the time the 100th anniversary comes round.


  • #19
    Wacker The Attacker
    Closed Accounts Posts: 7,473 ✭✭✭Wacker The Attacker


    Ryan Tubridy will write a 500 page treatise on the 50th anniversary celebrations\commemorations (whatever word one uses) and the affect they had on Ireland.

    He managed to sell a book about a 4 day hand waving session in ballygobackward in the early 1960's.

    Let the next project commence in earnest.


  • #20
    The Dom
    Closed Accounts Posts: 236 ✭✭The Dom


    mike65 wrote: »
    Thank **** I'll long be dead by the time the 100th anniversary comes round.

    Seems a rather trivial reason to be thankful you'll be dead in 50 years time.

    Not looking forward to Take That's 75th anniversary myself but think I'd still rather be alive.


  • #21
    anncoates
    Closed Accounts Posts: 13,925 ✭✭✭✭anncoates


    Wacker The Attacker wrote: »
    Probably yours. ANN

    Stunning riposte.


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  • #22
    The Diabolical Monocle
    Banned (with Prison Access) Posts: 2,618 ✭✭✭The Diabolical Monocle


    It was a plot, and Im more a skeptic than a conspiracy theorist.
    (I dont believe 9/11 or Diana were conspiracies for example)

    Very skilled very experienced military marksmen struggle to make the shot (under no pressure) and the reload rate for 3 rounds in the recorded time is near impossible.
    Plus he was working with a ****ty rifle.
    Oswald was an average Joe and also not mentally stable.

    No way he made the shot himself.


  • #23
    gobnaitolunacy
    Closed Accounts Posts: 3,073 ✭✭✭gobnaitolunacy


    Wacker The Attacker wrote: »
    Ryan Tubridy will write a 500 page treatise on the 50th anniversary celebrations\commemorations (whatever word one uses) and the affect they had on Ireland.

    He managed to sell a book about a 4 day hand waving session in ballygobackward in the early 1960's.

    Let the next project commence in earnest.

    He's always been a Kennedy (and lounge music) anorak...


  • #24
    Laois_Man
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 5,758 ✭✭✭Laois_Man


    Wacker The Attacker is somewhat correct IMO. There's a heck of a lot of nonsense about JFK and how the World would be so different today had he not been assassinated and how he was so loved and admired by all in America.

    Fact is, his election victory in 1960 was the jammiest of all time (at that point anyway, because Bush 2000 overtook him in that respect). Fact is, if there had been a Presidential election on Nov 21st 1963, he'd have been defeated by a huge landslide. America was a country of people who were still very afraid - even though the Cuban missile threat had abated more than a year earlier.

    It is also not reported very much that many Americans actually celebrated the assassination, particularly many whites in the racially tense southern states. His most noteworthy act was an unprovoked attack on a sovereign neighbor that very nearly caused his own country to be neuked. And I find it laughable that he gets so much credit for the moon landings that happened 6 years after his death, just because of his rhetoric.

    All 3 Kennedy brothers were crooks (leaving out Joe) and so was their father! Even the nonsense when Ted died a few years ago - the media dared not mention his actions or his lies around the Chappaquiddick incident. I find their romanticizing of the family somewhat bizarre.


  • #25
    The Dom
    Closed Accounts Posts: 236 ✭✭The Dom


    Never seen this before. Like Alex Jones meets Anchorman.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JybAyTDYJXI


  • #26
    [Deleted User]
    Posts: 26,920 ✭✭✭✭ [Deleted User]


    Off topic, but Unsolved Mysteries and Quantum Leap is a great line-up.


  • #27
    Sir Digby Chicken Caesar
    Banned (with Prison Access) Posts: 23,554 ✭✭✭✭Sir Digby Chicken Caesar


    anncoates wrote: »
    Stunning riposte.

    you don't really get to criticise someone elses retort after leaping in with "TOTM? LOL" yourself


  • #28
    Femme_Fatale
    Closed Accounts Posts: 5,628 ✭✭✭Femme_Fatale


    Wacker The Attacker wrote: »
    JFK was a whoremaster who was probably elected fraudulently.
    Thought you'd love a guy like that - and think he was a "legend" etc.


  • #29
    anncoates
    Closed Accounts Posts: 13,925 ✭✭✭✭anncoates


    Sir Digby Chicken Caesar wrote: »
    you don't really get to criticise someone elses retort after leaping in with "TOTM? LOL" yourself

    To be fair, I didn't use the au courant acronym or the LOL.


  • #30
    DazMarz
    Closed Accounts Posts: 8,493 ✭✭✭DazMarz


    John Fitzgerald Kennedy will continue to divide opinion like no other, even fifty years after his untimely death.

    People say he rigged the election in 1960 and did not deserve to be President. But people sometimes forget who the alternative in that election was: Richard Nixon. Yes, Tricky Dicky got his stint in the White House come 1968, but if Nixon had been in the White House during the turbulent early '60's, there is an even greater chance that World War III would have erupted.

    Kennedy did an awful lot of positive things for the world. Yes, he had flaws, but he was only human. Every great man that is lauded as a hero or an inspiration had their dark sides and weaknesses and flaws that made them mortal. Kennedy's greatest flaw was probably his weakness for women (something shared by another highly respected Democrat, Bill Clinton).

    For all his faults, Kennedy was a man who tried to do his best (and usually succeeded). He and Bobby both tried to shed their father (who was an out and out crook) and his influence. He led the world's greatest power through a time when nuclear war was a very real threat. Both he and Nikita Khruschev deserve a lot of praise for averting crisis and standing up to their respective hardliners in their respective governments.

    Had Kennedy lived long enough to see out his first term (and potentially a second term; Barry Goldwater, the Republican nominee in 1964, was soundly thrashed by Lyndon Johnson in the election. Kennedy probably would have done similar), who knows how different and how much potentially better the world may have been.

    The whole truth of the events surrounding his assassination will probably never be known.

    John Fitzgerald Kennedy, the White Knight of Camelot.

    1917-1963


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  • #31
    Wacker The Attacker
    Closed Accounts Posts: 7,473 ✭✭✭Wacker The Attacker


    anncoates wrote: »
    Stunning riposte.


    not quite as stunning as your initial riposte


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