Because America is terrible, we have to (have to? get to!) commemorate the last time we managed to successfully kill a president. USA! USA! Believe it or not, we've managed to limp along for 50 years without a random nutjob (or a gaggle/plethora/cell/swarm/herd/nest/whatever of nutjobs) knocking off the resident of our nation's highest elected office. Dallas, having the misfortune to be both, well, Dallas, and the location of the last shooting, was thinking it would be kinda sorta nice to commemorate the prez that got himself shot in their
The problem is, you conspiracy theorists are judging the past by today's standards, using faulty data. Back then, grassy knolls weren't like the ones we have nowadays. They were lower and less slopy, and the grass was not nearly as green. A standard-issue, over-the-counter grassy knoll held no more than one onlooker--or two if one of them was a little kid. There's no way a professional hit squad could have hidden in the type of grassy knoll available in 1963.
I teach grade 10 history, and every once in a while I attempt to teach my kids that you cannot believe everything you read on the Interwebs, (Wonkette excepted, of course). This is the way I explain it to them. I tell them that I can put up a website that says that JFK was killed by little green guys from Mars. and then I tell them why. You see, when he said that the USA would put a man on the moon in 10 years, the Martians intercepted that broadcast and realized that after the moon, Mars was next. So they came down to Earth, which they had never bothered visiting before because really, why should they? And they killed Kennedy. And if I put that on the internet, many would believe it, because they read it on the internet.
I tell this story to my students with a perfectly straight face. One year, a very freaked-out young man put his hand up hesitantly, and asked me if I really believed that. I assured him that I did.
I'm not sure how long it took for him to realize that I was joshing.
I'm cool with that as long as there are guest appearances by Kate Bush, Urban Bush Women, and a couple of skulls filled with gelatin.
Meh, I'd be more impressed if they had started gathering there on November 22, 1962.
Genghis Khan and Vlad ÈepeÈ are also looking much less extreme these days.
The problem is, you conspiracy theorists are judging the past by today's standards, using faulty data. Back then, grassy knolls weren't like the ones we have nowadays. They were lower and less slopy, and the grass was not nearly as green. A standard-issue, over-the-counter grassy knoll held no more than one onlooker--or two if one of them was a little kid. There's no way a professional hit squad could have hidden in the type of grassy knoll available in 1963.
I teach grade 10 history, and every once in a while I attempt to teach my kids that you cannot believe everything you read on the Interwebs, (Wonkette excepted, of course). This is the way I explain it to them. I tell them that I can put up a website that says that JFK was killed by little green guys from Mars. and then I tell them why. You see, when he said that the USA would put a man on the moon in 10 years, the Martians intercepted that broadcast and realized that after the moon, Mars was next. So they came down to Earth, which they had never bothered visiting before because really, why should they? And they killed Kennedy. And if I put that on the internet, many would believe it, because they read it on the internet.
I tell this story to my students with a perfectly straight face. One year, a very freaked-out young man put his hand up hesitantly, and asked me if I really believed that. I assured him that I did.
I'm not sure how long it took for him to realize that I was joshing.
Spoken like a man of wealth and taste.
Not to forget "I'm still sitting here!"
Here in NM, the nuts are oddly drawn to Roswell.
It was Colonel Mustard, in the library, with a candlestick.
There used to be a conspiracy museum on Dealey Plaza, I'm not sure if it's still there.
Well, most of them do feel alienated.
Mostly you, as I wasn't born yet.
Archies dismissal!
Ugh, already imagining the 50th anniversary of 9-11, thank you.