Bugliosi is not kind to Posner even though they are largely on the same side of the issue. He has no tolerance for sloppiness and irrational thinking even when it’s in favor of the same conclusions.
Posner is obsolete. Read Bugliosi’s book instead.
There is a difference between knowing something happened, but being uncertain on how, who, etc., and being reasonably sure nothing happened. We know Hoffa disappeared suddenly and there’s no reasonable doubt that one mob faction or another did him in and concealed the body extremely well… but who, how, exactly when and where may remain forever unknown.
It would be unsurprising if a conspiracy* to kill JFK had been uncovered but no principal involved was ever caught, or perhaps identified. But hiding the very fact of the conspiracy, after fifty years of meticulous investigation from every possible angle - not possible.
- Defined as “anyone but LHO acting alone.”
This needs to be posted at the top of every “grassy knoll” thread. A bullet that goes THROUGH the back of the head is not at all like a punch that hits the back of the head. The high rate of speed of the bullet that flattens and tumbles pushes a massive amount of brain matter out of the front of the head and causes the reaction you describe.
There is simply no way a shot that entered on the left front of Kennedy’s head could have possibly caused the explosive brain and blood matter from that point.
18 U.S.C. 1751(a) makes it a federal crime to kill a POTUS or VP.
It did not become a federal crime to kill a president or VP until after JFK’s assassination. Since 1965, according to this link. That’s why Oswald was going to be tried by a Texas court had he lived.
That section of the U.S. Code was originally put in place by Public Law 89-141, enacted on August 28, 1965, as a direct response to the assassination of President Kennedy.
So then you think there were teams of conspirators during the assassination scouring the area to collect all but three of the bullets to cover up the fact that more than three shots were fired?:dubious:
Otherwise, how else could they be sure to fool people into thinking that only three shots were fired by Lee Harvey Oswald.
Because that is the most likely explanation that fits all the available facts.
Respectfully, that’s not a terribly compelling argument.
Damn, I thought I was old, and I was just a toddler when he was shot.
Me too.
You know, there are conspiracy theories about the JFK assassination that make sense. Like, maybe Oswald was working for or with some other people. There’s been no evidence that he was, but it’s not completely impossible.
But Oswald was the shooter, and he took the shots from the book depository, and he fired three shots. And the shots were not difficult to make, they were easy. And the shots that hit Kennedy and the other passengers were well within the normal variation of the effects of rifle bullets on human tissue.
Seriously, when you punch someone in the head, or hit them with a baseball, their head gets knocked away from the punch. That’s because the fist or ball transfers it’s momentum to the head. When you shoot someone in the head that doesn’t happen. The bullet doesn’t act like a fist, the bullet punches through the tissue. And if it exits out the other side, it has transferred hardly any momentum to the head.
Anyone who believes that if a body part jerks to the left it means they must have been shot from the right just doesn’t understand how bullets affect tissue.
Gee, wasn’t expecting that.
Aren’t they illusionists/magicians?
So, only X conspiracies can be outed, while Y or Z conspiracies can be kept?
Gotcha.
Um, uh…have you had a stroke or something?
Yes, but they are also keen observers and are quite adept at spotting BS.
Posner didn’t cover everything, but what he did do was provide the first real narrative of the life of Oswald. CTers skipped over a lot of Oswald’s life or carefully edited it to make the man seems like a humble, hard-working family man who dabbled briefly in Communism. They didn’t present all the crazy shit Lee did, such as planning to hijack planes, attempting to asassinate General Walker, etc. etc. etc.
Posner did drop the ball a few times, but it was nothing compared to the crap CTers were doing. I think Bugliosi does him a disservice with his criticism.
In fact, the are just as well known debunkers.
Whoops. Correction acknowledged.
Lost me there, Harry.
If you can’t differentiate between a mystery/conspiracy that is represented by evident facts but remains unsolved (Hoffa, the Amber Room, Judge Crater) and a claimed conspiracy that has no facts to support its existence (UFOs, alien abductions, JFK murdered by the mob/Cuba/CIA/USSR/Joe DiMaggio) then I’m out of answers for you.