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Greetings, Quotaholics:
For decades I’ve been a serious student of the JFK assassination, having
read at least 60 books on the subject. I have conducted several
interviews with witnesses or other principals, and have 150,000 words
in an outline for a book on the subject that I still intend to write
someday.
My interest in the RFK assassination sprang from the terrible inconsistencies
in that case as well. The most important fact was that the coroner
stated that RFK was killed by a bullet fired at almost point-blank range,
with the gun barrel placed nearly against the back of his head.
Not even one witness placed accused assassin Sirhan Sirhan within 5
feet of him in the pantry of the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles, and
all placed him in front of RFK, not behind. In short, there was
no phsical means by which Sirhan could have killed him, and in my mind
it was the clearest indication of a conspiracy and a cover-up.
He was nonetheless convicted and sentenced to death, a sentence that
was commuted to life in prison after the California Supreme Court overturned
all death penalty convictions in 1972.
Fast forward now 43 years. Sirhan is now 67, and serving a life
sentence at Pleasant Valley State Prison in Coalinga, California, 200
miles northwest of downtown Los Angeles. According to CNN,
there is now an effort at a retrial.
His attorneys state he should be freed from prison or granted a new
trial based on "formidable evidence" asserting his innocence
and "horrendous violations" of his rights. In a U.S.
District Court brief, Sirhan’s lawyers also say that an expert analysis
of recently uncovered evidence shows two guns were fired in the assassination
and that Sirhan’s revolver was not the gun that shot Kennedy.
Attorneys William F. Pepper and Laurie D. Dusek also allege that fraud
was committed in Sirhan’s 1969 trial when the court allowed a substitute
bullet to be admitted as evidence for a real bullet removed from Kennedy’s
neck. The substitute bullet was introduced in the trial as the
actual bullet removed from Kennedy’s neck and alleged to have been matched
to Sirhan’s gun, Pepper said.
An analysis of a recently uncovered audiotape of the assassination shows
that in addition to the eight gunshots fired by Sirhan’s Iver-Johnson
handgun, five other shots were fired by a second gun from the opposite
direction, Sirhan’s attorneys said. The sound recording "clearly
showed that 13 shots were fired in the pantry, and Sirhan’s gun had
only eight shots, so it definitely means there was a second shooter,"
Pepper told CNN.
For decades following the 1968 assassination, Sirhan had claimed he
could not remember the Kennedy shooting. Pepper and Dusek argue this
is because he was "hypno-programmed" to fire his gun in the
pantry and to then forget the shooting, his programming and those who
had programmed him.
Court papers filed by Sirhan’s attorneys say the state "refuses
to acknowledge that hypno programming/mind control is not fiction but
reality and has been used for years by the U.S. military, Central Intelligence
Agency and other covert organizations.
"Though the practices of hypno programming/mind control is hardly
new, the public has been shielded from the darker side of the practice.
The average person is unaware that hypnosis can and is used to induct
antisocial conduct in humans," Sirhan’s court filings say.
Pepper accused both prosecutors and Sirhan’s lead attorney, Grant Cooper,
who has since died, of misconduct in the 1969 trial. At that time, Cooper
was under federal indictment for illegally possessing grand jury minutes
in an unrelated case, but the indictment was dropped after Sirhan’s
sentencing, Pepper said.
"The state suppressed, destroyed and withheld a great deal of evidence,"
Pepper said in an interview Saturday. Sirhan’s "counsel provided
totally ineffective assistance and collaborated with the prosecution
in violation of his 6th Amendment rights.
"The prosecution told the judge in chambers that we do not have
foundation for some of our ballistics evidence, and the defense counsel
immediately jumped in and said, don’t worry about that, we will stipulate
that all of the ballistics evidence is what you say it is," Pepper
said.
Speaking for myself, I’m very hopeful that he is either released or
given another trial, but RGQ is about how you see it. Do you think
he should be released or retried? Do you think he acted alone?
And while you’re at it, what do you think of JFK’s assassination?
Conspiratorially,
Comment
on this article |
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| Today’s
Quotes |
By plucking her petals, you do not gather the beauty of the flower.
- Rabindrath Tagore
God has given you one face, and you make yourself another. - William
Shakespeare
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| Today’s
Chuckle |
Close
Shave
[Thanks dEE]
A
man enters a barber shop for a shave. While the barber is foaming him
up, he mentions the problems he has getting a close shave around the
cheeks.
“I have just the thing,” says the barber taking a small wooden ball
from a nearby drawer. “Just place this between your cheek and gum.”
The client places the ball in his mouth and the barber proceeds with
the closest shave the man has ever experienced. After a few strokes
the client asks in garbled speech.
“And what if I swallow it?”
“No problem,” says the barber. “Just bring it back tomorrow like everyone
else does.”
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| Life
Sentences |
All history has been a history of class struggles between dominated
classes at various stages of social development.
From the first day to this, sheer greed was the driving spirit of civilization.
Freedom is the recognition of necessity. - all from Friedrich Engels,
German philosopher, born on this day in 1820
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| Image’n
That! |
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| My
Most Embarrassing Moment
My Scariest Moment |
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Speak right up!
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| Cliff’s
Notes
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Pros
It is rumored that the first professional sports league was formed in
1863. It was a soccer league, or football league, depending on
your perspective. It was followed in short order by American baseball
in 1871. Although pay was minimal, there was pay to play.
Some may reference the gladiators of ancient Rome & Greece where
the gladiators were given their freedom and were given gold and gems
if they continued to win. Eventually they became trainers and
trained other gladiators, but were considered part of the army.
Those lines are grey.
This
past weekend was a big sports event in the U.S. The Thanksgiving
holiday brought a full day of professional football. There was
a break on Friday, but Saturday brought college football to fore.
Sunday again brought more professional football. Hockey was also
in full force in those cities that participate.
The games of summer are on hiatus for the off-season. Baseball
is over for a while. Track & field events have been replaced
by swimming & diving, or gymnastics. Most of these are mostly
amateur sports, but skating is big business in both the amateur and
professional venues.
One sport missing from the limelight at the moment is basketball.
Amateur basketball is still quite active in intermural and collegiate
arenas, but they haven’t received the coverage as does other sports
until the "Sweet 16" tournament. Professional basketball
is in "lockout" mode. In reaction to collective bargaining,
team owners have literally locked out their players, so no league play
is currently scheduled. It is doubtful it will be settled before
next season. However, there hasn’t been much fuss created by the
fans.
Baseball and football have also used this tactic. It was only
a short year ago that professional football (NFL) took this same action.
Baseball did it several years before. In each case, fans of the
game were up in arms and there was almost constant press coverage.
Almost daily, there was an update on the negotiations on every news
channel. It truly was news.
In this situation with professional basketball, the news is sketchy,
at best, and almost non-existent. On rare occasion, there is a
news report that so many additional games have been cancelled.
Maybe it is because I am not in a major professional basketball market,
but I’m not seeing the reports on national news either. It looks
as if this professional sport will lose it’s season in quiet anonymity.
Here’s your quiz:
What professional sports take place near where you live?
Has your schedule ever been affected by the tantrums in professional
sports?
What do you think of all these "contract negotiations"?
Pros - Some Have Become Cons
Cliff (the High-Tech Redneck who doesn’t rate a fancy ’signature pic’)
P.S.
We sometimes write these articles ahead of time. I wrote this
on Friday. Of course, the NBA announced their tentative agreement
to a contract on Saturday. I’m running with it anyway. It’s
still topical.
Comment
on this article |
| Ranina’s
Ruminations |
Last
Thursday, I had the most enjoyable, relaxing, satisfying Thanksgiving
of my adult life. It was “fahbulous, dahling – just fahbulous.”
For over 30 years, I have always cooked a big Thanksgiving dinner that
takes a minimum of 2 days to prepare. One of those two nights is almost
always one where I don’t get to bed until 5 a.m.
I would prepare everything for the family dinner myself, because in my
mind, no one else could do a perfect Thanksgiving dinner other than me
and my Mom. I enjoy cooking for people who like the food I prepare, so
that was my ritual.
If I went anywhere other than my Mom’s house for Thanksgiving, I still
cooked the most important parts of the traditional meal at home, just
for us, because I just didn’t feel right unless I cooked and my little
family and I loved the leftovers. Besides, how could it be Thanksgiving
without the smell of a Thanksgiving meal in the house?
Well, this year I (with a bit of trepidation), broke my tradition. My
brother and his wife wanted to spend the day away, since she doesn’t like
to cook and neither of them likes the aftermath cleanup. We all got together,
invited friends and family from out-of-town and rented a series of connecting
suites at a resort hotel. My brother’s wife is sort of a travel agent,
so we got very good pricing. The rooms had panoramic views of the Chicago
skyline and huge balconies. Mine even had a sculpture in the bathroom
that was kind of frightening when you closed the door and were alone with
it. (I read way too many scary books.)
All of the food was catered by favorite restaurants, so that all we had
to do was pick it up. No hassle, no mess, no stress and no rush. We all
just had a Thanksgiving party with abundant food, drinks and fun.
You will probably think of me as strange, but I am still going to cook
a small Thanksgiving dinner during the week. I will take my time and enjoy
doing it at my leisure. Old habits die hard.
To top off Thanksgiving night, most of us got to witness Black Friday
when we retired to our rooms. More entertainment! From the 13th floor,
we saw people double-lined completely around a huge Target store. As we
watched, the line began to overlap the shrubbery close to the store and
loop back on itself. It was incredible and sad and fantastic all at once!
One woman said in a radio interview that she had been in line since the
beginning of Thanksgiving week and she was number 3!!
There were police cars there with flashing lights in anticipation of any
chaos or carnage that might develop and the parking lot was overflowing.
I had never witnessed a Black Friday event other than to notice the horrific
traffic jams around stores and malls on television. I just never could
imagine anything I needed badly enough to leave the house in the middle
of the night, in cold, wind and rain after Thanksgiving dinner with family.
Typically, the store has only stocked about 20 of each thing advertised,
so if you are number 579, you should probably go back home.
I prefer Cyber Monday in my pajamas with coffee, but to each his/her own.
Comment
On This Article |
Kirsten’s
Krazy Kaleidoscope |
No
Kirsten Today. Sorry.
Comment
On This Article |
| Lucille’s
Lunacy |
Tazz’s entry
about Campbelle and his middle name reminded me of a story. TJ, The
Golden Retriever has a first and middle name. When his "puppy raiser"
came to visit him, she explained how he got it. It turns out that his
first name, "Tucker" was a family name, and "Joe"
was supplied because it went with "Tucker".
Of course, he has many names now. Tuckerfuzz, Bubba, Hound From Heck,
Thunderpup are just a few. However, the reason he is "TJ"
in public has more to do with the fact that it rhymes with a word that
begins with "f", ends with "uck" and isn’t firetruck.
When I brought him home, my parents asked me to repeat his name. I did,
and since both were a bit hard of hearing, I repeated it several times,
both before and after they chased me with a bar of soap. I finally convinced
them that his name was clean, if not saintly, but they still didn’t
like it much. "Isn’t there something else you can call him?"
Mom asked one spring day when I was yelling for him to come in from
the yard. "The neighbors may not hear what you’re saying, and they
might call the police."
Okay, I made that up, but I liked it better than the unvarnished version,
which was a demand on Dad’s part that I find something to call my mutt
that wouldn’t embarrass him in front of the grandchildren. He has been
"TJ" since that time, and it hasn’t affected his appetite
or attitude, so I assume the change wasn’t too traumatic for him.
The real challenge regarding his name came when I was talking to our
other local judge, who we members of the bar affectionately call "Church
Lady".
"Is that a new dog?" Church Lady asked me shortly after I
came home from training.
"Yes, it is. I just got back with him."
"What is his name?"
"Tucker Joe," I said. Now, when I’m in court, I can say ‘get
back you little Tucker, and you can’t hold me in contempt."
"That’s fine," Church Lady replied thoughtfully, "Just
be sure you don’t slur your words."
Comment
On This Article
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| Poet-Tree |
Oh, well, that went over like a felled tree, didn’t it? Worth a try.
Here are some I’ve picked up along life’s way..
… then we’ll try this line next -
My bed springs had started to squeek…
Hints:
Here’s a great new rhyming/composition tool. http://www.writerhymes.com/
There’s also a great rhyming dictionary at http://www.rhymezone.com/
Limerick rules. http://freespace.virgin.net/merrick.sheldon/limerickrules.htm
Submit
Opening Line
Submit
Limerick
There
once was a girl with blond hair,
whose tresses were short like a mare,
She brushed and she preened,
like she was a queen,
till I laced her shampoo with some Nair. - ldo |
There
once was a girl with a bike,
who thought she’d go off on a hike
She headed off west,
’cause she thought it was best,
but ran into someone she liked. - ldo |
There
once was a girl from Lake Powell,
whose mouth was something quite foul.
The crap she did spew,
like an overfull loo,
till I smacked her right into a wall. - ldo |
There once
was a jeweler named Ron,
who had the smarts of a prawn.
An amulet he made,
to his student then gave,
but its powers were somewhat a yawn. - ldo |
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Reader Comments |
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Re: Klout
I
also, have never heard of a Klout score. I haven’t heard of Repplify,
and I don’t have a Facebook page. Does that mean I don’t exist? -
L&K, herm
I’d never heard of Klout,
and I post on Linkedin most days. It would certainly miss most of
my writing, too. It is a crude filter, not very fair to applicants,
but still useful to HR workers, who can well afford to waste half
the good applications these days. It is sad that so many of us care
about getting hired - a century ago, wage slavery was considered a
variant of bonded labor. Working for oneself, or with partners was
the thing to do, rather like owning a house instead of renting. -
Bob of the North
Maybe that’s why Clout got changed to Klout! Back in the day of Clout,
people actually knew you. Knew your talent, respected you for it,
felt they could count on you. Facebook is mostly about feelings, not
action. A lot of it is babble - like reality TV. If I were an HR person,
I’d judge a high Klout score as a negative in any job area not connected
to sales. - Nancy L in Ohio
Re: Holidaze
As
I prepare fresh pumpkin to make two pies this morning, and consult
the List about what else I have to cook today, I am far less enthused
about the Feast than you are, Cliff! Yes, the family is gathering
at our house - again. And I am almost the sole preparer of that feast
- again. One other person is bringing a couple things, plus four chairs.
Guests new to the table this year are a couple cousins and their spouses
and kids. Somebody else decided we would eat on Friday, not Thursday,
because there are folks driving here from some distance who can’t
take Wednesday off to do it. And we are NOT having that awful green
bean casserole Campbell’s invented a bunch of years ago to sell their
products. There’s so many carbs and fats in that canned dish! It steals
stomach room for turkey, stuffing, candied yams, cranberry sauce,
GOOD veggies, salad, mashed potatoes, rolls, pie.
I’ll bet you aren’t the guy who gets to clean the whole house, assess
all the bottles of dangerous stuff lurking in bathroom cupboards that
toddlers can get into and figure out where to stash them, plus find
a box to do it in. Have you counted the number of rolls of toilet
paper in the house? Is your dishwasher broken? Do you help clean up
the kitchen after the feast? Most guys don’t. Some of the younger
women don’t help, either. Far different from when I was a kid, or
even a young mom. Everybody pitched in and contributed back then.
Today they just show up and gab while a couple gals get it all on
the table.
On Thursday, designated as Macy’s Parade Day, I plan to sit with cup
of coffee and a sweet roll and watch the thing! I’ve rarely seen more
than glimpses of it before.
Thankfulness all year is the best idea - thankful for the lives we
love, thankful for weather that grows the crops we’re eating at this
table, thankful for friends and a warm home and comforts we enjoy.
They off-set the glitches we deal with. - Nancy L in Ohio
[For the record,
I do not do any of the food preparation except for carving & stirring.
I love my family much too much to do any more than that, but most
of the other preparatory work is mine, including dining set-up and
sleeping arrangements when there aren’t enough beds. - Cliff]
Re: Sensitivity
Bruce,
soon after you started vaping (vapping? No) my husband and I started.
Gave up cigs cold turkey. We used a company owned and operated in
Hawaii (volcanocigs). Unfortunately it didn’t last: hubby because
he likes to smoke ??? And then there’s me: I had not been smoking,
per se, but was hooked on the lowest nicotine gum for several years.
My doctor told me my blood was dangerously thick due to nicotine.
I quit the gum and tried vaping to eventually quit altogether. Well,
fast forward, I’m back to smoking but a LOT less than before, a LOT
less than the gum (expensive!), and I think less than electronic.
I still keep ecigs in my car… It’s never been smoked in.
Ask your doctor about the "thick blood" thing. Mine had
me go on baby aspirin daily. - Carol in California
Hey Bruce–I know
how your wife feels about smells. Stuff that doesn’t bother my husband
will drive me crazy or make me itch. There is a particular deoderant
that is very popular, don’t know the brand, just the smell, that wil
actually make me physically ill if I smell it! Some of my problems
come from when I was pregnant, coffee will always make me sick if
I get too much of the smell. It’s been that way for 32 years now,
since my first pregnancy. This has gotten worse as I age, and developing
asthma hasn’t helped. - Ruth in WA
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Disclaimer- All quotes printed in this publication are believed to be
accurately attributed, but no guarantees are made that some incorrectly
attributed, or even outright false quotes won’t get in here from time
to time. I assure readers that I will do my best to weed out incorrect
quotes, and will print a retraction as soon as I become aware of any errors.
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