Ask A Historian

[vorlon13]

If I may weigh in on JFK,

Between Sam Moore and Bugliosi, there is no 'there' there.

A salient feature of all the conspiracy theorists who are (obviously) looking over all the same evidence and materials is they don't agree on anything.

Moore and Bugliosi, OTOH, aren't conspiracy minded at all, each has taken a good look at the evidence with open minds about where it might head, and they've each done great work on the assassination, and do not contradict each other.

The House Committee on Assassinations did some good work, but there acoustic re-enactment and conclusions was total horseshit.

Moore proved the 'stuck open mic' couldn't have been in the motorcade, Bugliosi concurs AND discovers where the mic was, the Dallas Trade Mart, the motorcade destination.  Since the mic was MILES from School Book Depository, there is no way it recorded the percussive sounds of the shots.


Did you know:

there were witnesses one floor below Oswald's sniper nest that heard the casings from the ammo hit the floor above them?

Oswald's first shot missed (plausibly deflected by a tree branch), ricocheted off the pavement to Kennedy's right, and struck a curb nearly at the railroad overpass and the spray of concrete fragments injured a spectator there?

the limo bubble top was not use because, get this, IT HAD STOPPED RAINING !!


There are about a hundred of these details that make the conspiracy industry squirm.

[houseofcantor]

He was a total nutbag.

First century BC Rome was a strange place.  It's hard to convey into English exactly what a Roman meant by "dignitas" but Lucius Cornelius Sulla was a scion of the Cornelii, an old Patrician powerhouse whereas Marius was a plebian.  Who can know what Sulla thought of that or what slight to his dignitas he imagined from this low-born scum?

Curiously, when Caesar fought Pompey, Caesar was the Patrician representing the populaires while Pompey was the plebian representing the optimates.  Civil War has a way of fucking things up.

Could dignitas is this context be seen as similar to the Chinese concept of face?

If I may weigh in on JFK,

Between Sam Moore and Bugliosi, there is no 'there' there.

That dumb question came from watching some JFK thing on netflix which looked like enough of an answer from here. I'm not familiar with those people, and I'm definitely not a conspiracy nut. I'm just a regular nut.

[vorlon13]

Unfortunately, the Warren Commission screwed up a few things (that do not affect the "Oswald acted alone" part) and those errors were the birth of an industry.

The House Committee on Assassinations might have been a good way of fixing things, but one of the higher ups (Blakeley as I recall) leading the investigation had a book deal and he HAD to muck up things or the book deal was going to not fund his retirement. And this led to the second shooter debacle.

[vorlon13]

Blakeley seized on the "open mic" with considerable enthusiasm. The Dallas police department in 1963 had 2 radio channels for all their police cars and motorcycles. The 2 channels were recorded on a Dicta-belt recorder. It was noted there was a microphone stuck on during the assassination, and it was theorized it was close enough to the Texas School Book Depository to have recorded the sounds of the shots. The committee decided the stuck mic was on a motorcycle that was very close to Kennedy's limo. Analysis of the recording was believed to show 4 shots. The committee authorized an acoustic recreation of the assassination to see if they could match up the sounds supposedly recorded on the Dicta-belt with any of the various theories about where the shooter(s) were located.

This led to Blakeley (mindful of his book deal needing something salacious to make $$$$) to insist the ambiguous (at best) acoustic findings supported a second gunman at a second location in the plaza.

At the time, there were BIG problems with the "stuck mic" issue. The officer on the motorcycle believed to have the mic problem testified he switched on his siren immediately after the shooting stopped. There is no appropriate siren sound on the recording at the correct time. Blakeley asserted the AGC function on the radio explains this. (Obviously, that is NOT how AGC works, otherwise, radios wouldn't work at all)

There are sirens heard on the recording however. A couple of minutes after the assassination however. The sirens grow louder and then fade away.

This is what edumacated folks call a 'clue'.

Where would one have had to be in Dallas to hear sirens get louder and then fade away 2 minutes after the assassination, and plausibly have had a police department motorcycle with a radio and a stuck on microphone located ??


Hmmmmm.


What about Dunkin Donuts ??


No, it was right after lunch, not mid morning, so we can rule out Dunkin' Donuts.

OMG !!


What about the Dallas Trade Mart ?!?!?!?!


It was Kennedy's destination!! It is halfway between the Texas School Book Depository and Parkland Hospital, where Kennedy was rushed for treatment, and Parkland is roughly 4 minutes away !!!

AND THERE WERE COPS THERE AT THE TRADE MART WAITING FOR KENNEDY !!!!!

Anyhow, Blakeley couldn't admit the bleeding obvious because of his book deal, so the nation was stuck with the second shooter bullshit, and there was ABSOLUTELY no acoustic evidence for it all.

Unless of course, the second shooter was at the Dallas Trade Mart, 2 miles away from Dealey Plaza, and a helluva amazing marksman.


And thus is born another conspiracy theory . . .

[Minimalist]

Could dignitas is this context be seen as similar to the Chinese concept of face?

Similar enough that it is not worth quibbling about.

[BrokenQuill92]

Why do you think Queen Elizabeth I never married?

[BrokenQuill92]

Is there any evidence for Atlantis?

[Pyrrho]

Why do you think Queen Elizabeth I never married?

My guess is that it would have meant a loss of power.  But maybe a real historian will give you a better answer.

[Minimalist]

Why do you think Queen Elizabeth I never married?

International politics/religion.  The likely matches with the French or Hapsburgs (which at the time included Spain) were all catholic and there were no protestant polities of equivalent stature to her own.  Marrying one of her own subjects would have served no practical purpose in that age.

[Minimalist]

Is there any evidence for Atlantis?

Well there are fictional accounts in two of Plato's dialogues: Timaeus and Critias. 

But as far as what served as his inspiration, I submit this as the most likely culprit.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/science/horizon/2001/helike.shtml

On a winter night in 373 BC, the classical Greek city of Helike was destroyed by a massive earthquake and tidal wave. The entire city and all its inhabitants were lost beneath the sea. What has bewitched archaeologists about Helike is that it was engulfed just when ancient Greece was reaching its height; when the philosophy and art that inspired the western world for thousands of years were invented.

In 373 Plato was 55 years old and living in Athens roughly 100 miles from Helike which was near the mouth of the Corinthian Gulf.  Timaeus written some 10-15 years after the destruction of Helike (and Critias is also a late dialogue) could easily have their tales of a city wiped out by the gods inspired by an actual event which happened during Plato's lifetime.