Buy Amazon!
December is here, and that means the gift-giving pressure increases.
And so does my urging you to use neo-neocon as your friendly Amazon portal. Got to any of the widgets on the right sidebar (or links to Amazon in the body of my posts) to click through and order, and you’ll be giving me a teeny (or even not so teeny, depending on how much you buy from Amazon) donation to brighten my holidays as well.
I should post more suggestions for actual products, but I keep forgetting. That’s the kind of salesperson I am! But I think this newish offering by Stephen King sounds interesting. It’s a time travel book where the main character goes back to try to prevent the Kennedy assassination (review here).
I don’t read much King as a rule, and I haven’t read that one. But on the few occasions when I have read him I’ve found that he’s a good writer, not just a good read. And I don’t just say that because he’s a New Englander!
Also, I’m glad that King didn’t succumb to the popular assassination conspiracy theories. In King’s book Oswald acted alone, which shows King’s great good sense, at least in that regard. However, be forewarned: the book is extremely long, and some Amazon reviewers mention that King pushes a bit of left-wing politics in it, although some disagree on that.
Here are some other special deals from Amazon, if you don’t happen to like King.
I was a fan of the early King, but much of his later work seems intended to pay the mortgage.
I think he lost me for good with “The Stand.” The first half was a great sci-fi story, but after they found the old black lady on the porch and headed to Vegas, it all seemed to slide downhill. It was as though King didn’t know where to go with the story.
But back in the day when Carrie was carrying out the high school revenge everyone dreams of, King was quite good.
I was 20 years old when Kennedy was killed. That weekend a family friend was at my parents home as he often was when I was briefly home to eat supper. At 20 I spent my time with friends and cars and not too much at home. The news showed Oswald and told the story as they knew it in those early hours and my mother asked the family friend who he thought killed Kennedy. Now this part needs some explaining. The family friend was a big guy in the Boston area Mafia. Not a nice guy all things considered but he was always good to my family and to me. He pretty much knew what was going on, which politicians were dirty and which police were on the Mafia payroll. Usually when something happened he knew something. Without a hesitation he said “the Mafia”. My parents expressed suprise that the Mafia would kill Kennedy and asked why. The answer was that Joe Kennedy made a deal with the Mafia to get his son elected and after JFK got in he went back on the deal. That is he and his brother Bobby went after the mob even though they had agreed to leave them alone in return for stuffing the ballot box. My mother asked him who did it (I never paid a lot of attention to who was who, the Mafia was a low priority to me but when he said the name it stuck in my mind) and the reply was the hit came from Sam Giancana. The next obvious question was did Oswald do it (i.e. working for the Mafia) and he laughed and said “no Oswald was just a patsy). The next day Ruby shot Oswald. Later, according to the family friend Ruby did it for $100,000 (a lot of money in 1963) to shut Oswald up.
You can continue to believe Oswald killed JFK, I know what I have said won’t change your mind, but I swear it is true as I have said it. Did the family friend get it wrong? I honestly doubt it. I think, based on what he said and how he said it, that he knew about it before it happened.
GoneWithTheWind: See this and this, and read Bugliosi’s book.
And yes, your family friend got it wrong.
Neo-neocon: Like Norman Mailer once said, I wanted to believe in a conspiracy to kill Kennedy. I was 15 when it happened and can remember every hour after 12:30 p.m. on November 22, 1963 through the funeral on Monday.
But after 48 years, not one item of evidence, physical or an admission, has been found.
Read Bugliosi’s book from cover to cover twice after buying it on a trip to Boston. Very compelling. His 53 pieces of evidence and the overall evidence of guilt point directly to Oswald.
Three basic questions if one contends that Oswald was not the shooter: 1. Why did Oswald, alone among the employees, leave the book depository after the shooting? 2. Why did Oswald go to his boarding house and get a gun? 3. Why did the recovered bullets and bullet fragments match Oswald’s gun?
The reason is obvious. He did it. He wasn’t a great shot and his rifle was junk, but he got lucky. Had Jackie grabbed JFK, Oswald would have missed the head shot. Had Kennedy not been wearing his leather and metal backbrace, he would have slumped and Oswald would have missed. Had the driver hit the gas pedal on the first shot, Oswald would have missed.
A loser got lucky. That is all. Some things just happen. I was a great admirer of Kennedy. But, as Jackie later said, “a silly little communist” killed a leader for no apparent reason other than to be noticed.
Had an order to make with Amazon today and wonder of wonders…..I remembered to visit your site first and sign in from here! I never seem to remember to do it overall so glad to contribute my few pennies to your coffers! See, your little reminders help those of us who are forgetful. 😉