Remembering JFK 50-Years Later

Everyone who was alive the day of the Kennedy assassination knows exactly where they were the moment they heard the news that JFK was shot.  The days of coverage are permanently imprinted on their minds… from Jackie crawling out onto the trunk of the limousine to recover the top of her husband’s head, to her blood stained suit worn at LBJ’s swearing-in on Air Force One, to the single black rider-less horse, to the vision of young John John saluting his father’s casket.

Here is a story of a woman who has made a lifetime hobby of researching the possibilities of what really happened that day and who was behind it.

"Kennedy Slain by CIA, Mafia, Castro, LBJ, Teamsters, Freemasons: President shot 129 times from 43 different angles."

Seeking the truth behind the tragedy of Kennedy's assassination

Barb Junkkarinen, a self-described JFK conspiracy theorist and self-taught scholar, has immersed herself in the grittiest details of an assassination that continues to fascinate Americans half a century later. (John M. Glionna / Los Angeles Times)

LA Times: Like most Americans, Barb Junkkarinen thinks there's more to the Kennedy assassination story. She uses hands-on research to bring reason to a debate rife with conspiracy theories.

By John M. Glionna - Reporting from Hillsboro, Ore. - Nov. 22, 2013

Barb Junkkarinen emerges from the bedroom with the gift her husband and son gave her one Christmas.

It's a 1940 Italian-made rifle, like the one Lee Harvey Oswald fired from a sixth-floor window at the Texas School Book Depository, killing President Kennedy on an autumn afternoon in Dallas. He'd spirited the weapon into the building by disguising it as a curtain rod.

"This is how Oswald carried his package," she says, holding the butt of the rifle low, the way witnesses described. "He had it cupped in his hand, like this."

Junkkarinen's husband, Juha, and son, Jason, nod at the demonstration they've seen again and again. They help adjust the unloaded weapon just so. They point out there's also a scope and ammunition.

Over more than half her lifetime, Barb Junkkarinen has made a hobby of delving into rumors, theories and contradictory facts that swirl around a killing that continues to titillate — and divide — Americans on the 50th anniversary of the events of Nov. 22, 1963.

In the world of online Kennedy discussion groups, she learned "lurkers" tune in but never post; "fringies" attribute a political motive to every turn; false witnesses claim to have been places they haven't. Those who believe Oswald acted alone are "lone-nutters."

And people like Junkkarinen are CTs, for conspiracy theorists.

She has amassed a trove of artifacts: autopsy reports, investigation documents, shelves of books and photos, and a model of the Lincoln Continental limousine Kennedy rode in when he was shot in Dealey Plaza. There's also a life-sized plastic model of a human skull she uses to make detailed arguments about bullet entry and exit.

Inside her Portland-area home office, she avidly dissects the latest theories of the paranoid and the emotionally unstable.

They include those who believe Kennedy was first hit in the throat with a bullet made of ice; that a man in Dealey Plaza fatally wounded the president with a dart fired from an umbrella; and that J. Edgar Hoover attended a party the night before the assassination celebrating JFK's imminent demise.

Junkkarinen rejects those theories. She blames gangsters and spies.

Junkkarinen, 62, can still picture where she heard the news: She was 12 years old, a seventh-grader sitting in the second seat in the row by the window at a Catholic school in San Diego. A superior whispered into the ear of her teacher, whose freckled face instantly turned red.

The nuns instructed students to say Hail Marys on Kennedy's behalf. Later, after Oswald was shot by Jack Ruby, Junkkarinen heard her father say, "Something's just not right here."

She recalls thinking: "Nothing's right about any of it, Dad."

By age 15, she'd read the lengthy report published by the Warren Commission, which had conducted the investigation of the killing. She graduated high school and studied to become a medical laboratory technician. She married Juha and moved to Oregon. She would read each new book that purported to solve the Kennedy assassination.

Seconds after the fatal shot, a Secret Service agent climbs aboard the president's limousine as the first lady, her husband slumped over in the backseat, crawls onto the trunk lid. (Ike Altgens / Associated Press)

The year 1980 brought a turning point: "Best Evidence: Disguise and Deception in the Assassination of John F. Kennedy" by David Lifton, which focused on medical evidence she understood, with descriptions from attending doctors on the locations of JFK's wounds. Junkkarinen checked it out of the library and read it three times.

She eventually dismissed Lifton's central premise — that the president's body had been altered to suggest gunshots fired from the rear, as a way to help prove the government's argument that Oswald alone killed JFK. But the book led her to pursue theories of her own.

Junkkarinen came to believe JFK's death was not the result of a lone killer, a view shared by many. A nationwide Associated Press-GfK poll of 1,004 adults in April found that 59% thought multiple people participated in a conspiracy to kill Kennedy, while 24% thought Oswald acted alone. About 16% were unsure.

Junkkarinen argues there were two conspiracies.

The point is not to say 'I got it!' We simply want to know the truth." 

— Barb Junkkarinen

The first, she says, involved a network of gangsters or spies who executed the killing. The second was a coverup by Cold War-era government officials convinced that Americans were incapable of understanding how such a network could assassinate the president.

A lawyer who has written a book about conspiracies says such theories apply a sensible narrative to troubling historical puzzles like the Kennedy killing, which was the first to mesmerize the entire nation on television.

"There's the suggestion everything changed after the JFK assassination," says Mark Fenster, author of "Conspiracy Theories: Secrecy and Power in American Culture."

And the hero in any conspiracy narrative, says Fenster: "The person who solves the puzzle."

Junkkarinen says she's not trying to be a hero. "We work quietly and diligently," she says. "The point is not to say 'I got it!' We simply want to know the truth."

Junkkarinen's research has taken her to Kennedy archives and to Dealey Plaza. She speaks at conferences and advises fellow conspiracy theorists on their theories.

"In a field known for hysterics, Barb is grounded," said Josiah Thompson, a fellow conspiracy theorist and author of the 1967 book "Six Seconds in Dallas." Thompson is a former Yale philosophy professor who became a private investigator.  

TIMELINE: THE JFK ASSASSINATION

Timeline: A look at the events following the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. Above, Lee Harvey Oswald, accused assassin of President John F. Kennedy, is shot at point-blank range by nightclub owner Jack Ruby. (Bob Jackson / Dallas Times-Herald / Associated Press)

"She patrols down the center of the freeway of reasoned debate on this topic," he said, "pointing out all the nuttiness along the way."

In one paper published by a group devoted to Kennedy assassination followers, Junkkarinen explains that the small gadgets found in Dealey Plaza today are not government eavesdropping devices, as an online poster claimed, but water sprinkler sensors.

Junkkarinen's family and friends have supported her work. Both husband and son have served as presidential stand-ins, lying atop a gurney with a taped-on plastic wound, when she needed a model for presentations with titles such as "The Back of Kennedy's Head."

During one talk at her home, friends flinched when she produced the autopsy photos. A psychologist had trouble sleeping for weeks.

"I guess she didn't realize all that goes into an autopsy," Junkkarinen says.

Sitting at her desk, Junkkarinen surveys half a dozen storage boxes of Kennedy materials spread across the floor.

"Now, where is that skull?" she says of the item she ordered from a medical supply company. She says it provides context, like the carbine.

When Junkkarinen got the Oswald rifle, her mother asked, "What do you want with that? Let the man be dead."

View map on latimes.com

Junkkarinen took the rifle, widely known as a Mannlicher-Carcano, to a shooting range and fired it. The weapon "kicks like a mule," she says. While she believes Oswald carried the gun into the book depository, she calls him a pawn and theorizes he never fired the weapon that day.

She says shooting the rifle has bolstered her contention that it could not have been fired three times in just seconds, as the government claims. "That's my approach," she says. "I want to see and hold things for myself."

She never finds the skull but shows off a gift from Jason — a mock front page from the satirical publication the Onion with the headline: "Kennedy Slain by CIA, Mafia, Castro, LBJ, Teamsters, Freemasons: President shot 129 times from 43 different angles."

Junkkarinen smiles. She gets the humor.

Like the late-night phone call from a woman with a cigarette-tinged voice: "I just want you to know you're right," she whispered, "and I can prove it." Or the day Jason, now 26, came home from school with a question from his teacher, Sister Mary Ann:

"Why would a second-grader be able to spell the word 'assassination'?"

Still so many questions and no real answers…

Related: 

JACKIE KENNEDY: LYNDON JOHNSON KILLED JFK

PBS Whitewashes Oswald’s KGB Connections 

Facts about JFK

Who Killed the Kennedys?  – Some Great Links and Resources  

For Those Looking To Do Some of Their Own Research:

Who Really Killed Kennedy?: 50 Years Later: Stunning New Revelations About the JFK Assassination (Kindle)

JFK's Last Hundred Days: The Transformation of a Man and the Emergence of a Great President (Kindle)

The Hidden History of the JFK Assassination (Kindle)

Killing Kennedy: The End of Camelot (Kindle)

JFK, Conservative (Kindle)

Killing JFK: 50 Years, 50 Lies: From the Warren Commission to Bill O'Reilly, A History of Deceit in the Kennedy Assassination

JFK: The CIA, Vietnam, and the Plot to Assassinate John F. Kennedy

The Man Who Killed Kennedy: The Case Against LBJ (Kindle)

We Were There: Revelations from the Dallas Doctors Who Attended to JFK on November 22, 1963 (Kindle)

They Killed Our President: 63 Reasons to Believe There Was a Conspiracy to Assassinate JFK

Mortal Error: The Shot That Killed JFK (Kindle)

JFK: The Smoking Gun (Kindle)

Survivor's Guilt: The Secret Service and the Failure to Protect President Kennedy (Kindle)

Jacqueline Kennedy: Historic Conversations on Life with John F. Kennedy (Kindle)

SPECIAL: Jacqueline Kennedy - In Her Own Words: 9/13/11 – Video

The Kennedys [Blu-ray] – Mini-Series Video

JFK [Blu-ray] - Video

Remembering Neil Armstrong… When Men Walked on the Moon

Almost everyone in the baby-boomer generation and older knows exactly where they were when Neil Armstrong walked on the moon.  I was a junior in high school at the time and my father gathered up the whole family plus any additional kids that were over visiting to watch the event on our black and white TV.  “This is a moment you will remember forever!” he said, “even when we have sent a man to Mars or left our solar system”; both things that people of our generation expected would happen in our lifetime.  Every one of us chanted the phrase: “One Small step for man; One giant step for mankind”

Video: Neil Armstrong One Small Step

Now at Neil Armstrong’s death the United States of America no longer even has a space program and we have to pay for and hitch a ride with the Russians or the Chinese if we want to go out into space.  John F. Kennedy must be spinning in his grave along with my father.  And Neil Armstrong certainly never thought he’d see the day we didn’t have a space program in 1969 as he was the first man to walk on the moon.

Neil Armstrong left us today and travelled farther than the moon… Perhaps he will shine his good graces back onto us?!?  Ask Marion~

Judson Phillips - Tea Party Nation:

Like so many Americans, I took a moment to remember Neil Armstrong today. He was a hero to so many in my generation.

I was ten years old when Neil Armstrong walked on the moon. Like all of my friends, that July I wanted to be an astronaut. For three years we watched with incredible pride as America put a total of twelve men on the moon.

Then we gave up.

We walked away.

For forty years, the moon has not seen a visitor from earth. In the next few years, man will probably return to the moon. But it will not be an American who returns to the moon.

History might record 1969 as America’s high water mark. We were the undisputed world power. We put men on the moon. We had the highest standard of living. People wanted to be Americans.

America has lost its greatness. Children today are not taught this nation is great. In some areas, it is controversial to have children recite the pledge of allegiance.

When Neil Armstrong returned to the Earth in 1969, he was the most famous man in the world. He could have done anything he wanted to do. He chose to leave the space program and ultimately teach engineering at the University of Cincinnati.

Starting in the 70’s America began its retreat from greatness. Instead of continuing space exploration, politicians decided to take that money and spend it on programs that exist only to assure their reelection.

One of the greatest Americans from the 20^th century passed today. Today we look back at the day Neil Armstrong became the most famous man in the world. Then America was a great nation, committed to being the best in the world.

Today America is fading. We have only a short time left to turn the nation around and try to regain the greatness America once had.

Astronaut Neil Armstrong Dies at 82

First moonwalker Neil Armstrong's death at the age of 82 marks the passing of a "reluctant American hero," as well as the dimming of the Space Age's brightest moment.

His death followed complications from heart-bypass surgery he underwent this month, Armstrong's family said today in a statement released by NASA. The first public report of Armstrong's death came via NBC News' Cape Canaveral correspondent, Jay Barbree, a longtime friend.

Armstrong has been immortalized in human history as the first human to set foot on a celestial body beyond Earth. "That's one small step for a man, one giant leap for mankind," he radioed back to Earth from the moon on July 20, 1969.

NASA Administrator Charles Bolden said that "as long as there are history books, Neil Armstrong will be included in them."

Armstrong's fellow moonwalker on the Apollo 11 mission, Buzz Aldrin, was among the legions mourning his passage. "We are missing a great spokesman and leader in the space program," Aldrin said in a BBC interview. He said he'd remember Armstrong "as being a very capable commander and leader of an achievement that will be recognized until man sets foot on the planet Mars."

Michael Collins, the crewmate who circled the moon in the Apollo 11 command module while Armstrong and Aldrin took that first trip to the lunar surface, also paid tribute to his commander in a NASA statement: "He was the best, and I will miss him terribly."

President Barack Obama said that Armstrong and his crew "carried with them the aspirations of an entire nation," and that the first steps on the moon "delivered a moment of human achievement that will never be forgotten."

"Today, Neil's spirit of discovery lives on in all the men and women who have devoted their lives to exploring the unknown — including those who are ensuring that we reach higher and go further in space," Obama said in a White House statement. "That legacy will endure — sparked by a man who taught us the enormous power of one small step."

The "one small step" served as the climax of a superpower space race with the Soviet Union, and arguably established the United States' primacy in outer space for decades to come. But Apollo 11 also set a precedent for peaceful cooperation in space. "We came in peace for all mankind," the plaque left behind on the moon read. At one point during Armstrong's first moonwalk, he stopped for what he called a "tender moment" and set down a patch to commemorate NASA astronauts and Soviet cosmonauts who died in the course of their duties.

Before and after the moon
The Ohio-born Armstrong began his career in aerospace as a Navy fighter pilot who served with distinction in the Korean War. During the 1950s, he was a test pilot with experience flying more than 200 kinds of aircraft. He was accepted into NASA's second astronaut class in 1962, and during his mission as Gemini 8 commander in 1966, he tamed his wildly spinning capsule and brought it in for an emergency landing.

That quiet cool served him well during Apollo 11, when he had to take manual control of the lunar module, nicknamed Eagle, during the landing. When the craft touched down in the moon's Sea of Tranquility, about 30 seconds' worth of fuel remained.

"Houston, Tranquility Base here," Armstrong reported to Mission Control. "The Eagle has landed."

Armstrong and Aldrin spent more than 21 hours on the lunar surface, including two and a half hours' worth of moonwalking. They were amazed to come back to Earth and see how millions of people across the planet had followed their exploits. "Neil, look up there," Aldrin told him as he pointed at a TV screen. "We missed the whole thing."

After his moon mission, Armstrong took a low profile, becoming what his family called a "reluctant American hero who always believed he was just doing his job." He left NASA in 1971, and took on executive positions in the aerospace industry as well as a teaching position in the University of Cincinnati's engineering department. Armstrong served on several policy commissions, including the presidential panel that investigated the 1986 Challenger explosion.

Concerned about future spaceflight
In his latter years, Armstrong became increasingly concerned about America's continuing leadership in space. He was a strong proponent of efforts to send American astronauts back to the moon, and feared that NASA's cancellation of its return-to-the-moon program would cede America's position as a leader in space exploration to other nations.

"Some question why America should return to the moon," Armstrong told a House committee in 2010. "'After all,' they say, 'we have already been there.' I find that mystifying. It would be as if 16th-century monarchs proclaimed that 'we need not go to the New World, we have already been there.'"

When NBC's Jay Barbree asked Armstrong last month to reflect on the future of spaceflight, for the 43rd anniversary of the Apollo 11 landing, the former astronaut pointed to remarks in which he said the lunar environment was "an exceptional location to learn about traveling to more distant places."

"I am persuaded that a return to the moon would be the most productive path to expanding the human presence in the solar system," he wrote.

Armstrong was famous for staying out of fame's spotlight as much as he could. Some outsiders may have faulted him for his reticence, but not his fellow astronauts.

"Most of our group in those days could have accomplished the challenge of the mission," Apollo 7 astronaut Walt Cunningham told NBC News' James Oberg in an email, "but I do not know a one that could have handled the resulting notoriety as well as Neil did."

Over the past year, Armstrong was a bit more in the public eye. Last November, he and other space pioneers — including Aldrin, Collins and John Glenn, the first American in orbit — were awarded the Congressional Gold Medal during a ceremony at the U.S. Capitol.

In February, Armstrong spoke at Ohio State University during a February event honoring the 50th anniversary of Glenn's history-making spaceflight. In May, Armstrong joined Apollo 17 commander Gene Cernan, the last man to walk on the moon, at Pensacola Naval Air Station in Florida to support the opening of the National Flight Academy, which aims to teach math and science to kids through an aviation-oriented camp.

On Aug. 7, just two days after his 82nd birthday, Armstrong underwent quadruple-bypass heart surgery after flunking a medical stress test. At the time, his wife, Carol, reported that her husband was "doing great" — but today the family said complications from that surgery led to his death.

Concerned about future spaceflight
In his latter years, Armstrong became increasingly concerned about America's continuing leadership in space. He was a strong proponent of efforts to send American astronauts back to the moon, and feared that NASA's cancellation of its return-to-the-moon program would cede America's position as a leader in space exploration to other nations.

"Some question why America should return to the moon," Armstrong told a House committee in 2010. "'After all,' they say, 'we have already been there.' I find that mystifying. It would be as if 16th-century monarchs proclaimed that 'we need not go to the New World, we have already been there.'"

When NBC's Jay Barbree asked Armstrong last month to reflect on the future of spaceflight, for the 43rd anniversary of the Apollo 11 landing, the former astronaut pointed to remarks in which he said the lunar environment was "an exceptional location to learn about traveling to more distant places."

"I am persuaded that a return to the moon would be the most productive path to expanding the human presence in the solar system," he wrote.

Armstrong was famous for staying out of fame's spotlight as much as he could. Some outsiders may have faulted him for his reticence, but not his fellow astronauts.

"Most of our group in those days could have accomplished the challenge of the mission," Apollo 7 astronaut Walt Cunningham told NBC News' James Oberg in an email, "but I do not know a one that could have handled the resulting notoriety as well as Neil did."

Over the past year, Armstrong was a bit more in the public eye. Last November, he and other space pioneers — including Aldrin, Collins and John Glenn, the first American in orbit — were awarded the Congressional Gold Medal during a ceremony at the U.S. Capitol.

In February, Armstrong spoke at Ohio State University during a February event honoring the 50th anniversary of Glenn's history-making spaceflight. In May, Armstrong joined Apollo 17 commander Gene Cernan, the last man to walk on the moon, at Pensacola Naval Air Station in Florida to support the opening of the National Flight Academy, which aims to teach math and science to kids through an aviation-oriented camp.

On Aug. 7, just two days after his 82nd birthday, Armstrong underwent quadruple-bypass heart surgery after flunking a medical stress test. At the time, his wife, Carol, reported that her husband was "doing great" — but today the family said complications from that surgery led to his death.

Slideshow: Neil Armstrong: 1930 - 2012

Technorati Tags: US Space Program,NASA,obituary,moon,astronauts,outer space,American greatness,Neil Armstrong,first man to walk on the moon,One Small step for man,One giant step for mankind,Gene Cernan,Obamaland,Congressional Gold Medal winner,John Glenn,Buzz Aldrin,JFK,John F. Kennedy,American heros,American pioneers,baby-boomers,space,remembering,history,the Final Frontier,Camelot

JACKIE KENNEDY: LYNDON JOHNSON KILLED JFK

NEW YORK – Tapes released by Caroline Kennedy reveal that Jackie Kennedy believed Lyndon B Johnson was the  mastermind behind JFK’s assassination.

Tapes recorded by the First Lady months after the President’s death are to be released ahead of schedule by her daughter Caroline.

In the tapes, to be broadcast by ABC, Kennedy reveals her belief that Johnson and a cabal of Texas tycoons orchestrated the murder of her husband by gunman Lee Harvey Oswald.

Kennedy, who later became Jackie Onassis, claims on the tapes that the Dallas murder was part of a larger conspiracy to allow Johnson to become American President in his own right.

Johnson, who served as state governor and senator for Texas, completed Kennedy’s term after the assassination and went on to be elected president.

Leading historian Arthur Schlesinger Jr. recorded the tapes with Jackie Kennedy within months of her husband’s death.

They have been stored in a sealed vault at the Kennedy Library in Boston after orders from Mrs Kennedy that they would remain secret for 50 years after her death.

Now, 17 years after her mother died from cancer, daughter Caroline has opted to release the tapes early.

She has entered an agreement with the ABC network in the States who will air the tapes after agreeing to cancel their Kennedys drama series which upset Caroline and the Kennedy family.

The $10 million series starred Tom Cruise’s wife Kate Holmes as Jackie Kennedy and critically charted the family’s political and personal trials and tribulations since the 1930s. It has now been dropped in a deal with Caroline concerning these tapes.

ABC executives have confirmed that the revelations in the tapes are ‘explosive’ with Jackie Kennedy allegedly blaming President Lyndon Johnson for the death of JFK.

It is believed the tapes also include the suggestion that President Kennedy was having an affair with a 19-year-old White House intern with his wife even claiming that she found underwear in their bedroom.

Jackie Kennedy also admits to several affairs of her own in the tapes – one with Hollywood star William Holden and another with Fiat founder Gianni Agnelli – in  retaliation for the President’s indiscretions.

Yet there are also claims that the couple had discussed having more children in the weeks before his death and that their marriage was at a high point.

Noted Kennedy family historian and author Edward Klein said: “Jackie regarded the pretty young things in the White House as superficial flings for Jack. She did retaliate by having her own affairs.

“There was a period during which she was delighted to be able to annoy her husband with her own illicit romances.” It was reported that more than once JFK sent out the Secret Service to bring Jackie home, including off her future husband, Ari Onassis’, boat.

Source:  Weekly World News and Mail Online

The Kennedy Assassination was probably the first time that the people of America really took a good hard look at things that just didn’t make sense.  It was the first modern day conspiracy that played itself out on television and woke a few people up!  Just because something is a conspiracy does not mean that it is a theory or that it isn’t true!!  Who was behind the assassination of John F. Kennedy followed by Robert F. Kennedy and Martin Luther King have been speculation and secrets for 50 years now…  Will “they” ever let the truth be known?

There is more than one theory as to who is responsible for the murder of JFK… Lyndon Johnson, the Cabal of International Bankers who control the Federal Reserve and the monetary system worldwide, the Mossad (Israeli Intelligence), the Mob plus a few others.  But pretty much everyone who knows the story or lived through it knows it wasn’t Lee Harvey Oswald.  But if Jackie felt it was their VP Lyndon Johnson there must something to that!

The amazing thing is that there have been conspiracies since and are conspiracies even bigger being played out in front of our faces right now before our eyes… that we just continue to ignore.  Why?  That is the million… er uh the $16 trillion dollar question, now isn’t it?!?

Related:

Who Killed the Kennedys?  - Some Great Links and Resources

Kevin Costner’s JFK – Director’s Cut (Two-Disc Special Edition)

The Kennedys miniseries

Ask Marion~

NASA Kennedy Obama Connection to 2012 - Richard C. Hoagland

Video:  NASA Kennedy Obama Connection to 2012 - Richard C. Hoagland 

Full Length Move – Somewhat technical but worth the watch

Fascinating information and presentation by Richard C. Hoagland, former NASA science advisor to Walter Cronkite on the Space Missions and author of: Dark Mission and The Monuments of Mars at the Secrets Conference. Including, finally - Who Really Killed Kennedy...and Why? On November 8, 2009, the SyFy television network (in association with NBC News) broadcast a major two-hour television Special, On November 21 -- Special to the Secrets Conference -- Hoagland presented "the rest of the 2012 story ...."

Related:

What If? - 2012 the Movie - Fiction of Warning?

Pole Shift

Anniversary of President John F. Kennedy and the Thanksgiving Countdown

“As we express our gratitude (on Thanksgiving), we must never forget that the highest appreciation is not to utter words, but to live by them.” …President John Fitzgerald Kennedy

(Let us remember President Kennedy today, the anniversary of his assassination on November 22^nd (1963), Dallas Texas)

I have been doing a bit of research for a related article, so will share this with you: Bush Link to Kennedy Assassination Alex Jones 911 Conspiracy - 90 min - Sep 1, 2004

I really had to look to find ‘one’ PBS Special on JFK’s Assassination today.  I think the greatest thing we can thankful for this year is the rich history and special Country we were given and in return we should spend some time discussing and sharing the real story of Thanksgiving with our families as well as traditions… and perhaps today or tomorrow talk about JFK and the challenging times and curious events surrounding his death.  (The story of Thanksgiving and JFK’s assassination that are taught these days in schools are quite different from the real events and what we were taught… all part of the purposeful dumbing down of America

The First Thanksgiving

The tradition of the Pilgrims' first Thanksgiving is steeped in myth and legend.  Few people realize that the Pilgrims did not celebrate Thanksgiving the next year, or any year thereafter, though some of their descendants later made a "Forefather's Day" that usually occurred on December 21 or 22.  Several Presidents, including George Washington, made one-time Thanksgiving holidays.  In 1827, Mrs. Sarah Josepha Hale began lobbying several Presidents for the instatement of Thanksgiving as a national holiday, but her lobbying was unsuccessful until 1863 when Abraham Lincoln finally made it a national holiday with his 1863 Thanksgiving Proclamation.

Today, our Thanksgiving is the fourth Thursday of November.  This was set by President Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1939 (approved by Congress in 1941), who changed it from Abraham Lincoln's designation as the last Thursday in November (which could occasionally end up being the fifth Thursday and hence too close to Christmas for businesses).  But the Pilgrims' first Thanksgiving began at some unknown date between September 21 and November 9, most likely in very early October.  The date of Thanksgiving was probably set by Lincoln to somewhat correlate with the anchoring of the Mayflower at Cape Cod, which occurred on November 21, 1620 (by our modern Gregorian calendar--it was November 11 to the Pilgrims who used the Julian calendar).  

There are only two contemporary accounts of the 1621 Thanksgiving:  First is Edward Winslow's account, which he wrote in a letter dated December 12, 1621.  The complete letter was first published in 1622, and is chapter 6 of Mourt's Relation: A Journal of the Pilgrims at Plymouth.

Our corn [i.e. wheat] did prove well, and God be praised, we had a good increase of Indian corn, and our barley indifferent good, but our peas not worth the gathering, for we feared they were too late sown.  They came up very well, and blossomed, but the sun parched them in the blossom.  Our harvest being gotten in, our governor sent four men on fowling, that so we might after a special manner rejoice together after we had gathered the fruit of our labors.  They four in one day killed as much fowl as, with a little help beside, served the company almost a week.  At which time, amongst other recreations, we exercised our arms, many of the Indians coming amongst us, and among the rest their greatest king Massasoit, with some ninety men, whom for three days we entertained and feasted, and they went out and killed five deer, which they brought to the plantation and bestowed on our governor, and upon the captain and others.  And although it be not always so plentiful as it was at this time with us, yet by the goodness of God, we are so far from want that we often wish you partakers of our plenty.

The second description was written about twenty years after the fact by William Bradford in his History Of Plymouth Plantation.  Bradford's History was rediscovered in 1854 after having been taken by British looters during the Revolutionary War.  Its discovery prompted a greater American interest in the history of the Pilgrims, which eventually led to Lincoln's decision to make Thanksgiving a holiday.  It is also in this account that the Thanksgiving turkey tradition is founded.

They began now to gather in the small harvest they had, and to fit up their houses and dwellings against winter, being all well recovered in health and strength and had all things in good plenty.  For as some were thus employed in affairs abroad, others were exercising in fishing, about cod and bass and other fish, of which they took good store, of which every family had their portion.  All the summer there was no want; and now began to come in store of fowl, as winter approached, of which this place did abound when they came first (but afterward decreased by degrees).  And besides waterfowl there was great store of wild turkeys, of which they took many, besides venison, etc.  Besides they had about a peck of meal a week to a person, or now since harvest, Indian corn to that proportion.  Which made many afterwards write so largely of their plenty here to their friends in England, which were not feigned but true reports.

“Heap high the board with plenteous cheer and gather to the feast,

and toast the sturdy Pilgrim band whose courage never ceased.”

Alice W. Brotherton

THE GHOST OF JOHN F. KENNEDY

“Strange…” he blurted, on feeling that familiar pain in his lower back. “I’m just vapor and thought, and I still need a chiropractor.”

The handsome man instinctively brushed aside the hair barely hanging down on his forehead as he pressed on towards the residence portion of the house.

“Ah… I am here to see Obama” he told the secret service guard inside the residence. The guard did not react at all. John Fitzgerald Kennedy knew right off that his presence would be seen only by his intended audience and the guard saw nothing. “Fix your tie pal.” Kennedy joked as he walked passed the oblivious sentry.

“You must be President Kennedy”, Obama sheepishly asked the figure now standing above him as he lay in bed. ”Thesevisits are getting quite regular, are you the last?”

“Well, Teddy Roosevelt wants to come and see you, but ahh… we talked him out of it… well okay we restrained him. Well, I wouldn’t worry too much about that… for now.

Obama turned and looked towards his wife.

“Don’t worry Mr. President, your wife will hear and see nothing… time is standing still.” Kennedy mentioned, as he pointed to then tapped his watch.

Obama moved to get up, and President Kennedy interrupted; “Please don’t get up on my part, what I have to tell you won’t take too long, and you will be needing your rest for the coming months and years my friend.”

“Well, here it is Barack;

I’m all for social programs that really work, and I know you need money to pay for them, but when you create bureaucracy that can only barely pay for its own fat self with those hard earned tax dollars, burdening the government itself and of course the poor taxpaying citizen, well son, then you are on the road to socialism.

You are creating agencies and bureaus that exist to feed themselves, and how the hell is that going to help a nation that is in deep debt? The state is not always the answer Obama, American know-how, and the unfettered creativity that powers it almost usually is. Yes, tighten the belt on business cheaters and scammers, but don’t choke off the growers and the doers. It’s real simple Barack, if you turn each and every time to bureaucracy, well, let’s just say you’ll be turning our country in the wrong direction.

We aren’t Europe. We aren’t communists. We aren’t socialists. And we sure as hell aren’t in the business of making the latter two of those particular groups stronger.

For you to raise a communist island that enslaves it’s people up to equal our democracy with so called talks is just nuts son. They are rotting away faster than their ‘57 Chevrolets and you want to bring them into a dialogue? You notice how Fidel’s brother said that the prerequisite is that you talk as equals? This guy is now gonna dictate the talks? Instead of trying to ‘understand’ what every other country is about, I suggest you study and understand what we are all about. Not every one on this earth is worth being friends with.

“Mr. Kennedy, you are a Democrat!” Barack exclaimed incredulously.

“Don’t give me that crap Barack. Your party does not even resemble the Democratic party of my day. You’re acting like a teenager that thinks he knows everything there is to know, and all that came before him was so ‘uncool’. Come on, the only ones you won’t talk to are the people in your own country who are hopping mad at you and your policies. For instance, you can ignore that Tea Party all you want, but it sure is a group I’d be talking to, before the seeds they are sowing start taking root. Those are Americans for God’s sake, and you got that Pelosi out there belittling them. That is just silly. I don’t hear her even saying one cross word to the despots and dictators you both are facing.

“President Kennedy, I ‘ve gotta say, on that note sir, you once said: ‘Let us never negotiate out of fear. But let us never fear to negotiate.’

“Yes I did Barack, but there must be some kind of a goal there. Cuba? Iran? Chavez? Unless you are now in the business of helping communists and terrorists, what are we as a democracy to gain from them? And I think you really need to think about the first part of that quote and search your soul Obama. You might think you are making it easier to be liked, but what you might just be doing is making it easier for us to be beat. Obama, understanding who your real enemies are is much more important than being nice to everyone. And for goodness sake, start using the word terrorist again.

Listen, I’ve got to go, but let me leave you with another one of my quotes; ‘The cost of freedom is always high, but Americans have always paid it. And one path we shall never choose, and that is the path of surrender, or submission.’

Well, I wish you luck son, .. oh and I’ll try to dissuade Teddy Roosevelt from charging on in here”

With that he smiled that million dollar smile, turned, and disappeared into the golden light beaming through the bedroom window.

by Ernie Mannix

Senator Edward Moore Kennedy Succumbs to Cancer at Age 77

April 21: Senator Ted Kennedy is seen at a ceremony where President Obama signed the Edward M. Kennedy Serve America Act, in Washington. (Reuters)

Ted Kennedy, known as the Lion of the Senate, died about 30 minutes ago, losing his battle with brain cancer. Although his politics and mine are diametrically opposed, it is time for us all to put our differences aside for a few days and remember Ted for his service to his Country.

The family gave the following statement:

“We’ve lost the irreplaceable center of our family and joyous light in our lives, but the inspiration of his faith, optimism, and perseverance will live on in our hearts forever,” the Kennedy family said in a statement. “He loved this country and devoted his life to serving it.”

Senator Edward M. Kennedy, known as Ted or Teddy, was diagnosed with a malignant brain tumor in May 2008 and underwent a successful brain surgery soon after that. But his health continued to deteriorate, and Kennedy suffered a seizure while attending the luncheon following President Barack Obama’s inauguration.

Ted was the youngest of the Kennedy Children and the only one of four sons to live past middle age. Only one sister survives, Jean Smith. His older sister Eunice Kennedy Shriver just preceded him in death, passing away on August 11, 2009 at age 88.

Senator Edward Moore Kennedy, the youngest Kennedy brother who was left to head the family’s political dynasty after his brothers President John F. Kennedy and Senator Robert F. Kennedy were assassinated.

Ted threw his hat into the ring for the 1980 presidential race, but lost to Jimmy Carter. He went on to build his legacy in the United Stares Senate, serving from 1962 to present.

His personal life was filled with tragedy and turmoil: the violent deaths of his brothers Jack and Bobby; other family tragedies, the Mary Jo Kopeckne incident that tainted his character for life, problems with alcohol, a difficult divorce, his two sons battle with cancer, a nephew accused of murder and his nephew John F. Kennedy Jr’s tragic death. His marriage to his second wife, Victoria Anne Reggie, seems to have been his personal salvation and greatest time of happiness.

He supported Barack Obama for President in the last election and was involved in helping to find the first family’s dog, Bo. For Kennedy, the ascension of Obama was an important step toward realizing his goal of health care reform.

At the Democratic National Convention in August 2008, the Massachusetts Democrat promised, “I pledge to you that I will be there next January on the floor of the United States Senate when we begin the great test.” Senator Kennedy made good on that pledge, but ultimately lost his battle with cancer.

Kennedy championed health care reform, working wages and equal rights in his storied career. In August, he was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom — the nation’s highest civilian honor — by President Obama. His daughter, Kara Kennedy, accepted the award on his behalf.

Teddy… Dead at 77.

Ask Marion/Marion Algier

Fox News Reports:

Ted Kennedy, Senate Lion and Liberal Champion, Dies

The Massachusetts Democrat was seen by many as an American version of a Greek tragedy as his personal tragedies along with his professional triumphs and losses unfolded in the public eye

Sen. Edward Kennedy, the longtime, beloved lawmaker whose personal tragedies along with his professional triumphs and losses unfolded in the public eye, has died of brain cancer. He was 77.

The Massachusetts Democrat was seen by many as an American version of a Greek tragedy. Born into political royalty, Kennedy's triumphs were often overshadowed by those of his brothers, John and Bobby Kennedy. But nonetheless, the younger Kennedy carved his own political legacy as one of the longest serving senators in U.S. history.

Click here for a timeline of Ted Kennedy's life.

The youngest of the nine-sibling Kennedy clan, Teddy had much of his path paved by famous older brothers and father. That created problems as well as opportunities for him.

As a member of a roving family, Kennedy moved around a lot in his youth and made friends easily. He attended Harvard in 1951, playing on the freshman football team before he was caught cheating by having a friend take his Spanish language exam.

Kennedy was expelled and entered the Army, where he served in Paris during the Korean War. and after almost two years was re-admitted to Harvard for demonstrating good behavior.

He went on to get a law degree from the University of Virginia Law School and served as an assistant D.A in Suffolk County, Mass. He married Virginia Joan Bennett, who was introduced to him by his sister Jean. They had three children, the youngest was Patrick, who also would enter public office.

When John Kennedy was elected to the presidency in 1960, it appeared the Kennedy clan had the makings of a political dynasty. At the time, Robert Kennedy was attorney general and Teddy, as he was affectionately known, was elected to the Senate in 1962.

But Kennedy soon found himself alone on the political stage after his brothers were killed by assassins in 1963 and 1968.

Shouldering the burden of a grieving family, Kennedy delivered Bobby's eulogy at New York's Saint Patrick's Cathedral in 1968, attributing to Robert a quote by Irish playwright George Bernard Shaw: "Some men see things as they are and say 'why.' I dream things that never were and say 'why not.'"

He added: "Those of us who loved him and who take him to his rest today pray that what he was to us, and what he wished for others will someday come to pass for all the world."

But Kennedy's own aspirations for the White House were dashed in 1969 when his car plunged off a bridge on Chappaquiddick on Martha's Vineyard, killing Robert Kennedy campaign aide Mary Jo Kopechne. Kennedy swam to safety and only alerted authorities to the accident hours later.

As Kopechne's body was pulled from the dark sedan, the senator told investigators he panicked.

"That tragedy will live with me for the rest of my life...every day for the rest of my life," he said.

An investigation later absolved Kennedy of responsibility. He received two months suspended jail time for leaving the scene of an accident, but questions about his character would follow him and haunt his political ambitions for the nation's highest office.

Despite the Chappaquiddick incident, Kennedy decided to throw his hat into the 1980 presidential race, going up against incumbent Democrat Jimmy Carter. Kennedy lost his bid for the White House and returned to the Senate -- becoming the lion of the liberal left.

Like his first wife, Joan, Kennedy also struggled with alcohol, and through much of the 1980s was viewed as a playboy with a bottle. That image culminated with the arrest of his nephew, William Kennedy Smith, who was later acquitted on charges of raping a woman he met at a bar while out with his uncle. It also hurt his ability to fight the Supreme Court nomination of Clarence Thomas over allegations of harassment by former Thomas aide Anita Hill.

Kennedy credited his second wife Victoria Anne Reggie with turning him around and redirecting him back to his political career and liberal agenda.

Kennedy served as an ardent supporter for other Democrats seeking the presidency and endorsed Barack Obama early in his campaign -- comparing the Illinois senator with his late brother, John.

At times, it seemed Kennedy and his abundant energy would last for years. But last May, he suffered a seizure at his Cape Cod home and was diagnosed with a malignant brain tumor.

Kennedy stayed active for as long as he could after his diagnosis, offering a key address in support of Obama during the Democratic National Convention in Denver in August 2008. He also attended Obama's presidential inauguration, where he had to be taken away in a stretcher.

Though he was absent from the Senate for much of President Obama's first year, his name was attached to health care legislation, penned a widely read op-ed in support of health care reform and was a critical vote on several piece of legislation.

Kennedy was too ill to attend his sister Eunice Kennedy Shriver's funeral or to receive the Presidential Medal of Freedom bestowed upon him by President Obama, both in in August 2009.

FOX News' Molly Line contributed to this report

Posted: Knowledge Creates Power – Cross Posted: Daily Thought Pad

Related Resources:

• Bye Ted
• Eunice Kennedy Shriver
• Click here for a timeline of Ted Kennedy's life
• Kennedy: Let’s Ration Healthcare
• Ron Paul on Kennedy's Death