Behind Frame 313

Moments after the kill shot - Pic courtesy of Wikipedia

by blogSpotter
MACABRE MEMORIAL

We’re approaching the 50th anniversary of the JFK assassination, and I can’t help but mull over various things about it. When I saw Oliver Stone’s JFK in 1992, I was certain Stone was on to something. I’ve since decided his conspiracy idea is frenzied and has too many moving parts. I more recently saw Parkland, a somber retelling of known events, and it introduced some questions without getting as complex as a John Grisham novel.

GOING WITH A LONE GUNMAN ..

I think Oswald was neck deep in whatever happened -- there’s too much to suggest otherwise. On the morning of November 22nd, a coworker saw him go to the 6th floor of the School Depository with “curtain rods” wrapped in paper. He was seen leaving the building mere seconds before Dallas Police sealed the exits, minutes after the killing. My questions are about background and motive.. Here are some troubling Oswald questions.

1) Oswald renounced the USA and defected to Russia. While in Russia, he was given a cush job (by Soviet standards) and a nice apartment although it was heavily bugged. Mere months later he was readmitted to the USA and even given a repatriation loan of nearly $500. Why did either nation treat him with such kid gloves? This was the height of the cold war -- why was Oswald let back into the USA?

2) To time and stage the assassination would take planning and coordination. Oswald, who had a very poor record of work, just happened to get a job at the Depository in October 1963, working on the upper floors. That was one month after JFK’s travel plans had been publicized and one month before JFK’s murder. Oswald was not a very bright man.. It’s not impossible that he would have such foresight and awareness to plan everything, but it seems unlikely.

3) Oswald’s mother and wife were both of the firm impression that he was an operative working for the US government. Why did they believe this? It’s not necessarily the truth, but they somehow came away with this idea. Out of the mouths of babes come significant truths, and maybe the same can be said for snoopy, eavesdropping relatives. As previously mentioned, Oswald wasn’t a Rhodes Scholar -- he probably didn’t have all his cards concealed.

4) Why did Jack Ruby (a nightclub owner with mob ties) sacrifice his own life and livelihood to perform vigilante justice on a man who was already arrested and likely to see death row? What was possibly gained by that? In the Oliver Stone line of bizarre facts, Ruby died 3 years later from sudden onset lung cancer right before he was to testify. Ruby thought he had been injected with a chemical.

5) What would have been Oswald’s motive to kill Kennedy? As a self-professed “Marxist” (very intentional air quotes) he should’ve liked the fact that Kennedy was backing off of Cuba and suggesting a scale-back in Viet Nam. There is no meaningful motive that could be given to this assassination. Oswald was something of a patsy even before the assassination -- but he wasn’t mentally ill and wouldn’t have done something completely nonsensical. At least not by himself.

In a final analysis, I have to agree with John Kerry’s recent remarks .. I think Oswald was hugely implicated. He may have even been a lone gunman if by lone gunman you mean the one person who actually pulled a trigger. Was he aided, abetted, given cues and instructions by someone else? That also seems very likely to me. Kerry suggested it might’ve been the Cubans. I think Oswald’s crackpot mother (who died in 1981) might have some insights to give. So might J Edgar Hoover but it seems everyone we need to talk to is dead.

© 2013 blogSpotter

The Village of Cool

Cool duds for cool dudes - Pic courtesy of Wikipedia

by blogSpotter
VACATION WEEK

I took all of Halloween week as a vacation week. I was bummed about the overcast, rainy skies but still managed to work in three birthday dinners, giving out candy to trick-or-treaters and overseeing two carpentry repairs to my house. In hindsight, it was actually a good, productive week. I could use some more of those.

COMEDY OF ERRORS

The Comedy of Errors is Shakespeare's comedy involving the mistaken identities of twins. It’s considered one of Shakespeare’s less inspired works. I think the Obamacare debacle is a comedy of errors, and it couldn’t be any less inspired as it turns out.

Kathleen Sebelius was skewered on Saturday Night Live, as well she should have been. SNL joked that healthcare.gov could only handle 6 users at a time. In an incredible instance of life imitating art it turns out that only 6 Americans were able to sign up through healthcare.gov on October 1st.

The entire top tier of the health and human services department should be fired for such astounding incompetence. Insiders note that Sebelius can’t be fired -- she has a sort of political immunity. A replacement would call for contentious, drawn-out Congressional hearings that would do more damage than good. She has zero credibility at this point, and should probably quit being the public face of her department. The administration has brought in a big honcho from Verizon to fix the system. It’s probably not a good omen that the site still went down for a day one week after he was brought in.

Everyone, keep your fingers crossed. Affordable health care shouldn’t have been entrusted to Larry, Darryl and Darryl. Let’s hope that someone finally gets it figured out.

COOL DUDES

I’m in Starbucks looking at all the cool dudes around me. They variously have cool buzz cuts, tattoos, designer jeans and Samsung Galaxy smart phones. These guys glom together in each other’s reflective coolness. I was never really cool a day in my life.. having just turned 56 it’s looking less likely. Gray hair and jowls are not good from a modeling standpoint. I go for comfort as a primary focus -- thus to explain my loose fit Levis, Sketcher loafers and XL sized tee from Target.

There was a time in my 20’s where I would’ve sold my soul to be cool -- nobody was in the market for my soul. I was crushed if my roommate was invited to an A-List party and I was not. I was mortified if my socks didn’t match or my shirt had the wrong emblem. In spite of my best, albeit clumsy efforts I never made it to the A List. In fact, my social ineptitude got me somewhere on the E List (not even on par with Kathy Griffin).

At 56, I don’t get looks anymore -- in fact I may be the Invisible Man. I’m relieved if I don’t have to make an appearance at a stiff social function, and I shop for comfort way more than fashion. A few years back, my brother said (tongue slightly in cheek) that we’d adapt well to old age. Even then, we both liked:

o Elevator music
o American cars with velour seating
o Dining at Luby’s cafeteria

I’ve entered an arena where I can embrace all of those things if I so desire -- to heck with what anyone thinks. Cool dudes -- would it make a difference if I listened to Enya, drove a Mercedes and ate at Parigi? Would it fit the picture any better? It’s a ridiculous "if” because I would never choose things which to me seem stuffy and kind of phony. You’ll have to invite this guy who wears a Fossil watch, drives a Ford and eats at Taco Cabana. That guy also has a receded hairline and a few wrinkles.

One wrinkle I don’t have is unrealistic expectations about myself. I’m a bit like my Sketcher loafers -- well-travelled, comfortable and practical. I do allow some luxuries here and there but nothing Donald Trump would ever envy. I’ve been accused of having a lot of Apple toys, but that actually puts me way further from the Village of Cool.

That village is in my rearview mirror and it’s skyline is becoming an impressionistic gray blur. I’m OK with the growing distance between us.

© 2013 blogSpotter