The Enduring Cult of Kennedy!

[Gerald]

http://img802.imageshack.us/img802/6011/27ross1322258876071arti.jpg (http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/802/27ross1322258876071arti.jpg/)

THE cult of John F. Kennedy has the resilience of a horror-movie villain. No matter how many times the myths of Camelot are seemingly interred by history, they always come shambling back to life — in another television special, another Vanity Fair cover story, another hardcover hagiography. It’s fitting, then, that the latest exhumation comes courtesy of Stephen King himself. King serves a dual role in our popular culture: He’s at once the master of horror and the bard of the baby boom, writing his way through the twilit borderlands where the experiences of the post-World War II generation are stalked by nightmares and shadowed by metaphysical dread. In this landscape, the death of J.F.K. looms up like the Overlook Hotel. The gauzy fantasy of the Kennedy White House endures precisely because the reality of the assassination still feels like a primal catastrophe — an irruption of inexplicable evil as horrifying as any supernatural bogeyman. At its best, King’s new Kennedy assassination novel, “11/22/63” — which sends its protagonist back in time to change that November day’s events — offers an implicit critique of this generational obsession. (I am not giving much away when I reveal that the time-traveling hero does not succeed in freeing ’60s America from the cruel snares of history.) But its narrative power still depends on accepting the false premises of the Kennedy cult — premises that will no doubt endure so long as the 1960s generation does, but still deserve to be challenged at every opportunity.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/27/opinion/sunday/Douthat-The-Enduring-Cult-of-Kennedy.html?src=me&ref=general


Note: November 26, 2011

[nikimcbee]

In before August.:haha:

I need to ask about the PT-boat stories:hmmm:.

[Torplexed]

That's the beauty of dying at the pinnacle of success and charisma. The wide-eyed idealistic optimists of yesteryear assume we would be living in some sort of political nirvana right now if Kennedy had escaped the assassin's bullet. Human and American history says otherwise. Ted Kennedy lived a long time and it often wasn't pretty.

[TLAM Strike]

For me JFK will always be the president who Canceled Project Orion and basically gave the finger all of humanity.

[nikimcbee]

For me JFK will always be the president who Canceled Project Orion and basically gave the finger all of humanity.


...and he did it just to spite you.:yeah::dead:

[Jimbuna]

Quite a good President IMHO.

[Platapus]

For me JFK will always be the president who Canceled Project Orion and basically gave the finger all of humanity.

And pray tell, why would canceling research on nuclear pulse propulsion be giving the finger to all humanity?

[August]

Steven King doing a story about JFK? :doh:

[Takeda Shingen]

And pray tell, why would canceling research on nuclear pulse propulsion be giving the finger to all humanity?

It wasn't. TLAM just really, really likes space stuff.

[TLAM Strike]

And pray tell, why would canceling research on nuclear pulse propulsion be giving the finger to all humanity? By stranding us here on this rock to we wiped out by war, plague or the next comet that passes too close.

Not to mention the vast amounts of natural resources found outside of Earth that could be fueling our civilization right now:
One near Earth asteroid could have enough mineral wreath to pay off the US national debt.
Saturn has enough He3 to fuel a fusion reactor the size of Texas.
There is enough silica on Luna to build solar mirrors to control rising global temperatures.
and the Ort cloud has enough water to cover Mars in it.

Sooooo... economic collapse, energy crisis, climate change, water shortages: those would all be gone. Not to mention an Orion is one hell of an orbital defense platform capable to engaging ICBMs.

[Takeda Shingen]

By stranding us here on this rock to we wiped out by war, plague or the next comet that passes too close.

Not to mention the vast amounts of natural resources found outside of Earth that could be fueling our civilization right now:
One near Earth asteroid could have enough mineral wreath to pay off the US national debt.
Saturn has enough He3 to fuel a fusion reactor the size of Texas.
There is enough silica on Luna to build solar mirrors to control rising global temperatures.
and the Ort cloud has enough water to cover Mars in it.

Sooooo... economic collapse, energy crisis, climate change, water shortages: those would all be gone. Not to mention an Orion is one hell of an orbital defense platform capable to engaging ICBMs.

You're presupposing that space travel will change human nature.

[mookiemookie]

You're presupposing that space travel will change human nature.

Yeah well all the humans seem to get along pretty well with each other in Star Trek, Mr. Smarty Pants. :O:

[Takeda Shingen]

Yeah well all the humans seem to get along pretty well with each other in Star Trek, Mr. Smarty Pants. :O:

Oh well in that case, QED. :haha:

[August]

Yeah well all the humans seem to get along pretty well with each other in Star Trek, Mr. Smarty Pants. :O:

Really? From what i've seen of their various flavors, as long as they have to defeat the Borg or the Romulans they get along fine, but otherwise nearly every human visitor to the ship brings drama of one form or the other.

[sidslotm]

I remember coming home from school in 63 finding mum glued to the radio listening to the news about the death of President Kennedy.

Kennedy was a light to the free world at a time of despair after being devistated by global conflict, and looked like starting over with Russia. He brought hope to people around the world of better things to come.

I know since his death many things about his private life have been aired in public, but let he that is without sin, etc etc.

I find it a shame that people can only pick over this great mans spirit to glorify themselves with pointless and meaningless books and movies.

[vienna]

Let's see...

According to documents released after his death and accounts by reputable persons who were privy to the White House during the "Camelot" years, at the time of his death, Kennedy was actively pusuing an end to U.S. involvement in Vietnam; was moving forward on a plan to either rein in or eliminate the Federal Reserve Bank system; moving to end CIA infiltration of non-political humanitarian efforts such as the Peace Corps.; broadening the efforts of the U.S. Attorney-General, Robert Kennedy, to clamp down on organized crime and its links to the labor unions; pushing for accountability from the FBI (and J. Edgar Hoover); actively endorsing technological advances; attempting to break the "unholy alliance" of the "military-industrial complex"; and, had successfully faced down the USSR...

Not to shabby for less than three years efforts... :hmmm:

[August]

Not to shabby for les than three years efforts... :hmmm:

Yeah well lets not confuse accomplishments with wish lists. I can say I'm pushing to end world hunger. That doesn't mean I should put it on my resume'.

[vienna]

Yeah well lets not confuse accomplishments with wish lists. I can say I'm pushing to end world hunger. That doesn't mean I should put it on my resume'.


These were more than just "wish lists"; these were active, on-going efforts, cut short by 11/22/63...

Gee, I wonder who benefitted most from that bullet?... :hmmm:

[August]

These were more than just "wish lists"; these were active, on-going efforts, cut short by 11/22/63...

Gee, I wonder who benefitted most from that bullet?... :hmmm:

Well off the top of my head:
The Mob
The Castro regime
The storied Military-Industrial complex
L.B.J.
The Soviets
The Red Chinese

Take your pick...

Oh and FWIW my effort to end world hunger is both active and ongoing. I tossed a buck in the Salvation Army pot this weekend and will likely slip them more before the holiday season is over! :D

[Betonov]

He even left his mark in our parts. The diesel engines he gave Tito as a gift are still operational after 50 years

http://img218.imageshack.us/img218/5521/slika012uu5.jpg

[Torplexed]

He even left his mark in our parts. The diesel engines he gave Tito as a gift are still operational after 50 years

Nice locomotive JFK. I wonder if the original stickers are still on the back. :O:

http://i.ebayimg.com/08/%21B41vF3wBWk%7E$%28KGrHqV,%21i8EyeIJeOvnBMr%28lTR GrQ%7E%7E_35.JPG

[Torvald Von Mansee]

Kennedy apparently read Barbara Tuchman's The Guns of August, which kept him mindful of doing Stupid Things during the Cuban Missile Crisis. Not escalating the crisis and possibly preventing a nuclear World War III would easily make him the greatest President, ever, IMHO. Of course, you can't prove a negative, etc.

[geetrue]

I remember coming home from school in 63 finding mum glued to the radio listening to the news about the death of President Kennedy.

Kennedy was a light to the free world at a time of despair after being devistated by global conflict, and looked like starting over with Russia. He brought hope to people around the world of better things to come.


I remember going on watch at midnight on November 22nd 1963 and hearing the torpedomen talk about how good a president Kennedy had been.

I said, "What do you mean saying that he was a good president"?

That's when they told me that he had been shot and died in Dallas.

I was just 19 years old, a sonarman on the USS Salmon SS-573 ten miles off the coast of Russia watching for test firing of their missiles so our spooks could copy the code the missile sent back.

We all thought it was over that Russia had done the dirty deed and that we were going to war.

[vienna]

I was just less than a month shy of my 13th birthday on 11/22/63; I was in class, in a Catholic school, when the Mother Superior came on the public address system to announce, first, Kennedy had been shot. She asked us to pray for him. A short while later, she came back on to announce Kennedy had died of his wounds. School was dismissed and I went home to spend the next few days watching all that took place afterwards.

Five years later, I was a volunteer in the Bobby Kennedy presidential campaign in Los Angeles during the California Primary in 1968. At the last Bobby Kennedy public function in Los Angeles, before the California Primary, at the Olvera Street Plaza downtown, I got to meet and shake hands with Bobby. I remember how small he seemed but also how so much power and confidence flowed from him. I also noted that he had a bit of an air of sadness about him and I later wondered if, perhaps, he felt it should have been John meeting the crowds and accepting the accolades...

[Gerald]

While I was very young, I remember the pictures in front of me, :yep:

[Jimbuna]

I remember going on watch at midnight on November 22nd 1963 and hearing the torpedomen talk about how good a president Kennedy had been.

I said, "What do you mean saying that he was a good president"?

That's when they told me that he had been shot and died in Dallas.

I was just 19 years old, a sonarman on the USS Salmon SS-573 ten miles off the coast of Russia watching for test firing of their missiles so our spooks could copy the code the missile sent back.

We all thought it was over that Russia had done the dirty deed and that we were going to war.

Now I find that quite fascinating...living history :sunny:

[sidslotm]

I remember going on watch at midnight on November 22nd 1963 and hearing the torpedomen talk about how good a president Kennedy had been.

I said, "What do you mean saying that he was a good president"?

That's when they told me that he had been shot and died in Dallas.

I was just 19 years old, a sonarman on the USS Salmon SS-573 ten miles off the coast of Russia watching for test firing of their missiles so our spooks could copy the code the missile sent back.

We all thought it was over that Russia had done the dirty deed and that we were going to war.

An amazing testinmony, that must have been a worrying for Americans. I know there was much concern in the UK, but the missiles where't in Ireland, thanks.:up:

[Platapus]

Barbara Tuchman's The Guns of August,

Should be required reading on college. Pretty much any of Tuchman's books should.

[Gerald]

Interestingly, tell more.....about your experience.