
Twenty Reasons to Believe Oswald Acted Alone - clarkm
http://www.scottaaronson.com/blog/?p=1596
======
cgore
A few years back I bought a Carcano, the rifle used in the JFK assassination.
I had always remembered every year some "firearms expert" being trotted out
and claiming that there was no way that shot could have been made.

I don't think I could reliably make that shot, but a really good shooter
could. It is actually a pretty accurate rifle. It is really unreliable though
(although that might be just because it is from WW2). So whenever the TV tries
to tell you something about firearms, just remember that most news reporters
haven't been near anything more powerful than a NERF gun in their entire
lives.

An interesting little bit of trivia. Mussolini was a really hard-core atheist,
to the point where he even tried to get rid of the Christian year system. And
I don't mean just trying to replace BC/AD with BCE/CE, he restarted the
calendar at the date in which he took power in Italy. Mine was stamped "1941
XIX", 19 years by Mussolini's count.

~~~
imrehg
An interesting little bit of trivia: in Taiwan the years are still counted
since the ruling Kuomintang (KMT) party took power in China in 1911, making
this year year 102, for example. Oh, and of course they mix it with the
"western" years too. So e.g. my birth year of 1980 is occasionally written on
documents as 1980, as 80, as 69. Hilarity ensues.

The parallel with Mussolini (ie. being far right as well) is not lost on me,
though. Food for thought.

~~~
cafard
As your Emacs will show you (Meta-x calendar, then p f), the French Republic
used a calendar beginning with the revolution. It would be hard to describe
the First Republic as "far right".

And I noticed on co-worker's diploma that Syracuse University gives the year
both AD and from the founding of the republic--but whether counting that from
independence or from the constitution I don't remember.

------
cLeEOGPw
I have also experienced this conspiracy bug. It was when I was young and "fake
moon landing" was on the rise. What put an end to my belief it was staged was
a simple fact that there are mirrors on the moon for anyone to check for
reflection. Yet all the conspiracy theories conveniently left this fact out.

------
curtis
Marc Ambinder's "How I figured out that Lee Harvey Oswald killed JFK"
([http://theweek.com/article/index/253249/my-journey-to-
unbeli...](http://theweek.com/article/index/253249/my-journey-to-unbelief)) is
worth a read as well.

