1960 was a long time ago

“The Democrats’ candidate [JFK] in 1960 headlined freedom as the issue defining his campaign. Sixty years later, Democrats are moving down the road to nominating a socialist, pushing freedom as an American ideal out of the picture.”

“It is a generation [18-29] to whom much has been given and from whom little is expected.

When Kennedy ran for president in 1960, America’s youth still faced a military draft. In 1960, 72% of Americans over 18 were married, compared with 50% today.

According to Pew, 78% of those ages 18 to 29 say it is acceptable for an unmarried couple to live together, even if they don’t intend to get married.

From 2009 to 2019, there was a drop of 16% among those ages 23 to 39 who identify as Christian and an increase of 13% of those self-identifying as religiously unaffiliated.”

Democrat youth believe socialism is their future. They are the direction of the Democrat Party.  Get out while you still can.

https://www.dothaneagle.com/opinion/commentary/young-democrats-lose-interest-in-freedom/article_ba70a141-9b74-55db-b513-1a1853c52409.html?

The haters have tried to make Charleston the Dallas of 1963

In 1963 I was blamed for JFK's death at the hands of an American communist who was then killed by another American who followed crime stories and hung out at the police station. (I don't think I was blamed for what Jack Ruby did, however). I was a 23 year old white woman working in the Russian Language and Area Studies Center at the University of Illinois, and even then, as a liberal, I thought that was pretty far fetched.  And I was sensible enough to know the south and people of Dallas weren't to blame either--another favorite whipping boy of the media, even 50 years ago. I was able to narrow the responsibility down to the man who shot him.  Now once again we have hate mongers attempting to blame everyone whose ancestors came to the U.S. from Ireland, England, Germany, Switzerland, Bosnia, Russia, including Jews, Mennonites, Lutherans, Catholics, Orthodox, and atheists  (but not Spain whose people got here first but they are never blamed in these racist plots because of the made up word "Hispanic." ) I believe the people of Charleston have come together to show all the haters, those druggies who join hate organizations on the internet, and those mind addled who sit in their parents’ basement or are tethered to their i-phones making up lies about Drudge, the Tea Party and Fox, just how to share the love of Jesus.  The crazies are out there, just like 1963, but I’m older now, and wiser, and I won’t take it anymore.

Victura; the Kennedys, a sailboat and the sea, by James W. Graham, guest blogger Lynne Wilburn

 

“Another Kennedy book,” was my first thought when seeing this title, but after the first ten pages I came to realize it wasn’t just another Kennedy book. It was a crash course in sailing for a land locked mid-westerner  like  myself and I found myself sailing right along with the family.  The Kennedys sailed when grief was everywhere, during  wedding weekends, in times of joy and  unthinkable sadness,  At times they sailed alone.  One account of Teddy sailing alone at night with just his skill and the stars following his brother Bobby’s death was especially touching . And the competing among family member is long standing going back to Joe, Jr. and Jack in their youth.

Old Joe Kennedy purchased the first sailing vessel for his two older sons and the race was on, entering  races  together and against each other.  Interestingly, the Kennedy women competed  against all comers, too, and Eunice and Ethel are among the finest sailors in the family. Ethel still holds her annual sailing picnics for her expanding family and she is well into her 80’s.

Christopher Kennedy , son of  Robert and Ethel, was author James Graham’s right hand  during the research for this book and they became friends. Chris often took the author sailing, although he was not much of a sailor at the time. Many sailing days later while Chris and Graham were returning to shore for lunch, they came upon a number of children of varying ages with a instructor.  The children were taking lessons in sailing and water safety and when they saw Chris they all smiled their toothy smiles and waved eagerly. Chris turned to the Graham and said,  “They are mostly Kennedys”.

As one generation of Kennedys sails into the sunset, so to speak, another generation comes over the horizon and the reader now understands why the family loves the sea. “We are tied to the ocean, and when we go back to the sea, whether it is to sail or to watch--we are going back  from whence we came.” John F. Kennedy

University Press of New England
272 pages, 6 x 9", 28 images
Cloth, $29.95, Ebook $22.99
ISBN: 978-1-61168-4117
To order: 800-421-1561
www.upne.com

Today he would probably be considered a Tea Party President

Always. It’s always about him.

Obama is twice as large as JFK in this official photograph.

• Gutsy call: President Obama disgracefully honors himself in speech, campaigns on Memorial Day
• All the president’s ego: conservatives mock Obama’s insertion of his name into other presidential bios
• Narcissist in chief: Obama honors Neil Armstrong with picture of himself
• President Obama marks end of combat operations in Iraq with another portrait of himself
• All about him: Obama’s birthday tweet to Biden is a pic of himself
• Narcissist in chief: President Obama honors Rosa Parks anniversary with picture of himself
• Disgrace: President Obama commemorates Pearl Harbor attack with photo of himself
• Narcissist in chief: Obama maintains laser-like focus on himself at Inouye memorial
• Obama’s narcissism during Inouye service even noted by Slate; White House posts Inouye photo starring Obama

Link to the links

November 22, 1963

“Will we ever know the truth about Nov. 22, 1963,”  they ask? Why yes. Lee Harvey Oswald, a Communist American recently of the USSR, shot and killed John F. Kennedy in a motorcade in Dallas. The media jumped on the idea immediately that it was right wing nuts and that much hasn't changed in 50 years of public tragedies. That Sunday when I was watching TV, I saw Jack Ruby kill Oswald, the only person who could explain why. And the conspiracy theories have been hatching regularly since. This gives the perps their 10 minutes of fame and a book deal. It's a cottage industry.

Can you handle one more conspiracy theory about JFK?

                            

I know nothing about the author of the book review, the author of the book, the murder of this particular lover of JFK, or the website that posted the review, but after I started reading the very lengthy book review, I did sort of get interested. http://www.fff.org/comment/com1204g.asp

“In early 1976 the National Enquirer published a story that shocked the elite political class in Washington, D.C. The story disclosed that a woman named Mary Pinchot Meyer, who was a divorced spouse of a high CIA official named Cord Meyer, had been engaged in a two-year sexual affair with President John F. Kennedy. By the time the article was published, JFK had been assassinated, and Mary Pinchot Meyer herself was dead, a victim of a murder that took place in Washington on October 12, 1964.

The murder of Mary Pinchot Meyer is the subject of a fascinating and gripping new book by Peter Janney,  Mary’s Mosaic, who was childhood friends with Mary Meyer’s three sons and whose father himself was a high CIA official. Janney’s father and mother socialized in the 1950s with the Meyers and other high-level CIA officials.”

One of the clerks at the coffee shop loves “true crime” type books, so I may print this out for her. For me, just reading the review was enough. The further away we get from 1963, the less we know it seems.

A book I won't read--Mimi's tale of a handsome lie

"Mimi Alford’s belated tell-all, Once Upon a Secret, should be assigned in women’s-studies classes as an illustration of the power imbalances in employer-employee sexual liaisons, especially those involving commanders-in-chief and their interns. . .

. . . Within her first week as an intern, JFK’s friend and procurer Dave Powers invited her to a midday swim with the president and some of the gals from the secretarial pool. At the end of the day, the rising sophomore at Massachusetts’ Wheaton College was invited to a get-together in the family residence. She was plied with daiquiris, then the president peeled her away from the group with an invitation to a private tour of the residence.

Alford lost her virginity on the fashionably elegant Mrs. Kennedy’s bed. “I wouldn’t describe what happened that night as making love,” Alford writes. “But I wouldn’t call it nonconsensual, either.” "

He never kissed her she says, but required her to perform oral sex on Powers (it was his job to find her an abortion doctor if needed) while he watched and asked for baby brother Teddy.

A handsome lie

Washington Post comments

Rock Center interview

I'm just so very sorry that I ever wept tears over that man in 1963.

Politics at work

In an article about discussing politics at work, I noticed this comment by one Obama supporter:

I decided now that we're in the final stages of this mega-important event and because I'm more passionate about this election than I have been since JFK, I would wear my favorite candidate's campaign button," said Ms. Geissal, 58, a registered nurse from Monticello, Ill.

Let me do a little math here. I was 21 years old when I voted for JFK and she's 11 years younger than me. She must have been a very astute campaigner for a 10 year old. The How-to of politics at work can be found here.

I see JFK's name (initials) comes up frequently, regardless of the party. Even Rush Limbaugh speaks fondly of his tax cuts. Joe Biden made reference to him in his warning about an impending disaster which he guarantees will happen under President Obama. Generally, historians say JFK failed or flubbed when tested by the USSR. So why bring it up? However, that's not the memory it evoked for me. Senator Biden, I remember the assassination of JFK, I can go clammy just thinking about how we hovered over Fran's little portable radio at work, crying and praying, and then the terrible news that he was gone. I truly wish Biden would have left that name and memory out of his fear mongering threat.

I am wearing my political badge to the coffee shop, but I have already voted. Like the day I ran into the PUMA at the library, it opens the door for discussion.