Right now, it’s not the government that is “sopping up” every last cent I have. It’s my bank – which you and I bailed out! Why? Because the banks own the government! So you may have some good ideas but they are circular because they ignore the reality of the revolving door between Wall Street and Government. Need proof? Check out Timothy Geithner’s background.

More than 58,000 of our kids died over in that worthless jungle. Their service was greatly appreciated. However, as a practical matter, it did not pan out for us because it was supposed to stop the spread of communism. In the end, expansionist communism stopped itself—making all of those American deaths effectively unnecessary and irrelevant on the world stage.

Here is the real killer though. I have two friends who were hired by the Vietnamese government to propsect for offshore oil in the South China Sea. They were a little uneasy about going because they thought everyone over there would hate them because of the war. They went over there anyway and were pretty much free to move around and really get to know average people. As it turnd out, the Vietnamese people (Old North Vite-Nam and South Viet-Nam now combined) love Americans. Ordinary Americans are movie stars in the eyes of the people, and they will treat you that way too. We blew their country all to Hades, stripped the jungle with agent orange, and maimed assorted people (as they also did to our kids) and they love us like we did the Beatles in 1964. Whoda thunk it?

I couldn’t remember what day of the week November 22, 1963 was. If it was a Friday, then the national day of mourning I mentioned must have been on the following Monday, which is when I would have been out of school.

Until November 22, 1963, the only meaning this date had for me was that it was my parents’ wedding anniversary. I was 13 and in 7th grade on 11/ 22/63. I was home sick in bed with a bad cold. My sister arrived home some time around 1:30 unexpectedly. I overheard my mother ask my sister why she was home. My sister, excited and shaken, said the president had been shot and killed. We were so shocked we were speechless. The TV was turned on and remained on for the rest of the day and evening. I felt so sad and frightened that night. I didn’t figure out until years later what might have been behind my sadness and fear: ‘If “they” can get the president, “they” can get anyone.’

I remember the assassination taking place on a Friday so there was no need to cancel school next day; next day would have been Saturday and we didn’t have school on Saturday anyway.

It left a big impression on me. I’ve visited the Sixth Floor Museum in the TX School Book Depository Building at Dealey Plaza in Dallas several times. And with every visit I still am overcome with sadness. Dealey Plaza has changed very little since that day. Only the letters at the top of the building that read Texas School Book Depository have been removed.

Ever since 11/22/63 I’ve never been completely trusting. All the years of lies during the Vietnam War, the shock of the MLK and RFK assassinations, and then Watergate – plus the lies surrounding JFK’s assassination have done nothing to alleviate my mistrust. I’ve been hopeless and pessimistic ever since. I’ve seen very little reason to be optimistic.

I don’t think I will ever get over the significance of this date.

If memory serves, I was a pretty good news junky even at 11 years old. Walter Cronkite was my favorite. I don’t recall anything about Texas extremism being associated with his trip to Dallas. It was always my understanding that Kennedy’s poll numbers were going south and the Democrats were really worried about whether they could hold on to the White House and their numbers in Congress in autumn of 1964. The Dallas trip, among others, was targeted at shoring up support for the election in the following year.

However, I do know this and hope any right-wing extremist who might read this will consider it. November 22, the day Kennedy was shot, is my wife’s birthday. She was about 8 or 9 years old when it happened. The death of the President was really hard on her. Of course, she was too young to know anything about “liberals” or “conservatives,” and there was no political polarization, as we have today. She was just a little girl with blonde hair who was enormously sad that someone had killed a young President. Didn’t the person who did it realize that the President was married to a mommy and he had two kids not much older than me? Worst of all, it happened on her birthday. It was a sad birthday present for a little girl? Moreover, her birthday would now live forever in infamy. It left real emotional scars that have lasted a lifetime. So, if you are thinking about doing some terrible act to defend conservatism, stop for a few minutes and think about all of the innocent kids across the country that will be scarred for life by what you do. Please reconsider.

‘Course, these conservative wacko teabaggers and birthers are so crafty they’d probably make the assassination look like a terrible “accident.” Better yet, that a Muslim terrorist did the dastardly deed. Heck, I can picture these wackos PAYING a terrorist to knock off the president. I don’t put a thing past them; they and their evil minds are capable of anything.