JFK - 50 years later

50 years ago, on 22 November 1963, John Fitzgerald Kennedy, the 35th President of the United Stated of America, was struck in the heart of Texas. Killed by assassin's bullets, the dream of a generation came to a sudden end at Dealey Plaza at precisely 12:30. Camelot died. Officially, Lee Harvey Oswald, a lone nut, a communist and a loser, shot JFK from a window on the sixt floor of the Texas School Book Depository (TSBD) with an italian WW2 rifle, a Mannlicher-Carcano. 3 shots fired in less than 6 seconds with a bolt action rifle that was known as "the humanitarean rifle" for it's really bad accuracy and performance. Young Lee Harvey Oswald was soon arrested after alledgedly killing Dallas PD officer J.D. Tippit and fleeing to a nearby movie theatre, where he was to be arrested soon after. Charged with the killing of the President and the cop, after two days of intense interrogations, of which no records or recordings had been made, the lone nut assassin was to be transfered from the Dallas PD Headquarters to the County jail. While being escorted to a transport vehicle, LHO was shot and killed in the basement of the DPD by club owner Jack Ruby (Rubinstein). Polls in the USA regularely show that up to 85% of those polled believe that JFK was the victim of a conspiracy and that LHO did not shoot the President. Those who after 50 years still believe that LHO killed JFK are need to do some rethinking.

I'm not going to enumerate all the reasons why LHO couldn't have been the assassin of JFK. That's a job everyone has to do for himself. I've been following the JFK assassination for almost thirty years now, so my mind is pretty much made up about the events of 22 November 1963.

What I'm going to do is to indicate where to find important information about the assassination of the 35th US President. There are a lot of great sites on the web, which offer from radio shows to articles and pictures as well as videos.

Here are my favourites:

CTKA Citizens for Truth about the Kennedy Assassination

Black Op Radio

The Education Forum

Deep Politics Forum JFK Assassination

John Costella JFK Zapruder Film Analysis

Songs That Changed My Life

I just turned 41 a few days ago and so I took some time out to reflect on my life. I started to ask myself questions that I probably should have asked myself a year ago, when I turned 40. Heck, who cares? So I started to think about things that make me feel good, happy and satisfied. Obviously, there's girls and sex. But to me, like any other regular Joe, both are not readily available just like that (wish I was Robbie, or Justin or... no, actually, I don't) and since I'm not in a relationship right now... well, you know what I mean. Therefore I started to think about other things that have had an influence in my life over the years. Music, is just one such thing. Having worked as a radio broadcaster for a long time, music always has played a major role in my life. Today, I present to you songs that really hit me like an asteroid and influenced me and shaped who I am now. Hope you like them.

1. Queen / Radio Gaga

When Queen's Radio Gaga was released in 1984, I was just 12 years old. I already was in love with radio and was starting to fool around with a cheap double deck cassette recorder (kids ages 25 and younger might have to look that one up) and producing my very simplistic own radio ahows. The song was playing on heavy rotation on every station in town and by the time my parents and me hit Spain during our summer vacation, I knew I had to have that record. In a gas station, literally in the middle of nowhere, I don't even remenber where it was, I stared at a rotating cassette display which featured the latest hit records, among them in between El Fari, Julio Iglesias, Manolo Escobar and other assorted spanish stars I found it, Queen's The Works. Almost thirty years later, I still hold on to that one cassette which had such a great influence on me. Wonder what would have become of me, if instead I'd listened to someone else back then.

Radio Gaga ist just one of some amazing and mind blowing songs on that album, but it's the song that best captures my love for radio as a communications medium. The first line of the song says it all. Remember, I was 12 at the time:

I'd sit alone and watch your light
My only friend through teenage nights
And everything I had to know
I heard it on my radio
Radio

Here you go. Enjoy it:

Queen / Radio Gaga