On Sunday, March 10, 2013 10:20:50 PM UTC-4, Robert Harris wrote:
> Lanny, my suggestion was that we discuss issues that will appeal to
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> intelligent people, rather than the trashtalk crowd.
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> I don't think most intelligent people give a crap about Robert Harris. I
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> think they will be far more interested in the assassination of JFK.
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> But to answer you specifically, I believe there is a very high
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> probability that there were two shots to the head, for a large number of
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> reasons in addition to the statements of the three experts I have cited.
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> If, over the last couple of decades, I made statements which suggested
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> certainty, that was an error, for which I apologize.
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> But rather than discuss your apparent obsession, why don't we talk about
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> the shot at 313, and the reasons you agree or disagree with me. I know
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> you have seen some of my videos on the subject, why don't you begin?
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> Robert Harris
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To begin with, I doubt I would have much trouble convincing anyone in this
forum of your proclivity to state theory as fact regarding most
assassination evidence that you’ve cared to comment on.
I also thought it was particularly telling that a new member of your
forum, after only 33 posts, saw the irony in your critical
characterization of Sherry Feister’s presentation of her research “as
though they were a done deal and beyond dispute.” Doesn’t take long to
make a first impression, huh?
But if I did not make it clear in my last post in this thread, let me make
the attempt once more. My “obsession,” as you put it, is not about
whatever nutty theories you may choose to believe about the assassination.
My outrage is in response to ANYONE stating as fact direct testimony of
witnesses that is in stark opposition to what those witnesses actually
said or their unmistakable intended context.
We covered this ground in your forum long ago. I really don’t see the
point of going over all of this again.
Our disagreement stems from the following:
1. Your previous assertions that a high powered rifle was not fired prior
to frame Z-285 because no witnesses manifested visible startle reactions
to an audible stimulus of a decibel level sufficient to provoke
involuntary startle reactions. You appear to maintain this viewpoint
despite scientific evidence showing that decibel levels of at least 124 db
can produce involuntary muscle contractions no more demonstrative than a
flinch of a contracted muscle or the momentary closing of the eyes, and
that this minimal physical reaction is quite common within the wide range
of valid involuntary neurological responses. Your apparent reliance on a
physically observable startle reaction on the part of one or more limo
passengers as a minimal evidentiary requirement to establish the presence
of high powered rifle fire prior to frame 285 is scientifically unfounded.
To my knowledge you’ve never explained why you reject these scientific
findings while accepting the science which establishes the minimum
threshold noise level for involuntary reactions or the mean physical
response time between the generation of the noise stimulus and the
involuntary reaction itself.
2. Your attempt to attribute a state of confusion on the part of Nellie
Connelly as to when she believed her husband was wounded. Your
suggestions that her view of only her husband’s back from the time of
his initial wounding on or about Z-frame 225 could have resulted in her
mistakenly believing that he was wounded by the alleged shot at frame 285
is directly contradicted by her Warren Commission testimony wherein she
fixes the moment of his wounding at frame 229 or perhaps into the low
230’s at most. Governor Connelly’s WC testimony of hearing a rifle
shot just before his wounding AND Mrs. Connally hearing BOTH the first
shot which she associated with the President’s wounding and the second
shot which struck her husband provide compelling evidence for gunshots
well in advance of frame 285. Neither of the Connally’s heard any
further gunshots until the third and final shot which struck President
Kennedy’s head at frame 313.
That bears repeating. Nellie Connally never testified to hearing the
sound at frame 285 you say she involuntarily reacted to nor perceived her
pulling her husband into her lap as an involuntary reaction to a sound.
In fact, she specifically described it as a conscious decision to her
husband’s condition which she OBSERVED. Neurological reactions can
certainly be involuntary. I don’t believe the act of being
“startled” can occur outside the state of consciousness. Do you?
3. Your implication that because witnesses misinterpreted any or all of
the gunshots as “firecrackers” or “motorcycle backfires” they
were, in reality, subjected to an auditory stimulus of some decibel level
LESS than that of an unsuppressed rifle is specious. The vast majority of
witnesses made this misidentification despite no clear evidence that any
fireworks were ever set off in Dealey Plaza that day and no motorcycle
patrolman ever confirmed that his vehicle backfired while on Houston or
Elm Street. Since President Kennedy and Governor Connelly’s wounds were
NOT inflicted by either fireworks or engine backfires, it is patently
ridiculous to believe that the loud noises people heard were anything
other than the gunshots which struck the President and the Governor.
That’s all I have the patience for at the moment. My purpose in
analyzing assassination evidence is not to evoke Damascus-road-like
conversion experiences from the rationally recalcitrant. My only hope is
to give newcomers to this discussion a better perspective from which to
judge certain theories that deserve a more penetrating look than they
might first be led to believe.
Alas, there are probably not very many of those folks here.