Yet the bullet wasn't magical. the shot was duplicated...
http://mcadams.posc.mu.edu/Lattimer.txt
Hey freak, be aware that everything you pull from John McAdam's site will support the single bullet theory.
I have talked to Pat Speer numerous times, he is one of the most intelligent, thorough and fair minded researchers of the JFK assassination.
Here is an exchange Pat had with John McAdam...
McAdams' Rib
And the war raged on... When I challenged McAdams to create an image showing the trajectory of the bullet within the body, he once again started in with the insults. He wrote: "It is not necessarily easy to do it. Which is why people like you should probably avoid trying, at least until you learn about modeling." He then justified his refusal to address my slides by insisting "I'm sorry, but your claims are not assumed to be true until disproven. In fact, it's obvious looking at your graphics that you aren't able to model this stuff..." Eventually, he offered what he thought to be the official explanation, and noted that HSCA Exhibit 46, on the slide above, shows: "the trajectory going between T1 and C7, and exiting the throat." This was indeed strange, as McAdams had already pronounced the HSCA pathology panel's trajectory incorrect. But it was more than strange. It was dead wrong. HSCA Exhibit 46 most definitely did not show a bullet heading between T1 and C7, as suggested by McAdams, who'd previously claimed he'd pushed dowels along this path, but a bullet heading straight through the first rib...which was hmmm...conveniently left off the drawing!
When I smart-assedly pointed out that his credibility wasn't high, seeing as he refused to admit a bullet heading downward from C7/T1 would not exit at C7, he replied "It can enter at C7/T1 on a 21 degree angle and exit below the Adams's Apple." He then attacked my characterization of HSCA trajectory analyst Thomas Canning's movement of the back wound upwards two inches from the location depicted in the pathology panel's drawings, whilst simultaneously claiming he'd received his information from the panel, as a "lie", by first claiming that "that assertion of yours assumes you know how to scale these drawings. It's obvious that you don't" and then acknowledging "Canning used various kinds of data to locate the wound. He apparently did his own measurements, rather than blindly following the FPP. And you, in a very mean-spirited way, say this was a 'lie'." (Well...what would YOU call it when someone says they got their information from a presumably credible source... when the information they offer is clearly at odds with the information provided by that source?)
He then got defensive of Artwohl, claiming that "an ER doctor has vastly better credentials than you to discuss these issues", missing entirely that Artwohl himself was second-guessing NINE forensic pathologists with vastly better credentials than himself to discuss these issues.
He then decided to go on the offensive. Like an angry child, he changed the name of the topic to "Pat Speer believes Kennedy was not hit in the back", and got personal. He asserted "Pat, you are among the die-hard faithful. Only people like DiEugenio accept your claims...I feel like I'm debating with somebody with no ability to read and assimilate information..." He then taunted: "You are in the Jack White tradition of photo analysis" and "You really are Jack White for a new generation," missing entirely that Jack White's studies are often rapidly refuted by his fellow CTs, and that neither McAdams himself nor anyone else had refuted my studies. He then, without any deliberate irony, proclaimed "it's a serious character defect to refuse to answer simple questions and to obsess on your pet obsessions."
Of course, I wasn't exactly a bystander in this kerfuffle. By now, it was clear to me that McAdams' offensive was a ploy designed to hide that he knows damn well that the wound locations in the Artwohl exhibit aren't consistent with the findings of the HSCA pathology panel, and that he simply doesn't have enough respect for the truth to admit it to the likes of me. So I continued pestering him to tell me at what vertebral level he thought the bullet exited Kennedy's throat. His responses grew more and more agitated..."Using vertebra numbers is silly...Below the Adam's Apple...The bullet exited at the knot in the tie...The bullet exited where the gash in the neck shows it exiting...The bullet exited where it is shown to exit in the lateral autopsy photo... It's where the damn photo shows it!" and then, in all caps: "PLEASE QUIT ASKING ME TO USE LANGUAGE THAT MAKES NO SENSE!" And then finally: "THE GODDAMN LOCATION IS SHOWN IN THE LATERAL PHOTO!"
McAdams' failure to answer a simple question--at what level in the neck did the magic bullet magically exit--and acknowledge what is readily obvious--that two bullets entering the same location and traveling in a straight line in opposite directions cannot exit from the same place--was for me an epiphany. For a long time, I'd assumed that other researchers--LN and CT alike--had a similar reverence for the truth as myself and my friends, but that they were just frequently mistaken. I never suspected that a University Professor would spout such obvious nonsense, and tell such obvious lies, rather than admit that he was wrong, or that an exhibit on his website was bunkum. Boy, was I wrong.
There are brazen liars in this world. People who will happily lie about serious matters, even when they have nothing to gain from this lie, beyond the benefit of keeping a self-serving illusion alive. And I have come to believe that John McAdams is one of them.
This is profoundly disappointing. While I had long hoped that the LN/CT divide could be lessened through an acknowledgment by LNs that aspects of what they wrongly believe is the "official" story could be mistaken, I no longer believe this is possible, as long as "true believers" like McAdams are running the show.
The Re-invention of Lying
In September 2010, I gained further insight into Professor McAdams' mindset. I had noted on the alt.assassination.jfk newsgroup the repeated claims of many LNTs that Mark Lane, Jim Garrison, and Oliver Stone are liars. I pointed out that I considered this a double-standard, as these same LNTs were not remotely interested in the evidence Dr. Lattimer, Gerald Posner, and Vincent Bugliosi are liars. McAdams then defended this particular LN obsession by insisting that Lane, Garrison, and Stone really were liars. He posted a link to his webpage, in which he discussed a number of inaccuracies in Jim Garrison's On the Trail of the Assassins. He claimed that by making so many errors, which inevitably exaggerated either the case against Clay Shaw or Garrison's role in the investigation and trial of Shaw, Garrison had revealed himself to be a liar. I then pointed out that, by McAdams' own definition, Dr. Baden was also a liar, as his books and television appearances have included a number of errors, which inevitably exaggerate both the case against Oswald and his--Dr. Baden's--role in demonstrating Oswald's guilt.
But I couldn't get McAdams to agree with this. It was clear as day--what's good for the goose is good for the gander, etc. But McAdams wouldn't budge.
And then finally, on September 19, 2010, he explained why he felt Baden was not a liar, and confirmed my worst suspicions. He wrote
"If somebody misstates a strong case against Oswald, we would have to assume he's mistaken and/or confused. If you don't *need* to lie to find Oswald guilty, it's not plausible to believe somebody did."
He then further excused Baden's persistent mis-statements and exaggerations by repeating
"People don't lie when the truth serves their purposes just as well. He should have checked things out. The fact that he didn't actually shows he was not lying. People who are lying usually calculate carefully what lies they are going to tell (at least if not caught off guard). If he actually sat down to write thinking "I'm going to lie about this," he would check the HSCA material to see what lies he could tell and possibly get away with. But if he checked the HSCA, he would find he didn't need to lie."
Well, great googley moogley! Here was the author of a book entitled JFK Assassination Logic: How to Think About Claims of Conspiracy telling me that, to his way of thinking, those who invent their own facts about the Kennedy assassination are not liars, as long as they claim Oswald acted alone...since those claiming Oswald acted alone do not "need" to lie!!!
What utter horsecrap!
And what a blatant double-standard! Does McAdams really believe Jim Garrison's lazy research and/or convenient memory proves him to be a liar, while, at the same time, Dr. Baden's lazy research and/or convenient memory proves him not to be a liar? I mean, to use McAdams' logic, if Garrison's lies had only been as SLOPPY as Baden's lies, we would have reason to believe he wasn't actually lying.
But wait, it gets worse. To a related question, as to whether people with bad memories who make things up can be called liars, or if those telling untruths have to KNOW what they say is untrue before they can be called a liar, McAdams later added:
"They have to *know* it's untrue before they can be called a liar."
He, of course, had never demonstrated that Garrison had "known" any of his inaccuracies were untrue! He had concluded that Garrison had misrepresented events and facts that he should have known were incorrect, and had concluded from this that Garrison had knowingly lied. And I had offered the same case against Baden. At which time, McAdams attempted to preserve the illusion of Baden's and the HSCA's integrity by claiming that someone with such disregard for the truth that they refuse to read or memorize their own reports before going on TV and babbling on about something for which they are supposedly an expert can not be considered a liar if they did not "need" to lie, i.e. if their original report was something he--McAdams-- had personally agreed with.
He had thereby re-defined the word "liar", which can be used to designate those who tell falsehoods whether they know them false or not, to suit his own needs. Garrison was a liar, whether or not he knew what he said was untrue, but Baden was not a liar, as he may not have known he was lying.
This erodes any claims McAdams may make to cognitive superiority, IMO. Rather than questioning Baden's and the HSCA panel's conclusions because Baden had revealed himself to be a lazy researcher who preferred to make stuff up, McAdams had insinuated that Baden's and the HSCA panel's conclusions were BEYOND DISPUTE, and that, therefore, Baden's subsequent failures as a researcher and story-teller were irrelevant.
Pardon my French...but that is worse than utter horsecrap, it's freakin' bullshit.
http://www.patspeer.com/chapter19%3Awrestlingoverhistory
