Penn & Teller Bull****!: Conspiracy Theories - 05/09/05
 

Showtime 9:00pm CDT

Although I've been looking forward to this one, my fear is that they'll try to cover too much and end up not covering anything very well.

(Next week: Life Coaching.)

That pretty much sums up every episode. This show needs to be an hour long. At least.

Aslong as they find a way to include Leykis in the episode. it's all good.

I already got the 411 on busting the JFK conspiracy a few weeks ago. I look forward to seeing them go after fake Moon Landing nuts.

I was talking to a guy about that. I explained that my dad helped design and build the lunar module. Now he is convinced that my dad is part of the conspiracy.

He lied to me :grunt:


:lol:

:mad: One freaking hour please. Please! As expected, there was too much material, so nothing was covered well enough.

They actually filled in the one part that was noticeably missing from the JFK program that was on the History Channel last month. Demonstrating that the "back and to the left" reaction of his head could occur with a shot from the rear.

The really found some crazy nuts for this episode. :lol: People should conspire to firebomb that Oregon bar. I guess I shouldn't be too surprised that such a bar would be located in Oregon. ;)

That one wacko lifted his "theory" directly from a Bill Hicks routine. I'm surprised they didn't point that out.
The back and to the left demonstration was particularly illuminating.

Good ep, but definitely way too much stuff to dig into in just 30 minutes. I thought they might talk about Roswell, but no such luck. I'm still not convinced on the JFK thing. I believe that the shot could have come from behind based on those examples, but just putting what's-his-name sitting more to his left doesn't cure the "Magic Bullet" theory for me, plus some other stuff they didn't cover like the strange autopsy stuff and all that. I don't believe that aliens convinced LBJ to have JFK murdered or anything like that, but I don't believe that Oswald acted alone.

Anyway, nice kooks on this one. Loved the lunar guy drinking out of the vodka bottle marked "V" and calling it "water". :lol:

I thought it was OK, but predictably thin. They didn't really do much to refute the 9/11 or Apollo Moon Landing conspiracies other than accurately label those fools as assholes. It's always fun to watch Penn go off on some dickwad, but it's even better when they really present some facts. The gun demonstrations were pretty cool, though. :up:

rotfl at the bunny trying to flip the bird.

das

They didn't do a good job on the Magic Bullet theory. If it is reaired, you need to watch the JFK Conspiracy-or-not program that was on the History Channel last month. Very illuminating.

As I've said before, the CourtTV program that aired in November 2003 (unfortunately, not available on DVD AFAIK) was even better (on the nuts and bolts of the assassination) than the ABC show you saw rebroadcast on the History Channel (which is available on DVD). Several excellent programs have been shown on the Discovery Channel and they are all available on DVD through the Discovery Channel website. The definitive study of what happened during those historical moments promises to be Dale Myers' computer animation project (some of his preliminary work was used on the ABC program) based on a frame-by-frame analysis and computer re-enactment of the Zapruder film:

http://www.jfkfiles.com/jfk/html/faq.htm

The completion of the project and the promised resulting DVD has been postponed several time and now is scheduled for the fourth quarter of this year.

The best book to date is Gerald Posner's Case Closed. What will probably be an even better book is Vincent Bugliosi's which was mentioned on P&T last night. Unfortunately, like Myers' project, Bugliosi's book has been much postponed.

The alleged JFK conspiracy was the one "conspiracy" presented on the program which is widely believed (in one form or another or just in a nebulous "Oswald didn't do it alone" fashion) by an overwhelming majority of the American people. Even if they had just used that limited time to concentrate on one aspect (like the "magic" bullet) and done a better job with it they could have shown how sound the single bullet theory actually is (I would say it's been proved beyond a reasonable doubt). I think the superficial treatment they gave to every aspect of the case they covered is unlikely to even get many people thinking.

On one of the specials (CourtTV, I think, it's been a while) they actually did a computer simulation where they extrapolated where the shot was coming from based on the wounds in Kennedy and Connelly. Not surprisingly (to me, anyway), the line traced back to the sixth floor of the Texas Schoolbook Depository.

I agree, it was too much to pack into a 30 minute show. Other than that, it was funny to see the conspiracy nuts spout off their stuff.

What did they say about Bugliosi's book? I seem to recall him saying somewhere (possibly in The Betrayal of America, I'm not sure) that it had been put on an indefinite hiatus, so it'd be great to hear if it's back on again.

Woo-hoo! I got a DVR today and, for some reason, Time Warner bumped up my cable package so I get Showtime now. I can finally watch this show first-run rather than waiting for it to hit DVD. So, how often are past episodes repeated? Does Showtime normally air a marathon of the current season at some point?

Don't know if they ever have marathons, but they usually do rebroadcast the season at some point. Also, if you have VOD, you can probably catch the episodes already aired.

I believe they re-air the latest episode on Friday nights at 10.


edit: and the Family Values episode (from last week) is on at 10:30 tomorrow after Conspiracy Theories.

Dale Myers' computer animation analysis shows that the source of the single (so-called "magic") bullet that hit both Kennedy and Connally, taking into account all possible errors, had to be from an ellipse 26 feet in diameter that encompasses the 6th and 5th floor far end windows of the Texas School Book Depository and a bit of the roof of the Dal-Tex Building. The only viable source out of those, consistent with the evidence, was the 6th floor window of the TSBD.

See :

http://www.jfkfiles.com/jfk/html/concl2b.htm

(The site does not allow copying so you have to click on the link to see this.)

I didn't see the P&T show, but I can tell you that Mr. Bugliosi's long-anticipated (by me) book -- actually a purported 2-volume set of books, around 2,000 pages (!) in length -- has been delayed since its originally-planned release date of November 22, 1998.

A long delay, to be certain, but it'll be worth it IMO (given Vincent's penchant for diving head-first and thoroughly into every case he approaches).

Current word has Vincent's tome -- which has been re-titled "Final Verdict: The Simple Truth In The Killing Of JFK" -- coming out in either November of 2005 or sometime in 2006.

http://www.jagnew.com/about.htm

http://www.wwnorton.com/orders/wwn/004525.htm

http://www.pmalitfilm.com/2005.html

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/se...395497-9527860

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>>> "Lee Harvey Oswald acted alone in the assassination of President Kennedy. The evidence is
absolutely overwhelming that he carried out the tragic shooting all by himself. .... In fact, you could
throw 80 percent of the evidence against him out the window and there would still be more than
enough left to convince any reasonable person of his sole role in the crime. .... The Warren Commission looked at a tremendous amount of evidence and concluded that Oswald acted alone. I've studied the evidence, and I agree." -- Vincent T. Bugliosi

Thanks! The DVR is set.