Your Favorite Political Myth or Urban Legend?

[Documad]

Mine is the first President Bush being amazed by a grocery store scanner.

The people who were there say he was polite, but not amazed. But that's not what people remember.


Any others?

[QueenAdrock]

CHENEY'S GINORMOUS WANKER

I can see it though. In order to do shit like he's done, you've gotta have some pretty huge balls.

[yeahwho]

The lone gunman theory. That Lee Harvey Oswald (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lee_Harvey_Oswald) was the lone shooter that November day in Dallas Texas. The lone gunman theory was quickly dispensed after JFK's assassination and conspiracy theories immediatley started to percolate from all levels of society. Culminating in a House Select Committee on Assassinations (http://jfkassassination.net/russ/m_j_russ/hsc.htm) in 1978 debunking the loneman theory, yet leaving no real answers to the who, what, where, how and when of it.

To this day Lee Harvey Oswald and the lone gunman theory remains one of the most notorious political myths. Experts (http://mcadams.posc.mu.edu/home.htm) are puzzled and have switched theories several times.

[BionicEye]

The true story of the person who took a one night stand home, awoke the next morning to find them gone except for a note that says "Welcome to the wonderful world of AIDS.

[Ali]

The one about how an ex-CIA employee, living in a cave in Afghanistan, managed to hijack four planes and fly three of them into buildings in the US, without being intercepted, because there just happened to be dozens of hijack drills that very morning (even though the government claimed that it was totally unexpected). How passports were 'found' amongst rubble when everything else was incinerated. How rental cars with Arabic flight manuals were found at the airport (some last-minute cramming!). How men with minimal experience in flight simulators managed to fly the planes with such precision and how those same men, who were about to die for Allah were witnessed drinking in bars prior to the events, barring them from Paradise. How all this was somehow linked to the Taliban and then another ex-CIA employee who was now ruling a country which is the second-largest producer of oil in the world and could launch Nuclear Death within 45 minutes and so had to be stopped at all costs.

Absolute corker.

[Documad]

You know how you remember some things really clearly, but important details are all blurry? I remember the first time I paid attention to the fuss over Lee Harvey Oswald was when they did a mock trial on cable (HBO or Showtime). I remember it was long, and I bet they didn't televise the whole thing. Vincent Bugliosi (Manson prosecutor) tried to prove that Oswald was guilty and acted alone. Gerry Spence (legendary people's attorney) represented Oswald--who was a photograph in a chair if I remember right. I think there was a real jury. And I think they questioned real witnesses. I think maybe even Oswald's wife.

I didn't know enough background to get all the details, but my dad was fascinated--mostly by seeing two attorneys he admired. I remembered Bugliosi because I had secretly read Helter Skelter a lot as a kid. My dad loved Spence. I think maybe Dersowitz was a commentator. It was an amazing array of legal talent to educate a very small cable audience. I barely knew anyone who had cable back then.

But here's the part I remember vividly: The jury found Oswald guilty, but I think they split on whether he acted alone. The home audience voted not guilty, and Bugliosi was crushed because he had hoped that the show would lay to rest all the controversy.


I remember that a cable trial about what happened to Steven Biko was even better, but that might have involved actors.

[EN[i]GMA]

Adolf Hitler only had 1 testicle!

HAHAHAHAHAHHHAHAHAHAHAHA

[yeahwho]

The one about how an ex-CIA employee, living in a cave in Afghanistan, managed to hijack four planes and fly three of them into buildings in the US, without being intercepted, because there just happened to be dozens of hijack drills that very morning (even though the government claimed that it was totally unexpected). How passports were 'found' amongst rubble when everything else was incinerated. How rental cars with Arabic flight manuals were found at the airport (some last-minute cramming!). How men with minimal experience in flight simulators managed to fly the planes with such precision and how those same men, who were about to die for Allah were witnessed drinking in bars prior to the events, barring them from Paradise. How all this was somehow linked to the Taliban and then another ex-CIA employee who was now ruling a country which is the second-largest producer of oil in the world and could launch Nuclear Death within 45 minutes and so had to be stopped at all costs.

Absolute corker.
(y)

[Documad]

GMA']Adolf Hitler only had 1 testicle!

HAHAHAHAHAHHHAHAHAHAHAHA
Isn't that one true?

How about Hitler was 1/4 Jewish?

[zorra_chiflada]

Isn't that one true?

How about Hitler was 1/4 Jewish?

or hitler was a vegetarian (thus making all other vegetarians nazis - obviously :mad: i hear that shit all the time)

[Audio.]

The assignation of JFK. Did he really died?
God rest his soul and his wife and children.

[cosmo105]

yeah, his brains kinda sploded all over the place on video

[Audio.]

I know which is funny that some people believe him to be alive.
Funny or sad.

[yeahwho]

JFK, isn't that slang for just fucking kidding....

This photo (http://mcadams.posc.mu.edu/3tramps.jpg) of the tramps on Houston St. always gives me the creeps. So does the term "Grassy Knoll (http://www.jfkmurdersolved.com/knoll.htm)".

Oliver Stone barely scratched the surface, his movie isn't nearly as interesting as it could of been. The internet on the other hand is like a goldmine of theories and almost conclusions....it's fun! One of the coolest sites I'd seen was called, Grassy Knoll....but look at what happened (http://www.grassyknoll.homestead.com/). I don't want to talk about it.

[QueenAdrock]

Isn't that one true?

How about Hitler was 1/4 Jewish?

It's speculation that he was part Jewish (some say his grandfather was Jewish), but I'm not sure if it's ever been proven. There's the theory that he hated Jews because his biological Jewish grandfather had left their family. There's also the theory that the reason why he hated Jews so much was because a Jewish doctor wasn't able to save his grandmother, and she died on the operating table. Who knows.

Another interesting thing is the thought that he'd never had come to power if his grandfather had not left his grandmother. His grandfather's name (on his mom's side) was Schicklgruber (pronounced Shickle-groober), and he eventually left his grandmother after Hitler's mother, Alois, was born. About 5 years after Alois was born, she remarried another man by the name of Hiedler, which eventually became "Hitler". When Adolf was born, Alois wanted him to take the name of her step-father, rather than the man who had abandoned them. So this is how he got the last name "Hitler" instead of "Schicklgruber" (though technically by blood, he's a Schicklgruber). The theory is, he would have never come to power if people were forced to say "Heil Schicklgruber" because that's fuckin' clown-shoes.

Makes you think, eh?

[jeepgirl]

Ummm... Roswell is my personal favorite. I honestly believe the government is hiding information about the Roswell crash and their involvement with aliens. I'm also interested with the whole JFK coverup. I heard George Bush senior was head of the CIA when JFK was shot.

[BionicEye]

The SKULL & BONES SOCIETY

This 'secret' society with members including George Bush (both) and John Kerry. OK this isn't so timely right now and the society isn't so secret, but what it's all about has been in question for decades.

About Skull & Bones (http://skullandcrossbones.org/articles/skullandbones.htm)

[DroppinScience]

I heard George Bush senior was head of the CIA when JFK was shot.

Umm.... George H.W. Bush was head of the CIA for a brief interval in the 1970s. So no.

[jeepgirl]

Ummmm... sorry. My bad. Guess I heard wrong.

[El Nino]

George H W Bush was appointed head of the CIA in 1976 by President Ford. There is an interesting Bush tie-in to the Kennedy Assassination, however. Check out the memo at this link:

http://www.jfkmurdersolved.com/bush.htm

Scroll down to almost the bottom of the page.

[El Nino]

Poking around the site I linked to, I found an even more interesting memo regarding Bush / JFK:

http://www.jfkmurdersolved.com/bush3.htm

This one describes bush as "George Bush of the Central Intelligence Agency". Pretty sure he wasn't on the official payroll at the time.

[catatonic]

I went around on snopes looking for some.

QuRanic verse speaks of "The wrath of the Eagle cleansing the land of Allah."

http://www.snopes.com/politics/war/quran.asp

Two others on this war/anti-war page:

The daughter of US Vice-President Dick Cheney is going to Baghdad to serve as a human shield.

French's mustard released a press statement to let U.S. consumers know "the only thing we have have in common with the French is that we are both yellow."

[Documad]

The daughter of US Vice-President Dick Cheney is going to Baghdad to serve as a human shield.
Is that the lesbian one? Because she's really been through enough already! :rolleyes:

[franscar]

Richard III. Two princes in the Tower. Did he murder them or was he victim of Tudor propoganda?

That's my favourite.

[Documad]

Richard III. Two princes in the Tower. Did he murder them or was he victim of Tudor propoganda?

That's my favourite.
Oh, that's a good one.
I think it's funny that his portraits were painted over decades after his death to make him uglier and to give him more of a hump.

There were a lot of wild rumors about Ann Boleyn too, but I'm not up on Henry VIII and that era.

[catatonic]

Myth: The London based Arabic daily Al Quds Al Arabi reported on Tuesday, March 25 that the American vice president, Dick Cheney, would soon head to the Jordanian capital, Amman.

The newspaper claimed that the visit would be an attempt by Cheney to convince his daughter, who was in the Jordanian capital, to back down her decision to go to Baghdad within a group of volunteers who want to form human shields against the US led attacks on Iraq.

Al Quds Al Arabi cited news reports it claimed circulating in Amman as saying that Cheney would arrive in the Jordanian capital soon on a special visit it described as having a "social mission." "News agencies cited sources as saying that Cheney will arrive in Amman next Friday. He will try to convince his daughter who is currently staying at a hotel in Amman not to go to Baghdad along with a group of volunteers who want to go to Iraq and form human shields against the Anglo American attacks," said the report.


Origins: On 25 March 2003, the London-based Arabic daily Al Quds Al Arabi reported that the American vice president, Dick Cheney, would soon head to the Jordanian capital, Amman, to attempt to convince his daughter to back down from her decision to go to Baghdad to serve as a human shield. (The shields are civilians, usually foreigners, who place themselves around hospitals, schools and other installations in an effort to keep opposing military forces from targeting them.)

Dick Cheney has two daughters: 34-year-old Mary, manager of gay and lesbian corporate relations for Coors Brewing Company, and 36-year-old Elizabeth, a deputy assistant secretary for Near-East affairs at the State Department in Washington and a mother of three. The press office of the U.S. Vice President has flatly denied the conjectures that one of the V.P.'s daughters went to Jordan to become part of the "human shield" against attacks on Iraq. "Neither of his daughters is over there, not in Jordan, not in Iraq. Neither has any intention to travel to that area," a press office official said. The report by one of the Arab media outlets that Cheney is planning to go there and retrieve the daughter is hilarious, she added.

As for a possible trip by the Vice President to Jordan, a U.S. Embassy spokesman in Amman denied Cheney was on his way to that country: "The embassy has no information that the U.S. Vice President will arrive in Jordan Tuesday to convince one of his daughters not to travel to Iraq to join human shields opposed to war," he said.

Barbara "When war is declared, truth is the first casualty" Mikkelson

[franscar]

Oh, that's a good one.
I think it's funny that his portraits were painted over decades after his death to make him uglier and to give him more of a hump.


I'm actually hoping to do my thesis on it next year, it's a great story.

[QueenAdrock]

Oh! Oh! I know my favorite Political Myth!

The one about Bush, the man who's viewed as one of the most iron-fisted leaders the west has to offer, almost choking to death on a pretzel.

What? That's not a myth you say? Well Jesus Fuckin' Christ. :rolleyes:

[Documad]

I'm actually hoping to do my thesis on it next year, it's a great story.
That's a great idea. I love those kinds of stories because it shows that people have always been the same throughout history. I know only the littlest bits of the stories, but it seems like Shakespeare's version of English history is what everyone remembers.

[franscar]

That's a great idea. I love those kinds of stories because it shows that people have always been the same throughout history. I know only the littlest bits of the stories, but it seems like Shakespeare's version of English history is what everyone remembers.

Yeah, it seems to be, which is a shame. But then a lot of people take the story of William Wallace from watching Mel Gibson in blue make up for three hours as being the truth as well.

Pop culture > finding out for themselves every time.

[Documad]

Yeah, it seems to be, which is a shame. But then a lot of people take the story of William Wallace from watching Mel Gibson in blue make up for three hours as being the truth as well.

Pop culture > finding out for themselves every time.
Until a year ago, everything I knew about the history of Scotland was from a couple of movies, including that one. Are you saying that he didn't impregnate the queen?

On the English side, I was surprised to read that Henry V left such a mess when he died because I found him to be very charismatic in the movie from about 15 years ago. And his marriage looked like a real love match.

On the other hand, I've gotten loads of Trivial Pursuit questions right based upon the movies. Especially questions about books--I've never read the book, but I've seen the movie.

[franscar]

I have to admit it's so long since I watched Braveheart that I don't really remember what happened, it was more a case of reading a book about Wallace and shouting "That wasn't in the bloody film" a few times.

The only reason Henry V gets massive amounts of love I think is Agincourt. He beat the French when the English were outnumbered, and it drew a parallel with the situation of Protestant England outnumbered by the Catholics of Europe in Shakespeare's day. As a governor Henry was a bit short-sighted, and as long as he had enough money to go fighting he was happy really.

Trivial Pursuit rules all though.

[synch]

Yesterday bullseye, today english/scottish history.

Don't you just love this board mate? ;)

[franscar]

Yesterday bullseye, today english/scottish history.

Don't you just love this board mate? ;)

If someone can find me a damn good insurance quote I'll love it a hell of a lot more.

[synch]

Heh. Start a thread about it, lots of people from the UK on here.

I'll give you better odds of finding something on "the other board" though.