Funny how that's not a question that was asked very often. Even though there are fewer and fewer people alive today who can actually remember the day US democracy was assassinated 50 years ago it seems to me an event worth remembering. If you are at all unsure about how or why JFK was murdered then it's not very hard to educate yourself. In fact it can be fairly entertaining since Oliver Stone's 1993 movie is based on a pretty good balance of fact and political acumen.

However more interesting, and indeed more pressing, than understanding that historic attack on so called Western democracy, is the almost blanket media cover-up that still 50 years later dominates the mainstream. Today's Guardian psycho babble article What is it about human psychology that makes conspiracy theories so... is a typical example as was the BBC's woeful Ten Days that Shook the World garbage.

Significantly the power structure no longer feels it necessary to actually argue its propaganda. Instead of producing elaborate explanations as to why their lies actually make sense, now they just demonize those who still believe truth matters. Any idiot, even the majority of Americans, can see Oswald did not kill Kennedy but the lie is repeated ad nauseum without serious clarification. Having defeated socialism, communism, liberalism, journalism, justice and on a headlong mission to destroy most life on earth the lunatics in charge of the capitalist asylum are now desperate to convince us it is we and not they who are crazy.

Anyone who cares about truth, justice, humanity, ecology, or for that matter their children, should devote some part of their brain and soul to recognising and owning truth. Collectively we stand a chance of one day halting the insanity and creating a better world. We have the resources and capacity to live in peace, harmony and plenty. The primary obstacle right now is mass media mythology. Until people are brave enough to kick the comfort of the big lies (e.g. we live in a democracy, mainstream media tells the truth, government is in parliament, etc.) and take responsibility for building something real we stand no chance. Stepping off the mainstream lie machine is scary. Where do you anchor your reasoning given you cannot analyse everything yourself? There are no easy answers, but choosing to believe the lies of institutions committed to global catastrophe is a far more desperate alternative.

Just to help here's my top 10 why you'd have to be stupid to believe Oswald killed JFK:

1. There never has been any evidence at all that Oswald fired a gun on 22 Nov. 1963. In fact such evidence as there is suggests the opposite: he tested negative for firearms residue, the alleged murder rifle was never tested to see if it had been fired, and neither the FBI nor Dallas police could find Oswald's fingerprints on it.

2. The official 3 shot/Magic Bullet theory is ludicrous. It only exists because the Zapruder film records at least 3 shots and one of those had to be 'allocated' to hitting a bystander by the underpass (because the official version was only 3 shots). So given one shot clearly blew off part of Kennedy's head, all the 5 non-leathal wounds to Kennedy (back and neck) and Senator Connolly (back, chest, wrist and thigh) had to be caused by the one remaining bullet. The film, witness, ballistics and medical evidence all shows this is absurd.

3. Oswald was a US marine and intelligence officer (he spoke Russian, defected to Russia, married a Russian woman, then went back to the US, and brought her back to the US all with financial support from the US). He infiltrated both communist and anti-Castro groups during the 1960s. He probably believed he was there to gain intelligence on the assassination plotters, one of many reasons why he too was murdered before so many awkward questions could be asked at any trial.

4. The private cine film (shot by Abraham Zapruder) is a key forensic record of the shooting. It records the timing of the shots and the direction of impact of the fatal head shot. Kennedy's head is thrown backwards and to his left demonstrating the bullet that killed him came from his front, right.

5. An assassin in the Book depository would have shot Kennedy when the motorcade drove towards him rather than wait till it was 50m away and driving away.

6. Kennedy was not a radical but as an astute politician of the early 1960s he recognised he had to appeal to the young, and the growing civil rights and anti-nuclear movements. He recognised the political capital in nuclear détente and anti-racism but was nervous of being labelled a communist sympathiser. He trod a careful path but knew backing a war in Vietnam was never going to win him votes.

7. Outgoing President Eisenhower used his farewell address to the nation to warn of the dangers of power concentrated in what he called the Military Industrial Complex. Arms companies made $billions from the Vietnam War and continue to make 100s of $billions from current wars.

8. At least 40 eye witnesses said they heard shots come from the grassy knoll in front and to the right of the motorcade.

9. Kennedy sacked Allan Dulles as CIA chief after the Bay of Pigs fiasco and outlawed CIA black operations. Dulles was a key member of the Warren Commission dealing with all intelligence related issues. His CIA deputy was also sacked and happened to be the brother of the mayor of Dallas.

10. The Warren Commission invented an absurd theory that a Marxist, ex-marine and former defector to Russia acted entirely alone in firing 3 impossible shots to kill one of the most popular presidents in US history. Fifty years later the entire corporate media lie machine is still repeating that nonsense without even a caveat that Oswald was never tried and no evidence has ever been produced to show he even fired a gun that day.