Michael Demmons (via Glenn Reynolds) reviews a new film called The God Who Wasn't There -- which purports to prove that the historical Jesus never existed:

.... 45 minutes into it and they’re already showing picture of Abu Ghraib. This is nothing more than a propaganda film.

Unbelievable. But unsurprising. I should have known.

But the film does sound at least as good as this book -- recently reviewed in the Philadelphia Inquirer (a review I could only find online in Duluth):

PHILADELPHIA - There are some subjects - and the web of conspiracy theories surrounding the assassination of John F. Kennedy is certainly among them - that most members of the academic establishment avoid as much as possible.

And then there is Temple University's Joan Mellen, whose new book, "A Farewell to Justice," pins the murder on the U.S. government itself.

"Long live tenure," said Mellen, an English professor who has written an eclectic collection of 17 books.

Her latest, which was published last week, started out as a biography of Jim Garrison, the New Orleans district attorney whose investigation of the assassination was dramatized in Oliver Stone's 1991 film "JFK."

But in her research on Garrison, Mellen soon became fascinated by the assassination itself. After eight years of work, in which she says she conducted 1,200 interviews, Mellen concluded that Garrison had it right, and that the CIA - with the help of other government agencies - orchestrated the assassination and worked to thwart the district attorney's investigation.

"Intra-government warfare caused the death of President Kennedy," she said. "The evidence is conclusive."

Mellen presents her evidence in a dense and highly detailed 386 pages, with 140 additional pages of careful citations and sourcing.

Oliver Stone's attempt to entangle Helms with acquitted New Orleans businessman Clay Shaw is debunked here, but these stories just go on and on, and I tire of them. Clay Shaw and David Ferrie were both said to have been gay, and in those days they'd have been closety as hell -- which means they'd have understandably not wanted anyone to know about it if they'd ever had sexual relations with Lee Harvey Oswald of all people. In the small, secretive gay world in early 60s New Orleans, it's certainly possible that there were contacts between these people, and if there were, they could very likely have been of a furtive homosexual nature. That's the sort of thing which can look highly suspicious, but closeted homosexual contacts -- even with Oswald -- do not add up to an assassination conspiracy.

District Attorney Garrison, however, seems to have been positively obsessed with the gay angle nearly to the point of paranoia, and I agree that it rendered his investigation all but laughable. But instead, as author Dave Reitzes says, new leftist conspiracists cleaned things up:

With time the "homosexual thrill killing" theme got sanitized out of the Garrison story. Left-leaning conspiracy buffs who swarmed all over the Garrison probe got his ear and pushed him in a more political direction.

But conspiracy folks have tried to prove that Hitler and the Nazis were all another sinister gay plot. (As well as another looney and unprovable notion -- that Jesus was gay.)

Life's too short to spend trying to prove the unprovable, much less enduring the attempts of others to do the same.

I think I'll skip the film and the book.

(My theory remains that Oswald never existed, of course....)

AFTERTHOUGHT: Today seems to be the day for conspiracies. Hmmm... Maybe I should make Saturdays Official Paranoid Conspiracy Theory Day at Classical Values....

UPDATE (12/15/05): In what is a very interesting coincidence, blogger Jason Coleman has emailed with additional information about Shaw and Ferrie. Apparently, they were not as "closeted" as I made it appear:

I was just catching up on your blog, and I noticed the JFK post.

My grandmother worked for a prominent attorney in New Orleans for many years, Eberhard Deutsch. Garrison worked for Eberhard and consulted with him on his investigations of the JFK assassination, Eberhard did not necessarily agree with Garrison, but played Devil's Advocate with Garrison on many occasions, sometimes in my grandmothers presence. I don't think it'd be appropriate for me to characterize Col. Deutsch's opinions on the JFK assassination at this time.

I mention all this because in your post you say that Clay Shaw and David Ferrie would have been "closeted" and unfortunately, that is
incorrect. On a number of occasions my grandmother attended dinner
parties where Mr. Shaw was in attendance and was even "escorted" (a
more correct description would be "paired up") by Shaw on more than one occasion. The irony of her employment for Eberhard was not lost on Shaw, who found it, in his words, "simply fabulous". Shaw was also quite candid with any and all who were interested that he was in fact homosexual.

David Ferrie was also well-known in New Orleans homosexual circles at
the time. He was quite open about his (insofar as "openness" was taken at the time) homosexual persuasion. The two were not "open" in the same manner, Ferrie was an ass and an outcast, living in the "seedier" side of New Orleans' homosexual community while Shaw was considered a "gentleman" and quite welcome in the most affluent of New Orleans homes.

Just thought you'd appreciate that info.

If you want to revisit your post and have any questions, I'd be happy
to try to present any questions you have about Shaw with my grandmother for you, although she is getting up a bit in age, just the other day she popped off about Shaw and comments he made in her presence.

The convergence of her comments on Friday and seeing your post today
triggered this email, I found the coincidence something I couldn't
ignore.