Time to Bury Jacko

I thought that I could watch television news channels or surf internet news sites again. Certainly, our national period of mourning must have ended by now, or so I hoped. Alas, like the zombies featured in the music video for the song Thriller, the reports persist in haunting my search for coverage of worthwhile events.

The never-ending drama surrounding the death of Michael Jackson needs to cease. He passed away unexpectedly more than three weeks ago yet still remains far too prominent among media coverage. Despite the devotion of his blindly enamored fanatics, his superficial impact on the world does not merit the overindulgence of attention accorded to his life’s accomplishments, his funeral, the custody of his children and the division of his estate.

His cult of personality has ballooned to an absurd level, way out of proportion to his contemporary relevance or to human history. Statements crediting him with breakthroughs in the arena of civil rights resonate as curious hyperbole at best. As a role model for black Americans, particularly black males born since the Civil Rights Act of 1964, Jackson left much to be desired. Granted, he transferred his success as a pre-teen pop star with his four brothers into a solo singing career. However, he chose to undergo multiple cosmetic surgeries over the course of his adulthood to obscure and eventually remove his distinctively black facial features. In the final few years of his life, Jackson resembled an alabaster and androgynous freak more suited to the day-time tawdry talkshows.

Further undermining the de facto sainthood accorded to Michael Jackson are the rumors and confirmed reports of his creepy interaction with children. Obviously, Jackson suffered from the deprivation of a healthy childhood. Due to his parents’ hard-driving exhortations to pinnacles of fame and fortune in the music industry, many of the joys of adolesence eluded Jackson. Evidently, he thought that by creating a fantasy-inspired home appropriately named “Neverland” that he could recreate the youth which he was denied. Nevertheless, any man who actively seeks the company of pre-teen boys who are not related to him stands out as strange. Jackson’s overt catering to preteen boys eerily resembles behavior employed by child molesters to lure in their prey. Regardless of whether he desired sexual exploitation of his young male companions or simply and selfishly wanted the typical boyhood experiences that he was denied, he rightfully deserved the scorn and condemnation that he received for his bizarre behavior.

Granted, Jackson’s albums rank as some of the highest selling of all-time. However, overblown statements labeling him as the greatest singer or musician or entertainer of all time need a strong case of tempering with historical perspective without the emotional tumult following his recent death. He never mastered any musical instrument; his ability to read and compose music has not been substantiated. Sadly, his legions of adorers mistake his effeminate voice, flashy gyrations and self-fondling for musical perfection.

What will cure the American, indeed, world’s obsession with this death of one man and its endless, overdramatized aftermath? Should we hope for the addition of another pet to the Obama White House? Will it necessitate O.J. Simpson's involvement in more felonious activities? Does another bubble-headed, bleached blonde, third-rate actress have to die unexpectedly? Perhaps, only the unexpected death of another washed-up pop star that also peaked in the 1980s will halt the gluttony of paparazzi's obsession with Jackson’s passing. So, will you help us out of this misery, Madonna?

COPYRIGHT BY CHARLES KASTRIOT JULY 2009

Latest Political Convention

Four months after the presidential election, another political convention took place on Sunday evening. This one was limited to a one-day session in Los Angeles. This annual assembly consisted of militant vegans, outspoken Christophobes, materialistic airheads, America-bashers, neo-Marxists and sexual deviants. Every year, they congregate in order to spout specious platitudes to the assembled audience and television viewers. Apparently, this yearly meeting had another purpose in the past but that has vanished under a sycophantic tide of paparazzi and reporters. The opulent outfits and outspoken opinions of the attendees dazzle the media covering the event in the same manner as dangling, shiny objects captivate dim-witted animals.

Over the course of the meeting, members bestowed statuettes on fellow participants. These golden effigies entitle the bearers to some time in front of an open microphone. Some speakers used their minutes to proselytize to the audience the wonders of Scientology, Buddhism or paganism. Others engaged in monologues bitterly bashing or grotesquely gushing over prominent politicians or recent elections. Rumors persist that these glittery anthropomorphic speaking invitations previously carried a different significance yet it seems that has been lost to history.

As usual, some recipients of the statuettes delivered noticeable speeches. One man brilliantly performed an impression of a spoiled brat indignant over the result of a ballot initiative in California. The speaker stopped just short of childishly screaming "Do over!" even though the issue on the ballot had been seemingly decided by two separate plebiscites approving of the initiative. He whined, "We've got to have equal rights for everyone." Of course, his performance recalled his portrayals of a useful idiot cavorting with dictators of Marxist regimes. Surely, the viewers laughed hysterically at the irony of someone demanding presumed unprecedented rights for some in one state yet singing the praises of autocrats that routinely deny widely recognized rights in other countries. He extols ideals of rights while spurning the right of a majority to decide democratically a resolution. His performance was so convincing that one must wonder if he realizes the inherent contradiction of his statements.

Mysteriously, one man received a speaking permit yet he did not attend. He had, in fact, fatally overdosed on prescription medication several months ago. Nevertheless, some members of his family accepted the invitation to speak on his behalf. They did not deliver a sanctimonious sermon or an effusive effort at conversion, an obvious violation of the organization's mandates. The actual hardware will be given to his toddler-aged daughter. Whether she will eventually receive a chance to perform a condescending and self-aggrandizing monologue at a future conference has not been determined at this time.

Loon with a Huge Womb

Nadya Suleman, the woman in Whittier, California who recently delivered octopulets, has become the latest example of a lunatic on the loose in American society. (http://www.iht.com/articles/2009/02/04/america/04octuplets.php?page=1) The fact that this unwed woman was already a mother of six children deserved to be a cause for concern. Six children would strain the energy levels of a married couple, if not, totally overwhelm a typical husband and wife.
Now this deranged woman has more than doubled the number of lives depending on her. The American taxpayers, especially those in California, will end up paying for this woman's selfish irresponsibility. She possesses neither employment, a husband nor a Kennedy-sized trust fund. Therefore, the plethora of socialist governmental programs disguised as altruism will prop up her egotistical irresponsibility.

"She loves children, she is very good with children, but obviously she overdid herself," Angela Suleman, the grandmother of the octuplets said. Nadya Suleman overdid herself?! A women who has scheduled visual, dental, gynecological, psychiatric, chiropractic and proctological appointments in the same day has "overdone" herself. What did this woman has done qualifies as deliberate and criminal child abuse, or at least, neglect. Her mother's statement has already secured the title "Understatement of the Year 2009".

Incredibly, this idiot was working as a psychiatric technician in a hospital until less than a year ago. One can only hope that her psychosis was not contagious and not transmitted to the patients at this hospital. She should have inquired into any psychological aid available, not the reproductive services, of her employer.

If any positive effect results from this situation, it would include stricter laws restricting artificial insemination. Preferably, an outright ban on the practice deserves to be enacted. This procedure abets women, homosexual or heterosexual, who deliberately want to deprive children of fathers. That practice harms children and society in general. Just one consequence of this behavior is the majority of prisoners in the USA grew up in homes without their fathers. The satisfaction of their misandrist whims has turned into a burden and affliction that society must no longer tolerate.

To paraphrase Gloria Steinem's favorite saying, Nadya Suleman needs children like a fish needs a bicycle.

PETA's pornographic publicity

The two week respite between the National Football League’s two conference championship games has been traditionally inundated with the incessant rehashing of player profiles, predictions and previews of halftime, pre- and post-game entertainment. In the past, some other incidents have been splashed on the media’s coverage, redirecting the flow of the stream of national consciousness in an unexpected direction. This week, the rising tide of media coverage that will eventually culminate in the 43^rd Super Bowl in Tampa has been diverted into a seedy crevice known as the People for Ethical Treatment of Animals.

PETA has recently diversified its portfolio of offensiveness and annoyances to the rest of the country. This novelty ranges beyond the group’s frequent dousing of fur-wearers with red paint and protesting the use of rats in medical tests beneficial to humans. This group’s most recent act of provocation resembles a video that belongs on an “adults’ only” pay-per-view production or in a peep show booth catering to “niche pornography”. Mercifully, NBC, the network broadcasting this year’s game, declined to air PETA’s latest publicity stunt.

Amid the images of scantily clad female models, the statement “Studies show vegetarians have better sex” flashes across the screen. “Sex with whom or what?”, one must ask, based on the images in the commercial. Of course, no mention of which studies support such a provocative yet vaguely stated conclusion appears. Who has time to clutter up an ad with pertinent information? Citing these supposed studies would reduce the amount of time allotted for the models to disrobe before licking vegetables and rubbing them against their bodies.

Interestingly, PETA rails against exploitation of animals. However, the organization showed no reservations regarding exploitation of women or appropriate behavior for a traditionally family-oriented broadcast. This decision betrays PETA’s priority of pushing vegetarianism over exposing an expected audience of tens of millions, including children, to lewd images. Unfortunately, PETA’s ethics only extend to creatures who lack the intelligence to understand or appreciate the group’s misplaced zoophilia.