Michael Jackson's Death and Why It's Not a Loss for Music

First, sure it's sad when people die. However I don't agree that music lost a great artist today for two reasons: Jackson didn't play any instruments and he didn't write a lot of his own music, especially later in life. He danced and sang, he was an entertainer, which is a fine thing in its own right, but he wasn't a major musical artist. But my bigger point is that even if he HAD done those two things, people wouldn't care because our priorities are all wrong in terms of real musical artists today. I have to wonder if Shostakovich had lived into our time and died, perhaps the greatest composer of the past century, would it get more than a passing mention on the CNN crawler? I don't know.

The only reason Jackson's death should garner such attention is because he was a Citizen Kane of his time. In his own way he was a minor titan of capitalism, and a controversial figure -- which I won't go into here because it's not relevant.

The media is mourning because soon they won't have the antics of Michael Jackson to cover any longer -- but if this is all about music, why should I care?

Is Iran "Obama's Rwanda"? Should We Get "Involved"?

First, I want to qualify this entry with the following: I think it's terrible what's happening in Iran. If you haven't seen the video of young Neda literally dying on camera, blood gushing out of her mouth and nose, it is something that needs to be seen. That's what state terrorism looks like. And I like the internet as much as anyone else, but I think this "cyber revolution" is going to be brutally crushed by good old-fashioned government violence.

However, I have gradually become more and more concerned about the media coverage of Iran and the tone. It feels a little like they are pushing for some sort of intervention. I have heard the term "Obama's Rwanda" thrown around a time or two; implying that Clinton regrets not intervening there, Obama will regret not intervening here. They seem to be ramping up, there's a slight feeling here that some sort of military force could be employed. I don't like that, not in the least. As tragic as it is, we should be realistic about this and shouldn't get involved in other people's affairs -- I don't have the appetite for it and I don't think the American people do either. Why should we take that upon ourselves? Despite the protests, that country is fairly evenly split, any sort of intervention has the potential to do much more harm than good.

As for the Republicans here at home, they are just using this as a "political football" -- they don't give a goddamn about the Iranian protesters. They want to criticize Obama for anything they can, any time they can. And when all is said and done, I don’t know what good Obama’s words would do anyway. Finally, I find it odd that several neo-cons were hoping that Ahmadinejad would be re-elected and now seem to be advocating for some kind of intervention. But then those egg-head chicken hawks should be ridiculed, not quoted on television as if they had credibility.

Republican Argument against Public Healthcare

The Republican argument against a public health care option seems to be this:

A public option will attract many people away from private insurance, this will force private insurers to raise their prices, and government by its nature can overpower the private insurers and will run everyone else out of business, leaving us with only public health care.

But there's a problem with this. First, lets assume people who DON'T have private health insurance can't afford it or at least don't think they can. So they may or may not go to the public option. Either way, the net effect on private insurers of them getting insurance from the government is minimal.

Now, if other people start to leave private health insurance for the public option and it causes the private health insurers' prices to rise for everyone else they insure (because they have less money coming in) -- it seems to me that the Republicans are saying prices can essentially go no where but up. I say this because, are they not the ones who preach how competition and free markets LOWER prices and makes everything more efficient? If a cheaper option doesn't force them to lower prices, what the hell will, a more expensive one?

Could there be some correlation between the fact that our health care here costs more than anywhere in the world and we are the only industrial country in the world without a public option of some kind? Just throwing crazy ideas out there... And why would the government's prices be so low when all we hear about government is how INEFFICIENT it is? It seems Republican's real faith in the market is rather thin to say the least -- but then free markets as we know, are to exist in reality, exclusively for the poor.

Sarah Palin Insinuates Letterman is a Pedophile?

We all know Letterman cracked some jokes about Palin's knocked-up daughter getting knocked up at a baseball game, jokes that even he admits were in bad taste, but Palin, the perpetual opportunist decides to insinuate that Letterman is a pedophile saying "it would be wise to keep Willow away from David Letterman."

This power-hungry woman will play up anything for attention and milk it for all it's worth. She's also playing up her false-populism too; "Laughter incited by sexually-perverted comments made by a 62-year-old male celebrity aimed at a 14-year-old girl is not only disgusting, but it reminds us some Hollywood/NY entertainers have a long way to go in understanding what the rest of America understands." Yes, goddamn entertainers, the New York Times, intellectuals, urban dwellers and anyone else who doesn't think exactly like "pure" backwoods gas-huffers. Sarah Palin only likes stupid people...who would vote for Sarah Palin and wonder if Letterman might in fact be a pedophile after all.

This is what I'd call the conservative, "invasive parental ideology" at its best:- We hate government but we want it to "protect the children" (but not feed them), purify all entertainment to meet the standards of those who Buy-Bull (Bible) and harp about how goddamn holier than thou you are.

Right-Wing Shootings Continue...FOX Blames Liberals

Well it seems pretty well-established, only hours after it occurred, that this latest shooting at the Holocaust Museum in Washington was from an anti-Semitic man who called himself a white supremacist. His website says that he was in the military. Is anyone re-thinking the attacks they threw at that Homeland Security report some months ago that warned of Right-Wing Extremism as a result of lone wolves, and mentioned veterans?

Of course not, I turn on FOX News and Glenn Beck's reaction to all of this is to have a segment about how anti-Semitism is a result of the political Left because we don't support Israel as much as they'd like and because the Nazi's were a leftist movement...riiiight. Of course, anti-Semitism and white supremacy, how further to the Left can you get than that after all? Jesus H Christ.

I didn't need a report to tell me we were going to have a rise in Right-Wing violence, you can literally feel it in the air.

See, I Told You So

No I am not quoting the title of Rush Limbaugh's second book, but just making a quick follow up to my last post because it's appropriate unfortunately with the assassination of Dr. Tiller.

It seems that right-wing violence is on the rise and there's just a lot of idiots out there who easily snap when we don't have a borderline retard in the White House who is white and as stupid as them who makes them feel like they're still special and privileged in a society that is largely changing around them. Expect more to come.