http://www.cnn.com/2009/SHOWBIZ/Music/06/25/michael.jackson/index.html
For all the weirdness and such as of late, Michael Jackson was still one of the biggest stars in history and a major part of my childhood.
RIP, Michael. Hope you find peace in the next life.
Looks like I won’t be seeing him at the O2 after all!
RIP Michael Jackson you were one of the greatest.
As I’ve been telling people, I know what psychological abuse from parents can do to someone as an adult. My best friend was forbidden from dating kids his own age when he was a senior in high school, and was forced to date middle schoolers. Needless to say, it kind of fucked up his adulthood.
Michael Jackson’s childhood was filled with his father saying he was nothing but an ugly nigger who was only good for singing and dancing like the monkey that he was. I think you can trace all his eccentricities to this. He grew up under a microscope and not every human being is equipped to deal with it.
I hate that he’ll be remembered for the weird stuff. Because he really was awesome.
He’ll only be remembered for the weird stuff secondarily. His primary legacy will be his musical brillance…that will predominate the fact that he was a diddler (allegedly).
It just goes to show you how awesome he truly was…most people with his baggage would be remembered for the baggage first and then the music. But I really don’t think that will be the case here…
Three thoughts on Jacko.
He’s not made a good record since 1987.
There were a lot of allegations (which had some substance) but nothing was ever proven in court.
Despite that, his incredible work from age 10 up to Bad outweighs all of that.
RIP Michael Jackson
Nothing outweighs sleeping with minors. I don’t care if he put out 1000 gold records, he deserves to burn in hell. I get that his father was an asshole, but at some point you have to get over it. Especially if you can afford the best psychologists in the world to help you for as long as you want it. Everybody has to pull themselves up by their own bootstraps, and we usually manage to do so without molesting children. I’m not going to give him a free pass now that he’s dead. They can put out all the video montages to “Thriller” and “Billie Jean” they want it doesn’t change the fact that he turned into something awful.
I’m a child of the 80’s, and if you were too and you say you didn’t like Michael Jackson even a little bit for a little while.. you are a liar. As for myself, that admiration died once the weirdness started. I know this won’t be popular opinion, and that’s okay.
Acquitted in a court of law by a jury of his peers. I forgot though that in real American you’re guilty until proven otherwise, and then you’re guilty as hell regardless.
Sorry for the double post, but I forgot to add that I’m not trying to “start” anything on here or anything of that nature. I have strong feelings against him and I just wanted to relate that on the blog. Thanks for your time.
“Sorry for the double post, but I forgot to add that I’m not trying to “start” anything on here or anything of that nature. ”
Hmmm…Do You Want To Be Starting Something?
Being accused and being guilty are 2 separate things and I believe he was acquitted sir.
Exactly. Like if I was to say that Ryan721 anal rapes newborn kittens, then Ryan721 is accused of raping newborn kittens. Now, I’m guessing, hoping really, that Ryan is not a kitten fucker. But he’s been accused and that will haunt him for the rest of his years. When he dies his obit will read…
“Ryan721: Blog troll, loser, alleged Kitten Fucker.”
So I guess you’ll speak glowingly of O.J. Simpson when he passes, right Charlie? At least Ryan was respectful with his opinion. You come off like an immature douchebag, which I suspect is accurate, having read your comments on other subjects.
MJ, for those of us who are in our early-mid 30’s, is the first real icon to die who was very much OURS. We didn’t live through the Beatles and Elvis. It was sad to watch what he became, and I’d love to remember the guy who absolutely owned 1983 and 1984. Unfortunately, there were two Michael Jackson’s (three if you’re old enough to remember the Jackson 5 years) and they’ll likely all be remembered in equal parts.
I’ve said for a while that O.J. was found innocent and that’s good enough for me.
Do I think he’s guilty? I honestly do not know. The cops bungled the case from start to finish and if one piece of evidence is tainted, it’s all tainted. That’s reality. I would have go based on O.J.’s behavior to determine whether or not he did it, and that’s simply not good enough in a court of law.
But once again, in America you are guilty even if proven otherwise.
I think you might be confusing the court of public opinion with a court of law. If you prefer to judge actual guilt or innocence based on how the evidence was collected, that’s your right. It also makes you incredibly naive. OJ Simpson is a killer. He might’ve been acquitted of murder, but he absolutely killed two people. If you know ANYTHING about that case, you’d be a fool to think otherwise. Care to offer an explanation as to how the cops would’ve spread OJ’s DNA all over the crime scene? Did they have his blood on file and decide to frame him? Please.
Michael Jackson is on record admitting to having slept in the same bed with children while completely naked. It’s the only way he could explain the fact that these children could perfectly describe details about his genitalia. If you think it stopped there, that’s your right. But let’s not ignore what this guy was, just because he was an incredible talent who died too young.
His son did it.
Just because he wasn’t convicted doesn’t mean he wasn’t guilty. In 1993 he paid over 20 million in hush money to the first victim, to settle out of court. Why would he pay if he was innocent? The argument that he had enough cash to do it doesn’t cut the mustard. If he was innocent, wouldn’t he want to scream it from the mountain top in a court of law? I know I would. I would want it PROVEN that I molested a child. The hush money, to me, is a sign of guilt. In 2005 he did get a fair trial, and thanks to a really good defense lawyer he was found innocent. I don’t hold a grudge against him for the innocent verdict, I hold a grudge against him for being in the situation that led to the second charges in the first place.
Also, the blog troll label is pretty harsh. I’m saying these comments with respects to everybodys feelings about him. You feel strongly about him,try seeing it from both sides.
Also keep in mind that there was much physical evidence implicating OJ Simpson in the public’s eyes. This damage of this evidence was much diminished due to accusations of tampering and a mishandled police investigation — but in much of the public eye he was a guilty man.
Where was the smoking gun in the Michael Jackson case? Nobody has ever produced any real evidence — not a video tape, or a stained pair of underwear, or a huge child porn collection stash hidden away in a wall, etc. It reminds me kind of the McMartin Preschool Trial. It just seems like in the multiple police investigations of his home that they would have turned up SOMETHING — people don’t hide those things very well.
The smoking gun was the kids ability to describe his dick and Jackson’s admission that he slept naked with little boys. I don’t see how much more smoking that particular gun could get.
If just one piece of evidence is tampered, the rest of the evidence has to be thrown out really.
The truth is if O.J. Simpson is guilty then the cops are equally as guilty because they tried to frame a guilty person and as a result he walked scott free.
As far as him being a killer goes, eh… people kill other people. I have an aunt who murdered her husband and got away with it without the police so much as questioning her. We *all* called the cops and said “look, this might be something you want to investigate, she’s basically confessed it all to us” and they didn’t care. They couldn’t be bothered because it was one crazy person being done away with by another crazy person.
Justice is laughable anymore. I have cousins who have so many robbery and drug violations and yet everytime they get pinched they just turn in states evidence and end up on probation. I’ve kind of given up on the system.
“Justice is laughable anymore.” = ?
Whether or not he did it, you can’t look away from OJ writing that book (still hilarious how the Goldman family took that from him so he couldn’t cash in).
I can’t say with 100% certainty that he didn’t do what he was accused of. Unless you were there you can’t say that he did.
I believe it IS possible that he did it and the jury was just starstruck or what have you. I ALSO believe that Michael Jackson was a really good target for accusations of this type, I mean EVERYONE KNOWS he’s a diddler right?
As soon as someone (especially a celebrity and ESPECIALLY an eccentric celebrity) is accused of something like that there is a sizable group of people that will NEVER believe that it didn’t happen no matter how many mountains are screamed from.
Going through a sex crime trial destroys your life no matter how not guilty you are found to be. As I said, some people will simply never accept the not guilty verdict under any circumstances, for some people accusation of a sex crime = guilty of a sex crime and that is that. I can see how if you’re being blackmailed and you want it to go away and get back to any sort of normalcy in your life you pay and you move on, you don’t go screaming off mountain tops to people that won’t listen anyway.
As I said, I can’t know for sure what happened and neither can you. A jury said he didn’t do it though so as a matter of record he did not. And that’s all you can go on.
E, you bring up valid points. I agree with the majority of them,actually. I’m just saying that if I’m innocent I want everybody to know it. I don’t want people wondering about me,in the back of their minds, if I did what he was accused of. I would do anything/everything to get the attention on the trial so the people could see for themselves that I’m innocent.
In a sense that’s what he did during his 2005 trial. He brought a lot of attention to himself,including moon walking on the roof of a van. I can’t say that I would do the same thing, mainly because I can’t dance due to terminal whiteness.. but again I’d want everybody to know once and for all.
The thing is, better judgement would dictate that you don’t go sleeping naked in beds with underage boys if you don’t want people accusing you of being a child molester.
That being said, he was an amazing talent who really revolutionized music.
He just shouldn’t have been naked in bed with children.
“Nothing outweighs sleeping with minors. I don’t care if he put out 1000 gold records, he deserves to burn in hell.”
Except maybe murdering someone. Boy am I glad no one’s still defending Chris Benoit and wishing people could still enjoy his matches on 24/7 and whatnot…oh wait.
Yeah, yeah, sorry I opened that can of worms again. And yeah, I misunderstood what was being “outweighed” (I looked at it as molestation couldn’t be outweighed as a crime, when you probably meant that the music didn’t outweigh it)
Still, my quote is more a reaction to the fact that it’s funny that the post I quoted comes from an IWC-heavy site. Because, after 2 years, said IWC is still debating whether or not one of “their” talents’ work outweighs their crimes, and whether or not his former employees are history-altering rat bastards for distancing themselves from him due to media onslaughts.
Nonetheless, let those without sin… and all. And I’m just as guilty of being conflicted about performer vs. person. A LOT.
A couple things I’ll remember:
1) He was one of the most unique and fascinating dancers ever. Nobody else moved like him.
2) His eternal sense of humor. He let Weird Al have fun with his songs, and he appeared as himself as an alien in Men in Black 2. Prince would never do either. It’s the ultra-serious guys like him who scare me more.
RIP, MJ. You had a tough life, but until the sun goes nova, people will smile when they hear one of your songs start up on the radio, because your best music was both great and fun. Now you can get together with James Brown and make music not meant for the living.
Actually, I don’t believe he was a alien in MiBII. He was “Agent M”.
Damn, that’s big news.
I was never a huuuge fan but he was undoubtedly the King of Pop and certainly in the top handful of guys ever as far as influence goes.
I agree that he’ll be remembered for his career first and all the nonsense second.
RIP Michael, if there’s a next life I hope it treats you kindly.
Don’t really know what to say here. Being a child of the 80s, I was aware of his music, but wasn’t until Dangerous and HIStory that I really became a fan and learned to love what I heard.
Oh yes, there will be the whispers and the dark side and they, like the gold records and the sell out crowds, are a part of the record, but without a doubt, tonight we mourn the passing of a legend.
Funny really, he always wanted to be like Elvis and how strange that his death should resemble Elvis’s so much, although in truth, I think comparisons to Judy Garland are going to be more apt.
Thoughts and prayers are with his family, his loved ones and the fans around the world who loved him tonight.
We have home movies of my brother at about 9 years old in 1984, blasting Billy Jean on his boom box and dancing around the living room with his 80s striped socks hanging off his feet. My brother moved on from him to other music and such, but that and Motown 25 are some of the defining moments of my childhood.
This is only one day removed from the anniversary of Benoit’s death too.
And eerily enough, another celebrity who will stir up the “Performer vs. Person” debate (will? Just from here alone, it’s WELL UNDERWAY) for weeks or more to come passes away at the same time.
In a related news story: Somewhere in hell Farrah Fawcett is stomping her feet like a diva and bitching about how today was supposed to be HER DAY DAMNIT!
I like how you defend Michael Jackson and say he’s just misunderstood and a victim, then say Farrah Fawcett is burning in hell.
Interesting logic.
I actually don’t believe in heaven or hell and think that anyone who believes in a god or an afterlife is a grade A retard who really should grow up and stop playing with imaginary friends.
That said, the joke is funnier if you say “hell” instead of heaven. Besides, by all accounts she was a huge bitch.
So athiesm begets people who behave…like you.
That’s about as good an argument for religion as I’ve ever heard.
I actually have some friends who are Atheists, and more power to you. Hell, although I believe in God and do Meditate – I am a skeptic and I actually understand why Atheists are Atheusts – but sir don’t insult my idealism and other people’s idealism of a Heaven, Hell, or a God just because it is an idealist concept. You can trash it if you are going to bash bible thumpers that are racist and bigoted and believe non-war killing (or war killing too) is the “work of the lord” – but just because some adults have idealism doesn’t make us retards.
lol I wouldn’t say that comment because I wouldn’t want to offend people…. however that is exactly what I think to!
God, Heaven, Hell… in the conventional sense is laughable.
I respect what other peoples beliefs are.. but deep down that is what every athiest/agnostic really thinks.
A guy who comments on a blog that’s predominantly about comics and wrestling is telling people to grow up. Also, interesting logic.
I don’t get your logic. Those are forms of entertainment. I’m certainly not saying wrestling is real or there is a Bat Man beating up people in a city that doesn’t exist.
Religion was created by primitive people thousands of years ago to explain shit that they didn’t have time to figure out for themselves, what with all the hunting and gathering.
Why does it rain? God. Why do birds fly? God. Why do people die? God.
The fact that it’s 2009 and people still pray to the sky bully is laughable and deserving of mocking and ridicule. If you hear the voice of God or Jesus or Allah, you’re not having a religious experience. You’re having a psychotic episode. Seek help.
I’m almost 1000 percent positive that this is the wrong place for religious talk. It’s an argument that you won’t win or lose, so don’t try to persuade anybody about anything.
You have let your feelings on the subject known. Thank you for adding your opinions and I look forward to hearing from you on other blog topics.. but let this one die.
I agree…
so uh yeah… Michael Jackson.
Apparently the cops want to talk to the doctor who was with him when he died but nobody knows where to find him.
Sad to say it, but this is going to play out nearly identical to the Anna Nicole Smith shitstorm I reckon.
Um, Charlie, I get the sense you can’t explain both sides of the argument.
I’m not religious in the least (my username here is a play on Austin 3:16 not John 3:16) but I just think your tone is really condescending towards people who do believe. No one has any cold hard facts either way or the other regarding the existence or non-existence of a higher power.
And what is Ed McMahon doing at this time, then? (”Always the second banana…” he must be muttering)
“But they told me I need to be faithful, and walk when not able, and fight to the end but I’m only human.”
It’s nice to know that God, whatever did or didn’t happen, has the final say on a man’s soul. So, whatever kind of man he was, that’s being covered by someone else who put us all here anyway.
In the meantime, I’m going to enjoy some MJ tonight. I know I could still learn a lot from Man In the Mirror, anyway.
Somwhere in Stamford, Vince is probably smiling because he won’t be blamed for these deaths.
Oh just you wait…
They’re already putting this Lionel Hutz esq ‘family lawyer’ on who was screaming about how this death was just like the death of Anne Nicole Smith and Chris Benoit and how he warned people that something like this was going to happen.
On the plus side, I guess this might end plans to chop off John Morrison’s nose and change his gimmick to “Johnny Jackson”.
How is Jim Rome going to respond to this tommorow on his show, I wonder.
Acquitted of the child molestation charges? He settled out of court with the kid’s family for millions of dollars and an agreement that the kid not testify. That’s hardly clearing his name.
Thursday was one surreal day…Farrah we knew would likely happen, sadly, and now this, which I didn’t see coming AT ALL. And hey, the threes rule applies…don’t forget Ed McMahon, people!
BTW…
“I’m a child of the 80’s, and if you were too and you say you didn’t like Michael Jackson even a little bit for a little while.. you are a liar.”
My thoughts exactly. It’s just like Hulk Hogan (you can’t rewrite your childhood when you become a smark).
Apparently, Michael Jackson’s album sales up by 500% at Asda. Wouldn’t it be funny if because of Michael’s death, CD’s sale shot up for the rest of the year?
Okay, here are my thoughts, in a semi-logical order:
1. In the 1993 case, he settled with the kid’s parents, and I have to tell you that what I thought at the time was, “My dad’s kind of a nebbish dink and he definitely needs whatever money he can get (being between jobs at the time), and if any guy tried to fuck me in a literal sense, and then pay my Dad off, he’d rip that guy’s fucking spine out with his bare hands. As opposed to taking the buy out, that is.” So it’s my opinion that real parents wouldn’t take such a settlement if they really believed their kid got violated. Sadly, it’s also my opinion that many parents don’t qualify to be ‘real parents’. But I can’t honestly form an opinion on what happened, except to say what Ron White said — “I know for a fact that people try to scam rich people out of money.” Not saying it happened that way, though.
2. In the more recent case, he was acquitted. You can form your own opinion on this, just as you can form your own opinion on the OJ case. But when I saw the OJ verdict, I sat there for a second, and I considered the case in my mind, and I just said, matter-of-factly, “No.” It didn’t make sense that a jury could take that little time to sift through that much evidence when the prosecution had made its case, in my opinion, very convincingly, and the defense had thrown up a bunch of smoke and mirrors.
In MJJ’s case, I didn’t have that feeling of certainty. Part of me was thinking that yes, Michael is an odd human being, and he was raised strangely, and the ordinary rules of society don’t seem to have affected him. So he could very well have engaged in borderline inappropriate behavior, and gotten in trouble for that.
PLUS, this is the odd thing: Why were so many parents sending their children to Michael Jackson’s home in the first place, after the earlier, definitely shady incident? Time to get controversial here — if someone is known for inappropriate behavior around children, and has been accused of … well, kiddie-touching, and you send your child to that man’s home… again, a REAL parent wouldn’t even DO that. Am I saying that in this case, if the allegations were true, that the victim’s parents were to blame as well as Michael Jackson? … You know, I think I actually am saying they’re partially culpable. I DID get the feeling that after the first allegations came out, a lot of parents who sent their kids to Neverland Ranch were looking for a hush-money check. Which if I’m right, means that they deserve to be shot in the nuts with a Desert Eagle. Especially since that means they can’t breed anymore.
Guess what, though, this doesn’t mean it didn’t happen. This DOES mean that since he was acquitted, legally it didn’t happen. Go ahead and form your own opinion, but I personally think he stayed just a hair’s width on the good side of the law. Maybe half a hair.
3. When I say God will judge him, I mean it exactly the same as I said when Chris Benoit will be judged by God. And that is, “and we don’t know fuck-all how He WILL judge these guys, especially since he knows the story and we don’t, so I WON’T judge them at all. But I loved these guys as artists, so I’ll continue to watch ‘Smooth Criminal’/'The Chris Benoit Story’ and enjoy what they left us here.”
Okay, that’s about all, and possibly too far in spots, but that’s how I see it.
Well I won’t argue that.