The Sunshine Empire

Most non-election year summers are slow for news, but not the summer of 2009. The last couple of weeks have brought us celebrity death watch, the Sarah Palin media extravaganza, and of course the death of Michael Jackson. Now as I said before I was saddened by the death of Michael Jackson only because he seemed a deeply troubled but talented man, but it hardly registered anywhere near the death of Wesley Willis did in my emotions. But some have scoffed at the amount of attention this whole death is drawing. They cite the multiple investigations and settlements of child molestation claims and they say he’s deserving of no notice whatsoever, and I get that. It’s much like the argument over whether OJ Simpson should be in the NFL Hall Of Fame. His work is worthy of praise but the person himself is up for debate. Now we come to the subject of New York Representative Peter King. Some one bothered to ask a Republican member of Congress what he thought of Michael Jackson and they got an honest answer. You may disagree with him but it’s not as if he issued a press release on his own. He felt that the issues of child abuse made praising the man foolish. But now all sorts of hysterics have commenced and some are saying they are raising money for a campaign against him. People give it a rest.

There is no political issue whatsoever here aside from the City of Los Angeles having to pay millions for a private citizen’s funeral service at a time when the budget of the state of California is a sea of red ink and education is suffering cutbacks. The reaction over so many days and so much gnashing of teeth is ridiculous. Give Rep. King a break.

Related posts:

1. The Death Of Michael Jackson, Part 7 Of 200
2. From Ghoul To Cool To Get The Heck Out Of Here
3. The Tragic Story Of Captain Michael Scott Speicher
4. Walter Cronkite Dies And We’re Stuck With Fox News
5. On The Logic Of The House And Senate Republican Caucus