You've Got To Be Kidding Me! #4: Michael Jackson's Death Ruled a Homicide

[It's been a short while since I've posted, so here's another one in the "You've Got To Be Kidding Me!" series]

I was reading in the news today, amidst speculation that Jacko's death was a homicide, that it was officially ruled as such by the coroner. You've got to be kidding me!

I can definitely say it was not a suicide by any means, and part of me really thinks this is a case of wrongful death, but homicide or even manslaughter? I just cannot agree that enough of the fault lies on the doctor to rule against him. Certainly the doctor prescribed Propofol, which according to the article can only be administered by anaesthesiologists, violating medical guidelines; I hear that many of the "Doctors to the Stars" will prescribe a variety of drugs to sedate their clients. But at what point do we put the onus on those who have been prescribed the drugs rather than those doctors who have prescribed the drugs?

My fear is, based upon the outpouring of ridiculous coverage of Michael Jackson after his death, that people are simply searching to find a scapegoat for Michael's often weird and outlandish behavior. If Michael was taking the reported 60+ prescriptions, at what point did he not say to himself: "These are a lot of fucking pills!" For that matter, I cannot imagine that Michael was so non-techno-savvy that he could not look up "Propofol" on the internet (WebMD, Wikipedia, etc.). We may never know how many pills MJ was advised to take, but if it is as powerful as it's said to be, I highly doubt the doctor was like "Dr. Spaceman (pronounced Spa-chi-min)" from 30 Rock and said "Take as many as you'd like."

MJ was an amazing pop-star. He reached out and touched the world and I have many fond memories in the early-to-mid-80's of listening to his music. But at some point, we all need to admit that he snapped and become an incredibly odd and (excuse me) fucked up individual. Is there no reasonable doubt here that perhaps Michael took too many of these pills on his own accord?

It's not about who we WANT to hold accountable, it is about who we CAN hold accountable and I sincerely doubt there is enough evidence to conclude that MJ's death was the doctor's fault. Sorry, but I'm just not so infatuated with Michael Jackson that I think he was not capable of doing wrong. Quite honestly, this is a waste of time and money. Furthermore, I'm not a lawyer, but I have to consider whatever legal precedent this may set if there is none on record.

You've Got To Be Kidding Me! #3

Oh, PETA... what would we do without you? Apparently the some folks at PETA have their panties in a wad over Obama killing a fly during an interview. Really PETA? You've got to be kidding me!

Go back to your corner and eat a tofu-cake or something. Look, I like animals, and agree that some ought to be treated ethically, humanely, etc. but we're talking about a fucking fly here. Should he have trapped it in a net or some other device, walked to the closest door, and then opened it saying something akin to "In America, even our flies have freedom" or some bullshit like that? Better stop driving your cars PETA-members, you kill a good number of bugs. Do you wince every time one hits the windshield or are you more concerned with where you are going and what you are doing? My guess is the latter.

Yet again, another altogether ok-in-my-book lefty group loses good will over making stupid comments.

You've Got To Be Kidding Me! #2

You know, I'm sympathetic to gay rights issues... to a certain point. However, with that said, I think they are losing a lot of good will that has been generated amongst moderates and possibly even some more liberal straight folks by bitching and moaning that there is not enough that is being done for them. Apparently, according to some gay rights activists, Obama's extension of some benefits - that were not previously available to gay couples - is simply "too little, too late." You've got to be kidding me!

Personally, I have no problem with gay people and I am willing to advocate that same-sex civil unions along with allowing homosexuals to raise children will not topple the very foundation upon which many believe this country has been built.

This all or nothing approach comes across as childish and immature. Compromise and staggered legislation/action is necessary because these things take time. People rarely change their minds overnight and clearly we've seen what some wacko, hate-filled right-wing extremists will do (Tiller assassination, Holocaust shooter).

You've Got To Be Kidding Me! #1

Alright, so I was scanning around Facebook for no real good reason at all and stumbled upon a group called "Foxnews: true defender of the fundamental values that America was built on." Poor grammar, neglected capitalization, and the fact that it's Fox News aside, I already knew this group was going to be filled with dumbasses. Then, I saw the following discussion topic "To fix the illegal alien problem."

The first entry is as follows: "It's simple to fix this problem. We should not spend millions upon millions of dollars to try and put up fences. Lets just line up a division of troops on the border and invade Mexico and go all the way to the Panama Canal (which we should not have given up to start with). That way we wouldn't have any more illegal aliens. We can make Mexico the 51st state and we'd have oil (Mexico pumps it out but using old tech we could help there). I think we'd be seen as liberators! All the new jobs and and tax payers would get us out of the economic problems we have now. I would say not a shot would be fired (except for the drug dealers). Also it's easy to defend the waterway at the Panama Canal small border to secure!." (Yes there was a period AFTER the exclamation point; you can't make this stuff up)

So many things to address here, where to start? First, I believe this is called imperialism. We would suddenly become that much closer to being Rome as we expanded an "empire" that we can hardly sustain right now. Second, this just goes to show how the Fox News people see the world: Clearly this guy does not understand that after Mexico, there is El Salvador, Guatemala, Costa Rica, Nicaragua, and then Panama (for which the PANAMA CANAL is named!). "Yup, he's brown, he must be Mexican, because we already killed all them In'juns." Sure many of the people in Central America are of either Aztec or Mayan plus Spanish decent, but there are separate and distinct countries after Mexico.

I thought this might be a joke, but then he got some woman from the choir to which he was preaching saying that this guy should get the job as Speaker of the House! And then he came back, just as serious as before basically appreciative of the cosign.

Wow.

You've got to be kidding me!