I get upset at seeing shaven-headed little kids been thumped in Sainsbury's and even angrier at casual middle-class child cruelty. I shout 'child abuser' at smug parents on bicycles who show off their green credentials by towing little Archie through traffic at exhaust-pipe height in those baby trailers.
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To me, Michael is level-headed. While other celebrities are gullible, for instance, when it comes to such cults as Scientology and Kabbalah, he has seen them off, despite high pressure, celeb-on-celeb salesmanship from both.
He is that strong in his convictions. Love her as he does, for example, he disagrees profoundly with his friend Elizabeth Taylor, the children's godmother, who believes the odd smack is all right.
Michael has his own views on what is weird. He regards it as disgusting that his friend Princess Diana's children were encouraged by their father to witness the gory aftermath of a fox hunt.
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I would say Michael Jackson has given more thought to parenthood than most of us parents who don't suffer from the sobriquet, Wacko.
Jonathan Margolis rises to the defense of the King of Pop, in the Observer 02/09/03(or 09.02.03 depending).
{interesting that part about the exhaust. as though endangering your child outside the car is wrong, but inside....maybe someone could take the time to explain to Mr. Margolis, in a way that he can understand, that the use of automobiles is the leading cause of death for children. no no. not bicycle/car 'accidents', not engine exhaust poisonings, not even that deserving scapegoat/diversion drunk driving. the simple fact of the use of the automobile kills more children than any single other thing.
and the fox thing's a dead giveaway. as though the sight of the violent aftermath is what's bad for the kids. so much of the violence of these times is so deeply hidden it might as well be invisible. it's institutional cowardice, or industrial cowardice, or something.
I keep seeing this image over and over, dust in the air thick and brown and at the edge of some rubbled clearing a turmoil of pigs and dogs all of them skinny and diseased with chronic hunger fighting each other for the corpse of a child. it's ugly but then so's what's coming. so the perspective from which I'm looking at this drummed up 'controversy' is maybe a little different than someone's who's trying desperately to pretend everything will be all right if we can just get a few more cameras at a few more intersections and not let the kids watch bad TV.
Michael Jackson.
you want me to talk about that? let's see....how about there isn't a human being alive today who isn't filthy with warped upbringing nor is there anyone among us who hasn't been abused past the point of simple correction.
so then what? catharsis eh? punish the worst offenders and gloat. attain health by comparative pathology. because it's too late for true healing right? so don't look for causes, look for excuses. to hurt, to reject. look for the ones who deserve your cruelty because that's what you want most. someone to take it out on.
well, there he is, go get him.}
