Why Is It Business As Usual at Copenhagen?

Human beings are funny sometimes.

One hundred years ago, industry and manufacturing were praised as the mules upon the backs of which the American and European economies rose to power. One hundred years later today, the industrialized world seems to be kicking itself for succeeding at the expense of our planet.

Can anyone remember specifically when the topic of anthropogenic (man-made) climate change became the theme-du-jour among world leaders and activists? The environmental movement has been around for decades, but it seems that only recently have proponents of man-made global warming received the attention they so craved.

At first, it seemed as if the only people who cared about global warming were a handful of climatologists and environmental activists. Enter former Vice President Al Gore from stage left.

Al Gore’s An Inconvenient Truth came out in May of 2006, almost four years ago. The documentary largely consisted of a live slide show presentation given by Gore himself, the topic of which was global warming as caused by man-made carbon dioxide emissions.


I am a political scientist, not a climatologist, so I left the research and the analysis of data to the appropriate experts; the details will not be covered here, save for the main argumentative points of each side of the global warming debate. What I will be covering are the clear political implications and mechanisms that now define the AGW (anthropogenic global warming) debate more so than does the actual science.

An Inconvenient Truth was lauded by critics, world leaders, and audiences alike as being one of the most important documentaries recently made. At the Sundance Film Festival at which it was first played for audiences, the documentary received three standing ovations; 66% of viewers polled said that the film changed their mind about global warming, while 74% of viewers said that they would change their daily habits as a result of knowledge gained from the film. The documentary also won an Academy Award; Al Gore himself (along with the currently-scandalized Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC)) won a Nobel Peace Prize for his work.

Within a couple years, governments, politicians, and populations were sounding the siren call for action on climate change. The predictions and views in An Inconvenient Truth were alarmist at best and downright fallacious at worst, but upon the proximate release of the doomsday film The Day After Tomorrow, people were ready to believe that the world would destroy itself with massive hurricanes and catastrophic weather phenomena if immediate human action was not taken to curtail global warming.

One thing on which both sides of the AGW argument agree is that Earth’s climate has been changing since the planet’s creation. There have always been periods of warming, just as there have been periods of cooling (the Ice Age, anyone?). Most of these climate changes have taken place without global industrialization; where the two sides of the AGW argument differ, however, is how much impact the relatively recent industrialization of much of the world is the main culprit in the alleged current warming trend. People on Al Gore’s side claim that the carbon dioxide emissions from industry, transportation, and energy production are the main culprit in the recent upswing in global temperatures, since carbon dioxide is a greenhouse gas. Those who oppose this view claim that humans’ role is overstated, and that the energy output of the Sun is the real determinate of global temperatures, as has clearly been the case since time immemorial.

To me, both arguments seem to hold weight, although I tend to side with those who believe that, if the globe is getting warmer, then it’s most likely due to the gigantic ball of fire that gave our planet life rather than SUVs and cow farts.

I’ll spare my readers the intricate details of each argument; you all are big kids now, so pull up your Pull-Ups and research for yourself.

What has only been talked about in the past couple weeks, however, is what many climate change skeptics have been dealing with for years: what they rightly call “the politicization of science” in which the scientific process and results are manipulated for political gain. Due to the recent “ClimateGate” scandal in which reams of emails and documents from the University of East Anglia’s climatology department were hacked and leaked to the public, these claims of politicization seem to be pretty much on-target.

To make a long story short, the hacked emails and documents suggest collusion among the scientists and professors involved to manipulate or cover up certain scientific data that was harmful to the alarmist conclusions of the proponents of AGW. Some of the emails also indicate that dissenting opinion on the topic in the scientific community was actively suppressed in order to give the impression of consensus in the scientific community (see Al Gore’s quote during his Senate hearing where he angrily insists that there is consensus on the issue). This is all in addition to the revelation that entire sets of raw climate data were deleted, possibly after there were Freedom of Information requests for that data. If that isn’t politicization of science, I don’t know what is.

Of course, those scientists and professors involved are screaming “Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain!!” They claim that the emails in question were a tempest in a teacup, and that what was revealed has no impact on the aforementioned “consensus” that global warming is largely man-made and MUST BE STOPPED. World leaders are also saying how much of a shame it would be if this “all-important action on climate change” wasn’t taken by the governments of the world in order to avert disaster because of a “few” leaked emails and documents.

This is not science, ladies and gentlemen. This is politics, unabashed and sinister politics. The current global warming conference in Copenhagen, Denmark is proof-positive of this.

Such politicization is not new, however, but the Copenhagen summit isn’t just a powwow of world leaders; it’s not a United Nations meeting. It is one of the most prominent examples of governments coming together in an international setting to enact both international and domestic policies geared toward a political goal. The only other example that comes to mind is the Geneva Convention.

It is interesting to note that the atmosphere (pun intended) of the Copenhagen summit is strikingly similar to the atmosphere of Barack Obama’s presidential campaign. Copenhagen is now dubbed “Hopenhagen;” the summit began with a video of children pleading with their leaders to not let them die a catastrophic death related to a rise in global temperatures. My God, who wouldn’t want to do something about climate change?? There are also sad-faced pictures of the G8 leaders aged by ten years, with quotes from the year 2020 expressing dismay at “not doing anything about climate change” back in 2009 when they had the chance. The AGW campaigners have actually made the most powerful people on earth feel like giant asses before the summit has begun, as if to preempt any non-action against the global warming bogeyman. And, both thematically and literally, President Barack Obama is those leaders’ Great Black Hope in the fight against global warming, which is why he will be the last leader to make a presentation at the summit. What way to seal the deal on a new form of global governance than to have the summit’s closing argument be given by the world’s most beloved politician?

What’s even more ludicrous is the action which the AGW proponents support in order to combat this change. If Al Gore’s supporters are correct and the past century of industrialization has dramatically altered the global climate, then their solutions sound like the equivalent of shooting an incoming tornado with a shotgun in order to save one’s house. In order to prevent the polar ice caps from melting and entire populations of people and animals from dying in scenes straight out of The Day After Tomorrow, emissions from the globe’s most industrious nations will be “cut” somehow by around 20% for most nations. The United States has even agreed to have carbon emissions down 83% of the 1990 level by 2050! Wow! And the European Union has agreed to institute binding legislation for all its member states, even without an agreement at Copenhagen! Oh yeah, and all those developing nations in Asia and Africa will have to transfer all their third-world energy production into clean energy, of course, since the African Dream of industrialization and modernization might force polar bears to swim a little more than usual.

And now that ClimateGate has torn a gaping hole in the alleged scientific consensus on AGW (or, at the very least, called into question the need for global governance on the issue), the Copenhagen summit is trucking along full-speed ahead without so much as a hiccup from those parties involved. Again, “Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain!”

Frankly, that seals the deal: the fact that it’s business-as-usual in Copenhagen among the globe’s most powerful leaders, something which is rarely (if ever) achieved so harmoniously, is absolutely indicative of something much larger than just cutting carbon emissions. Such action can be taken by legislative action inside the countries involved at the summit. There exists no global governmental body with the power to set, monitor, and enforce emissions levels, but such mechanisms to cut emissions exist within the framework of the countries themselves. So then why is a global summit needed except to establish such a global governmental entity? Why else would the world’s most powerful leaders get together in Denmark other than to set up a brand-new body of global bureaucrats whose job it is to set, monitor, and enforce emissions cuts?

There has been much documentation of the conspiracy theories about the New World Order of global governance by elites. Alex Jones’ film The Fall of the Republic lays out in detail these theories, and the people who have so often called Jones and his supporters “cranks” and “wack-job conspiracy theorists” are becoming less and less convincing. We have in the Copenhagen summit a unique opportunity for globalists to completely dissolve any guise of national sovereignty, something which is essentially already lost among the parties of the European Union. If a governmental body was set up that would set, monitor, and enforce emissions policies in all involved countries around the world, then that entity would have direct influence on the legislative processes and the market economies around the world.

The Copenhagen summit is anti-business, anti-industry, anti-development, and essentially anti-success. Here in the United States, manufacturing has mostly been outsourced to China and other developing nations for cheaper labor costs. Under Barack Obama’s leadership and the Copenhagen summit, the United States is poised to see a complete systemic collapse of what remains of the manufacturing and industrial base which made this country as economically powerful as it used to be. Americans want cleaner energy and cleaner industry; this is demonstrated clearly by market forces which demonstrate that more and more people want cleaner, more fuel-efficient cars and “green” households, so long as the costs don’t skyrocket. But the globalists have co-opted that growing desire and twisted it to mean that more and more people support a global “solution” to global warming. And frankly, with the alarmist forecasts of massive hurricanes, melting polar ice caps, disappearing cute polar bears, arid desert/drought scenes, and entire land masses flooded, who wouldn’t have cause for concern?

Scratch the calloused surface, though, and it doesn’t take much to realize that something much more ominous is at play, here. Clearly the Copenhagen summit is about more than just the sketchy anthropogenic global warming cause, and if Barack Obama is at all the representative of the American people as he claims to be, then he should consider protecting American sovereignty rather than frittering it away in Denmark.

For a good documentary on the other side of the global warming debate that the Copenhagen cohorts don't want you to hear, go to:
The Great Global Warming Swindle

The Seeds of Swiss Minarets

One of the best comments I’ve recently heard from a person who disapproved of the latest Swiss vote on minaret construction was something like “only a symbolic victory over symbolism can be a Swiss victory.”

That comment alone made me laugh heartily…guffaw, even. That tickled my funny bone.

The popular vote to ban the construction of any new minarets in Switzerland has polarized opinion, with half of everyone supporting the Swiss people’s efforts to preserve the unique character of their nation, and the other half bemoaning the alleged intolerance and bigotry of the Swiss people.

The opponents of the vote have a point: the banning of a religious symbol is discriminatory, and it will make Muslims angry. What the opponents have gotten completely wrong is the reasoning that such discrimination is a mistake or “evil” in some way.

The Swiss have had it pretty good so far in the past few decades. With a culture that reflects a blend of European influences, multiple official languages, and unwavering neutrality, internal and external conflict with and within Switzerland are rare. As most articles have pointed out, Islam is the second most popular religion in Switzerland behind Christianity, and most Islamic activity that occurs in Switzerland is under the radar. Thus, to many, the banning of minarets is a rough-palmed slap in the collective face of Switzerland’s Muslim community. This is true, but only to the extent that one assumes the premise that the Muslim community in that country is going to expand to an extent that would require the building of more and more mosques and minarets. Otherwise, the banning is symbolic only, and we know how Muslims react to symbolic offenses (see: the Danish Mohammed cartoon scandal).
The supporters of the vote claim that the minaret is a political symbol implying creeping Sharia law and Islamic dominance. This is like saying that crucifixes on top of churches are political symbols implying Judeo-Christian dominance and the supremacy of God’s law. Both assumptions are both true and not true, because the fact of the matter is a building is just that: a building. What it means is only what people give it. To some Muslims, a minaret in a country that’s ethnically and culturally homogenous (Western) may indeed be a symbol of coming Islamic dominance; to others, it may be a proud symbol of their faith. To others still, it might just be a building.

But the banning of minarets is indeed symbolic. It is a majority of the Swiss telling the world that Switzerland is Switzerland, and they will determine the character of their country. It’s that same majority telling the Muslim minority in their country that they are welcome to practice their faith, but that they reside in Switzerland, not Saudi Arabia, and that the Swiss intend to uphold that distinction. It is a decision to preserve the cultural integrity of their nation, not just to deny Muslims their right to worship (which the vote has nothing to do with).
The political left hates this. To them, the idea that the Swiss are defending their culture and the character of their nation is bigotry, intolerance, racist, and any number of buzz words used by that crowd. The left loves to boast of the “tolerance” and good-heartedness of the Swiss people, and how much this vote has destroyed that image. Politicians are rushing to overturn the vote in some phony, cockamamie “human rights” court. “The multicultural nature of our country is what makes it great!” claim these people. How ridiculous.

Supporters of the vote rightly claim that Muslim-dominated countries are extremely intolerant of other religions and cultures, and that the Swiss are trying to prevent what will be an increasingly anti-Swiss attitude among a potentially growing Muslim population there. Opponents argue that to sink to the intolerant level of those Muslim countries is merely answering barbarism with more barbarism. Once again, the opponents of the vote are right, but for the wrong reasons.

Switzerland has had the good fortune of having a relatively tame, quiet Muslim community. There have been no terrorist attacks, no Muslims calling for the murder of a Swiss popular figure, and no burning of the white-crossed Swiss flag. People are now concerned that these acts of terrorism will now come since this vote has been passed. What the opponents of the vote basically are saying is that they are terrified of Muslims, and that Europeans should do every possible thing in their power to avoid offending them. It’s as if the teachers on a school playground told the other kids to do whatever the school bully says, because he will beat up all the kids if they don’t and the teacher is powerless to do anything about it. That argument, simply put, is absolute 100% concentrated cowardice.

France, Great Britain, the Netherlands, Germany. What do all these countries have in common?

Did you guess it?? If you guessed “a burgeoning Muslim population that is increasingly self-isolated, violent, anti-Western, and politically powerful, which is also set to overtake the native European population by sheer numbers in the near future,” you’re right!

Not so long ago, the populations of the aforementioned countries began opening immigration to all corners of the globe. After World War Two, any ethnic or cultural homogeny was indefensible as a good thing, for such a thing was too reminiscent of Nazism. For years after the last shot of the Second World War was fired, Western Europe remained ethnically and culturally homogenous, with a few exceptions. Europeans hailed the new age of peace and cooperation after two horrible intercontinental wars.

Now, in 2009, the multicultural experiment for which no one voted is failing. The French, British, Dutch, and most other Europeans thought that it didn’t matter whether or not their countries’ populations were made up of boring old white Europeans, Africans, Arabs, or Asians; their country would still be theirs, still be recognizable, still be consistent in terms of values and culture. Anyone who still claims this is dangerously delusional. From “no-go areas” for police in London and Paris, terrorist attacks, assassinations of public figures, anti-Western rhetoric, and honor killings, the wave of immigration from the Third World has had zero benefits for any of these European countries. “Diversity” (meaning fewer people of European descent, as it is used these days) is not a strength; quite the contrary, the evidence actually supports the opposite.

And all of these horrible, negative effects did not come about because these European countries held a vote like the recent Swiss referendum. They came about because the culture of Islam is one of conquest and domination. The political left will blame the inherent racism and discrimination by the native European population for a sense of isolation and alienation among non-Europeans. That argument is a tired one, and operates under the false premise that foreigners shouldn’t feel like foreigners in a foreign land. Fewer and fewer people are drinking the Guilt Kool-Aid anymore.

Are there tolerant, friendly, peaceful Muslims? Absolutely. Without question. But as we’ve seen in the past decade in Europe and around the world, these examples are the exceptions, not the rule. Even if these good examples were the rule, I ask this: if the few exceptions to this peaceful model of Islam kill a few dozen non-Muslims in their own country, is the diversity still worth it? How about a few hundred? How about three thousand? Is diversity still our greatest strength then? How many people have to die in the name of Allah before diversity is no longer a strength to its champions, but a weakness?

I think the Swiss people have seen the devolution of European society in certain urban areas of the rest of Europe due to mass immigration, and I think they know on an instinctive level that what they see is not what they want Switzerland to become. So, yes, the vote is symbolic, but on a much deeper, more cultural level.
And who can fault them at this point?

“Islamophobia”…that’s a good made-up word. Champions of multiculturalism use this pejorative term to describe Europeans’ defense of themselves and their culture from the growing dominance of Islam literally in their backyards. The political left blames the recent Swiss vote on “fear,” just like when they use the terms “xenophobia” and “homophobia.” They like to accuse the opponents of “diversity” of cowardice and of acting out of fear, because it implies irrational thought. But to me, “Islamophobia” doesn’t describe an inherent wariness of radical Islam. Rather, the term describes the people who are terrified of offending Muslims in any way, for any reason, under any pretense, even if it leads to cultural suicide. The real Islamophobes are those who allow radical Muslims to do any damn thing they please in Europe and the United States without resistance for fear of violence and “unrest in the Muslim community.”

And under the leadership of such Islamophobes, radical Islam has permanent footholds in Europe. The deaths will not stop, nor will the terrorism in the name of Allah, nor will the growing parallel Muslim communities within urban Europe. Native Europeans’ birth rates are falling (or stable at almost zero), and in addition to a steady flow of Third World immigrants, those immigrants also have much bigger families and higher birth rates. The Europeans are being beaten in their home turf, and there could come a day where Islam will officially dominate the continent without the need for a jihad. Just read the statements of various Muslim imams both in Europe and around the world. The recent Swiss referendum was just a seed of cultural reawakening in Europe, a growing awareness of the dangers of unfettered immigration for the capitalist purposes of a cheap work force.
Let the seed grow, lest Europe be lost.

Why We Don't Need Further Interdiction in Colombia

The governments of the United States and Colombia are in the process of concluding a deal which would allow the United States to expand its military and law enforcement presence in that country for the stated purposes of security and drug law enforcement. The Colombians especially want more security from the drug cartels and insurgents, and the Americans want the stem the flow of illicit drugs from Colombia into the United States. A quick look at the United States’ “War on Drugs” and its effects would very easily demonstrate that this latest move is detrimental to both goals and will in essence be yet another costly failure in American policy.

At a basic level of analysis, the American “War on Drugs” has failed. Its initial intention was to stop the proliferation of illegal substances within the United States in large part by operations of interdiction with the coerced cooperation of countries of interest, most of which are located in Latin America. However, like the prohibition of alcohol in the 1930’s, the War on Drugs has failed to stop the flow of ANY drug into and/or within the United States. As the militarization of drug enforcement intensified, the drug cartels, gangs, and so-called “narco-terrorists” increased their fighting capabilities, too. These manufacturers and distributors of illegal drugs have enormous amounts of resources, especially in the black market. Restrictions on the trafficking of firearms and munitions have no effect on those gangs’ ability to acquire guns and ammunition. So, in essence, as the drug enforcement teams’ guns got bigger, so did the guns of the people they were fighting.

The result of greater interdiction is the exact opposite of the intention: the destabilization of entire regions due to the growing strength and influence of drug cartels in Latin America. Places like Colombia, Venezuela, Peru, and Mexico have been plagued by increasingly-violent cartels that have no qualms about killing politicians, police officers, and members of the military to achieve their goals. Again, the result of greater interdiction by the American Drug Enforcement Administration in foreign countries in order to enforce American drug laws in those countries is the destabilization of those countries.

And now the US government is pressuring Colombia to allow greater interdiction capabilities in order to increase stability in that country. Really? Can they possibly be serious? What previous indications convince the proponents of such action that this will work?

The fact of the matter is that it will not work. Ever. Greater interdiction efforts in Colombia by the United States will further destabilize that country, which is arguably one of the last staunch supporters of the United States in that region. The Latin American people are not stupid, and they see the results of American drug enforcement as described above. The recent upswing in anti-American sentiment is not a coincidence. Radical anti-American communist leaders like Hugo Chavez are empowered by American efforts in that region because American interference in Latin American domestic affairs harms Latin Americans. The carrot of economic assistance that is usually dangled in front of the leaders of those nations is no longer enticing as Latin American countries continue to dissolve into violent chaos.
The prohibition of drugs in the United States is ludicrous because it does not have the intended effect of reducing violent crime. The architects of the War on Drugs assumed that a reduction in supply would dry up demand for the drug as prices rose. This would be true if the illegal drug trade worked anything like the regular free market. Alcohol prohibition gave rise to Al Capone and other violent violators of that prohibition, and people still produced, trafficked, and consumed alcohol in the United States. Similarly, drug prohibition has led to an increase in violent crime as people are driven to kill, either to support their addictive habits or to secure the “turf” of a certain drug cartel.

Whether or not drugs are good or bad is unfortunately not relevant. Prohibition does not work, pure and simple. To support it is therefore nonsensical. There are other, more effective ways to combat drug abuse which prohibition measures ignore and (ironically) prohibit through their nature. The clear solution to both the problems in Latin America and in the United States is to end this prohibition on drugs. Legalizing marijuana, as a first example, would make the illegal marijuana market dry up due to lack of demand (or the illegal growers and distributors would legitimize their business, which would add tax revenue to the United States’ coffers).

Insanity is often defined as doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. More interdiction in Colombia is a pretty good example.

Michael Jackson and the Collapse of America

For those of you who haven't heard: Michael Jackson, King of Pop, has died.

Also, for those of you who haven't heard: I envy you.

You know, before he died, I really had no real beef with Jacko. Despite the scandals, he made some good tunes, and this is coming from me, someone who hates many forms of pop culture. Strangely enough, though, the King of Pop could always get my head bobbing to the beat. The guy could dance, too, for sure. No one denies that.

Michael Jackson also donated a lot of money to humanitarian causes. No one will deny that such generosity is a good thing.

So far, we can establish that MJ is 1) a hugely successful entertainer, and 2) generously donates money to humanitarian causes, which many successful celebrities do. Okay.

Now we come to the whole child-molestation-thing. The allegations that weren't settled out-of-court for millions of dollars were not proven to be true. Fervent MJ fans (especially the ones who like to put his image as their Facebook profile now that he's dead) emphasize and harp on this.

However, even if we assume that Michael Jackson in no way, shape, or form molested or harassed any boys, his behavior certainly requires some explanation and raises some doubt.

Jacko spent a huge portion of his fortune on Neverland Ranch, which was part home, part amusement park, and part petting zoo, apparently. He considered himself (or at least likened himself to) Peter Pan, and, to top it off, invited loads of kids and allowed them to sleep over at his "Ranch", even sharing his bed and room with them. Even the most ardent MJ apologizer has a hard time defending that kind of ludicrous behavior. The guy liked little boys and liked to be around little boys, seemingly more than he liked being around women and friends his age. That's an uncomfortable fact no matter what the verdict of the trials was.

Some people might claim that these behaviors merely describe how much Michael Jackson loves children in general, and how he's a "kid at heart". If that were true, then that love and that heart condition clearly don't translate too well into the parenting factor. Ranging from keeping his kids' faces covered in veils when they were out in public all the way to dangling his infant child from a balcony window for all to see, Jackson's parenting tendencies weren't quite up to par with his "love for children".

And finally we come to the ever-changing appearance of Michael Jackson. For the sake of avoiding all the "YOU HAVE NO PROOF" screechers out there, I'll assume that Michael Jackson legitimately did have universal vitiligo and lupus. Fine; even if there’s no proof of those illnesses, either. Let's say that he bleached his skin in order to get an even pigment all around so the vitiligo didn't look quite so unsightly. Fine; I'd say that plan backfired pretty hard, but fine. The guy still molded and sculpted his face until it was nearly beyond recognition. If he had gotten all that plastic surgery at once, even his biggest fans wouldn't have recognized him. Only the fact that the surgeries were spread out and that the change was gradual allowed MJ's transformation to be monitored so that he was still marginally recognizable. Jacko clearly molded his features to match his newly-whitened skin, and did so to the point of absurdity and even grotesque self-parody. If his sister Janet had bleached her skin too, the two would look like clones (except for the boobs, of course, but who knows? Jacko could have been planning on adding those, too). Thus was MJ’s transformation from a young black man to an androgynous white man.

Apparently he transformed his genetic makeup, too, because his black genes and a white woman’s genes mixed to create some very white children. Three times. Genetic anomalies? I think not, ladies and gentleman. Michael didn’t have enough European blood in him (or enough bleach and vitiligo) to make three very European-looking children. I won’t speculate as to how exactly this happened, but clearly something’s wrong with the recipe here, if you know what I mean.

And so, on June 25^th, 2009, Michael Jackson died in circumstances that are now being investigated by our tax-funded Drug Enforcement Administration. I’m so glad that a portion of my work effort is going to find out how Jacko died. Oh wait.

Jacko’s death has induced a sort of worldwide media solar eclipse at a time of very important and significant events both around the world and in the United States. I wish I was exaggerating when I say that the world is treating MJ’s death as the second death of Jesus Christ himself. Every major news outlet is on full Michael-Jackson-mode; it’s Defcon One for the media; it’s all Michael, all the time. Celebrities, news anchors, journalists, politicians, and world leaders are sparing no expense to shower the late entertainer with unending praise and laudation. It is now July 7^th (12 days later), and the media frenzy has culminated in a public memorial service, complete with the whole gamut of public figures mentioned above. An article published on the news site of Yahoo said today that “the world paused to remember Jackson”. I want to take this opportunity to demonstrate why this seemingly-harmless six-word statement sums up how truly ridiculous our society is becoming.

Ask anyone in China, Honduras, Afghanistan, or Iraq if their world paused to remember Michael Jackson. Ask someone in either of the Koreas or in Pakistan if their worlds stopped to remember MJ. Ask the recent multiple victims of the serial murderers in South Carolina and Pennsylvania and their loved ones if their worlds stopped to remember Jacko. I think the answers you will get will be a resounding “NO”.

If you’re asking yourself right now what happened in any of the aforementioned areas or what is happening there now, then you are part of the regressed society of which I speak.

I think the world (and by “world” I mean the world which did NOT “stop to remember Michael Jackson”) proved very effectively the absurd, hyperbolic nature of the recent Michael Jackson phenomenon. There are literally millions of people who will claim that Jacko “changed their lives”. I hate to ask what these people’s lives were like before they discovered the entertainer’s music; they must have been pretty empty and superficial. Music can be a very powerful medium of expression, but can any of us honestly say that one artist’s music changed our lives? Or did the condition of our lives previously lead us to explore and discover music that we enjoy? Some people actually broke down in a blubbering mess on camera, gnashing their teeth and tearing their clothes because the King of Pop died. Really? Did your life really revolve around Michael Jackson so much that it now has THAT much less meaning than before?

Before anyone throws a fit: I’m obviously not talking about Michael Jackson’s loved ones; they obviously have good cause to mourn the loss of their friend and family member.

The most vocal Michael Jackson supporters will go to great lengths to emphasize his innocence in the molestation trials and to excuse his strange, inexplicable, and at times inexcusable behaviors. From what I can tell, these seem to be the same exact people that were so quick to condemn and damn the priests who molested children (or who were accused of molesting without conviction). Many of these people were clearly ones who most likely called for the imprisonment and castigation of these priests, no matter if they were convicted or acquitted in the same manner as MJ. Some of these people probably even used these sad examples of priesthood to condemn Christianity and religion as a whole.

For the record, I too condemned the priests convicted of molestation. I support very harsh punishments for child molesters, no matter what their profession. The difference is that I apply my scruples and morals to everyone, and you zealous apologizers of Michael Jackson are damnable hypocrites. If a priest had a home with carnival rides, petting zoos, and other attractions clearly intended to entertain children, would you let your child serve as an altar boy for that priest? No, you say? Why not? For that matter, would you let your kid or grandchild go to Neverland Ranch to sleep over, even if you excuse Jacko’s behavior? Would you vote for a politician with all those playthings and toys at his house, a politician who also let kids sleep over his house, even in his bed? I’d bet dollars to donuts to diamond-encrusted white gloves that you sure as hell would not.

At MJ’s memorial service, Reverend Al Sharpton told Jackson’s kids that “there was nothing strange about [their] daddy”. I want to know exactly which distant planet this man lives on. Michael Jackson embodied the term “strange”, no matter what “strange” things he went through. I can name a lot of people who went through worse things than Jacko did, and yet exhibited none of the questionable behaviors as MJ did.

Michael Jackson lived both an exciting and a sad life that seemed to come to a short end. His musical accomplishments should be remembered; his humanitarian efforts should be commended. But the man was not a deity, nor a hero, no matter what his fans say. He was the King of Pop, and that is all. But the ridiculous reaction of so many people and the major media shows how threadbare and superficial our society is becoming. Robert McNamara passed away the other day, too; he was the Secretary of Defense during much of the Vietnam War, and affected many people’s lives much more than Jackson ever did, but how much did you hear about that in the news? Agree with McNamara’s actions or not, he was much more significant in American and world history than an entertainer, and yet his passing was completely overshadowed by the ongoing Michael-Jackson-fest. How did this happen?

It happened because people in the media decide what’s important for Americans to know and what is not; it happened because many Americans couldn’t tell you who Robert McNamara was, or what he did, but ALL of those people could tell you who Michael Jackson was, name their five favorite MJ songs, sing them word-for-word, and could even dance a passable moonwalk.

And people wonder why the United States has been on the decline in the past half century; people wonder why that decline has accelerated to a full-speed collapse under George W. Bush and Barack H. Obama. Maybe we need to start teaching our most honest politicians to breakdance and write hit songs to institute real, positive change in our country.