I've made it to the initial round for favorite progressive blogger in the Air America Cruise Contest. I have to stay in the Top 5 before the second voting round begins, so your vote is appreciated! First voting round:
The Christian Civic League of Maine's Mike Hein calls Pam's House Blend: "a leading source of radical homosexual propaganda, anti-Christian bigotry, and radical transgender advocacy."
He is "praying that Pam Spaulding will "turn away from her wicked and sinful promotion of homosexual behavior."
(CCLM's web site, 10/15/07)
Ex-gay "Christian" activist James Hartline on Pam:
"I have been mocked over and over again by ungodly and unprincipled anti-christian lesbians."
(from "Six Years In Sodom: From The Journal Of James Hartline," 9/4/2006, written from the "homosexual stronghold" of Hillcrest in San Diego).
"Pam is a 'twisted lesbian sister' and an 'embittered lesbian' of the 'self-imposed gutteral experiences of the gay ghetto.'" -- 9/5/2008
Peter LaBarbera of Americans for Truth Against Homosexuality heartily endorses the Blend, calling Pam:
A "vicious anti-Christian lesbian activist." (Concerned Women for America's radio show [9:15], 1/25/07)
"A nutty lesbian blogger." (MassResistance radio show [16:25], 2/3/07)
Pam's House Blend always seems to find these sick f*cks. The area of the country she is in? The home state of her wife? I know, they are everywhere. Pam just does such a great job of bringing them out into the light.
--Impeach Bush
who monitors yours Bevis ?? Just thought I would drop you a line,so the rest of your life is not wasted.
UPDATE 3: OMFG. MSNBC is running a report updating the status of Bubbles the Chimp, now living in Florida. The reporter actually asked the zookeeper if she thought Bubbles understood Jackson was dead. I missed her answer because I was laughing too loud.
The wall-to-wall ghoulish coverage has begun. I had CNN on this AM and, while at least I had it on, all they covered was the Michael Jackson memorial service preparations from soup to nuts, with extra helpings of nuts.
Good luck if you were scheduled to be a talking head on the newschannels on stories other than the King of Pop's worshipfest. You can head back to bed. God help us if we have to watch Pat Buchanan give commentary on the "festivities."
My question is what will the cable channels do if there is some kind of breaking event of significant magnitude? They've invested in getting all the satellite trucks and big reporters out there in L.A. to report on the inch-by-inch caravan of the Jackson family to the Staples Center and to interview various fans standing out there waiting to get in.
When the circus tent goes up today, feel free to hop in the chat room to discuss the insanity:
UPDATE: TMZ is reporting that the Sun's autopsy expose is fake, but noted that "it increasingly looks like Michael Jackson died from a drug overdose" and that more than Demerol was involved.
An autopsy on Michael Jackson revealed that the King of Pop's emaciated body was riddled with needle marks and scars, and his head was virtually bald, it was reported today.
Jackson's body had wasted away to a mere 112 pounds, and his stomach was completely empty except for partially dissolved pills, according to the London Sun.
His hips, thighs and shoulders were covered with needle wounds, believed to have come from shots of painkillers, and he was wearing a wig when he was found because his hair had been reduced to a "peach fuzz" on his scalp, the report said.
I guess the first question I have is how could anyone think he was insurable to go on a 10, let alone 50-date concert tour in this shape? How long were people going to enable him to go to the grave in this way? Something is seriously wrong in the celebrity world of hangers-on. On Larry King Live this weekend, author and Jackson friend Deepak Chopra revealed that the singer had asked him for a prescription for Oxycontin, which he refused to write, and he went on at length about the vampire doctor enablers all to common in Hollywood. He has a piece up at Huff Post about it.
Whether or not Michael Jackson's sudden death was directly caused by prescription drugs, this tragedy highlights the need to crackdown on M.D.s who become enablers of addiction. It's no exaggeration to say that they are basically drug pushers or at least suppliers. Their role although perhaps well meaning can become genuinely sinister, for it's not just a matter of joining a star's entourage by virtue of a prescription pad. Physicians are quite aware of the potential for addiction with opiate/opioid pain medication. The same narcotics like Demerol and OxyContin that became a regular part of Michael's life also lead to high addiction rates among physicians themselves. In the celebrity culture, some doctors become co-dependent and enmeshed with the stars to whom they hitch themselves, creating a mix of compulsions for fame, approval, power, and self-indulgence. As with other enablers in their entourage, the doctor is unable to set limits, frustrate and confront the celebrity lest the physician be banished and another eager medical provider step in. But the bottom line is always the same: the standard of care has not been maintained; pain and potentially treatable conditions are overlooked. And their oaths as physicians have been violated. These doctors are doing harm.
...The culture of "just say yes" when a celebrity shows up in a doctor's office needs to be condemned. This condemnation needs to be followed up with serious consequences for enabling physicians. If they recklessly addict a patient, severe repercussions should follow. If they themselves are addicted, complete abstinence must be achieved before they are allowed to return to medical practice, and random drug testing should be required by all states. Computerized medical histories should be instituted, so that we know precisely how many prescriptions are being written by each doctor and filled by each patient. With a centralized database, celebrities won't be able to pull off the trick of fooling dozens doctors and pharmacists all over town. And we need to do a better job educating physicians about the nuances and difficulties of treating patients such as these.
I don't know how it works out there in free-wheeling Hollywood, but for people who actually need these pain killers -- such as for post-surgery recuperation -- there are a lot of hurdles for the average Joe or Jane before you can get a refill. I had a surgery several years ago and was sent home with a small amount of Oxycontin (like 10 pills). When those ran out, I had to call my doctor to get just a few days' worth more. The kicker was I had to show up in person to get the prescription -- they wouldn't call it in. So I had to hobble into the car in searing pain and drive 15 miles to pick it up and take it to my pharmacy myself. Clearly this was to make it as difficult as possible for people to obtain the med. The amount I received was, again, small, only for a few days, but you were treated like a grandma selling her pain pills on the street for profit. I didn't want to take any more after that script anyway since the well-known gastrointestinal side effects kick in if you take it long term. So Durham pharmacies and doctors surely don't operate like those in Hollywood.
I don't know how Rush Limbaugh didn't explode from within from taking the hundreds of Oxy a month.
We all have a few of them. Those "where-were-you-when" moments that simultaneously help define generations and span generational differences. Our parents and grandparents may recall where they were when FDR died or when they heard that Kennedy — John or Bobby — was assassinated. Or when they got news of Martin Luther King's assassination. Or Elvis' death.
I remember hearing about John Lennon's murder, though I don't remember exactly where I was or what I was doing. I remember where I was when the space shuttle Challenger exploded. (At home, watching it on television, saying to myself "That wasn't supposed to happen," when it broke apart.) I remember where I was when the Berlin Wall started to come down. (Again, watching it on television.) I remember where I was when I heard that Princess Diana had died. (At a party of gay men — my fraternity brothers — when someone came downstairs after watching a news report, and announced it to everyone.)
And, I'll remember where I was when I heard that Michael Jackson had died.
Another hillbilly heroin and drug OD mess may be emerging - and a doctor is on the run. (ABC):
Michael Jackson was "heavily addicted" to the powerful pain killer Oxycontin and received "daily doses" of it and of another pain killer, Demerol, according to a senior law enforcement official briefed on the initial investigation of his death.
The Los Angeles police were told Jackson received an injection of Demerol one hour before his death, the official said.
The information and other emerging details, make it almost certain the Los Angeles Police Homicide and Robbery Division will launch a full investigation into the circumstances of the pop singer's death. The squad was given the assignment initially because of the "high profile" nature of the case.
As part of the broadening investigation, police detectives are searching for Dr. Conrad Murray, a Las Vegas cardiologist, who was reportedly with Jackson yesterday but has not been located since.
I reminded Kate of how sordid the whole mess with Elvis was back in '77. I was living in NYC at the time and the MSM was all Elvis all the time for I don't know how long. At least there wasn't the Internet to saturate the public 24/7 with ghoulishness -- that was left to the tabloids. Which one featured the shot of Elvis's corpse in the coffin? Never mind -- it was the Enquirer.
I figure the Jackson sendoff will be equally lurid. I'm not sure that it could top the surreal nightmare that was Anna Nicole Smith's funeral.
UPDATE: Bringing this up to the top of the page.
Good luck if you were scheduled to be a talking head on the newschannels on stories other than the King of Pop's worshipfest. You can head back to bed. God help us if we have to watch Pat Buchanan give commentary on the "festivities."
