What’s missing, you ask?
That big ball of fire in the sky.
I haven’t seen it in a few days and considering the constant cloudiness and rain, I’m not sure the sun actually exists any more. There are moments of less dark along side the moments of more dark, but there are times I cannot really discern an actual pattern—like the day it was brighter at 0500 than it was at 0730.
The forecast suggests that it will be visible on Tuesday, but I won’t actually believe it until I see it.
Meanwhile, with respect to my satire question—it was a bit too easy since the satire was posted on Letters Home—but it was the second one, although had I not posted it, the first snip, which was from the Guardian, could easily have been mistaken as satire—take the paragraph following the one I posted:
Much of west Los Angeles came to a standstill in the afternoon rush hour as news crews, police helicopters, dozens of patrol cars and well-wishers arriving on foot or by any other available means descended at the University of California at Los Angeles medical centre where Jackson arrived by ambulance from his rented mansion in the hills.
This morning I decided to check my music collection, and out of 2,007 tracks in iTunes, I have one track that has Jackson 5 remixed in, but nothing solely by the recently deceased.
Meanwhile, here in Weimar, the local paper’s headline was “Der King of Pop ist Tot,” complete with a special web-section and local-on-the-straße interviews video. One woman was genuinely ignorant of the fact that he had died.
Can somebody tell me when the coverage of his death will be over?
What about updates on Air France’s crash, the DC Metro crash, or any other real news?
Hell, I’d even take coverage of the S.C. governor’s scandal over this!
or the thousands perishing in America’s war on terror… I wonder if anyone would celebrate their lives as mothers, fathers, siblings or friends.
I wonder if any of the lilly-assed media dares to print a picture of one coloured lady or man with a caption mentioning their names, occupation and contribution to society and how their family and friends are agonizing over their death.
Whatever talent Michael Jackson might have possessed or whatever influence he might have exerted on his fellow artists, he remains simply an entertainer. Someone who became a part of a media machine with questionable motives.
The most disgusting thing that even in his death, he is lucky to have so many shed tears on his surgically altered body. As for me, I prefer to cry for those who, due to no fault of their own, have to carry their own kin and kith to make shift graves every bloody day.
@TQE: Yes, non-news indeed. NBC Nightly News the first two days dedicated at least 50% of the “newscast” to this drivel. OK, perhaps since he was a well-known entertainer you can tell us he died, but really, there is so much MORE important things to tell the viewers. How about reporting on the preparation that North Korea is getting ready to lob a missile at the US? How about the Air France crash? How about the protests in Iran? No, we have to listen to this crap about Michael Jackson, an attention whore that couldn’t let Farrah Fawcett get headlines in her death (and she was actually doing something to raise awareness of Cancer and treatments, unlike MJ who was merely an attention whore). *ugh*
@Palestinian: I long for the day when all of us, regardless of race, ethnicity, religion, or any other way that humanity uses to divide itself up into groups, can come together and realize that we’re ALL human beings. Somehow I think we’re all going to be waiting a very long time for that to happen. *sigh*
Thanks for replying. After visiting, living and being educated in the “West”, I have abandoned all forms of so-called liberal notions. We are not one, nor will we ever be. As a queer man of colour, I can attest to that in more ways than one. In fact, I am the one who should be called cynical queer ;o)
@TQE, again…: Was the photo of the sun taken in Swaziland by chance? It just hit me that it might have been. *grin*
@Palestinian: I am constantly frustrated at the living casualties of history–and the fact that people believe that their own characteristics make them superior to others. I also get frustrated that whenever somebody tries to point out an injustice perpetrated by a group of people that were once prosecuted, one immediately gets called a name–I for one will argue that the Israeli government seems to revel in making shitty decisions that hurt non-Jews, but the second one points this out, one gets called anti-Semitic; it’s possible to be pro existence of Israel but anti-Israeli governmental policy. I’m also pro-Palestine. I don’t think these are mutually exclusive possibilities.
@CQ: You are correct–the photo is from Swaziland. You can click on it to see it in my Flickr stream and bring back all the memories!
I didn’t even mouse over the photo to figure that out. 😉