Your 2nd post undermines your case that Jackson wasn't guilty of anything. Sure, magazines with child porn in them COULD have been planted, and sure Michael Jackson's fingerprints on a Barely Legal magazine COULD have been added when he was in a drug haze, and sure, the boy COULD have heard a description of MJ's anatomy from somebody else who saw it, but you're stacking up one semi-plausible alternative explanation after another.

Then there's this:

cabdriver: "If Jackson possessed that material and it was known that he was under a pending criminal investigation- and he must have known that much- how is it that he didn't get rid of the magazines?"

This is a good one. I am sure many defense attorneys will try to use this from now on. "Your honor, the guns and piles of money in my client's possession, hidden under his bed, simply do not add up. Why, if he knew he was being investigated, wouldn't he have gotten rid of them?"

You got press access, right? Were you far back from the stage -- in nosebleed seats? The Staples Center has a capacity of 20,000, and to fill it you'd need to find everybody who can skip their day job on a Tuesday morning and drive or fly the distance to attend a somber event in the west coast's concrete jungle.

The reason I mention this is that it seems like the article implies people attending weren't that upset by Michael Jackson's death. The article's later conclusion, that people today tend to experience things without needing to join a communal gathering, seems more apt. (The comparison to Princess Di's funeral has a lot of non-parallels, it being untimely and related to somebody who was royalty.)

I have to congratulate Fortini on a far slicker writing job than her piece in Broadsheet. (Probably better editing from the top as well.) Sounds like you made the most out of a dull event without many opportunities for angles. For this kind of on-the-spot writing, pick up one of P.J. O'Rourke's books sometime (his late '80s or early '90s stuff might be good). Or go back to Hunter Thompson's campaign-trail stuff, or even Mark Twain with innocents abroad.

Camille Paglia: "Hey, wake up -- Palin cleaned Biden's clock! By the end, Biden was sighing and itching to split."

The term "cleaned his clock" is overused on Salon, and in this context its definition is in question. I thought "to clean somebody's clock" meant to beat the living shit out of them (either that, or to apply rubbing alcohol to the Roman Numerals with a small scrubby brush).

Yet Paglia's support for how Palin cleaned Biden's clock amounts to Biden sighing. What sorts of debate competitions did Paglia participate in during her academic years? Is there a guidebook somewhere that says, "If you sigh, you have lost." Is letting out a sigh like knocking the 8-ball into a pocket during a game of pool?

I am not sure Biden was itching to leave. At the end of the debate, he strode confidently to the front of the stage, shook hands with Palin, and stood smiling alongside his wife. Palin looked no more at ease than he did.

I guess we all see what we want to see, huh? Paglia certainly does. Or maybe for Sarah Palin, the scorecard grants her a huge handicap.

By the same reasoning Paglia uses, I'm sure I could clean Tiger Woods' clock in a game of golf if you gave me a 50-stroke handicap. And I don't even play golf.

That's interesting about the settlement out of court. As I understand it, the settlement was for a civil case and not a criminal case, which also lessens the extent to which it implies guilt.

What's most unfortunate about the molestation accusations is that the settlements leave the matter very...unsettled. We know Jackson had young boys over for sleepovers, and we know they slept in the same bed together. We also know some things that were leaked regarding the nature of the charges, and we know that these sorts of accusations occurred more than once.

We also know that Jackson lived in a bubble of unreality, and in a world where most everybody around him was compelled to either pander to him or leave. On top of that we know that Jackson left himself open to opportunists who might attempt to shake him down for money. Also, we know that Jackson was the victim of an abusive and controlling parent, and this might manifest itself in Jackson controlling others, as is the usual mechanism in the chain of parent-child abuse.

What we're left with is open to each person's desired belief. It's wrong to assume Jackson was guilty, but it's self-blinding to assume he was innocent. Jackson was "not right in the head," and it's not unconceivable that untoward things could have occurred.

My opinion is that if such things happened, it is hard to imagine a young teenage boy being damaged by it. It's difficult to imagine Jackson being coercive, as he had a delicate, androgynous personality. I would guess he crossed some boundaries that would normally not be worthy of legal action, but became so because he was a multi-millionaire.

We can stop talking about all this and just talk about his music and talent. Fine with me. But I think it's sad that so many people who admired him weren't around to tell him when he was alive. What other American singer/dancer performers are alive now who have the sheer talent level and superstar influence of Michael Jackson? I can't think of any at the moment. Whoever they are, they should be honored in life so they can be around to enjoy it.

That is indeed a really nice letter.