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My prayers go out to the family. Maybe they should have prayed yesterday that he didn't, you know, die.

People who say shit like this are stupid. Not that I had a high opinion of these people, anyway.

As someone who doesn't pray, I have a question. When people say things like "my prayers are with the family" do they mean that literally? Are they actually saying a formal prayer (as opposed to "OMG! How terrible for his family"). Or is it just a figure of speech that has now become an obligatory rote phrase in situations like this?

Because I find it hard to believe that *everybody* who says that someone is "in their prayers" (which seems to be everybody) actually takes time from their busy lives to say "Dear God, please help the Jackson family through these terrible times" (or whatever people say when they pray).

Let's see, he had a bunch of hit songs 27 years ago that haven't aged well; he's mutilated his face with multiple surgeries; he spent every penny he ever made and then some on ridiculous things; he gave his children bizarre names and a lifestyle that was anything but stable; and, of course, despite his acquittal, in all likelihood had inappropriate sexual contact with children.

I celebrate no death, but I'm not rending my garments and sitting shiva for that freak.

...they can resurrect him ala Woody Allen's "The Sleeper" by using his prosthetic nose....

Sorry to be so glib, but I, for one, am not sad to see him go.

Why is this a Broadsheet story?

I can't even come up with any vaguely plausible reason that this should be here.

Spitefully posting how you won't mourn because blah de blah edgy whatever is pretty much equivalent to celebrating the death.

Who the fuck cares what celebrities are twittering? If people want to know what these inane people twitter, they can sign up to follow them. The only reason to write this article is because anything that has to do with twitter is somehow "hot." I can hardly wait for the twittering fad to GO AWAY.

He was not happy with who he was. I was listening to an easy lsitening station and they played an old song by the Jackson 5, and I remembered how incredibly talented this man was. He had become a parody of a superstar, though. A freak. Somehow it seems right that he should die young, even though I would prefer that he had found himself and found peace before he died.

He was over hyped his whole life and now celbutards can pretend they give a crap. FFS go by Huff Post and all the posters are acting like this guy was Michelangelo or something. He contributed nothing to our culture, he was a master of salesmenship, like Rush Limbaugh. He squandered his wealth on trying to turn white and seducing little boys. I tried explaining to my kids who he was and my eldest said 'Oh, we saw him on Southpark', and really, a Southpark eulogy is all he earned.

You've done to your decency what Michael Jackson did to his face.

@ralafler: You care. That is why you read the tweets and posted about it. Really, you complaining about tweets won't make them go away. Not a single bit. Perhaps you also wished some other "fad" went away, like the interwebs?

@Duke the Dog: Don't mourn him then. Feel free to have any opinion on his songs. Just don't come telling us about it, please? NO ONE CARES.

His greatest album, early 1980s, was musically great and extremely important in the history of our music. And, please see the cover of that album, how he looked, how handsome he was.

We seem to be hearing from a bunch of cynical, young non-musicians here. Please, stop being snotty about Michael Jackson when you do not know anything about music. And, Tracy, please take down the video of "Ben," and put up "Thriller" or "Billy Jean" or even "ABC."

To

Michael Jackson's Dead White Cock

No.

I'm going back to telling everyone I was born in Hungary, being American is just too depressing sometimes.

Too bad the linked YouTube video isn't "Dancing Machine" from 1975... great song. Michael Jackson was very entertaining and original.

At some point later in his career I happened to be in an electronics store and one of the televisions was showing what must have been a music video. Michael Jackson was dancing and singing along with an entire African village. It looked real and spontaneous and the joy on the faces of the people was unmistakable. It was incredible. I'd never seen anything like it. Phenomenal talent.

That's not the same guy who died, is it?! Not with that nose.

To the Greatest Entertainer of our Lifetime.

I hope Michael is jamming now with other mega-talents that crashed before their time...Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, Jim Morrison, Elvis...we launch them into stardom, burn them out, and then, sing their praises when they are gone. I hope they all know how much we loved them while they were here. Their music lives on. May they all find peace in that.

This guy was at least as famous for his "alleged" abuse of children as he was for his music and dancing. I find it offensive, gross and pathetic for people to grovel at his feet and rend their garments in grief over a guy who used wealth and power and our society's dumb worship of "idols" to cover up his criminal sicknesses.

It's tough to be so in a Bush(sic)Light World...I will miss your struggles and your music and your dancing. I hope you are at peace...

And she's a much more attractive older white woman than Mike could ever hope to be.

"@ralafler: You care. That is why you read the tweets and posted about it."

I was sucked in -- I actually thought, that since someone had written about it on a reputable news forum like Salon.com, that there was something newsworthy in the "tweets." But no, just typical inane blather.

Almost by definition tweets are inane blather, since unless you're Hemingway, it's impossible to say anything profound in 140 characters. The technology has its place -- quick breaking news, group organizing, etc. -- and eventually it will grow into it, but tweeting just to convey the twitter's every passing thought and reaction is a fad that's only made more obnoxious by being written about in places like Salon.com.