As soon as I saw the graphic, I assumed Kamiya would try to put "Thriller" and "Thrilla from Wasilla" in a sentence together.

So I did a CTRL-F search and typed in "thrill." Nothing. Kamiya didn't fulfill his obligations as a clever writer.

Disappointing.

Sarah Palin's "celebrity" and her resume are not bolstered by the same things. Sarah Palin was surely more visible after her Couric meltdown, but it didn't make people rush to the polls to vote for her; it turned them off. Sarah Palin's approval ratings have fallen continuously since she's been in the spotlight.

Furthermore, there are other countries in which empty-headed celebrity politicians are more popular than they are here; Silvio Burlusconi and Putin are both quite popular, and both are ridiculously eccentric grandstanders; Putin recently released a tape of himself performing martial arts, and his people loved it. Whatever you have to say about America, we're not buying any tapes of Obama doing Tae-Bo.

This is the laziest kind of writing; the writer clearly had his thesis in mind and simply wrote what was necessary to support it, regardless of insignificances like poll numbers and other manifestations of Palin's demonstrable drop in popularity. Please put more thought into your columns in the future.

I love the term "poison of celebrity," but I'm not so sure that the mourning for MJ was merely annoying. It is as nefarious as real circus sideshows were in their day, with geeks gawking at freaks and receiving an almost sexual high from that most debauched of sins, voyeurism.

In the MJ sage, the sicker, the more grotesque, the higher the fever pitch of titillation. We learn Jacko was bald, had access to a drug only found in hospitals, was laid to rest in a gold coffin worth $25K, and haunted his Neverland ranch from the shadow kingdom when Larry King came to visit.

So far, the wickedest of these tales has been one from the Phoenix New Times, detailing some crazy old bag in Sedona who claims to have treated Jackson for his pedophilia with acupuncture and crystal therapy:

http://www.phoenixnewtimes.com/2009-07-02/news/michael-jackson-s-sedona-murderess-revealed/

Whether or not it's all true, we allow ourselves to be distracted and entertained with it in the most depraved manner. One comes away feeling like you had sex with a donkey, and need a hot bath lasting 3 weeks.

Well put.

Between MJ and MP this one measly Premium subscription is hanging by a thread.

1: "The national reaction to Jackson's death was false and overblown, but it didn't hurt anyone."

2: "It's irritating that we can't get Michael Jackson off our national screen. But it's positively frightening that we have to keep watching Palin".

Sorry, Salon-ers, that I'm not adept with computer modes and can't post in the form many of you do (with easy links and quotes). I'm pretty old.

And in that I know I'm probably posting the wrong things to the wrong site. I think there've been about 24 letters posted so far. I haven't yet had time to read them but tend to imagine they'll mostly be talking about Jackson and Palin and other issues this article raises.

My concern (for the moment) is other -- hence the two sentences I started with.

"The national reaction...was false and overblown but it didn't hurt anyone"?? You mean there is no 'hurt' to 'anyone' by "a national reaction that [is] false"?

"It's irritating... we have to keep watching..." Palin

My concern is this captivity to the media themselves. [Yes, "media" is a noun plural, o.k. guys?]

I do not believe that a "national reaction that is false and overblown" "didn't hurt anyone". Ay yi yi, o.k.? How much ?"hurt"? is there in a "national reaction that is false and overblown"??!!

And as for it's being "positively frightening that [you] have to keep wathing Palin"...

What's ?"positively frightening" to me (n part any way) is this subjugation to the media themselves.

Why don't you just turn the screen off?

Hope to get some responses because I know I'm being obscure, but it just seems to me there's something awfully "off" here as to what's real and what isn't.

salonmarte

In a country not besotted by fame, a politician as intellectually deficient as Palin, whose ambitions are that untethered, and above all who is petulantly unwilling to do the hard, prosaic work of governing, would be ushered permanently offstage.

Except in Italy where Berlesconi the Buffoon continues to wreck his country's reputation.

Sarah Palin entered national politics with the honesty and integrity of her small town, grass roots, Alaska heritage, and then faced the personal attacks of effect liberal snobs, those nattering nabobs...

Oh, wait. The presentation of Sarah Palin to the nation was a fraud. She had no ideas; so we heard lies, and many of them were about Sarah Palin the person.

Sure, lay off the children, but she signed up for the personal attacks when she agreed to run for office by pretending to be informed and intelligent.

I can tell you before the toxicology report comes in.

It was the KING syndrome. The spoiled celebrity with the inner circle of toadies and yes men. Michael gets what Michael wants the moment he wants it. And so with sleep. The surgical knock-out drug allowed him to snap his fingers and get what he wanted even with sleep. That nurse said that's what he said he liked about it. He could see the first drop coming down the tube and then he was out.

Have a nice sleep.

Phony Journalists like you and everyone else here who would much rather go panty diving than report about anything that requires a three digit IQ. Glenn Greenwald being the exception.

How many articles did Salon do about McKinney being a POW and hostage?

Too black, eh?

Phony Journalists like you and everyone else here who would much rather go panty diving than report about anything that requires a three digit IQ. Glenn Greenwald being the exception.

How many articles did Salon do about McKinney being a POW and hostage?

Too black, eh?