Cult of personality and cultists who are seduced by it - boring. Same people who worship Jackson are the same ones who thought ChumbaWumba and Spice Girls were the next Beatles. Civil Rights Pioneer? Please, spare me that horseshit Joan. It's all showbiz, and this act is thankfully over. See ya in hell!

....to celebrities, politicians, people in the news.....plastering their lives all over the tubes.

And while this memorial was well done, not over the top, we need to stop this obsession. It's OK to love the music and the man. It's not OK to have 24/7 reporting about it.

When "regular" newscasts become Entertainment Tonight and we hear nothing about the important issues that really do affect our lives....we are in trouble. Big trouble.

God help us.

I wrote:

Yes, MJ is shy of the cultural significance of Gandhi and MLK

Actually you got me on Nelson Mandela.

Nelson Mandela was a head of state and some would say he has greater cultural significance than MJ, especially in Africa.

But MJ does have a lot of cultural significance in Africa, and on all the other continents.

Yes, I think MJ has more cultural significance that JFK, LBJ, Thatcher, Reagan, or Gorbachev.

Few kids around the world have any idea who JFK was, but MJ's songs - like MLK's speeches - will be played and sung for thousands of years to come.

Does anyone know who the heads of state were when Beethoven and Mozart were composing music?

Didn't think so, but almost everyone knows who Beethoven and Mozart were, and thousands of years from now they will know who Michael Jackson was.

This isn't a subject one should go to the wall with outrage about.

Unwrap a lot of the history of black music and you will find a lot of heartbreak and pain. People say silly stuff when they are heartbroken and in pain. Yes, the coverage is too much, but I cant really be indignant about people saying silly things.

So the self-declared King of Pop and friend of children was buried in a $25,000 golden casket. True, this was his family's idea, but it is completely in keeping with the profligacy of the man. How many hundreds of millions did he spend on Neverland and its furnishings? That fortune, including the $25,000 now sitting six feet under dirt, could have made a tremendous difference for untold numbers of impoverished children around the world.

This likely child molester and walking trainwreck was buried as he lived: shamelessly.

To paraphrase Steven Colbert.

Obviously there is something consistent in our popular culture where teenagers connect to the popular music of their coming-of-age experiences. It becomes a generational thing.

I myself am a little too old to cathect Michael Jackson's music as the background to my formative years. I remember numerous black artists (most of whom have already been mentioned by other posters, but I would add Ray Charles, the Temptations, the Supremes, etc.) who filled the AM radio of my suburban high school years. Way before Michael Jackson or the Jackson 5 appeared on the scene. I don't understand this meme that MJ "integrated" popular music; it happened way before he showed up.

As a dancer, he was certainly wonderful, but so were Fred Astaire, Barishnikof, Nureyef, the list goes on. Maybe MJ had a leg up because he could both sing and dance at the same time, no small accomplishment.

But can we please keep it in perspective? Pundits I heard today are comparing him to Michelangelo and Shakespeare. Gasp.

Everyone saw him as a source of money, either by exploiting his weaknesses (plastic surgeons) or his talent (father Joe) or music executives, producers, lawyers and anyone who came in contact with him (even the actress in Thriller was suing him for royalties, so I read). Wouldn't you just want it to go away?

Why is it always about Joan Walsh? Joan, the guy's dead and he got a big sendoff befitting one of the greatest superstars and weirdest people on the planet. IT'S NOT ABOUT YOU, JOAN. And neither is the rest of the world we live in.

It was like seeing Jesus worshiped. In reality it seems he was actually a Hindu deity:

http://michaeljacksongod.blogspot.com/

"Actually you got me on Nelson Mandela."

Yes, shit-for-brains, after you claimed, ""Michael Jackson did more for the world than any head of state since FDR." -- that was pretty easy. Tell me, do you and your shrunken testicles like little boys too? Buh-bye, moron.

i suspect there are more important things going on in the world.

Michelangelo and Shakespeare both also had lurid rumors about their lives - the same type of rumors. And many "experts" don't believe Shakespeare wrote all that he is given credit for writing.

Working at a senior center, I know many a Grandma (white and black)who have been very sad these last two weeks at the passing of Michael Jackson. Were they into his music? no. Do they recognize exceptional talent when they see it? yes.

Many have listed examples of singers who may have been on the AM dial prior to MJ. It is many of these same singers who are so honoring MJ. Perhaps because they know that though in some cases their music was being play, once they were off the stage they were back to the segregated world and not being able to stay at many of the hotels in the towns where they were performing.

One can list many examples of songs in the 50s, 60s and even 70s where there is a white version and a black version. Lets not pretend.

Tacky, gaudy, showbiz, smaltz and infomercial. The kids need the money, but what is their percentage after the corporations get their piece of the pie?

While it is excusable to watch a trainwreck, when they set up a circus around it, it is just rude and campy, but was BRUNO there?

If BRUNO was there, it was OK to watch.

If you like BRUNO.

Tacky, gaudy, showbiz, smaltz and infomercial. The kids need the money, but what is their percentage after the corporations get their piece of the pie?

While it is excusable to watch a trainwreck, when they set up a circus around it, it is just rude and campy, but was BRUNO there?

If BRUNO was there, it was OK to watch.

If you like BRUNO.