David
I’ve had a small amount of a discussion with madame butterfly on a post she did about michael jackson.
she plainly asks if michael jackson were performing in vegas would you go, and pay your hard earned money to see him sing?
i think my reply surprised her a bit.
she noted that donny trumpp is considering doing a little business, trying to get mj out to vegas doing shows like wayne newton or celine dion. and i do not like to put either of those two in the same company with mj. they just happen to be the two most pre-eminent entertainers in vegas that i know of. other than siegfried. 😉
my reply was yes.
i don’t think i qualified my response well enough at the time, int eh comments ection of her post. if i was so inclined as to see an entertainer perform in vegas, yes, i would consider mj. i probably would not consider wayne newton or celine. they just aren’t my cup of tea. mj isn’t really either, but he does have a few good songs.
but the issue of whether or not to see mj perform in vegas struck a bigger cord on a different issue for me.
it raises the issue of punishment.
i’m am not a huge proponent of rehabilitation in prison. prisons are primarily for punsihment. rehabilitation is something that we, the taxpayers do out of the goodness of our hearts. criminals do not have a right to college classes, we afford them the opportunity.
i hope they take all of the opportunities we give them, but know that few do.
mj has been accused of pedophilia. it’s a reletive accusation, if he had moved to holland after the first accusation, well, the age of consent is 12 there, and he’d be off the hook. at least with the current accuser. it’s not to say that he would not have been after someone even younger if he was in holland.
maybe really all he is after is forbidden fruit. though i personally doubt it. i think he’s guilty. big as all dallas! once corey feldman came out and made some corroborating statements….
who could do that on national tv? who could say ‘yeah, i did it too’. i don’t necesarily hold corey feldman in the highest of esteems, but i have no reason to think he is a liar. and anyone who says he has some ulterior motive involving celebrity, or money, well, i just don’t think publically admitting you were a child sex toy for mj is the right path to chose for that. maybe the money in litigation. but no acting roles would be forthcoming. and no fame either. not the kind you would want. and not the kind corey is after.
so the issue i really want to discuss is how i could pay money, to mj, knowing he is a pedohile/rapist. because really, they weren’t qualified to consent were they?
now, how could i pay money?
like i said at the beginning, it brings up the issue of punishment.
look into the future to a point after mj’s upcoming trial.
at the end, he will be found guilty, or not. i guess it’s possible there may be a hung jury, and a repeat. or even a settlement. but i’m looking at guilty or not.
if he’s not guilty, then whether i like it or not, i have to abide by the trust we place in our fellow citizens, that they listened to the evidence and believe him innocent. he is a free man at that point, the same as me, or anyone else.
and yes, i think oj is guilty and a piece of shit. but he’s free to do all of the movies and speeches or anything else he wants to. if oj set up a booth with himself in sticks and charged people a dollar an egg….. wouldn’t you throw a couple? would he make a million from it? you know it! 5 bucks an egg? no chance. i bet some people would.
if mj is found guilty, he gets to go the big house. parole? if that’s what the judge decides his crime merits. it’s what i have to accept.
it’s like when clinton won in ’92 and ’96 with way less than 45%. he was the winner, and i had to respect that. like it or not.
the liberals still crying about dubya in ’00 and ’04 can eat shit. it is contrary to the concept of voting and a free society to believe that you would be on the winning side of every vote every time.
you have to accept a loss from time to time. and move on.
this applies to mj.
his verdict has to be respected.
now, if he’s guilty, and does his time/parole. when he’s done, he has paid his debt. he gets a clean slate and is free to pursue the american dream.
after mike tyson got out of jail, people wanted boxing to ban him from ever boxing again. people actually claimed that he should not be allowed to box, because he would get paid millions. he paid his debt to society. like it or not.
if charles manson was released on parole and set himself up in a glass booth and charged people 50 bucks to see him. that’s his prerogative. i wouldn’t pay, because i have no desire to see chucky.
keep your children away from mj. and your women away from tyson.
so what price would i pay? i’ve been to less than 10 concerts in my life. most of them were stadium – multi band affairs. mj’s chances of me shucking out my money are slim. everyones chances are slim. maybe 5 bucks? 10 bucks? maybe a little more if i did well at blackjack.
but for not too high a price. i would go see mj sing.
sicko or not, mj is one hell of a performer.
I’d pay money just to see his face up close. At this point, he’s a freak of nature. I might stick around to hear him sing a little. But he’s a totally weird guy.
Yes he is…on stage, in the court room, in Neverland…sorry Mlah, I won’t be contributing to his salary.
And as I said in reply in my comments…most child sex offenders are repeat offenders. Just ask the dad in Florida. The sicko who took his daughter’s life paid his debt.
MB
Interesting points. However, I believe that if he is convicted, he will still not quite be able to pursue “the american dream” because, if i remember correctly, convicted felons do lose some rights. He cannot vote, and I’m pretty sure that he cannot purchase a firearm. Also, anyone who lives in the area of his Neverland ranch can look him up and find that he is a convicted child molester and stay the hell away from him. So, perhaps not totally free. But hey, I just heard that he wants to build a ranch in africa. Who knows? Maybe he’ll turn black again. One can only hope.
holy crap, what are you doing posting stuff at 1:39 am?
Your right medium john about the fact that people can look up that he’s a sex offender. This is Meagan’s Law (name after a child, Meagan Kanka, who had been raped and murder by a known convicted sex offender-a neighbor). Most states have a version of it. Pennsylvania just passed a final version of it due to some lawsuits. The thing is that no matter where he goes in this country, depending on the state, he will have to register as a sex offender and people can now look up convicted offenders on the websites. Like I said, most states have this law, some unfortunately do not.
MB, you are also correct in that sex offenders cannot be rehabilitated. There has been absolutely no evidence (and the research shows this) that sex offenders become “cured”. They are who they are and need to be kept away from society. When you look at the cases in the media, you most likely will find the perpetrator to be one who has perped in the past. In mine and my husband’s experiences and our discussions with those who work in the field, it has been the consensus that pedaphiles will continue to perp.
mlah, in Rikers prison (NYC), the prisoners have access to one of the most comprehensive law libraries there are, even better than the DA’s office. They even have access to the Lexus (?) system ( a very expensive law site) which even the DA’s office could not afford. The convicts have been known to use it. We could probably go on and on about prison, but it would give me a headache.
I grew up in Buffalo, and therefore, with OJ as a hero, until he killed his wife and got away with it.
In the greater scheme of things, I agree with MB, I would never give up my hard earned money to support mj because he has all the classic signs of pedophilia and has not risen to the occasion of being a role model for young people. He just shows, as with alot of other celebrities or politicians the like, that money and status count more than the law. That may be something that most people would agree with. But because they had the opportunity and ambition to make the money, then the benefits come with it, I can’t blame them for hiding behind their wealth or status, but I can desire for them to be responsible and accountable for their actions. Even if mj is not found guilty, most people with any sense knows that he is and will make him accountable at the ticket booths.
Frankly, I’d rather see Wierd Al Yankovick doing a parody show of Michael Jackson hits. Remember “Eat It!” and “I’m Fat”?
I absolutely loved “Eat it”. That is a classic.