Miley's People

Again this year, Miley Cyrus used the MTV Video Music Awards to call attention to herself.  Never mind that MTV no longer bothers with music videos, or that Cyrus and almost everyone else on Sunday's telecast were merely warmup acts for Queen Beyonce.

Instead of twerking and sticking out her tongue, Cyrus did something else that had people talking.  After it was announced that she won the Video of the Year for "Wrecking Ball" (presumably the PG-rated version, and not the one where she rode that ball naked), Cyrus pulled a Marlon Brando and brought out her "date" for the evening, a young man named Jesse Helt, to accept on her behalf.  Helt just happens to be homeless.

Just like Brando used Sacheen Littlefeather to voice his concern over the plight of Native Americans as he refused his Best Actor Oscar for "The Godfather" in 1973, Cyrus used Helt to highlight her concern over America's young homeless.  Sure beats dumping a bucket of water over your head, right?

Homelessness is a serious problem that gets worse every day.  From drug abuse to mortgage foreclosures to unemployment, men, women and children have been forced out onto the street, seeking whatever kind of help they can get.  It's a struggle just to survive, and a lot of them don't make it.

Cyrus has been criticized as just another celebrity opportunist using her status to bring "awareness" to a social cause.  Whether she's sincere about helping Helt and others like him or not, we'll just have to wait and see.

It also turns out that Helt has a warrant out for his arrest in Oregon on a probation violation--something to do with alleged trespassing and not checking in with his probation officer, which is punishable by maybe spending one year in jail.  We don't know if getting into trouble with the law is part of the reality of being homeless.  But there are plenty of folks taking to social media and blaming the news channels for taking a nice story and wrecking it.  So we ask:  Do you want the truth, or do you want the legend?

Whatever happens, Miley Cyrus will go on to her next project and Jesse Helt will either get a modeling contract, or go back out on the street.  Neither of them will be wondering where their next meal is coming from any time soon.  But countless others will.

Why The Bucket Challenge Is All Wet

of the New York Yankees, cropped from a posed picture of 1937 Major League Baseball All-Stars in Washington, DC. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

It began as a way for football teams to celebrate a championship, dumping an ice-cold bucket of a certain sports drink on the coach at the end of the game.  Now it's become standard practice even when a team wins its only game of the season.

At a time when there's violence in the Middle East and in the Midwest, we have what's called the Bucket Challenge, a fundraiser allegedly benefiting ALS research that has so far netted over $40 million.  It goes like this:  Person A challenges Person B to drop a bucket of cold water over himself, or write a check payable to ALS research.  So you have a choice--catch pneumonia or suffer the consequences of a lighter bank account.  It sounds like extortion.

Everyone in America who should know better seems to be doing it.  Celebrities, athletes, business moguls, even Presidents past and present have taken this "challenge".  The publicity value they seem to get from sacrificing their dignity must be enormous.

This is all supposed to raise "awareness" about ALS, short for amyotrophic lateral sclerosis.  It is a degenerative neurological disease that causes muscles to weaken, and makes it difficult to speak, swallow or breathe.  Some have lived long lives after being diagnosed.  Most others, unfortunately, do not.

ALS is also known as "Lou Gehrig's Disease", named for its best-known victim.  Gehrig played baseball for the New York Yankees between 1923 and 1939, appearing in 2130 consecutive games (a record since broken by Cal Ripken, Jr. in 1995).  He led the Yankees to six World Series championships, and was one of the first inductees into the Baseball Hall of Fame.  Gehrig had to retire when he was diagnosed with ALS, then made his famous speech at Yankee Stadium on July 4, 1939 declaring himself "the luckiest man on the face of the Earth".  By 1941, Gehrig was dead at age 37.

ALS is too serious a disease to be left up to self-aggrandizing fun seekers.  For that matter, it seems that anyone who walks barefoot across America or dips himself in a vat of hot nacho sauce doesn't do it for personal satisfaction.  Instead, it has to be tied in to some kind of "good cause", covered by an army of media who didn't bother to ask silly questions like "Who is this idiot, and why are we encouraging him by putting him on TV?"

There are two major problems with this stunt.  First is the tremendous waste of water.  If you've been paying attention, there was a water contamination emergency in Toledo, Ohio as well as a continuing drought in the West.  Ask those people how important clean drinking water is.  Also, as climate change worsens, wars might be fought over what available water is left.

The second problem is that this "challenge" is a huge waste of money.  Presently, there is no cure for ALS.  Instead, billions of dollars in donations have been spent for this and other diseases on research for as long as anyone can remember, and getting little in return.  So what happened to that "research"?  Is it really that hard to find a cure, or is it just an excuse for so-called non-profit organizations to live high on other people's money?

Should some kind of a cure be found--maybe even within our lifetimes, you can bet that Big Pharma and Big Charity will find a way to keep themselves in business by making the cure so expensive that no insurance company will want to cover it, Obamacare be damned.  Treatments and long hospital stays are where the money is, baby.

We can't stop you from getting soaked, or from donating money that would have gone into whatever bills you have to pay.  That's your decision.  Just remember that for every "good cause", there's bound to be a lot of empty promises and fatter pockets.

The War at Home

It began with the murder of an African-American citizen in the St. Louis suburb of Ferguson, Missouri.  It has since escalated into a violent confrontation between the white-dominated police and protesters in that city.  And Americans watching on TV are wondering if law enforcement is becoming more like an occupying army.

Michael Brown, an 18-year old resident, was gunned down by a white police officer as he was walking to his grandmother's house on a Saturday afternoon.  Brown was unarmed.  Police say he was a suspect in the robbery of a local convenience store.

Ferguson is one of those places near every major city where mostly African-Americans lived after the white population fled farther into the suburbs, but still control the local government and police force.  That has become a sore point to the African-Americans and other minorities who have been harassed by the city's finest, whether it was deserved or not.

The police in Ferguson have made a couple of mistakes that have enraged the "No Justice, No Peace" crowd, first by having delayed releasing the identity of the officer who allegedly shot Brown, and for releasing a video showing Brown shoving a convenience store worker out of the way.  They only made things worse by turning back with tear gas and arresting protesters, journalists and anyone else who happened to get in the way with the kind of force usually seen on the streets of Baghdad and Kabul.

That's no accident.  As another legacy of 9/11 and the wars that resulted from the terrorist attack, the Pentagon has been sending its surplus weapons and armored vehicles to law enforcement all over the country.  This has encouraged the men and women in blue to play soldier against the people they're supposed to protect.

It's not just the equipment that puts people off about the police.  It's the attitude of some (but not all) members of the force that, once you put that uniform and badge on, it gives you carte blanche to harass anyone--black or white--and get away with it because you are The Law.

Granted. the vast majority of police officers do not subscribe to that rogue attitude and resent the ones who give them a bad name.  But we don't know that.  Respect is a two-way street.

After the Ferguson police and Missouri State Patrol have tried and failed to maintain order, Governor Jay Nixon has brought in the state's National Guard and eliminated the curfew that has peeved residents even more.  So after a few days of quasi-military rule, is there really going to be a big difference when the Guard is patrolling the streets?

The people of Ferguson, Missouri and around the country are demanding answers as to why it was necessary to kill an unarmed teenager who was going about his business, even if he was a suspect in a robbery.  What we should also be asking is how can we ever again trust those who take an oath to serve and protect their neighbors, only to abuse the privilege?

So You Wanna Be Famous

Hollywood Sign (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

"So you wanna be famous, huh?  Nowadays you don't need real talent to make it big.  All you need is a YouTube video of yourself singing 'Fancy' in the shower--it doesn't even have to be good--and a billion hits later, everybody wants you."

"Before we go any further, I wanna ask a few questions.  Forgive me if they're too personal for you."

"How are things at home?  Are your parents still alive?  Or are they divorced, drunk or dead?  Did you graduate?  Just barely?  How's that job flipping burgers going?  Are you in a relationship?"

"Well, you can kiss all that goodbye once Hollywood comes knocking.  Once you sign that contract, you're off and running.  Record deals.  Blockbuster movies with your name above the title.  A hit TV show.  And more money than you've ever seen in your life."

"There's also the perks.  Beautiful women.  World premieres.  Big-ass cars and mansions.  Great seats at the ballgame.  Endorsement deals.  You name it, and it's yours."

"But there's always a downside.  There's no privacy.  TMZ and the Enquirer will be all over you and whoever you date like a cheap suit.  And no matter how much you put into your work, it's never going to be enough.  The pressure will be on you to create the next great work of art, and it will probably not be as good as the first.  'Cause not everyone can be a Michelangelo, or even a Warhol."

"Then one day, it all comes crashing down.  The hits stop coming.  Your last movie tanked at the box office.  The network cancels your TV show.  Why?  Well, maybe you've been in and out of jail a bit too much.  Maybe you mouthed off or flashed your private parts on TV because you were drunk or high on cocaine, and it went viral.  Or maybe your adoring public just got sick of you."

"It gets worse.  Your house and car are repoed because of back taxes.  People quit following you on Twitter.  Your wife or lover leaves you for someone else.  And you spend whatever money you have left on booze and the white stuff, no matter how many times you've been to rehab."

"Now you're standing at the abyss.  You have a choice to make.  You can either get help to get off the drugs and the booze, or you could kill yourself.  Now I ain't recommending it, but if you did that the media would pay attention to you once more, and people would wonder why you did what you did.  Meanwhile, they'll buy up and download all the stuff you ever did because, you know, death sells."

"So I'll ask again.  You still want to be famous?"

Obama Is Not a Crook. Is He?

Official photographic portrait of US President Barack Obama (born 4 August 1961; assumed office 20 January 2009) (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

It's been 40 years since Richard Nixon became the first President of the United States to resign from office.  He had been many things:  a crusading anti-Communist congressman, Dwight Eisenhower's vice president, loser to JFK by a 5 o'clock shadow, opportunist in the tumultuous year of 1968 to win his own term in the White House.  And he was brought down by a two-bit burglary inside the Watergate complex, leaving his handpicked VP Gerald Ford to pick up the pieces.

Barack Obama, the current President, is no Nixon.  But try telling that to House Republicans.  Originally, they were going to impeach him for being asleep at the wheel when crises in Europe and the Middle East flared up, while swarms of undocumented children made their way past the United States' southern borders.

Instead, the House GOP leaders are suing Obama for what they believe is exceeding his constitutional authority when it comes to the Affordable Care Act.  They claim the President's been going over Congress' heads to get some of those proposals into law, because it's been his pet project since his first term.

Obama has signed many executive orders during his administration, mainly because partisan politics have prevented Congress from doing its job.  That might sound positively Nixonian, but the President is within his rights to do so as long as he doesn't overdo it.

Obama has been laughing off the threats of impeachments and lawsuits, dismissing them as just another desperation move by the GOP.  Maybe he shouldn't be.  Before Nixon resigned, the House was ready to impeach him and the Senate was going to put him on trial.  President Bill Clinton was the last to be impeached, but not removed from office, for having lied under oath in testimony regarding the Monica Lewinsky affair.

Any legal action against the President, unless it was fast-tracked into the Supreme Court docket, would have a harder time getting through the judicial system than the GOP would like.  It is also possible that Obama's term would be over by the time there's a decision.  It would, however, affect his successor.

Now that the Republicans have further poisoned the well against President Obama and the Democrats in this campaign year--not that they needed any help, with various polls showing both the President and Congress at their lowest ebbs--isn't it just possible that they'll just continue to paint themselves into a corner until they don't have Obama to kick around any more?

Off the Air, But Not Out of Sight

English: The Jason Lewis Show Talk Radio Host Jason Lewis (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Jason Lewis, a syndicated talk show host based out of Minneapolis, made headlines recently for suddenly bolting from his July 31 radio broadcast.  Lewis later said he had quit the show to focus on his new website, which is aimed at libertarians like him.

It turns out that Lewis' leave-taking was nothing more than a publicity stunt to promote the site.  His contract with KTLK (AM 1130) was about to expire, and he didn't want to make his last weeks on the air to be one long goodbye.  Fair enough.  But he could have chosen a less-dramatic departure.

Lewis joins a growing list of former broadcasters who, for reasons of their own, have moved to the wonderful world of new media.  Tom Barnard, who still hosts the morning show at KQRS (FM 92.5), has set up his own podcast network, which features shows by Tom Mischke, Rusty Gatenby and others.  Rick Kupchella, former KARE (NBC 11) reporter, now runs the "Bring Me The News" website, and has a radio news operation based on it.

Lewis' new site is more in line with those of Glenn Beck and Sarah Palin.  For a small fee, you can read or hear them talk about conservative political philosophy as they see it, blame President Barack Obama and other Democrats for the sun setting in the West, and wave the flag every chance they get.  Oh, and Palin might throw in a few hunting tips if you're really good and can spare a few more dollars.

As we said before, Lewis could have chosen a better way to make his point than stalking off the microphone and blaming government for his troubles.  He could also have admitted that the Twin Cities media scene had become so boring that the reveal of KARE's new backyard, and the local version of the Kardashian family--also known as the WCCO (CBS 4) news team--had become worthy of our attention.

As it is, Lewis is being replaced at KTLK by a host named "Joe Pags" Pagliarulo from owner Clear Channel's station in San Antonio, WOAI-AM.  Another cog in the talk radio echo chamber, all saying pretty much the same thing.  Jason Lewis has escaped all that for right now.  One wonders if his new venture will keep him out of the chamber for good.

UPDATE:  Pagliarulo has since been replaced on KTLK by local host Dave Thompson.