In the "Sucks to Be You" Department

Watching the news earlier today, they actually broke in with a special report to tell us that poor Michael Jackson had been forced to come to court wearing pajamas and minus about ten pounds of circus makeup after a judge told him to report or be arrested. Michael, we're told, took himself to the hospital again with "back problems" and decided to skip court again.

The last time he did this, with the flu (where he was running a documented fever of 96.9 (uh huh), he put the court proceedings on hold just long enough to then check himself out of the hospital to go home and rest for a week. A woman moved out of the hospital treatment room on that occasion subsequently died after her life support measures were rearranged to accommodate the "feverish" Michael (the lady was pretty sick and likely would have died anyway, but it's nice that her last moments were spent being ventilated manually so Michael's circus could go ahead).

I really try very hard not to notice Michael because he's such a car wreck. But it's very hard to do because he always makes sure he comes into the news. Sadly, I don't believe these latest tales from the most recent accuser that he's being tried on; the accuser's family has largely made their very comfortable living in recent years by attaching themselves to celebrities and law suits. The boy - whose family solicits help for his medical expenses - turns out to be fully covered by insurance and the mother has used some of the celebrity proceeds for a very expensive boob job, for example. The parents of the child in the early 1990s case wanted a lucrative screen deal to keep quiet, then got that beautiful windfall when Michael Jackson paid them off to go away. Someone should be suing the parents of these children for being imbeciles and opportunists.

But it's awfully tough to feel sorry for Michael who chose to go on TV telling people that sleeping with a child is a beautiful thing and that he'd kill himself if all the children in the world died so he couldn't sleep with them anymore. With all his money, Michael clearly can't function in this world. People with money and power buy enablers who are happy to keep people like Michael dependent upon them.

The true victims here are the children he bought. They'll never know a normal life. But the children in these celebrated cases are victims too whose parents have used them to get what they want from Jackson. How awful to be raised as a grifter by people who see you not as a child but what you can get for them.