Let me tell you a story about a family member of mine. We will call him "TJ," because I want to protect his privacy and because I've always wanted to know a TJ. TJ was a quirky child, but not so quirky as other members of our family. He was bright and active. He was a striver and a hardworker who merely dreamed of entering the American middle class and having a family. He went to a college, got a degree, got a decent-paying job. He moved out on his own. Immediately around this time--in his early 20s--TJ's drinking increased. He began doing drugs--weed and mushrooms. He became difficult to work with and he drove erratically. He began hanging out with people he shouldn't have. To all of us, he seemed to have had a drug and alcohol problem--that would be the logical conclusion. The simpler conclusion is normally the correct one.
In a period of a few months around 2001-2002, his behavior spun completely out of control. He lost his job, lost his car--and it was impossible to get an explanation out of him as to how exactly he lost his job and car. He cashed in his 401K--to buy more drugs and booze. He became difficult to talk to, even when he was sober. For another decade, he drifted between a meatpacking plant in Nebraska, a cult and group housing. Eventually his father did intercede--enough to get him his own place and a medication schedule that he would both accept and calm him down if not necessarily make him "better."
Now TJ has a home, but he spends his days drinking beer and watching TV. He likes football. He has no chance of getting another job because he is so non-personable. Sometimes he gets so drunk that he shits himself. He has more friends than me.
We were all entertained by Amanda Bynes downfall at first, namely when she announced that she was quitting acting, the one thing that she had clearly excelled out. She had acted her entire life, without exaggeration: She started doing stand-up as a child, before transitioning to the Nick network, then the WB. She did mediocre teen movies that nonetheless made money, and she could've made many more if she wanted to. Her Twitter feed became erratic--with her desire to be vaginally murdered by Drake and her use of "ugly" as catchall to describe anyone whom she didn't like. She pierced her face. (There's no better sign that you don't want to return to acting than piercing your face.) Then it became apparent to those of us who know anything about psychiatry that there was suddenly something wrong with her. Suddenly it became less funny. You didn't need to know her personally or have a psychiatric background to know that there was a mental issue in play here--but I knew long before. She was a "good girl" throughout her youth, then she became acting completely bizarre in her early 20s. (Lindsay Lohan: not crazy.)
In recent months, Bynes' parents had refused to acknowledge their daughter's psychiatric problems--she's doing fine. She's just a brat. She smokes too much weed. Her stint at one of the FIDM recently ended on account of her belligerence and apparent paying other students to do her assignments. The now infamous YouTube clip of her shopping certainly cleared a few things up for them--and the world--and she's now been pressed into rehab for possible schizophrenia and bipolar.
It is fortunate that Bynes has the resources to receive help--even if that help is commitment to a hospital. There is no cure, and there probably never will be.
Saturday, October 25, 2014
Saturday, October 11, 2014
Stephen Collins, Jennifer Lawrence: Caught with their pants down--not together; that would be weird.
We've learned a lot of things from recent leaked this year. Kate Upton is dating down. Apparently Anna Kendrick likes pot and coke. Jennifer Lawrence, however, is the biggest star to have her images leaked to the Internet via a third party--still, the revelations concerning veteran actor Stephen Collins's predilections are actually the most destructive.
Ladies, that part of your body is only meant to be seen by you, Jesus, your husband and America's medical professionals. Lock it down, ladies. Lock it down. There. I fixed sexting. Next controversy! Ebola?
Honestly, I never got the appeal of vaj shots. I always assumed that women were smarter than that. (A giant penis warrants a "da fuck?") Almost 15 years since Pamela Anderson had a sex tape featuring her and ex-husband Tommy Lee stolen from their home, it should be assured that celebrities have learned nothing about filming their private moments. If anything, owing to technology, celebs have gotten worse at capturing their shame for posterity. Benjamin Franklin said that three people can keep a secret if two are dead. Now there's the fuckin' cloud. Try killing a cloud. Go ahead. I'll wait. Get your gun and go outside of your house, then pick a cloud at random, and go shoot that sucker. See?... Oh my God--I hope you didn't just discharge a firearm into the air!
Lawrence's first comments discussing this matter were spot on: Her privacy has been violated. She did not intend for this images to be released to the public. The leakers were disrespectful towards women. As a matter of common sense, we are all entitled to privacy, as consenting adults. Lawrence has a point here, if only via a strawman argument: That Lawrence was publicizing these images--no, no one is claiming that she has been. However, Lawrence produced these images. She transmitted them. She's now trying to distract from her bad decisions by blaming people who had done worst, and I don't approve of that--but, yeah. Other people had done worse in this case than transmitting homemade porn via email to another person.
Lawrence should've stopped speaking there. However, she went on: "Anybody who looked at those pictures, you're perpetuating a sexual offense," Lawrence told Vanity Fair. "You should cower with shame. Even people who I know and love say, 'Oh, yeah, I looked at the pictures.' I don't want to get mad, but at the same time I'm thinking, I didn't tell you that you could look at my naked body." And on: "It was long distance, and either your boyfriend is going to look at porn or he's going to look at you."
I'm 99% sure that he looked at both your nudes AND porn, Jennifer. Because it is my understanding that Nic is a dude, and that's how men roll. There's really no well-defined quota to how much nudity that men intend to see. We are never full. Additionally, Hoult probably shared them with numerous male friends. (Sir Ian McKellan looked at them, and he said: "Sweeeet." Exact quote.) Did any boyfriend in Lawrence's past tell her he needed a constant stream of her nude or else he would look at porn or maybe go gay? Was this a ransom situation where a man was threatening to switch teams unless he was provided with a ransom, and Lawrence was forced to pay this ransom by sending in photos of her boobs? Well...was it?
No one needs permission from Jennifer Lawrence to look at images of Jennifer Lawrence. She opened a door, and the breeze came in. She's personally offended that people are looking at images that she created--she crafted a message, then she tried to control the deliverance of a message. Don't be an Anne Hathaway.
Celebrities have long been the first to act as early adapters for new technology--including social networks--while simultaneously refusing to socialize with their legions of fans. For too long, sexy celebs have been living the high life (hey, another Anna Kendrick joke!), exposing themselves to the public thru their celebrity-whoredom but not wanting to own up to it. Some of them are cool with you--to a point--as they put on a façade of self-deprecation. The Fappening took them down a notch. The one thing most shocking, besides the volume of data stolen, was how non-shocking these images are.
In contrast to the hackers, Stephen Collins, has apparently committed sex crimes beyond the digital world. Horrible sex crimes. He allegedly intentionally exposed his genitals to very young girls, and tried to get them to touch him. His career is over. (He knows this, resigning from SAG and slinking away. Consult his attorney.) Unless this is a hoax, we won't be seeing him in mainstream entertainment anymore. Questions remain as to why the police can't find the victims, who are clearly being named in the leaked tapes, and why it took two years for these tapes to be leaked. Why did wife Faye remain married to this creep? His salvation will arrive when these tapes are exposed as a hoax, but this event will not happen. We know this because Collins's message is one of embarrassed defeat.
Over ten years of episodes--down the tube! No, this series has been rendered unwatchable! This is not an exaggeration. Collins was in literally every episode--he was the anchor of the show--and now no one can watch the series without wondering what was going on in the actor's head. What's truly fucked-up is that the series was like a clearinghouse for Millennial-era starlets. Mackenzie Rosman, who was closest to the victims' ages at the time of their alleged molestation, must now search her memories for instances where Collins was inappropriate with her. And, for the love of God, Internet Movie Database, change this photo: http://www.imdb.com/media/rm2442042624/tt0115083?ref_=tt_ov_i!
One thing that we can be sure about this scandal: Chris Martin traded up.
Ladies, that part of your body is only meant to be seen by you, Jesus, your husband and America's medical professionals. Lock it down, ladies. Lock it down. There. I fixed sexting. Next controversy! Ebola?
Honestly, I never got the appeal of vaj shots. I always assumed that women were smarter than that. (A giant penis warrants a "da fuck?") Almost 15 years since Pamela Anderson had a sex tape featuring her and ex-husband Tommy Lee stolen from their home, it should be assured that celebrities have learned nothing about filming their private moments. If anything, owing to technology, celebs have gotten worse at capturing their shame for posterity. Benjamin Franklin said that three people can keep a secret if two are dead. Now there's the fuckin' cloud. Try killing a cloud. Go ahead. I'll wait. Get your gun and go outside of your house, then pick a cloud at random, and go shoot that sucker. See?... Oh my God--I hope you didn't just discharge a firearm into the air!
Lawrence's first comments discussing this matter were spot on: Her privacy has been violated. She did not intend for this images to be released to the public. The leakers were disrespectful towards women. As a matter of common sense, we are all entitled to privacy, as consenting adults. Lawrence has a point here, if only via a strawman argument: That Lawrence was publicizing these images--no, no one is claiming that she has been. However, Lawrence produced these images. She transmitted them. She's now trying to distract from her bad decisions by blaming people who had done worst, and I don't approve of that--but, yeah. Other people had done worse in this case than transmitting homemade porn via email to another person.
Lawrence should've stopped speaking there. However, she went on: "Anybody who looked at those pictures, you're perpetuating a sexual offense," Lawrence told Vanity Fair. "You should cower with shame. Even people who I know and love say, 'Oh, yeah, I looked at the pictures.' I don't want to get mad, but at the same time I'm thinking, I didn't tell you that you could look at my naked body." And on: "It was long distance, and either your boyfriend is going to look at porn or he's going to look at you."
I'm 99% sure that he looked at both your nudes AND porn, Jennifer. Because it is my understanding that Nic is a dude, and that's how men roll. There's really no well-defined quota to how much nudity that men intend to see. We are never full. Additionally, Hoult probably shared them with numerous male friends. (Sir Ian McKellan looked at them, and he said: "Sweeeet." Exact quote.) Did any boyfriend in Lawrence's past tell her he needed a constant stream of her nude or else he would look at porn or maybe go gay? Was this a ransom situation where a man was threatening to switch teams unless he was provided with a ransom, and Lawrence was forced to pay this ransom by sending in photos of her boobs? Well...was it?
No one needs permission from Jennifer Lawrence to look at images of Jennifer Lawrence. She opened a door, and the breeze came in. She's personally offended that people are looking at images that she created--she crafted a message, then she tried to control the deliverance of a message. Don't be an Anne Hathaway.
Celebrities have long been the first to act as early adapters for new technology--including social networks--while simultaneously refusing to socialize with their legions of fans. For too long, sexy celebs have been living the high life (hey, another Anna Kendrick joke!), exposing themselves to the public thru their celebrity-whoredom but not wanting to own up to it. Some of them are cool with you--to a point--as they put on a façade of self-deprecation. The Fappening took them down a notch. The one thing most shocking, besides the volume of data stolen, was how non-shocking these images are.
In contrast to the hackers, Stephen Collins, has apparently committed sex crimes beyond the digital world. Horrible sex crimes. He allegedly intentionally exposed his genitals to very young girls, and tried to get them to touch him. His career is over. (He knows this, resigning from SAG and slinking away. Consult his attorney.) Unless this is a hoax, we won't be seeing him in mainstream entertainment anymore. Questions remain as to why the police can't find the victims, who are clearly being named in the leaked tapes, and why it took two years for these tapes to be leaked. Why did wife Faye remain married to this creep? His salvation will arrive when these tapes are exposed as a hoax, but this event will not happen. We know this because Collins's message is one of embarrassed defeat.
Over ten years of episodes--down the tube! No, this series has been rendered unwatchable! This is not an exaggeration. Collins was in literally every episode--he was the anchor of the show--and now no one can watch the series without wondering what was going on in the actor's head. What's truly fucked-up is that the series was like a clearinghouse for Millennial-era starlets. Mackenzie Rosman, who was closest to the victims' ages at the time of their alleged molestation, must now search her memories for instances where Collins was inappropriate with her. And, for the love of God, Internet Movie Database, change this photo: http://www.imdb.com/media/rm2442042624/tt0115083?ref_=tt_ov_i!
One thing that we can be sure about this scandal: Chris Martin traded up.
Saturday, October 4, 2014
On Mumia Abu-Jamal, SOG...and waiting for Goddard to not be stupid.
There's a saying in the criminal justice system: SOG (or SOP), which is an acronym for "some other guy." It's a catchall for anytime a defendant claims that he couldn't have committed the crime despite all evidence to the contrary. "I didn't shoot my wife--it was some other guy!"
Mumia's supporters have advanced this series of events: A black man matching Mumia's description but not Mumia entered the scene, after Officer Daniel Faulkner had stopped Mumia's brother in a traffic stop. He shot Faulkner, then he ran away, possibly leaving the gun behind. Somehow, Mumia got shot by Faulkner. Reading the Free Mumia movement's webpages, I am still confused as to how Mumia got accidentally shot.
There's a mental condition where a person believes that a loved one has been replaced by a replicate. It is called Capgras delusion. If possible, this is the case here, where everyone except the witnesses think someone else shot Faulkner, and the witnesses who did not confirm to Mumia's innocence were really witnessing a fake Mumia shooting Faulkner. The witnesses were thus wrong--or being coerced--into claiming the real Mumia murdered Faulkner. But no. It was the fake Mumia.
The police, seeing the downed cop and the wounded black man, decided the black man did the shooting. They proceeded to plant the same model gun (the model, a .38 caliber Charter Arms revolver, which Mumia also coincidentally owned) that the SOG had used, then they slid a shoulder holster on Mumia's body. To insure conviction, they told the witnesses what to say. He was tried by a racist kangaroo court. (It's biggest mistake, however, was probably allowing Mumia to defend himself. He was a political activist, not a lawyer. He delivered long-winded speeches and called character witnesses, but he could not dispute the evidence against him. He wanted to put the system on trial, but no sane judge would allow that; this was his trial.)
Why is Mumia such a cause celeb? Unlike most prisoners--whether white or black, regardless of era--Mumia is a well-spoken and literate man. A man of letters, and educated people can't possibly be "bad," academia teaches us. (Bad people speak incoherently and don't challenge conventional wisdom--wisdom like not inviting probable murderers to give speeches at your college.) The appearance of putting the Panthers or the Black Power movement on trial led to this backlash, even if it was necessary to establish a motive in the case. Philadelphia had notorious racial conflicts in this era, so it's easy to imagine that the judge and jury were trying to set up a heroic black man. Like Rodney King, Mumia came about at a time and place for Babyboomers to adopt him as a symbol of all that's wrong with policing and American racial relations, and the facts become irrelevant. Like all conspiracy theorists, his supporters first made up their minds about what happened, and worked backward to obtain evidence of their interpretation of events. Lack of evidence is evidence.
Mumia could never defend his innocence, so he has long positioned himself as a political prisoner. He is a martyr of American racism. Before he was about to be executed, he was prepared to die for America's sins. Give me a break! Of all the hundreds of thousands of blacks wrongfully convicted in our nation's 228 years, most of their crimes weren't as severe as murder--and most of them were factually innocent.
Mumia's supporters have advanced this series of events: A black man matching Mumia's description but not Mumia entered the scene, after Officer Daniel Faulkner had stopped Mumia's brother in a traffic stop. He shot Faulkner, then he ran away, possibly leaving the gun behind. Somehow, Mumia got shot by Faulkner. Reading the Free Mumia movement's webpages, I am still confused as to how Mumia got accidentally shot.
There's a mental condition where a person believes that a loved one has been replaced by a replicate. It is called Capgras delusion. If possible, this is the case here, where everyone except the witnesses think someone else shot Faulkner, and the witnesses who did not confirm to Mumia's innocence were really witnessing a fake Mumia shooting Faulkner. The witnesses were thus wrong--or being coerced--into claiming the real Mumia murdered Faulkner. But no. It was the fake Mumia.
The police, seeing the downed cop and the wounded black man, decided the black man did the shooting. They proceeded to plant the same model gun (the model, a .38 caliber Charter Arms revolver, which Mumia also coincidentally owned) that the SOG had used, then they slid a shoulder holster on Mumia's body. To insure conviction, they told the witnesses what to say. He was tried by a racist kangaroo court. (It's biggest mistake, however, was probably allowing Mumia to defend himself. He was a political activist, not a lawyer. He delivered long-winded speeches and called character witnesses, but he could not dispute the evidence against him. He wanted to put the system on trial, but no sane judge would allow that; this was his trial.)
Why is Mumia such a cause celeb? Unlike most prisoners--whether white or black, regardless of era--Mumia is a well-spoken and literate man. A man of letters, and educated people can't possibly be "bad," academia teaches us. (Bad people speak incoherently and don't challenge conventional wisdom--wisdom like not inviting probable murderers to give speeches at your college.) The appearance of putting the Panthers or the Black Power movement on trial led to this backlash, even if it was necessary to establish a motive in the case. Philadelphia had notorious racial conflicts in this era, so it's easy to imagine that the judge and jury were trying to set up a heroic black man. Like Rodney King, Mumia came about at a time and place for Babyboomers to adopt him as a symbol of all that's wrong with policing and American racial relations, and the facts become irrelevant. Like all conspiracy theorists, his supporters first made up their minds about what happened, and worked backward to obtain evidence of their interpretation of events. Lack of evidence is evidence.
Mumia could never defend his innocence, so he has long positioned himself as a political prisoner. He is a martyr of American racism. Before he was about to be executed, he was prepared to die for America's sins. Give me a break! Of all the hundreds of thousands of blacks wrongfully convicted in our nation's 228 years, most of their crimes weren't as severe as murder--and most of them were factually innocent.
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