As public enigmas, the United States and the artist Michael Jackson seem to have a lot in common. They both inspire strong feelings across races and nationalities. And when they suffered decline, image problems and financial ruin, there was passionate nostalgia from some and detached judgment from others. No wonder the US has such an obsession with the King of Pop. For better or for worse, their essences are linked at the soul.

Among the similarities:

• Started from humble beginnings and then went on to take on the globe
• Split from overbearing paternal figures who saw them as cash cows
• Simultaneously adored and reviled for the emotions they produce
• Conflicted about race and identity
• Saddled with an almost unimaginable debt that will presumably be passed on to the next generation
• As likely to have a monument made in their likeness as have their effigy publicly destroyed
• Had peak in popularity in the 1980s
• Accused of victimizing the innocent and unsuspecting
• Open to the world yet almost impossibly insulated and escapist
• Concern for mankind, yet destructively self-obsessed
• Pioneers of a pop culture so dynamic that it mesmerizes and captures imagination around the world

The first time I had to defend my US citizenship and the first time I had to defend Michael Jackson were both in the early 1990s. Michael Jackson was being accused of child molestation in the media. I argued that he should be given a fair shake, despite his bizarre behavior. Around that same period, a group of drunk French teens confronted me about the actions of my president, Bush Sr., at a party in the suburbs of Paris. The teens had me cornered and were unleashing attacks against the US as racist and imperialist. While I acknowledged some of their examples, I had to remind them that they were from France, a country that was anything but immune from racism and imperialism. Why was I the one on trial? I was just here to party anyway.

And so it goes. Since then I have traveled to other countries and answered many questions about my country of birth and one of its most famous offspring.

Them: I love Michael Jackson’s music. Why doesn’t he want to be Black anymore?
Me: He has a few self-image issues to work out and one of the results of racism in the US has been self-loathing amongst people of color.

Them: I love the United States. What do people in the US think of my country?
Me: I’m sorry to say that most people there don’t know much about your country.

Them: They must know my country. The US government and culture has so much influence here.
Me: Yes, I’m sure but people in the States are not so informed about the world or, unfortunately, their own country for that matter.

Them: Why is Michael Jackson so strange?
Me: Good question. I wish I knew. But he’s still a great talent.

Them: Why does the US need to fight so many wars?  Doesn’t it have everything it needs?
Me: Good question. I wish I knew. But it’s true that there are lots of amazing things there.

You get the picture. I was hugely influenced by Michael Jackson and likewise am a product of my country. Yet, there have been times when both of them have given me the willies. It’s not for lack of love. I mourned for MJ but quickly became frustrated when a life that while certainly worth remembering, clearly became a massive media distraction. It looked like more fodder for all the bad US trivializing that seems to confuse “looking at the man in the mirror” with narcissism. I understand the fascination because he reflected what is great and horrible about an entire nation. Still, let’s learn, respect, challenge ourselves, and move on.

I am just sick and tired of people saying that the Williams sisters are “ugly.” Are you kidding me? First this kind of nonsense. And now a representative from the All England Club implying to London’s Daily Mail that the reason higher ranked Serena Williams was playing in Court 2 and not Centre Court is because Victoria Azarenka from Belarus and Romania’s Sorana Cirstea are more attractive (got this from deadspin.com).

First, this unfairly objectifies women athletes. If professional sports were primarily about looks, I would love to be able to make some serious visual edits to the men on ESPN. Second, the constant shots taken at the beautiful Williams sisters for not being “attractive” enough are just racist. Many people would strongly differ with the assertion that Serena and Venus are anything less than stunning. Sometimes, the bigotry is blatant (see the comments on FanIQ.com, particularly the guy who asks if Serena was posing nude in Jane magazine or wearing a “black dress”). More often, we get more subtle reminders that mainstream standards of beauty are based on European-ness and that dark skin is not welcome in the spotlight.

As someone who is genuinely hoping for a new era of US diplomacy under the Obama administration, I was alarmed that the Honduran coup might signal more of the same. Oh please let it not be another US-backed military coup installing a nasty dictator in the spirit of the Monroe Doctrine, which gave the US a mandate to be bully#1 of the Americas. Let’s just say that our diplomatic track record with Latin America is such that the US would normally be the next door neighbor that you wouldn’t let know you were going on vacation, lest you get yourself robbed. I was like “Say it ain’t so, Barack. Not on your watch, right?”

The US is denouncing the coup and not as of yet financing commemorative plates for the new Honduran regime (designed to match your grandma’s Obama collection). Even renegade journalist Al Giordano, who is not usually hesitant to wag his finger at Uncle Sam, is calling this a new reality and suggesting the leftist assertions that the US must be involved (after all, isn’t the ousted President Zelaya buddies with yanqui nemesis Hugo Chavez) are more knee-jerk than substantive.

I hope so for the sake of Honduran democracy and for my own hopeful optimism about my US citizenship. I’m not a big fan of  military coups, which are inherently un-democratic and violent. I like them even less when my tax dollars foot the bill.

(Oswaldo Rivas/Reuters)

What is going on right now in Honduras? A coup? The first military coup in Honduras since the end of the cold war? What is happening? The US recognizes Zelaya as president and claims no involvement.

A Kentucky pastor is encouraging his congregation to bring their guns to church. Think of it as “bring your daughter to work day,” except instead you’re bringing a deadly weapon to a place of worship.

I once got smacked in the face at church by somebody “catching the holy ghost.” Guess that’s better than getting shot.

I’ve been uncharacteristically silent about Iran, largely because I get kind of worried when people in the US get riled up about other countries. Often it ends with hasty and harmful actions. While I support and feel solidarity for Iranians fighting for what they believe in, despite great danger, it’s their struggle and should be on their terms. Honestly, the best thing we can do is not screw it up for them. Given our track record, that would be a significant accomplishment.

See Reza Aslan’s interview on the Daily Show and the message below from the Institute for Policy Studies:

Since the Iranian elections, the ensuing turmoil in the streets has been used by U.S. people on the left and the right to promote new policies for Iran. We’ve seen tweets from activists in Iran and powerful stories in the media about Iranians caught up in the clashes in the streets. That’s all good.

Courtesy of Creative Loafing…

>> From Georgia Aquarium’s Twitter account (thanks mrcoker) :

GeorgiaAquarium: As a tribute to the king of pop, the Aquarium will be playing Michael Jackson’s music in the atrium all weekend. #michaeljackson

Saturday

>> STIR (SOUNDS, THOUGHTS, IDEAS, AND RHYMES) @ Woodruff Arts Center will do an MJ tribute. More info on STIR over at the Woodruff Arts Center website.

Tuesday June 30th

>> Sol Fusion and Friends will host an MJ Tribute at Opera nightclub.

>> Not an event, but a freebie, ATL2nite.com is giving away a free download of Michael Jackson’s “Soulful Years” by DJ Jaycee.

Saturday July 4th

>> Michael Jackson dance party at Eyedrum, 9 p.m. Free; donations accepted.

As a Michael Jackson fan from childhood, I developed my own little narrative to explain his sometimes bizarre and disturbing behavior. Could it be possible that it was all just an elaborate and hard core “life-as-art” performance piece? Maybe he was so extreme that he created this persona and transformed his whole appearance deliberately to ellicit a response from our deepest places of insecurity, fear, judgement, loathing, and bigotry.

Wouldn’t it be the biggest statement of pop art to extract the highest levels of public adoration and revulsion all at the same time? It would have been a great act with no better finale than tragically vanishing right before making a big comeback. You can’t blame me for wanting to believe in someone who was sometimes the exact human personification of magic.

From BBC News…

Australian wallabies are eating opium poppies and creating crop circles as they hop around “as high as a kite”, a government official has said.

Lara Giddings, the attorney general for the island state of Tasmania, said the kangaroo-like marsupials were getting into poppy fields grown for medicine.

She was reporting to a parliamentary hearing on security for poppy crops.

Australia supplies about 50% of the world’s legally-grown opium used to make morphine and other painkillers.

We have a problem with wallabies entering poppy fields, getting as high as a kite and going around in circles. Then they crash Lara Giddings, government official

“The one interesting bit that I found recently in one of my briefs on the poppy industry was that we have a problem with wallabies entering poppy fields, getting as high as a kite and going around in circles,” Lara Giddings told the hearing.

“Then they crash,” she added. “We see crop circles in the poppy industry from wallabies that are high.”

Rick Rockliff, a spokesman for poppy producer Tasmanian Alkaloids, said the wallaby incursions were not very common, but other animals had also been spotted in the poppy fields acting unusually.

“There have been many stories about sheep that have eaten some of the poppies after harvesting and they all walk around in circles,” he added.

Retired Tasmanian poppy farmer Lyndley Chopping also said he had seen strange behaviour from wallabies in his fields.

“They would just come and eat some poppies and they would go away,” he told ABC News.

“They’d come back again and they would do their circle work in the paddock.”

Some people believe the mysterious circles that appear in fields in a number of countries are created by aliens. Others put them down to a human hoax.

(Reuters) – Dress Barn Inc (DBRN.O) announced that it will buy teen-apparel seller Tween Brands Inc (TWB.N) for about $157 million in stock. Word is that Dress Barn, largely known as a purveyor of pants suits and “temp” wear, is making a go at the tween girls market. Does this mean that girls are going to start dressing like the cast of “Heathers” again? In the words of Veronica Sawyer, “How very.”

Heathers