By now, you’ve probably already heard the tragic news that two celebrities — Farrah Fawcett, aged 62, and Michael Jackson, aged 50 — passed away today from natural causes. Far fewer people, however, have heard the news that, in the latest wave of Iraqi violence, more than 160 people have been killed during the past week. 69 of these deaths occurred yesterday when a bomb exploded in a crowded Baghdad market. Merely because these “ordinary” people were not famous does not lessen the senselessness of their untimely deaths, but the skewed priorities reflected in contemporary media coverage could certainly lead one to believe otherwise. That fact that I’ve articulated this sentiment probably makes me sound like an asshole, but I’m totally okay with that.
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[...] But seriously, folks (AgentBedhead) [...]
it’s important to keep things in perspective.
Well, the death of one man is a tragedy, the death of a million?
A statistic.
I was just thinking the same thing. No matter how you say it, you’re going to sound pious and smug. But … the Iranian leadership is talking about executing protestors as enemies of Islam. Executing them. For protesting. That’s a little more important than the deaths (however sad for their families) of two pampered celebrities.
Sounds about right to me. I’ll be an asshole with ya.
[...] AB offers a different perspective on the loss of two celebs [Agent Bedhead] [...]
Dear idiot. Cancer is not a “natural cause” it is a disease.
Yep.
Ann: Actually, from a legal standpoint, cancer is a “natural cause” of death. Footnote 13 here: http://tinyurl.com/p8m7wo
Click on the Footnote link to read the relevant text. However, you seem rather set in your opinions, so I doubt you’ll even bother doing much more than tossing out another insult.
Since when are diseases not “natural causes?”
Getting hit by a bus? Not natural. Cancer? Natural. Heart disease? natural.
I’ve had cancer. You think I ordered it out of a catalog? Of COURSE it’s a natural cause, you idiot.
I’d be tempted to think that someone in Washington D.C. had the two of them offed for all the press coverage they’re getting.
Baghdad boming?
Iranian torture of its citizens?
Cap and tax?
No. Give me celebrity deaths. They bear far more influence upon my life than, say, socialized medicine.
You are correct, mlady, and you need issue no apology.
Yet, I might add, 30 years after its release, I still listen to ‘Off the Wall’ on a regular basis.
So, you know, there’s that.
Hear, hear — & THANK you! You don’t sound like an asshole — rather, a rare voice of sanity! With you 100%.
Drug overdose is not a natural cause of death either.
We need some inglorious bastards getting serious about the islamic nazis.
Arguably the drug overdose was a direct result of being an idiotic freakazoid, which was probably the only natural thing left about Michael Jackson.
As for the rest of it, these other news stories were probably giving journalists a headache. Wait… Middle East… isn’t encouraging them to be free wrong?
Obviously, I wrote this paragraph before reading about the possible drug overdose in Jacko’s case. Further, the “natural causes” bit wasn’t even that important to my point and something of a throwaway phrase. Oddly, it seems to matter here, for whatever reason.
What I was trying to say is that there were two celebrities whose deaths, naturally, are tragic. However, they did not meet violent ends while going about their daily business in a market. They were not, literally, dismembered by an exploding bomb, which made their bodies almost unrecognizable. Yet, these two celebrities were nearly the entire focus of the media’s attention, and almost nothing has been done to stop the continuing rise of Iraqi violence.
You may be an asshole, but you’re an asshole with a good point.