American Hypocrisy: Enough To Drive You Nuts

I think the Los Angeles Times' Neal Gabler gets Charlie Sheen a bit:

Bruce Willis once described the basic trajectory of celebrity in America as having four stages: You arrive, you peak, you bomb and you come back. Whether he realized it or not, Willis was also describing the phases that anthropologist Joseph Campbell had discerned for the hero across cultures — save for one thing. Heroes don't bomb. That is a distinctly American interpolation, one designed to ensure that our demigods never confuse themselves with gods. As our stars rose into the heavens, we reserved the right to humble them, to bring them back to Earth. Think of Eddie Murphy or John Travolta or Tom Cruise, all of whom seemed to get too big for their britches and were brought down a peg for it.

So Charlie Sheen's verboten media blitz flaunting a lifestyle that is decidedly not shared by the vast majority of his fans (how many of us have two live-in porn star "goddesses" or can profess to have consumed an amount of cocaine that would have killed a mortal?) explicitly violates the contract, which seems to have been Sheen's point.

He says he isn't off the rails like Mel Gibson or Lindsay Lohan. He insists he is the engineer. He is doing exactly what he wants to do, what his riches and fame allow and entitle him to do. As he puts it, he is embracing his "rock star" life.

The irony is that living large and doing exactly as he pleases has long been a central ingredient in Sheen's appeal. His role on "Two and a Half Men" as a womanizing, footloose bachelor seems lifted out of his real life, which is one of the reasons it is funny. We think we are seeing Sheen spoofing himself. When Sheen reminded us that his life is even more extreme than his character's, the media turned censorious — an example of trying to have your comedy and revile it too. Sheen is absolutely right to call this hypocrisy. He has never pretended to be a Boy Scout. He has always purported to be precisely the opposite.

And now Roseanne Barr, of all people, has stepped forward to add another dose of reality to the proceedings.

The comedienne, who worked with Lorre on "Roseanne" from 1990 to 1992, wrote three blog posts on her website supporting Sheen and insulting Lorre's writing on "Men," which she described as "s--- jokes and adolescent sniggering over breasts and women's body parts lines."

"I never really worked with him, as he was mostly drunk when he was on my show, and too busy making deals with my producers for shows that copied mine...to turn in too many good scripts," Barr wrote of Lorre.

The 58-year-old actress added that Brett Butler, who worked with Lorre on "Grace Under Fire," and Cybil Shepard, who worked with him on "Cybill", also suffered at Lorre's hands and "were often out in the parking lot screaming at Chuck and crying."

That sounds like WINNING! if I've ever heard it,...

I See A Race (With More Crashes Than NASCAR)

To say I like to keep myself on the right side of issues is an understatement, so I feel pretty bad about my congratulations to Andrew Breitbart for his attack on Shirley Sherrod.

I've been saying, for some time now, that race shouldn't even be part of our national dialogue, and then, damn it, I fell into the trap myself.

O.K., I know - I just stuck my toe in it - but it still feels, to me, like it's been lopped off.

So, once again, I'm going to ask: When are we, as a people, going to let this go? How many have to get hurt, unnecessarily, because of this insistence to keep the race meme going?

The NAACP started this latest broohaha? Doesn't matter.

Like the KKK, they've outlived their usefulness and should be consigned to the trash heap of history, and their attacks on the Tea Party - and the reactions of the black audience in the Breitbart video - prove it.

But this doesn't speak well of Andrew Breitbart, either.

The video was edited to make it appear to be something it wasn't.

I can't lay into him too hard because I understand what he's trying to do, and I think it's noble, but still, wrong is wrong and it should be acknowledged.

He should be trying to get Miss Sherrod's job back.

Like I said, I don't feel good about any of this - especially my, admittedly, minor role in it - so I don't feel like writing too much. But there are a few things I do want to say anyway.


While many people may not care to read what I say on this blog, I've got news for you:

I hate listening to everybody else talking about me - and that's what this silly corrosive "dialogue" is, really, whether it's the stupid New Black Panther Party or those fighting against them - it's a discussion about me.

Both the New Black Panther Party, and it's adversaries, think they're looking out for my interest but they're not - they're merely torturing me with their bullshit.

Just as the toxic Mel Gibson did with his you're-going-to-be-raped-by-niggers comments to that unscrupulous woman I don't even think is attractive.

It's time you all realized "I am a man" and I can speak for myself.

If I need your help, I'll ask for it - and you can start by hitting the fucking tip jar, assholes.

Yea, that's what I thought.

See, I know I'm nothing more to you than a Sambo doll, to be batted about to make you feel good - about yourselves.

I've been saying, since this blog started, that I'm a black man who's been through some pretty horrible shit - more horrible than probably anything the rest of you have had to endure - and, with few exceptions, the reaction I've received is to be ridiculed, harassed, or ignored.

Nobody cared I'm a black man openly asking for specific kinds of help - and not the first to ask for this specific kind of help - you'll give me what you think I deserve, whether it's what I need or not.

Well, in the tradition of great rappers everywhere, I say "Fuck all y'all."

If my NewAge ex-wife assisting a NewAge homeopath in killing three other NewAgers, and running away with all of our money, isn't enough to get you off your asses (or your wallets) to come to my aid, then I don't need your kind of "help".

What good is y'all screaming "raaaacist!" at each other doing me?

I've also said - with a lot of evidence to back it up - that I'm the conservative artist that can end a lot of the bullshit we're dealing with through music.

Anybody rushing to make that happen?

Nope. Not even from my fellow conservatives.

What's up? All of a sudden the problems of a black person ain't so pressing, huh?

It's much more fun for y'all to declare me - a black man - a weirdo, ain't it?

Yea, that'll help.

My online friend, Ann Althouse, has told me - several times - that what she perceives as my self-pity ain't Obama "attractive". My answer to her has always been the same;

I'm not trying to be (shallowly) attractive - I'm trying to be (deeply) real.

All of y'all clamoring over me - specifically because of my race - as my fortunes dwindle - and two killers (my ex and the homeopath) are, still, walking freely - is absurd.

It just reinforces how alone this black man is (and, by extension, all black people are) while surrounded by supposedly-well-meaning lawyers, scientists, doctors, therapists, conservatives, liberals, and more.

As someone who has risked his very life, countless times, to rescue people I didn't know - boat people while serving in the Navy, women in distress, etc. - if I were y'all, I'd be ashamed at what selfish bastards so many so-called Americans have become.

I know I'm ashamed.

I asked for your help because I believed in you.

As you know, if you read this blog, I don't believe in shit any longer.

Starting with your concern for me as a black man.

My day started at 8AM with a tap on my window. It was my friend, Pete - a white guy I've known since Jr. High.

He read the post I wrote about quitting my job and, knowing my issues with NewAge, he came over to see if I was alright.

If he had the money, he would give it to me in a heartbeat, saying, "Here, go make your band, and change the world."

Instead, we went to breakfast, a white guy and a black guy, and wondered what's happened to the country we grew up in - specifically, why there are so few of our countrymen like us.

None of you truly care about "the content of a man's character".

If you did, you'd recognize when you've met one, as Pete and I did so many years ago.

Race, to me and Pete, has always been "your problem" - not ours - and it still is.

And unfortunately, from the look of things, that's the way it's going to stay until the day we die.

Shouts out to The Anchoress:

Love ya, babe.