Just the way Miley planned it…

By now, everyone has seen or heard about Miley Cyrus’ performance at the MTV Video Music Awards.  Those who haven’t don’t care and don’t want to know.  Regardless, many people were shocked to see the performance either live or in replay.  Whatever innocence the one-time star of Disney’s Hannah Montana had was not just erased by her twerking and violating people in teddy bear and Beetlejuice costumes, it was nuked.  Miley will never be able to escape the images that have now been emblazoned in many people’s minds.

But it appears that it was exactly what the woman born Destiny Hope Cyrus wanted.

Make no mistake, anyone who had followed the career of Miley knew she was heading down this path the moment Hannah Montana made its debut.  The daughter of Billy Ray Cyrus was more than willing to go down this path, and her parents did everything possible to enable the chain of events that led to this moment.  In late 2007, I knew Miley’s career would transition to porn fodder and said so to my wife when we visited Disney World.  Miley had just turned 15 at the time, and was still trying to convince her fans she was the innocent country girl persona that she displayed on TV.  But the Childhood Fame Monster that had claimed Miley’s predecessors, Brittney, Christina, Lindsey, and other Mouseketeers was closing in on her at the time.  Within 2 years, Miley was posing topless with her dad in photo spreads, even though she was not legal in age.

And once she turned 18 and broke free of the Disney restrictions, Miley openly show her unrestricted side.  The change was almost instantaneous.  Miley began to show her body in ways that left little to the imagination.  Still her fans clung to the hope that she was just going through a phase.  Her engagement to Australian actor, Liam Hemsworth was seen as a step toward normalcy and it seemed that she might settle down, pursue a decent music career, and maybe go into acting.

But once the New Years’ Ball dropped on 2013, Miley kicked into overdrive in the outrageous things she was doing.  The cutting of the hair and the bleaching of it shocked a lot of people.  My wife openly wondered if Miley was a lesbian.  Then the sticking of the tongue out at events.  It was also clear that Miley and Liam were not as tight-knit as an engaged couple.  Though it appeared the main male protagonist of “The Hunger Games” broke off the engagement or at least postponed the wedding day, Miley showed off her engagement ring as if to say, “I’m still engaged, b****es!”  Liam and Miley have been rarely seen in public, and when they have, it has not been as a truly lovey dovey couple.  Then came the VMA awards, and the rest is history.

If you think Miley has gone off the deep end, think again.  Miley wants everyone to talk about her.  She saw what Charlie Sheen did when he went off the deep end, and saw similar spikes when Amanda Bynes went crazy.  Miley also took a page out of the Madonna playbook.  The Material Cougar has been at this for so long and done so many outrageous things, but has always appeared to remain in control.  Miley figured if Madonna could do it, she could too.

And she got what she wanted:  attention.  But Miley made a huge miscalculation in her attempts to shock people into looking at her.  African-Americans looked at her performance and saw racism.  Feminists screamed that Miley’s twerking was an insult to women’s rights.  A wide range of political opposites united to either mock Miley or outright condemn her.  People turned their outrage which had just been on Ben Affleck for becoming the new Batman onto her.  The only people that seemed to come to her defense were musicians and her mom, who gave her a Standing O after the raunchy number.  After all, VMAs has done some pretty outrageous things in the past, why stop now?  Heck, Lady Gaga went Lady Gaga during that same event and hardly anyone was giving Gaga heat. 

After the VMAs, Miley just Can’t Stop.  Everything she is doing makes headlines.  Now comes word that she joined Justin Bieber twerking in a new video.  Oh goody.  Justin and Miley, the perfect pairing of a new generation.  Also, she teamed up with Kanye West on a project.  Heck, why not bring in the Kardashians while you’re at it.

A wise teacher about 2000 years ago, once said:  “What good will it be for a man if he gains the whole world, yet loses his soul?”  Miley and others like her have traded their souls for fame, wealth, and an honor that is fleeting.  Short term, she is “winning”.  Long term?  Don’t we all know how this will end?  Only Miley can Stop Miley now—and the longer she waits to change course, the harder it will be to come back to even a reasonable amount of respectability among the masses.

The 2014 Winter Olympics: Citius, Altius, Fortius, … Homophobius?!?

As some of you are aware, Next February, the Nations of the World will gather in Sochi, Russia, to commence the Games of the 22nd Winter Olympiad.  The fact that Sochi is hosting the Winter Olympics was a potential International incident waiting to happen, being that the Chechnya, and other Caucus flashpoints are in the neighborhood.  Then, add in the situation with Edward Snowden, chilling U.S.-Russian relations at a time that the Russians could use US security support.

But all that pales in comparison to a controversy that could light a real powder keg of Olympic protests, making Berlin in 1936 and Mexico City in 1968 look like a Sunday picnic…

In June, Russia enacted a series of anti-gay laws.  Basically, the laws state, that while you can be gay in Russia, any attempt to be show your gayness in public or support gay rights in public is illegal.  The laws have enabled anti-gay groups (such as Neo-Nazi-like group) to publicly attack anyone who supports gay rights.  And some of the attacks have been brutal.  Just today, I saw a CNN article on a Russian journalist who was fired after he came out of the closest.

The response to this legislation has varied and is largely disorganized.  Some gay rights advocates have called for a boycott of Russian vodka.  Others have asked for the U.S. to boycott a second Russian Olympics.  Still others, like George Takei, are asking for the IOC to move the Winter Olympics to Vancouver.

So how is Russia handling the arrival of the world’s greatest athletes, some of who will be openly gay?  The Russian Government has said gay athletes are welcome, but you get differing views on how the laws may be enforced during the games.  Some Russian leaders have asked all athletes to respect Russian laws, while others have said there will be no issues in Sochi with respect to the laws.  The IOC has clouded the situation further stating that all athletes need to respect the laws of the host country.  At the same time, the IOC has asked Russia to clarify their position on the upcoming Winter Olympics and gay athletes.

So will any pro-gay signs of demonstration be allowed from the athletes?  The World Track & Field Championships, currently taking place in Moscow, may offer a clue.  Will any track & field athlete be brave enough to openly show gay pride during this week in Moscow?  Oh, and memo to Johnny Weir:  I know you want to go to Sochi just to shove it down Putin’s throat, but your best days were 8 years ago in Turin.  You’re going to have to earn it in January—and you haven’t skated competitively in almost a year.  You’re going to have a tough road just to get there, much less win.

There are no easy options.  I do think the Russian law should be overturned, but it is not worth boycotting the Olympics or Russian vodka over.  You have to win the hearts of the Russian people and get them to change and evolve.  It will be a long and hard road to do that, and you have to overcome hurdles as big as the Caucuses.  But it will be worth it in the end. 

But my real anger is at those who were so willing to display the pink equals sign in the red background on their Facebook profile—in fact some of them still do.  Where are you at?  Why aren’t you willing to take a position on this matter?  Is it because it is Russia?  It is easy to criticize anti-gay laws in Uganda repetitively, and criticize the Pope’s views on Gay marriage, but you don’t want to take on Putin for his anti-gay views?

It’s embarrassing that I have to be the catalyst here.  But, if I have to be the one to get the debate going… so be it.  Consider the fight engaged.

Why we can’t have a National Dialogue on Race…

Recently, a news story came about stating that Tawana Brawley had finally begun to pay her portion of a lawsuit over two decades ago, when she accused a group of white men of committing a heinous sexual assault and scrawling racial slurs across her body.  A grand jury ultimately concluded that Brawley had falsified the accusations, and one of the accused, who happened to be an assistant DA, filed suit against Brawley, Brawley’s lawyers, and the civil rights leader who had stirred up the New York community against the accused rapists—Al Sharpton, who was making his national debut into the public consciousness.  Now Brawley is 41, a nurse, and still refuses to recant her initial story, even though her story was debunked in court.  Al Sharpton long settled his monetary debts in the lawsuit.

On November 12, another woman, Crystal Magnum is scheduled to to go on trial for murder of an ex-boyfriend.  Magnum is the stripper at the center of the Duke Lacrosse Rape case and her accusations were also ultimately proven to be false.  Again, Al Sharpton stirred up the community and pushed for punishment of the Duke Lacrosse players, even though they did not commit a crime.  Al Sharpton to this day has still not apologized for his role in the case.

2 cases of alleged racism ultimately proven false.  So why are we having to deal with Al Sharpton again and again on issues of race?  Now, we are dealing with him again in the aftermath of the George Zimmerman case—not just because he is pushing for civil rights charges to be filed against George Zimmerman, but because he used his position at NBC to doctor an audio tape before the trial began to make George Zimmerman sound racist and turn public opinion further against him.  (Please don’t kid yourselves—Al Sharpton’s fingerprints were all over that doctoring, even if he wasn’t directly involved.)

And that, in a microcosm, is why we can’t have a National Dialogue to address the real problems that the African American community has.  Al Sharpton, Jesse Jackson, and other African-American “Leaders” are too busy trying to scream racism at every turn, but they go silent when thousands of young African-American are robbed of their future by violence, and when thousands more are raised in single mom households.  Or worse, they criticize anyone who tries to offer serious solutions to the problems in the African-American community—whether white or black, conservative or non-conservative.  Why?  Al and Jesse and others are too busy profiting off of their communities’ suffering.

There’s just something wrong with these “leaders” attacking people like CNN’s Don Lemon for trying to speak out in trying to change a culture that is deteriorating.  Lemon just wants the next generation to be better than the last one.  What is wrong with that?  It’s because these “leaders” don’t want to see the ugliness of what they have left in their wake.  Martin Luther King Jr.’s dream lies in ruins for all African-Americans.  Sure, some have risen to incredible heights, but Dr. King’s vision was for ALL African-Americans to rise above his upbringing.  He knew Jesse Jackson was not prepared to be a good leader, but Dr. King never got the chance to try and help Jesse see the error of his ways.  Initially, Jesse had his heart in the right place, but once he entered the political realm, he abandoned helping out the African-American community as a while in favor of helping himself.  Obviously, Jesse’s son learned from his dad, and look at where it has taken Jesse Jr.

It is high time for the President to commence with a National Dialogue on Race.  It is time for the President to tell Jesse, Al, and other African-American leaders to either get serious on race issues or stand aside and let others try to solve the issues that affect the African-American community.  Otherwise, there may not be an African-American community to save in the near future.

A good place to start would be the 50th Anniversary of the March on Washington and Dr. King’s “I Have a Dream” speech.  It is time for Jesse, Al, and other Civil Rights Leaders to recommit to Dr. King’s dream.  It’s time to stop the “Self-Destruction”, because that’s where Dr. King’s Dream is heading on its present course with it’s current leaders in charge.