The last of the Michael Jackson clips (until he goes and does something new). To cap off my May videos of the day, I’m choosing Michael’s cover of the classic Charlie Chaplin composition, “Smile,” featured on the 1995 album, HIStory. Considering everything wrong in the world today–and despite all previous clips being posted in chronological order according to their original occurrences–I think this is a nice finish.

Check out Mike’s impersonation of Chaplin at about 04:30 in the clip. Btw, this is another fanmade video (though quite well done).

From Reuters via MSNBC today:

LOS ANGELES – The popular online dating service eHarmony was sued on Thursday for refusing to offer its services to gays, lesbians and bisexuals.

A lawsuit alleging discrimination based on sexual orientation was filed in Los Angeles Superior Court on behalf of Linda Carlson, who was denied access to eHarmony because she is gay.

Lawyers bringing the action said they believed it was the first lawsuit of its kind against eHarmony, which has long rankled the gay community with its failure to offer a “men seeking men” or “women seeking women” option.

They were seeking to make it a class action lawsuit on behalf of gays and lesbians denied access to the dating service.

eHarmony was founded in 2000 by evangelical Christian Dr. Neil Clark Warren and had strong early ties with the influential religious conservative group Focus on the Family.

It has more than 12 million registered users, and heavy television advertising has made it one of the nation’s biggest Internet dating sites.

Carlson, who lives in the San Francisco Bay area, tried to use the site’s dating services in February 2007. When she was denied access, she wrote to eHarmony explaining its anti-gay policy was discriminatory under California law but the company refused to change it, according to the lawsuit.

“Such outright discrimination is hurtful and disappointing for a business open to the public in this day and age,” she said.

eHarmony could not immediately be reached for comment. Commenting in the past on eHarmony’s gay and lesbian policy, Warren has said that he does not know the dynamics of same-sex relationships but he expects the principles to be different.

“This lawsuit is about changing the landscape and making a statement out there that gay people, just like heterosexuals, have the right and desire to meet other people with whom they can fall in love,” said Carlson lawyer Todd Schneider.

Carlson’s lawyers expect a significant number of gays and lesbians to join the class action, which seeks to force eHarmony to end its policy and unspecified damages for those denied eHarmony services based on their sexual orientation.
Copyright 2007 Reuters Limited. All rights reserved. Republication or redistribution of Reuters content is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of Reuters.

New Hampshire joins “Fair America” in January 2008.* Yay!

*Note: It’s not exactly “fair” until Congress repeals the Defense of Marriage Act of 1996 and allows same-sex couples “married” in any state the 1,138 rights afforded by the federal government to different-sex couples not granted by any state. But who’s counting?

Throughout the last few months of Rosie O’Donnell on “The View” I’ve noticed a little hostility about the show’s ending. Barbara has traditionally wrapped up at the last second with a signature line, “Take a little time and enjoy the view.” When Rosie came on, she’d try maybe once a month to say that phrase but typically went with “Peace Out” instead (which is what she used to do on her own show). Once in a while, Barbara would say the “enjoy the view” phrase and Rosie would throw in “peace out” immediately afterwards to get the last word. To be fair, Barbara has done the same to Rosie.

Well today, Ms. Walters emphatically and with a very animated face shouted her lame, punny catchphrase as the show went to black. How funny!

Peace out, Rosie.

From 2004’s The Ultimate Collection, this is Michael Jackson’s anti-war anthem. Had it been a single, he probably would’ve had a nice little comeback hit on his hands given its topical nature. The Ultimate Collection was released right before the 2004 elections, when the War in Iraq was a hot issue. Mike sums all the side effects of war up, breaking with pop songwriting convention and putting all the verses and bridges at the front of the track to build to a climactic chorus.

I don’t particularly like this fanmade video, since it pushes the limits of gratuitousness, but some of the imagery is creatively chosen. It’s an adequate vehicle to showcase the song, I guess.

“They’ve gotta hear it from me
They’ve gotta hear it from you
They’ve gotta hear it from us,
We can’t take it. We’ve already had enough!”
–Michael Jackson

From the 2001 Michael Jackson album, Invincible, this is “Cry.” The video never aired on television in the United States but the song was a minor hit in Europe shortly after 9/11. While I like this song, I will admit it is an R. Kelly production, so it contains some obligatory self-righteousness.

Ewa Sowinska, a Polish government-appointed children rights watchdog, says she’s worried that the Teletubbies promote homosexuality.

“I noticed (Tinky Winky) has a lady’s purse, but I didn’t realize he’s a boy. At first I thought the purse would be a burden for this Teletubby … Later I learned that this may have a homosexual undertone.”

For the last time, straight people: homosexuality is about innate physical attraction and cannot be turned on or off at will–and it has nothing to do with cotton or polyester. Sexual attraction is involuntary and punishing those whose attractions differ from yours is a grave injustice.

Heteros, when was the last time you consciously forced blood into your nether regions so that you could have relations with a member of the opposite sex? The answer is never. You didn’t make a conscious decision to become aroused, since no matter how hard you strain it’s not going to happen. Attraction just happens. Stimulation just happens. What makes you think the queers have some magical voodoo power to control their bloodflow that you don’t?!?!?

And anyways, just because a guy puts on a dress, carries a purse, wears makeup, or grows his hair long doesn’t mean he’s gay. The Tinky Winky thing deals with gender identity which goes in an entirely different boat. There are straight men who like to wear women’s clothing. They are called “transvestites” but they are still physically attracted to women. There are gay men who also like to wear women’s clothing. They can be called “transvestites” too, but typically go by “drag queens.” They are physically attracted to men, since that is the sexual stimulus to which their brains respond. Notice the word “queen.” Oh, and here’s a piece of trivia for you: the word “drag” in this connotation comes from Shakespearean stage directions where it began as an acronym for “dressed as girl.”

The “transexual” or “transgender” thing is something else entirely. Transgender persons can be straight, gay or bisexual. Their gender identity is not tied to their physical attractions, since as I explained earlier, GENDER AND SEXUALITY ARE SEPARATE CONCEPTS!!!!

Any questions?

Michael sings Janet’s verses of “Scream” during the HIStory tour. His costume was made of sheeted silver and gold. The HIStory tour visited five continents and reached over 4.5 million ticket-holders, earning a record that still stands for international tour attendance.

I swear to God I’m wrapping this Michael thing up soon in a couple days and next month will be something entertaining for you folks who can’t stand all the MJ. It’s just best for everyone if I get this out of the way early.

But the last week has been quite busy out there for me so I haven’t been updating the site much. Expect a full-throttle return on Tuesday evening.

Also, I won’t be doing much updating during the days anymore thanks to work, but I will waste a great deal of my time during the evenings and weekends blasting the White House and idiot Hollywood starlets who totally got what was coming to their stupid, drunken, cokehead faces.

From his “Ghosts” short film directed by Stan Winston, this is “2 Bad” from HIStory. There’s some prominent beatboxing in this one and some of the most intricate dancing ever filmed. “Ghosts” won a Bob Fosse award for its groundbreaking choreography.

Another rarity! In my senior year of high school, my AP Lit. teacher, Miss Lively, asked us to bring in music videos, short films, or commercials for the class to view and explicate, and I chose this one. The discussions were supposed to last 10 minutes or so, but mine took up the bulk of the class meeting!

The response from the class was generally positive (minus the standard “why does he look like that?” questions that I’ve grown tired of answering). It’s a beautiful track, with Michael’s beatbox again as the foundation.

Hi, Miss Lively!!! *waves frantically*

According to the Project for Excellence in Journalism, Fox seems to be ignoring stories that favor Democrats and/or don’t help President Bush. Instead, they win the Anna Nicole ratings race.

Below are the percentages of time devoted to each of the three biggest news stories from December 31, 2006 to March 31, 2007. Not surprisingly are the figures associated with Fox News in comparison to CNN and MSNBC:

Iraq War
CNN 25%
MSNBC 31%
FOX 15%

2008 Presidential Campaign
CNN 7%
MSNBC 14%
FOX 9%

Anna Nicole Smith
CNN 4%
MSNBC 6%
FOX 10%

Congratulations, Mr. Murdoch. You suck!