Bad American

Another giant passes from the scene; one whose truth upset too many people from ‘obscenity’ to the truth about our society.

Why he was so good - the truth only comedians seem to be able to tell:

Like another social satirist and truth teller, Kurt Vonnegut, Carlin got darker as he aged and the more he told the truth about American society to a country and people that did not want to hear it. The more you know, the more you realize, the more you can’t help but despair.

From the Time online obit:

Carlin’s material grew increasingly dark in later years, to the point where he was cheerleading (with only a trace of irony) for mass suicide and ecological disaster. “I sort of gave up on this whole human adventure a long time ago,” he said a couple of years ago. “Divorced myself from it emotionally. I think the human race has squandered its gift, and I think this country has squandered its promise. I think people in America sold out very cheaply, for sneakers and cheeseburgers. And I don’t think it’s fixable.”

That, and Carlin’s last HBO special “It’s Bad for Ya,” prompted comments like this from some readers of the New York Daily News obit:

“Class Clown” (1970s) was his pinnacle work. Truly hilarious stuff. Unfortunately it was the last funny thing he made or said. He was 71 but looked 91. Just goes to show what years of drug abuse will do for you. Anti-American and an athiest so let’s not get too carried away with all the praise.

In any case, I can’t help but feel sorry for Carlin in one respect - he didn’t die the way he wanted. In one comedy bit about death and dying (and he was a master at those subjects) he said “I wanna be blown up!” Which is kind of the way I feel about it too. Luckily, he went fairly fast when the time came.

Of course the people who still hate him for his comments about organized religion are salivating in print today (mostly on comment sections and message boards), wondering how their loving God is torturing the apostate George right now. But those people don’t realize that they are proving Carlin’s point over and over again.

Perhaps my favorite Carlin performance was as Cardinal Glick in Dogma. I guess it takes a fallen away Catholic to play those parts with just the right verve.

Some comments from the movie from the Internet Movie Database:

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Cardinal Glick: Fill them pews, people, that’s the key. Grab the little ones as well. Hook ‘em while they’re young.
Rufus: Kind of like the tobacco industry?
Cardinal Glick: Christ, if only we had their numbers.

Rufus: I’m telling you, man, this ceremony is a big mistake.
Cardinal Glick: The Catholic Church does not make mistakes.
Rufus: Please. What about the Church’s silent consent to the slave trade?
Bethany: And its platform of noninvolvement during the Holocaust?
Cardinal Glick: All right, mistakes were made.

And my favorite:

Cardinal Glick: Thank you, thank you, thank you. Now we all know how the majority and the media in this country view the Catholic church. They think of us as a passe, archaic institution. People find the Bible obtuse… even hokey. Now in an effort to disprove all that the church has appointed this year as a time of renewal… both of faith and of style. For example, the crucifix. While it has been a time honored symbol of our faith, Holy Mother Church has decided to retire this highly recognizable, yet wholly depressing image of our Lord crucified. Christ didn’t come to Earth to give us the willies… He came to help us out. He was a booster. And it is with that take on our Lord in mind that we’ve come up with a new, more inspiring sigil. So it is with great pleasure that I present you with the first of many revamps the “Catholicism WOW. ” campaign will unveil over the next year. I give you… The Buddy Christ. Now that’s not the sanctioned term we’re using for the symbol, just something we’ve been kicking around the office, but look at it. Doesn’t it… pop?

And yeah, I had a Buddy Christ bobble head doll on top of my computer when I was the religion writer for the Cedar Rapids Gazette. No, they didn’t get it either.

Thanks George for all the laughs and insight over all the years. And if you ARE by some freak chance, in Hell, tell the gang hi (especially Oscar Wilde, Benjamin Franklin, Charles Darwin, Mae West and your buddy Lenny Bruce) and I’ll be seeing them in the sweet bye and bye as well.

Only if you also believe in Santa and the tooth fairy. . .

Deborah Jeane Palfrey

AOL News/Associated Press

TARPON SPRINGS, Fla. (May 1) - A woman police believe to be convicted Washington escort service operator Deborah Jeane Palfrey committed suicide, officials said Thursday.

Police said the body was found in a shed near Palfrey’s mother’s home Thursday morning. There was a suicide note, but police did not disclose its contents or how she killed herself.

And you may never know. Expect everything about this “suicide” to be hidden from public view like most of the names of the powerful who used her escort service:

Her trial concluded without revealing many new details about the service or its clients. Vitter was among possible witnesses, but did not take the stand.

By design of course. We know of Senator David Vitter, Harlan Ullman (Mr. “Shock and Awe”) and Randall Tobias. Can you image the others that were on the client list? Of course, the rich and powerful look out for themselves and the public be damned so we’ll never know.

This is just too convenient a ’suicide.” Palfrey was abandoned and betrayed by powerful men she naively believed would protect her. Too late she found out she was ever expendable. And, facing the clank of prison bars, she had nothing to lose by authoring a tell all from prison. So she, I believe, was silenced forever.

And she wasn’t the only one:

One of the escort service employees was former University of Maryland, Baltimore County, professor Brandy Britton, who was arrested on prostitution charges in 2006. She committed suicide in January before she was scheduled to go to trial.

Doesn’t this all seem just a little too convenient?

Bet the rest of the women will keep their mouths shut now if they know what’s good for them.

There are many ways of assassinating people and making it look like a suicide. The pros know how to do it and our government’s security services are full of them.

Some years back in Cleveland a big call girl ring was broken up too after too many loose ends started to appear. Cleveland Police at that time seized the services’ “black book” which was kept in the strictest of confidence and, throughout all the court proceedings, never ever saw the light of day.

There’s one law for you and a totally different law for the people who count. The everyday mopes nailed on such shows as “Cops” for being johns aren’t important enough to be shielded from public shame.

- April 17, 2008 - photograph by A.M. Saddler (from Backstreets.com)

HuffPo

Backstreets

BruceSpringsteen.net

“Danny and I worked together for 40 years - he was the most wonderfully fluid keyboard player and a pure natural musician. I loved him very much…we grew up together.”
—Bruce Springsteen

Danny Federici, for 40 years the E Street Band’s organist and keyboard player, died this afternoon, April 17, 2008 at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York City after a three year battle with melanoma.

The Federici family and the E Street family request that, in lieu of flowers, donations be made to the Danny Federici Melanoma Fund. A web site for the Fund is being established and we’ll post its link when it is on line.

Bruce Springsteen’s concerts scheduled for Friday in Ft. Lauderdale and Saturday in Orlando performance are being postponed. Replacement dates will be announced shortly.

I can sympathize with this comment from one of Huffpo’s readers:

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