Was Michael Jackson Murdered?

I know I shouldn’t wallow in tabloid speculation but this profile of Michael Jackson [h/t/ Instapundit] suggests that he might have been.  

If the story is true, Jackson would have been worth more alive than dead to many people including his  entourage. If Jackson failed to perform due to ill health, the promoters of his upcoming series of 50 London concerts would lose all the money they put in. If he died, they could recover some or all of their investment from insurance. Someone in his  entourage  might have feared that Jackson would be sued and wiped out if the concert promoters had learned he had been too ill to perform when he made the contract. If he died, they at least would have the estate and children to pick over (or thought they would). His Nation of Islam  bodyguards  might be the obvious suspects because (1) no one can murder an individual easier than their own bodyguards and (2) they may have detested Jackson for his homosexuality.  

As I wrote before, we see in superstars like Jackson all the psychopathologies that used to afflict the absolute rulers of old.  Assassination  would be just one more parallel.  

Maybe we should issue an Intrade contract for when the first murder conspiracy book will be published. I’d put my money on 30 days.

What Scandal?

Milo asks if there is any foreign news coverage of the recent scandal in Great Britain.

I can’t say that there was. In fact, I was surprised by the news that there was a scandal playing out. Such was the dearth of news concerning the issue in the US.

So what was the whole hullaboo about?

The Speaker of the House of Commons, Michael Martin, resigned today under a cloud of corruption allegations. Besides the fact that he was using public funds for private use, he also allowed the police to search the offices of a fellow member of Parliament without a warrant. It was the first time in 300 years that The Speaker was ousted.

Why don’t we seem to care? I can’t speak for anyone else, but it seems to me that this is a private internal affair. The charges of corruption seem to be pretty well established, there is almost certainly something behind them, but it really doesn’t effect American interests. This is something the voters in the UK need to straighten out.

(Cross posted at Hell in a Handbasket.)

At Least They Caught Them

Strategypage reports that someone was caught trying to sell nuclear material….

“Ukrainian police arrested three men trying to sell eight pounds of plutonium, for $10 million. It turned out that they did not have plutonium, but the less radioactive (and not suitable for nuclear weapons) Americium (which could be used for a dirty bomb). The three arrested (a politician and two businessmen from Western Ukraine) had obtained the radioactive material (which was originally produced inside Russia) from someone outside Ukraine.”

Seems this happens on a fairly regular basis.

The essay goes on to discuss how much nuclear material is floating around out there. It is unlikely that terrorists could cobble together a nuclear bomb, but a dirty bomb is certainly something within their capabilities.

Just thought I’d brighten up your Monday.

Political AIDS: the First Symptom is Pirates

The thing that strikes me most about the Somali  pirate  problem  is the shear trivial nature of the physical threat. Via Instantpundit comes this report which says:

Separately Sunday, the captain of an Italian cruise ship said his security staff fought off a pirate attack in the region Saturday with pistols and a water hose.  

Wow, who knew that the combination of  pistols  and  water hoses  created such a fearsome weapon! The navies of the world’s developed nations should look into obtaining this fearsome combination because apparently they cannot defeat these  awesome  pirates with the ships, aircraft,  missiles, radar,  satellites and all the other multi-billion dollar weapons they currently have.  

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