...(which if you believe that you are as dumb as they come)..
Wow.
The person you seem to honor in your sig and avatar isn't high on my respect and honor list, but I'm not going to call you names because we differ on what sort of person we believe he is.
When my mom died, I wanted the world to stop. But ultimately, she didn't touch very many lives. I mean, there were LOTS of people at her funeral, and plenty more who couldn't come. She knew lots of people in her lifetime and she was a terrific person. She also worked for the CIA in the counterterrorism department, and her speciality was the middle east, and she died exactly 1.5 years before 9/11, so if she'd NOT died, she might have saved untold lives...but of course at her funeral we didn't know what was to come and didn't know what she could have kept from happening if that medical error hadn't happened.
But the world didn't come to a stop, not even for a nanosecond, and she didn't have a funeral at a huge Center, because not that many people knew of her.
A pop star, even if you deride such things, is a part of peoples' lives. When Simon LeBon of Duran Duran dies, I will mourn. When Madonna dies, I will mourn. They were a HUGE part of my early and later teen years. Their music spoke to me, it was the soundtrack for my early life.
Michael Jackson's music was playing BEFORE those others did; I remember a car trip to Yellowstone when I was about 10, during which I tormented my dad and brother by playing my Off The Wall CD repeatedly. It was even a newfangled tape player that would automatically play the other side of the tape, so there was no break for them.
His music was a huge part of a long period of my life, and his death made me very very sad.
I do not know anything other than he was acquitted of the things he was accused of. I know that if my child were abused, there is no amount of money that would make me keep it from the police, even if I knew I was going to lose. First the police stuff, then the civil suit. The fact that some families took money and didn't press charges tells me that NOTHING happened to their children, b/c the concept of saying nothing b/c of money is absolutely impossible for me to fathom. But ultimately I don't know; none of us know. So to name-call like that is just ridiculous.
A soldier knows that death is a possibility. Any soldier who joins up without knowing this...well...they aren't paying attention. If my son ever joins the service, I will start mourning him in my heart, because I very well know the possible outcome of it. Same if he becomes a race car driver...there are just some professions that have higher risks.
But one soldier isn't known by billions. One mother isn't known by billions. Therefore, the interest isn't there in hearing about the minutiae of their lives...unless you'd like me to talk about her ad nauseum? No, I didn't think so. You're just not that interested.
But I do wonder how long you will talk and think about and mourn Lance Armstrong, once he dies. I surely know I will lose interest after 2 seconds IF that long, while your interest will likely go on much longer. Perhaps thinking of it THAT way... knowing that there are some who don't find him to be a very moral man, not a standup man, not an honorable man... can help you find some common ground with those who mourn Michael Jackson.