Chamblee54

August 30, 2014. … As facebook memes remind us, Jon Stewart recently delivered a speech about racism. The closing line is “And that shit happens all the time. All the time. Race is there, and it is a constant. You’re tired of hearing about it? Imagine how fucking exhausting it is living it.” The crowd went into hysterics. … Our media culture is strange. On the “conservative” side, buffoons like Rush Limbaugh and Bill O’Reilly present news as entertainment. On the “liberal” side, comedians like Jon Stewart and Bill Maher present comedy routines as political commentary. On the other side of the screen, America becomes more cynical every day. …
… In another video, the former Jonathan Stuart Leibowitz says something critical about Israel. He is gleefully shouted down. Eventually, he gives up. This video could have been made about race relations. If a white person says anything except the party line, he can expect to be called racist, and shouted down. Two wrongs become one right. So the choice becomes not wanting to be yelled at, or not wanting to live a black life. You can yell at white people as long as you like about racism. This yelling will accomplish little, except giving the dubious feeling of moral superiority.
August 25, 2009. … The news came out that the coroner ruled Michael Jackson’s death to be a homicide. The name of his personal physician, Dr. Conrad Murray, was mentioned. In these race obsessed times, the first question many ask is about skin color. In the case of The Entertainer, it changed over time. I found pictures from two times for Dr. Murray, and he looked the same. The older image was a booking photograph from 1994. Dr. Murray was in trouble after a domestic violence incident with his girlfriend. The Doctor was acquitted of the charges. …
… There was more trouble for Dr. Murray in the years to come. (The search warrant for his office is here). At the time of his Jackson employment, Dr. Murray was in deep financial trouble. “In the last three years, Murray has faced lawsuits for unpaid business bills totaling over $700,000, including rent on his medical offices. He also owes more than $13,000 in child support, $70,000 to a business partner with whom he launched an energy drink called Pitbull, and he failed to pay more than $71,000 worth of student loans from medical school.” …
… Ten days before Michael Jackson got high for the last time, Dr. Murray sent a letter out. “Because of a once in a lifetime opportunity, I had to make a most difficult decision to cease practice of medicine indefinitely”. He reportedly was paid $150k a month to serve as a private physician to Micheal Jackson. … Dr. Murray was not the only Doctor to work with Michael. “Best-selling author Deepak Chopra, a licensed medical doctor, said he first became concerned about the pop star’s prescription drug use in 2005, when Jackson visited him shortly after his trial on sex abuse allegations. …
… Chopra said Jackson asked him to prescribe painkillers and already had a bottle of OxyContin. “I was kind of a bit alarmed. I said, ‘Why are you taking that. You don’t need that,‘ and then I started to probe a little further, and after I grilled him a little bit, he admitted he was getting them from a bunch of doctors,” … On June 25, things went too far. Dr. Conrad Murray told cops he had been treating Jackson for 6 weeks for insomnia — giving him 50 milligrams of Propofol every night through an IV. Murray told cops he feared Jackson was getting addicted so he reduced the dosage to 25 mg. …
… The morning Jackson died, Dr. Murray gave Jackson valium at 1:30 AM. Murray said the valium didn’t work so he gave the singer an IV injection of lorazepam — an anti-anxiety drug. Murray told cops Jackson was still awake, so he then gave him midazolam — a sedative. Murray gave Jackson more drugs. He says at 10:40 AM, he administered 25 mg of Propofol. Dr. Murray told cops Jackson repeatedly demanded the drug. As we first reported, cops found 8 bottles of Propofol in Jackson’s house after he died, but they do not know where it was purchased. …
… Cops also found Valium, Tamsulosin, Lorazepam, Temazepam, Clonazepam, Trazodone and Tizanidine, along with the Propofol. The various drugs were prescribed by Dr. Murray, Dr. Arnold Klein and Dr. Allan Metzger. … Dr. Murray reportedly told cops 10 minutes after administering Propofol … he “left Jackson’s side to go to the restroom and relieve himself. Murray stated he was out of the room for about 2 minutes maximum. Upon his return, Murray noticed that Jackson was no longer breathing.” Dr. Murray says he began CPR and at some point ran downstairs and asked the chef to send up Prince Jackson, the eldest son, then Murray continued performing CPR. …
… Dr. Murray says he noticed that Jackson wasn’t breathing at around 11 AM. He was then on the cell phone for 47 minutes with 3 separate calls, from 11:18 to 12:05. The 911 call came in at 12:21 PM …. a much longer delay than originally reported… Interestingly, according to the warrant, Dr. Murray refused to sign the death certificate at the UCLA Medical Center. … Dr. Murray was released from prison October 28, 2013. In 2023, Dr. Murray opened a medical institute in El Socorro, San Juan.
August 25, 2009. … I have had internet service with BellSouth since I bought a computer. They add the charge to my phone bill. It worked very well. At some point, AT&T bought BellSouth. At some point after that, AT&T made a deal with Yahoo to “Power” AT&T. I got emails warning about the change. These messages did not mean much to me. I would take what action needed to be taken, at the proper time. This afternoon, I got to a stopping point on a picture project, and tried to check email. The outlook express did not work. It was the start of a nightmare. …
… I am over call centers. The other night, I called Tracfone, and talked to a young man over a horrible connection. The man did not understand english very well. This is how companies save money, and increase unemployment in the United States. I was still connected to the internet, and went to the site where I check email away from home. I was directed to a new “powered by yahoo” site. I was required to register for a new system, amidst popup screens asking me to take a tour of the new AT&T. …
… Finally, I got through to my email, and found a one word comment to a blog post. Somebody thought the BHO health care plan was cool. Meanwhile, the yahoo site…which I use to check my yahoo account …was now logged in under a new account. Instead of logging in and out all the time, I decide to use one browser for yahoo and one browser for AT&T. It has been a while since I used the secondary browser. The AT&T page has a place where you can troubleshoot your email. I go there. …
… It tells you to go to an options tab on outlook, and enter a lot of numbers and settings. It did not make the outlook express work. There is a phone number for AT&T. I have spent quality time on this, talking to people in India, The Philippines, and Dothan, Alabama. I never thought I would be happy to get Alabama, but I was. To be fair, the people in these call centers are polite and hard working. They just have big problems to deal with, especially with this AT&T “powered by Yahoo” fiasco. …
… The number is busy, busy, busy. On the one time in twenty that I get through, I get chased off due to heavy call volume. I tried yet another time, and got through to an agent, with a good sounding connection. I am going to try to reconfigure the connection to outlook express. The last try did work. It took over an hour, and the old accounts had to be destroyed and new accounts set up. By the time it was over, I was ready to start as a tech rep and talk someone else through the process. I might even move to Alabama. … The pictures today are from Special Collections and Archives, Georgia State University Library. The social media picture was taken November 9, 1949. “Ford Motor Company display of 1950 models, Atlanta City Auditorium” · selah ©Luther Mckinnon 2025