Strollerderby : feud

UPDATE: Jamie Foxx Apologizes To Miley Cyrus

Brett Singer — Sun, 19 Apr 2009 03:30:00 GMT

Jamie Foxx issued a mea culpa on The Tonight Show With Jay Leno. EOnline.com reports that Foxx responded with a "Yeah" when Jay Leno asked him "Did you say something inappropriate?" Here's the rest of it from EOnline:

"I so apologize to [Cyrus], and this is sincere...I am a comedian, and you guys know that whatever I say, I don't mean any of it. And sometimes, as comedians, as we do, we go a little bit too far. I have a radio show...We're really the black Howard Stern. We go at everybody. There was a situation with Miley Cyrus, and I just want to say, I apologize for what I said. I didn't mean it maliciously. You know I'm a comedian."

Then, looking at the camera, "Miley, I apologize, so I'll call you. I got a daughter too, so I completely understand."

So there you go. Good enough? I think so. Do you agree?

Original post follows below.

*-*-*-*-*

So, like, hey now.

A little background. Jamie Foxx has a channel on SiriusXM Satellite Radio where he does a show called The Foxxhole. He said some... things about Miley Cyrus (aka Miley Ray Cyrus Hannah Montana Stewart Lipschutz). Someone called in and mentioned Miley's little dustup with Radiohead (she wanted to meet them, they said no, she got pissy and yakked about it on some radio show). The Oscar-winning Mr. Foxx then went off a bit. Here's the audio, which is not safe for work. At all. Seriously. You have been warned.

So yeah. He said it. There are a few other people in the mix, and I'm not sure who said what. I'm fairly certain it was Jamie Foxx who said that Miley should make a "sex tape", and then a female voice added "with your dad." "White bitch" was in there. Also something about doing heroin "like Britney" (I must have missed that headline about Brit nodding out), as well as a suggestion that Miley catch VD from a bicycle seat. (I didn't think that was possible, but hey, what do I know?)

A few things to say here. First, Foxx said this on his radio show this past Sunday. It appears to only be coming out now. That doesn't diminish it, but it does mean that not a lot of people heard the comments. Second, he was trying to be funny. That doesn't excuse the comments at all, of course. But in theory performers get more latitude when it comes to humor.

As for what was said: it was completely inappropriate and in incredibly poor taste. I'm not a fan of Miley's; I think her music is horrible, and the message of her entire persona seems to be that fame is a goal worth trying for, which is something I don't agree with. (That's the short version of a longer thought that I'll share one of these days.) In my opinion you can make fun of anything and talk about whatever you want. But when its an underage person, boy or girl, and you start saying "white bitch" and suggest that she make a sex tape with her dad, that seems unnecessary. He has the right to say it. But why would he? (A commenter at LATimes.com says that the Foxx clip is somewhat out of context, but, like the Rodney King video, I'm not sure that context matters in this case. Maybe it does, but I doubt it.)

There's also plenty to make fun of when it comes to Miley. The Radiohead thing. The fact that she sleeps in her parents bed sometimes, despite being sixteen years old. Her music. Her TV show. Lots of material to work with before you go to "white bitch" who should do heroin and make a sex tape.

What do you think? Should underage famous people be off-limits, at least in some ways? Or did Miley deserve it?

Source: EOnline

Image: Amazon

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Cranky Old Lady Keeps Neighbor Kids' Ball, Feels Long Arm Of The Law

Amy S.F. Lutz — Tue, 21 Oct 2008 18:33:00 GMT

How many times have we seen this situation on TV: kids are tossing around a ball when it lands over the fence, in the creepy old lady's yard next door. The kids huddle and strategize, trying to determine how best to get their ball back. In the end, the lonely old lady is revealed to have a heart of gold, and the kids learn the importance of respecting people's differences, as well as their property rights.

The 21st century version of that old chestnut, however, plays out a little differently. In today's version, 89-year-old Edna Jester, of Blue Ash, Ohio, keeps the kids' ball, because she's freakin' sick of the kids trespassing on her property. The parents call the police, who come and tell Jester that she can't keep the ball. When Jester refuses, she's arrested and charged with petty theft - a charge that carries a maximum sentence of six months in jail and a fine of $1000.

Apparently, possession is not nine-tenths of the law, after all.

From the news reports, it sounds as if this was not an isolated incident, but a frustrated response by Jester after the kids' ball repeatedly ended up in her yard. So, am I wrong in thinking that, instead of calling the cops, the parents should have done a better job teaching their kids to respect their elders, and to be more careful about not bothering their neighbor? What the kids have learned now is that they can be as inconsiderate as they want, and they'll still get their ball back.

Or maybe the kids were as careful as they could be - the reports aren't that detailed. I am definitely willing to admit that my allegiances have shifted as I've grown closer in age to the crotchety old women in the world than to the kids playing ball!

Mom Arrested After Egging Son On In Fight

Amy S.F. Lutz — Fri, 29 Aug 2008 18:29:00 GMT

Here are ways you as a parent are allowed to encourage your child: root him on in a baseball game; hang his artwork on the refrigerator; bring him a glass of lemonade while he's doing his homework.

Here's a way you as a parent are NOT allowed to encourage your child: telling him to hit another boy during a fight, using skills he learned from studying martial arts.

Amy Meehan, of Indianapolis, learned that (seemingly obvious) lesson the hard way. She was charged with neglect and contributing to the delinquency of a minor after not only failing to break up a fight between her 9-year-old son and another boy in the neighborhood, but of actually - according to a witness - arming her son with a stick during the fight. Her four children were also removed from her home, pending a court appearance.

Meehan's story is quite different, natch. She claimed that the other boy was coming after her son with a stick, and that she encouraged her son to defend himself.

It's hard to get to the bottom of this story, because, according to Meehan's boyfriend, the fight stemmed from a "neighborhood feud," so I'm guessing that neither the participants nor the witnesses can be trusted to be completely straightforward.

Controversy: Feuding in the Internet Age

Amy S.F. Lutz — Fri, 25 Apr 2008 12:03:00 GMT

Probably the most surprising thing about writing for Strollerderby was when I found out that, in some cases, the people I wrote about were reading, and sometimes commenting on, my posts about them. Honestly, it never occurred to me that these figures in the news would care about - or even find out about - whatever snarky observations I had to make about their situations.

It has been really interesting this past week, following the debates on two of my posts, as relatives and friends of the posts' subjects jumped in to argue opposite points of view. "Teen Fakes Pregnancy," is a post about a high school student, Danica Esau, who pretended to be pregnant to raise awareness about the plight of pregnant teens. Classmates of Danica's were quick to post comments accusing her of staging the pregnancy just for the attention; one reader claimed, "she doesn't care about pregnant teens, and their unborn children she believes that they should all be aborted." Another, obviously adult reader (and acquaintance, at the very least, of Danica's) jumped to her defense, explaining, "She was asked to this by an organization and to write about it for a study . . . She does care about pregnant teens."

But the more uncomfortable debate accompanied the post, "Is Your Surgeon An Addict?", which talked about confidential rehab programs for drug and alcohol-addicted doctors. In the comment section, two readers - who identified one another as the wife of one of the addicted doctors named in the post and the sister of a patient of that doctor, who had recently died due (the family claimed) to his malpractice - exchanged hostile accusations. The former called the latter and her supporters, "all truly evil and incredibly unhappy people." The sister responded, "If you believe everything [the doctor] says, that is expected, I guess . . . You ignore evidence . . . not accusations, evidence."

I guess it's healthy that people embroiled in these kind of controversial situations have sounding boards where they can safely vent, with no risk of an argument escalating into violence. And it certainly reminds me that there are real people at the center of the endless amount of blog postings I write, and might help to increase sensitivity and awareness on the part of all bloggers and commenters.

One reader of the doctor post made an interesting point: "The truth is very easy to see in these forums, and that is what matters." I'm not sure if truth is revealed, but certainly the complexity of the situations is made abundantly clear, and how passionately people are invested in them.