He reminds me of JM Barrie, who I also have really mixed feelings about whether he molested the boys he was friends with.

Also, I think that the parents of those kids have to take some responsibility. Even though I don't think that he molested kids, I would not have let my children sleep in the same bed or sleep over with an adult.

I agree, those parents do have to take responsibility as well.

And as for him being a child molester--even though I feel that he is, I hope to god I'm wrong.

I'm all judgy pants on the parents too. I didn't believe that he was molesting kids, but I wouldn't allow my kids to be best buddies and sleep over pals with grown men either.

Scrappy speaks for me.

What bothers me about today's news is that they are reporting his kids are with his mother, and presumably, his father . . . who abused Michael. Here's hoping that Debbie Rowe didn't relinquish all her parental rights and that she'll take all three children? I don't know what's in their best interest, but good luck to the judge who has to sort it out.

I don't feel any real sense of loss from MJ's death. I thought he was creppy way before any of the molestation accusations were made, but I join Sparky in worrying about what will become of his kids.

I do think he molested kids, because he exhibits all the traits of molesters--no real adult sexual or social life, fetishizing childhood, spending all his money/time to ensure he was surrounded by young boys, etc. The molester I taught with did ALL those things.

Oi!

Which I guess is the worst part -- we'll never really know what happened. And anything that did happen is certainly a crime, and a shame for those hurt by his hand.

I guess what I'm getting at with Jackson's complete divorce from normality is to wonder, with an abusive upbringing himself, and an entire life spent insulated and surrounded by protecters and enablers, did he ever have a chance of being able to tell right from wrong? Especially in this one area. I suspect the life he led is as foreign to us as any kind of normal life was to him.

What bothers me about today's news is that they are reporting his kids are with his mother, and presumably, his father . . . who abused Michael.

Yeah, I hope somebody else ultimately gets custody of them. And I expect they're already stunted in certain ways, even if Michael never did anything but dote on them.

did he ever have a chance of being able to tell right from wrong?

Do you think this would play in court? That he's mentally incompetent to make moral choices? I don't.

You have to be schizophrenic or psychotic to get that benefit of the doubt legally. He made choices that were damaging and harmful to other people. He had a fucked up life, but so did my mom. She didn't fuck my life up. It stopped with her.

Yeah, but Hec, I think the difference then lies in the upbringing. If you'd been raised on the world stage with everyone telling you everything you did was wonderful and surrounded by sycophants who catered to your every whim, you undoubtedly would have turned out much, much different.

He never had a sense of what the world was like for the majority of its inhabitants.

ETA: Do I think it would play in court, however? Probably not. No matter how true it might be.