Ishmael Reed on Michael Jackson as a Function of Calif.

From Mr. Reed's new book, Mixing It Up Taking on the Media Bullies and Other Reflections, as excerpted in the Incredible Shrinking Dog-Trainer©™:

"California, where I live, is the Mecca of losing oneself, and becoming something different from what you began as. Out here a steroid-pumped B actor who has rented his face to some elderly social Darwinists can become governor. Brooklyn-born men and women become swamis and adopt Buddhism as a hobby. . . . And the current president, born to a patrician New England family, who was AWOL from his National Guard duties, enjoys dressing up as Tom Mix or Chuck Yeager. Jackson isn't a freak; Jackson is an American."

Well, he's a freaky American.