Requiem for the Pop King Who Changed History

Last night, Michael Jackson passed away at the age of 50. Around the world, the response has been the same: absolute shock and intense sadness. Anything we could possibly say would merely echo the sentiments of those around the world: how the man was beloved for his work, changed the game in every way for black artists of future generations yet remained tortured by the allegations that haunted him.

Just to highlight one effect of his legacy, take a look at the following story, which took place just before the release of Thriller in 1983, one of the bestselling albums of all time:

In 1980, when Jackson asked the publicist of Rolling Stone if they would be interested in doing a cover story on him, the publicist declined, to which Jackson responded, “I’ve been told over and over that black people on the cover of magazines doesn’t sell copies … Just wait. Someday those magazines are going to be begging me for an interview. Maybe I’ll give them one. And maybe I won’t.”

Throughout his career, Michael Jackson emphasized unity, a celebration of the world’s diversity and respect for all people and creatures.  Extraordinary in his artistic talent, he is a role model for his selfless charity work.

He will be sorely missed.

Posted by:

Steve Romain

Keeping It Real: Gay Rights In The Year of Brüno

99Problems.org is founded on the principles of empowerment through open discussion and debate. We value open discussion that allows you, the reader, to see all sides of the issue. That’s why we’re introducing a feature we’d like to call..

(*drumroll please*)

This week, we’re covering the most controversial movie star in recent history: Sacha Baron Cohen and his movie Brüno, which is set to be released next week. Some think that Brüno’s release is going to have a huge detrimental effect on modern perspectives of the homosexual male. We asked our reporters this question:

Check out what they had to say, after the jump!

… Continue Reading

Posted by:

The Editor

How Does That Butt Taste?

Are you smoking a cigarette while reading this? You’d better not be. That’s the message President Obama wanted to convey on Monday when he signed into effect a new law on smoking.

The law, the toughest ever, bans advertising or luring youth through flavored cigarettes and cigars. It also forbids advertising at sporting events, free samples, and the use of “mild” or “light” in describing cigarettes. Finally, tobacco companies will have to fully disclose all ingredients used in cigarettes, as well as use graphic images on their packs to illustrate the effects of smoking on the body.

Gotta say, Obama’s got a point. Smoking is basically like a socially acceptable form of prolonged suicide. It is by far one of the worst things you could ever do to your body. In the time you took to read this paragraph so far, someone, somewhere in the world has died of cigarettes. It happens every 8 seconds. Yet in the last minute, 10 million cigarettes were purchased around the world. Some of them will have been purchased by the 3000 American youth that tried smoking for the first time ever today. And of them, half of the ones who become long-term smokers will die in the future from a tobacco-related illness.

So you’ve heard the same message from your health teacher or parents before. You’re sick of hearing the same old thing. It still doesn’t change the fact that what they say is true. Is this stressful to hear? Are you thinking of going out for a smoke because of it?

Just know that if you do, you’ll shorten your life by 11 minutes, every time you light up.

Posted by:

Yolanda Clatworthy

Too Young To Die: The Uninsured Generation

Last night, I found myself on my couch playing Tony Hawk’s Project 8, a game about extreme skateboarding. It was raining outside, so I figured, the best way to kill some time would be to send a ridiculous looking video game version of myself flying over ramps and sailing into walls, face first. This game has an interesting feature: if you have a particularly huge ‘bail’ (skater talk for falling off your skateboard), the game tells you how much your hospital bill would be… and rewards you if you get a bill over $80,000.

Now, I’m not a skateboarder or extreme sportster in any sense of the word. But I did have a bit of a scare recently: I started developing these incredibly intense headaches during strenuous activity. Almost immediately, I went to my local doctor and was told that I needed to see a neurologist. The problem is, I couldn’t afford it. Like 45 MILLION – about 1 in 8 – other Americans, I didn’t have insurance. My story is that the recession had taken its toll and my dad – who insured me – was out of a job. But the coverage was spotty my entire life: I’ve gone through about 30-40 different insurance plans, as he has changed jobs a lot over the past 20 years. This story isn’t unique: the widespread lack of affordable, reliable health coverage for the under-30 population is one of the most terrifying trends in American society that we must work diligently to reverse.

Most of the time we can’t afford it. But sometimes, like the AIDS denialism that Yolanda mentioned earlier today, we’re prone to the condition that as young people, we’re basically invincible. … Continue Reading

Posted by:

Steve Romain

Aspirin And Bedrest Don’t Cure AIDS

Each minute around the world, approximately 6 people will die of AIDS. Despite this, a disturbingly large group of people deny the link between HIV and AIDS, meaning that they refuse life-saving antiretroviral drugs in favor of alternative therapies.

The consequences of AIDS denialism can be fatal, as seen last December when a California woman died of AIDS after refusing drugs that would probably have saved her life. Furthermore, her infant daughter had died several years earlier when the woman transmitted the virus to her daughter through breastfeeding, despite warnings not to do so. Thabo Mbeki, the former president of South Africa and another AIDS denialist, indirectly caused an estimated 365,000 premature deaths when he prevented the administration of HIV treatments to citizens who were HIV positive. And more deaths will occur if AIDS denialism continues.

In light of this, how the heck do people refute the connection between AIDS and HIV? Quite easily actually, as there is plenty of “evidence” on the web backing them up…

Find out some of the eerie details, after the jump.
… Continue Reading

Posted by:

Yolanda Clatworthy