Michael Jackson: A zombie nation deserves a zombie mascot

James Kunstler: In his last years, he even looked a bit like Nosferatu, the personification of the un-dead, and his fascination with ghouls was the basis for his biggest hit way back in the last century.

SHOOT: Here James Kunstler provides an unsentimental obituary to a man, and a country, and both are sorely needed since both are so utterly devoid of living in the real world. Here's more truth serum:

James Kunstler:A nation addicted to lying to itself tells itself fairy tales instead of facing a pathology report. Yet, like Michael Jackson, the undertone of horror story still pulses darkly in the background. The little boy who grew up to be the simulation of a girl was really a werewolf.

clipped from kunstler.com Eerie parallels resound between the sordid demise of pop singer Michael Jackson and the fate of the nation.  Like the United States, Michael Jackson was spectacularly bankrupt, reportedly in the range of $800-million, which is rather a lot for an individual. Michael could burn through $50-million in half a year. It didn't seem to affect his credibility as a borrower.  When his heart stopped last week, he was living in a Hollywood mansion that rented for several hundred thousand dollars a month. You wonder how the landlord cashed those checks. Like the USA, Michael Jackson was a has-been. He hadn't recorded a song worth listening to in over two decades. He existed strictly on image, an anorectic figure nourished by moonbeams of attention, famous for saying that he loved his worshippers when the truth was he merely sucked the life out of them. A zombie nation deserves a zombie mascot. America is "the man in the mirror," the gigantic, floundering Narcissus, sailing into the stormy seas of history