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Eminentoes

Two and a Half Meltdowns

By on 3.7.11 @ 6:07AM

Sitcom star Charlie Sheen’s madness is no laughing matter.


Exactly when Charlie Sheen’s craziness stopped being funny is difficult to pinpoint. Many people were still laughing last Monday when, in an interview aired on the Today show, the actor proclaimed: “I’m tired of pretending like I’m not special… a total fricking rock star from Mars.”

The laughter faded as Sheen continued his weeklong media blitzkrieg, prompted by the decision of CBS to cancel taping of his situation comedy Two and a Half Men in the middle of its eighth hit season. Sheen was interviewed on ABC, NBC, and CNN, as well as by the online gossip site TMZ. Some people were still laughing Tuesday when the British Guardian newspaper offered an online quiz with a series of 10 outlandish quotes, asking readers to guess whether they were from Sheen or Libyan dictator Moammar Gaddafi.

Yet as the $2-million-an-episode star of television’s No. 1 primetime show kept spewing deranged gibberish in public — “These resentments, they are the rocket fuel that lives in the tip of my saber” — it became obvious that Sheen was not being intentionally funny. People weren’t laughing with Charlie, they were laughing at Charlie, and some weren’t laughing at all.

Celebrity psychiatrist Dr. Drew Pinsky described Sheen’s condition as a “psychiatric emergency,” most probably the manic phase of bipolar disorder (also known as manic depression) and requiring hospitalization: “He’s in an acute manic state right now.… Notice how he goes from thought to thought and they are sort of disconnected? That’s acute mania.” Practicing clinicians seldom offer such remote diagnoses of public figures, which can be deemed an ethical violation of the so-called “Goldwater Rule.” However, Pinsky’s concerns were echoed by others in Hollywood who have dealt with mental illness or addiction issues, including actor Gary Busey, who said Sheen is in a “tailspin,” and Tom Arnold, who accused those close to Sheen of exploiting his problems.

Perhaps the biggest of Sheen’s problems is that he has succeeded so well by exploiting his own reputation as the baddest of Hollywood’s bad boys. One of the most promising talents in the 1980s “Brat Pack” of young actors, Sheen starred in his first Oscar-winner (Oliver Stone’s 1986 Vietnam War drama Platoon) at a precocious age, as he pointed out in his interview with NBC’s Jeff Rossen: “I mean, c’mon bro, I won best picture at 20. I wasn’t even trying.” Sheen also starred in Stone’s next drama (Wall Street, 1987), but displayed his comic flair in hits like Ferris Bueller’s Day Off (1986) and Major League (1989).

Sheen’s star perceptibly dimmed in the 1990s, which was when he starred in his first major real-life scandal, as “Client 9” in the 1995 federal trial of notorious “Hollywood Madam” Heidi Fleiss. Sheen wrote personal checks to pay for the services of Fleiss’s prostitutes. An attorney pointed out during Sheen’s testimony that these checks amounted to more than $50,000 in a single year, to which the star replied: “Sheesh, it’s starting to add up.”

His drug and booze habits were also starting to add up. He first checked himself into rehab in 1990 and, after divorcing his first wife in 1997, publicly declared himself a born-again Christian. But in 1998, paramedics rushed to Sheen’s home in Malibu after the 32-year-old actor suffered an overdose that landed him in the hospital in critical condition. Despite all his high-profile problems, however, Sheen kept working as an actor and — in what has lately become his famous catch-phrase — kept “winning.” In 2000, he was tapped to replace Michael J. Fox in the hit sitcom Spin City and two years later married one of Hollywood’s most beautiful young actresses, Denise Richards.

Then, in 2003, Sheen landed the role of a lifetime, playing a thinly-disguised version of himself: Charlie Harper, the womanizing songwriter and live-in uncle on Two and a Half Men. The success of the CBS show is credited with single-handedly reviving the situation comedy format, which TV industry watchers had declared artistically and commercially “dead” until Sheen’s show vaulted CBS to the top of the primetime competition.

His professional success, however, did nothing to repair Sheen’s catastrophic personal life. Richards filed for divorce in 2005 and, after an attempted reconciliation, went public with devastating accusations against Sheen in a 2006 court filing: He was addicted to gambling and prostitutes, mentally unstable, prone to violence and obscene threats and — worst of all — visited online porn sites that catered to pedophilia, Richards said. Sheen did little to repair his reputation by lashing out at Richards, with whom he has two daughters, in obscenity-strewn e-mails denouncing her as a “loser” and a “sad jobless pig.” His next marriage, to actress Brooke Mueller, was brief and stormy. After marrying Sheen in 2008, Mueller gave birth to twins in 2009. On Christmas Day of that year, police arrested Sheen on a domestic-violence charge at the couple’s Aspen vacation home. Their divorce was finalized last month, by which time Sheen had already given tabloids another juicy headline: Police were called to Sheen’s room in New York’s Plaza Hotel after the actor allegedly terrorized his “date,” a 22-year-old porn performer known as Capri Anderson.

Another 22-year-old porn actress, Kacey Jordan, was at the center of Sheen’s next headline-making scandal: A January party to which the actor reportedly had a briefcase full of cocaine delivered, wrote Jordan a $30,000 check, and ended up hospitalized at Cedars Sinai Medical Center. Sheen at first agreed to another round of rehab, but then said he could kick his addictions without professional help, which led to a showdown with the producers of Two and a Half Men.

On Feb. 24, Sheen called into a nationally syndicated radio show hosted by Alex Jones, who is most famous for supporting the conspiracy-theory claim that the 9/11 attacks were a U.S. government plot. Sheen pronounced himself the victim of an “unconscionable wrong,” and called Two and a Half Men producer Chuck Lorre a “contaminated little maggot” and an “earthworm.” CBS quickly announced it was cancelling production on the show for the remainder of the season. This seemed to have pushed Sheen further into the “acute manic state” that Pinsky described. He appeared in TV interviews with two 24-year-old live-in girlfriends (one of whom was, predictably, a porn actress), ranting that he had “been kicked around” by CBS and that the network had “picked a fight with a warlock.”

It appears that his success has convinced Sheen that the rules don’t apply to him, that the rulebook “was written for normal people, people who aren’t special, people who don’t have tiger blood and Adonis DNA,” as he told NBC. But he may have finally located the limit of his own specialness. His week of demented TV interviews was followed by a rambling Saturday night Webcast (“a sloppy, self-indulgent bit of cringe theater” featuring “a posse of chuckleheads and enablers,” one critic called it), showcasing Sheen’s twisted mental condition for a worldwide audience. “All of a sudden the idea of that charming cad Charlie has started to fade,” Robert Thompson, a professor of media studies at Syracuse University, told the Los Angeles Times. After CBS cancelled Sheen’s show, Thompson said, “now it’s like he doesn’t know when to exit the stage.” Many will be amazed if the troubled actor can exit this meltdown alive, but already the laugh-track has ended.

About the Author

Robert Stacy McCain is co-author (with Lynn Vincent) of Donkey Cons: Sex, Crime, and Corruption in the Democratic Party (Nelson Current). He blogs at The Other McCain.

Letter to the Editor View all comments (124) |

A. Murray Kahn| 3.7.11 @ 6:56AM

Over at The American Thinker the comments are running for Mr. Sheen and against the messenger by a significant margin. Having worked professionally with addicts, it is plain to me that Charles is in serious trouble. Every story is different. Keith Richards is still around after behavior recounted in his bestseller that would kill most. However, Mr. Sheen is in grave danger, both physically and morally. The big news is not that another narcissist is on the skids, but that so many are in denial. This is not a good sign for our future as we attempt to confront the same manic, delusional, hubristic attitude in Washington where the addiction is to money and power and denial makes lies of hope.

Lullabys, Legends and Lies| 3.7.11 @ 8:38AM

A. M. Kahn: Having worked with addicts as you have, you well know, nobody can save Charlie, except Charlie himself. You can talk to him all daylong, until you're blue in the face, but if he's not ready to listen, he won't hear a thing you have to say. I remember sitting in a chair at rehab back in 2000, and thinking to myself, these people are a bunch of fools, who don't know a thing about me, and I'm just going to say what they want to hear, and then do my own thing again, once I get out. But then, a funny thing happened to me, I had a life changing experience while I was there, and I changed my mindset, and took a step in the right direction for the first time in years. Now here it is eleven years later, and I haven't had a drink (or the other stuff I did when I was drinking), and now I just take it one day at a time now, the old Keep It Simple Stupid (KISS). Today, I'm not going to drink, or do the other stuff I did when I was drinking (see, that's easy?)!! I hope Charlie has the same life changing experience as I did, but he won't, until he's ready too, and hopefully, that won't be too late for him. Oh yeah, by the way, Thank you for your service, in a very under appreciated, yet very life changing job, you might not save them all, but the ones you do save are grateful for the second chance you helped provide. Airborne!!

mames| 3.7.11 @ 1:34PM

This apple is hugging the tree trunk. Dad is and has been unhinged for many years. He used to play with drugs now he plays with liberation theology ala the Beregans. The difference is that Martin has incredible talent, his sons have mediocre skills. generational decay. wait 'till the grandchildren come of age. so very sad. For an object lesson look at the geneology of another famous Irish family, the Kennedys.

Alan Brooks| 3.7.11 @ 8:49PM

You are underestimating Sheen, he is crazy like a fox;
as Liberace said: "I'm crying all the way to the bank." Sheen will write a tell-all book that'll sell more copies than all of OJs attorneys rolled into one and multiplied by 10.

Grzmlyk| 3.7.11 @ 9:23PM

You clearly understanding nothing of the economics of entertainment.

Let me get this straight: The guy's going to give up $40 million a year minimum guaranteed at the front end for three more years (that's $120 million) to write a book that, even at its most lucrative, would net him MAYBE $15 million?

That's liberal accounting for you.

Tomas| 3.8.11 @ 6:56PM

No, Alan's right. Americans love stories about the melt-downs, about the idols who have self-destructed. It's juicy stuff, especially if Martin goes into detail about his porn connection.

Martin doesn't need to work another day in his life. He has made more in one minute than most of us make in a year; in an hour he has made more than we will make in a lifetime. He's set financially....

But, that isn't why he would write a book. It's an ego thing.

Martin is bipolar. No question there. We lived next door to a bipolar woman who would go off her meds and self-medicate with booze and cigarettes. It would come down to her shatting herself in her bed, wandering down the street in -10F weather in her nightgown, screaming obscenities at everyone.

It's obvious to me that Martin, at the very least, is bipolar.

However, I have had two close friends develop schizophrenia, and many of Martin's symptoms - particularly in those weekend web-casts - appear dangerously close to that horrible affliction. I really pray that isn't the case.

Please, Martin, get help. We don't want to see another man laying on the cold slab.

And to all you enablers, everyone who "supports" Martin, all you sycophants, go jump off a very tall cliff. You're killing this man. It isn't funny anymore.

-

Dale Cord| 3.9.11 @ 12:55PM

Liberace because of his indestructible mentality as most multi-millionaires in Hollywierd have. Became a permanent resident in the posh graveyards for those who think they can lead a decadent life of immoral behavior. Unfortunately Mr. Sheen will join the ranks of those drug induced and self destructive individuals who cut their lives short by being their own worst enemy. To name just a few of the millions. Michael Jackson,Elvis Presley,Janis Joplin, Rock Hudson,James Dean,Sal Mineo,Jim Morrison,John Kennedy,Marilin Monroe,etc,etc,etc. Victims that kept company with the snake of the Garden of Eden.

Donna| 3.7.11 @ 7:01AM

I hope he has some warm loving arms to fall into after his destruction of everything and anybody who came into his path. You just look at this and say, someone hug this guy – he’s in pain.

Robbins Mitchell| 3.7.11 @ 8:31AM

Warm loving arms?...not that it would do a damn bit of good,but his daddy needs to go over there and slap his ass around for a few hours

oldfart| 3.7.11 @ 8:45AM

Amen to that brother!! It is amazing how the 'current' thinking is never child NO, never give correction, always tell them they are wonderful - BS. What you get is a child that does not know right from wrong and - as Babby Sheen admits - he can get away with anything.
Does he have talent - sure - but his greatest personal accomplishments seem to be 'how bad can I act and still get away with it'. He is really lucky he has not killed anyone - yet.

scotchieguy| 3.8.11 @ 12:41AM

Just like Randy Moss--maybe he suffers from ODD, oppositional defiance disorder...or maybe he is just another Hollywood Narcissist. Either way, it is sad, esp how the media just uses this odd behavior for its own ratings.

Peppermint Tea| 3.7.11 @ 10:09AM

He has hired 'tutes and live-in skanks--how many loving arms do you need? I agree with above--he need a loving paddle on his backside till it's warm.

Cris| 3.7.11 @ 12:26PM

Exactly what I was thinking, Donna. Sheen needs the love and care of a wise, gentle, mature woman. Luckily for him, there is one available. Who else but Snooki can do the job?

beebop| 3.7.11 @ 6:42PM

I can't for the life of me imagine a wise, gentle, mature woman who would be in the least bit interested in providing entertainment for this mess. But. People do weird things especially when "celebrity" is involved.

RT| 3.7.11 @ 7:44AM

If he is indeed bipolar and is going through a manic episiode then this is more serious than the tabliods and late night comedians realise. It's tragic, in fact.

Au Contraire| 3.7.11 @ 8:25AM

Unfortunately, it's impossible to make such a diagnosis at a distance. Even a psychiatrist working directly with him will have the tough task of weeding out which parts of his problems are the result of substance abuse and which are innate.

That said, if I were making a snap judgement, I'd say this is all about drugs. This guy is a walking "Just Say No" ad.

Occam's Tool| 3.7.11 @ 11:57PM

The differentiation is made worse by the fact that meth use can leave one with a bipolar like mood disorder---permanently. Nasty, nasty. I'm glad I'm not trreating him. When I practiced in CA in the 1990s (in training) I don't believe that we had an involuntary substance abuse treatment law. By the way, Pinsky is an Internist, not a Psychiatrist. But Sheen's condition isn't subtle.

Deborah D | 3.7.11 @ 8:12AM

I've always disliked that show -- Two and a Half Men -- I always thought the half-man was really Sheen himself as depicted on the show. What does it say about us that his show, which basically glorifies adolescent men and uses it's main actor as a wealth of material, is so popular? I've never thought much of Charlie Sheen, but anyone could see this crash coming from miles away.

Grzmlyk| 3.7.11 @ 8:29AM

I just don't have sympathy for narcissists - particularly those who are "to the manor born" and have exploited their exploitation of others to catapult themselves into positions of staggering wealth and outsized influence.

I've dealt with pathological narcissists in real life, and, sure, from a 50,000-foot level you might say, geez, something horrible must be making this person treat me so selfishly, manipulatively, sadistically, whatever, and, indeed, I genuinely pity the miscreant for the obvious and tragic disconnect that has fractured his/her psyche, and for the barren, desolate inner moonscape that's left behind, the entire surface of which is etched by the claw marks of insatiable, lonely despair.

But dealing with them in the real world? Particularly if they have some form of power? After years of hard less0ns, I have learned summarily to excommunicate pathological narcissists from my life; they can bloody well act out their craziness elsewhere. At what point does a battered woman stop offering the loving arms of forgiveness to her abuser, pack her bags and declare that her man's demons are his own damned problem, and until he solves it completely - and probably not even then - it's sayonara?

I'm starting to feel a little battered myself at the hands of the ubiquitous rantings of Good Time Charlie.

If Sheen were in politics, we'd be looking at a Hugo Chavez or an Idi Amin or a Che Guevara (who is also revered in our pop culture) or what Barack Obama would be like if only he can figure out how to put enough czars between himself and what's left of our constitutional form of government (which ain't much).

Sheen's had all the advantages that are available to a very small fraction of Americans, and he has been lucky enough to parlay a miniscule amount of talent into hundreds of millions of dollars - dollars he then uses to prop up what is rotten in our society.

Charlie Sheen has never entertained me - the movie that made his bones was "Platoon," a puerile Oliver Stone piece of simplistic, manichean dreck that is virtually unwatchable today. He did display a minimal ability to do deadpan comedy in some of the spoofs he did - which is now the printing press by which he manufactures money to support his numerous hangers-on, buy his friends and make himself attractive to young porn stars eager to pretend they want him sexually in order to score a $30,000 payday.

Perhaps Mike Tyson can teach him a thing or two about what happens to crazy, destructive, abusive whack jobs once they stop being the locomotive in a gravy train that ferries myriad "friends" between anonymous banality and the lucre that lies at the foot of the Big Rock Candy Mountan.

No, I do not look at the sweaty, dessicating, deranged wild man of the moment with tenderness or empathy.

I believe in personal responsibility: You made your bed, Charlie. Now, for the love of god, shut the hell up and lie in it.
.

Lullabys, Legends and Lies| 3.7.11 @ 8:48AM

Grzmlyk: Man, you sure do have a way with the words, even though I still have to look up many of them in my handy dandy, trusty and only slightly rusty dictionary, to understand what you're really trying to say. But you're right, Charlie's been given it all in life, and he's throwing it all away, so it's hard to feel bad for him (but I do).

Grzmlyk| 3.7.11 @ 9:28AM

Thank you, Triple L. I'm impressed by your post as well - and very glad for you that you overcame your troubles.

I'm no expert on psychology, but it seems to me that you are capable of having empathy for others - which means you were never as far down the rabbit hole as I think Charlie is.

It took me until I was in my mid-thirties to recognize the various narcissists I had encountered in my life; unfortunately, that crash course came at the hands of a pathological narcissist who was my boss for three years, and he had everyone at our company fooled - except for a very small handful of those of us who had to suffer the jackal behind the mask.

Eventually, the truth came out, of course, but not before the guy had wreaked havoc in our office and inflicted very real misery upon pretty much all of the lives he touched.

I've dealt with other narcissists as well. Again, intellectually, I do pity them. But they are always and everywhere destructive, and I'll be damned if I'm going to give them an opportunity to injure my life any more, and I truly believe in the conservative philosophy of individual responsibility.

I cringe when otherwise level-headed conservatives "go native" and spew feel-good liberal bromides and indulge in rescue fantasies. One guy on an earlier post on Amspec was quite proud of his own limitless capacity for compassion for Charlie, the poor victim of his own appetites (but apparently Mr. Compassionate Conservative was completely unaware of his own overarching moral vanity).

I'm betting Charlie gets help - in fact, the only thing I'm dreading more than another Sheen rant about his tiger blood is the inevitable post-rehab appearance on Oprah when, in an effort to rehabilitate his career, he will ostentatiously broadcast his sincere contrition and his generous contributions to halfway houses and rehab centers. Then will come the de rigeuer public service announcements about the evils of drug abuse. Then will come the relapses. Then will come the further rehabs. Until one day, maybe 10 years hence, we read his obituary and say to ourselves, "oh yeah, I remember that guy. Didn't he do a TV show or something?"

Call me cynical, but I think the guy's a through-and-through schmuck, drunk or sober. Who knows if it's nature, nurture or just plain bad luck, but, if I were in a lifeboat after a shipwreck, and it had a capacity of four, and we already had on board a doctor, an environmental engineer, an artist and me, if Charlie Sheen swam up and asked if we'd let him climb into the boat, I'd row faster.

Laurey Boyd| 3.7.11 @ 9:46AM

You sound like Dennis Miller. That's a compliment.

Lullabys, Legends and Lies| 3.7.11 @ 12:56PM

You said I probably was "never as far down the rabbit hole as I think Charlie is", well you'd be wrong about that, I dug the friggin' hole that Charlie is living in now. Back in the day (on a Wednesday) I used to think I was being followed by the Phone-Police (that's how paranoid I was). Now don't ask why they were called the Phone-Police but that's what I called them (I think I made them up in my head, or at least I hope I made them up?), and they were everywhere I went, following me, day and night, listening to my every phone call too (come to think of it, that's why I called them the Phone Police). Looking back now, it's kind of funny, to think I thought crap like that, but back then, nobody could've told me they weren't real, they were, and they were building a case against me to destroy me (I'm not sure, but I think it's still pending?). It's good to be clean and sober now, even if I'm one of the only ones around who is, Soldiers in the Army party like lunatics on the weekends you see (but I stay home and watch TV-Boring!!). I still don't like using the phone though!!

Steve A| 3.7.11 @ 3:30PM

LLL, You were not paranoid. Philthecapitalistpig, Ggrzmlyk & I were following you back in the day & we are still monitoring your actions on this site. There is also a hidden camera in your cable box on top of your TV.

Grzmlyk| 3.7.11 @ 3:40PM

Thanks for blowing my cover, Steve.

Now I have to give up my position behind the Yucca plant in LLL's den.

:-)

PolishKnight| 3.7.11 @ 1:11PM

What a fun comment!

While it's kind of trashy to jump on the bandwagon on this, it's also useful to put into perspective a larger trend as Grzmlyk has about narcissists in general. They are selfish, destructive, and often charming people. They sometimes do have "tiger blood." Or sometimes they're just lucky schmucks whose egos blow up.

The whole ideology of the Hollywood left is one of superiority and entitlement: Show up for a few charity events, say the right PC things, and then you can bash middle America. Then they go out and engage in drunken walkabouts that would make the Rat Pack wince!

Indeed, it's useful to compare the Hollywood of old, which was very conservative, with the Hollywood of today. Both had lots of substance abusers, divorce, and huge egos and even acted as destructive role models (how many working class men destroyed their lives trying to emulate Sinatra?)

Somehow, it just seems different today. There ARE stable leftist Hollywood actors and actresses out there making a living but it seems like they're in the minority, doesn't it?

JRGierlach| 3.7.11 @ 1:20PM

Grzmlyk, Yawn. Charlie Sheen is still alive? Who'd a thunk it. Your comments are indeed cogent, but I have so little regard for what passes in Holyweird that I can barely muster the energy to "yawn."

Grzmlyk| 3.7.11 @ 1:56PM

Well, I understand, but the real issue is a creeping, collective sociopathy, which is metastasizing across our culture. Sure, it's at home in Hollywood, but the cancer is by no means confined to it.

And a culture in which a Charlie Sheen becomes a Charlie Sheen, and in which there seem to be ever more Charlie Sheens, should give everyone pause.

These are issues that indeed affect you. Hollywood is a mirror, after all - and the deification of people like the Kardashians (and no, I've never watched a single show) - who got famous initially because their father was OJ's lawyer - or the inane utterings of a "respectable" actress like Natalie Portman - who, although she is unwed, pregnant and a promoter of every liberal cause that's ever come down the pike is considered one of tinseltown's real role models - ought to be alarming.

90 years ago, Fatty Arbuckle, a Hollywood mega-star, got caught up in an unseemly scandal in which a "b-girl" actress died, ostensibly because of a perverse sex act performed by Arbuckle, at an alledgedly orgiastic party.

It wasn't true (Arbuckle was exonerated after three trials), but even though it was the height of the Jazz Age morality, Arbuckle was ostracized pretty much right out of the business because of the depraved nature of the incident.

Today, a publicist might concoct just such an incident for her wannabe client in order to make him a household name and maybe land a reality TV show - to be followed by appearances on the talk show circuit, an as-told-to autobiography and maybe a multi-picture deal with a major studio.

We have decided as a culture that all morality is relative, and that those who try to live lives above reproach are the real suckers while those who indulge every whim, scratch every itch, obey no rules, are the ones to be emulated.

As a result, I think Hollywood's antics - and our embrace of them - say a lot about the world we currently live in.

Occam's Tool| 3.8.11 @ 12:00AM

Well, Sheen bugs me, too. I trained in LA, but I left as soon as the training was done. Types like Charlie, who are sick and rich and famous, are not fun to treat, particularly in chemical dependency settings where humility is an asset.

Edo| 3.7.11 @ 8:53AM

Totally agree. Where's Martin Sheen to kick his son's ass up the river to meet Kurtz (the ghost of Marlon Brando). Kurtz would put the fear of God into Charlie, the weenie.

GavInTucson| 3.7.11 @ 9:51PM

Speaking of which, Charlie seems to be acting much like the reporter (Dennis Hopper) in that movie.

"Fractions? You can't land on the Moon with fractions, man!"

cuban pete| 3.7.11 @ 9:07AM

On the money as usual. The last paragraph says it all.
"In the Big Rock Candy Mountain all the jails are made of tin.
And you can walk right out again as soon as soon as you walk in."

Steve A| 3.7.11 @ 10:16AM

Tyson rates way higher than Charlie in terms of self analysis. If you have not seen it, I suggest you rent "Tyson" on DVD. Well worth watching. He readily admits what a dirt bag he was & is. Very interesting & amazing story.

Grzmlyk| 3.7.11 @ 12:27PM

I'm not familiar with the DVD - I will absolutely pick it up and watch it.

Tyson has always fascinated me. Unlike many, I actually think the guy has the soul of a poet, and I'm guessing his native IQ would surprise many.

Unfortunately, I also believe he has serious anger issues, he is totally uneducated and never had any guidance for his innate philosophical inquisitiveness, which led him far, far astray.

Unlike Charlie, my heart really goes out to Tyson; I think he is possessed of some self-awareness, and things might have been very different for him. But, like Charlie, he has to look to no one but himself and his choices for his lot in life.

And he didn't have Sheen's many advantages; the only guidance Tyson ever got was from Cus D'Amato, who did what he could, but, really, the damage was already done, and Cus was in his life for all too brief a respite from the parasites, users, thugs and cretins that populated the rest of Tyson's world.

My only point in bringing up Tyson is that, in the tradition of suddenly-wealthy but unsavvy boxers, Tyson threw money around at his "friends" to a comic extent - purchasing, what, a dozen Bentleys in one day for various hangers on?

Where are they now, I wonder? And that's the crux: Once he burned through his money, all of those friends and well-wishers, the sycophants, the yes men, the leeches, the enablers and the gold-digging girls, stopped coming around.

Eventually, good ole' Charlie is going to learn the hard way that it's not his tiger blood or his Adonis DNA that attract people to him. And it certainly isn't his kindness or his charm.

Like Tyson, what draws people to Good Time Charlie is his big, fat wallet. Take that away and the guy's a big friggin' ZERO.

Steve A| 3.7.11 @ 3:02PM

Yes, precisely. Tyson readily admits these facts throughout a wide ranging interview as his career is detailed in clips of his bouts. He recognized that the $$ worked against his happiness, he recognized the leeches & struggles to understand why he continues to surround himself with them. He prefers their company, sheds his $$ to seek their approval all the while knowing he is getting played. It is classical self destruction but the man is intelligent enough to recognize it but simply can't stop himself. There are some bright spots with his kids. Unlike Sheen, I think there is hope for Mike. I found myself somehow respecting his sincerity & liking the man. He is brutally honest.

Grzmlyk| 3.7.11 @ 3:52PM

I agree - one of the few times I've really surprised myself is when I began to follow Tyson's career thinking he was just a malevolent animal.

I quickly found myself feeling a respect and affection for him, in spite of his problems.

And while I'm no expert on boxing, I remember running into a couple of boxing experts years ago - just to make conversation, and without thinking, I reiterated a platitude I'd heard somewhere - that Tyson wasn't a boxer as much as he was a puncher - well, I got taken to school on that one right quick.

They both proceeded to articulate for me, in great, precise and convincing detail, how good a pure boxer Tyson was, how flawless was his technique, particularly early on.

I've always been drawn to his strange and incongruously poetic nature - even as I was repelled by the other side of him.

It's too bad he's become the butt of so many jokes.

PhilTheCapitalistPig| 3.7.11 @ 3:14PM

Tyson is a genius in the sport of boxing. He knows techniques as well as anyone in the sport. I put him on the boxing knowledge level of Emanuel Steward or Freddie Roach. If Tyson decides to start training guys seriously, then I can assure you he will produce some beasts.

Steve A| 3.7.11 @ 3:22PM

Phil, I take Tyson at 20 & he destroys anyone who has ever put on gloves. I'm sorry but watching those clips of his early bouts flat out scares me. The dude was an absolute monster.

You may be right on him but it is sometimes difficult for the best to train others. It would be interesting though.

H Hamilton| 3.9.11 @ 9:44AM

Stay away from loud, obnoxious people...they are vexations to the spirit.

Louis Jenkins| 3.7.11 @ 8:50AM

Even Charlie's daddy had his day. The best we can do is move on to other tidbits of daily news, and let the man sink in his rowboat. When the calls stop coming, and they will, what's he gonna do?

Steve A| 3.7.11 @ 8:52AM

Taking bets. Who loves themself more, Charlie or Barak??

Grzmlyk| 3.7.11 @ 9:41AM

Barack the Destroyer wins hands down. He's in a much greater position to impose his will on a hostage general populace and bask in his own reflected glory.

But you know who loves themselves even more than Barack?

The credulous, foolish, blinkered liberals who never stop bowing at the altar of their own vanity who put Obama into office and continue to applaud his fiddling even as Rome burns.

beebop| 3.7.11 @ 6:48PM

WJW (words, just words) 0bama is in a class all his own. No peer.

GavInTucson| 3.7.11 @ 9:54PM

Øbama, hands down.

Bob K.| 3.7.11 @ 8:59AM

The perils of being a celebrity in an age where publicity trumps privacy! It is no longer possible for the media to ignore these and other similar non-important matters; they sell advertising and they preempt space over more pressing issues.

Too Cool For Hollywood!| 3.7.11 @ 9:30AM

Bipolar disorder? I think not. You're just seeing Charlie's own obnoxious self in all its narcissitic glory.

Does he test positive for STDs? I think he might. How many "porn stars" can you bed without contracting a sexually transmitted disease?

And speaking of porn stars, they certainly have become the vogue out in Hollywoodlawn. You can't go to a party without being introduced to one.

"Sunset Boulevard, twisting boulevard
Secretive and rich, a little scary
Sunset Boulevard, tempting boulevard
Waiting there to swallow the unwary

L.A.'s changed a lot over the years
Since those brave gold rush pioneers
Came in their creaky covered wagons
Far as they could go end of the line
Their dreams were yours, their dreams were mine
But in those dreams were hidden dragons

Sunset Boulevard, frenzied boulevard
Swamped with every kind of false emotion
Sunset Boulevard, brutal boulevard
Just like you, we'll wind up in the ocean"

Doctor Right| 3.7.11 @ 9:43AM

This is the inevitable end-result of malignant narcissism combined with copious amounts of cash, booze, and drugs.

hunter| 3.7.11 @ 9:44AM

How many families have heard, "Now they are over 18 and there is nothing you can do if they want to walk around eating dog poo and talking to invisible aliens from planet Zoharrew." BULL. There already too many nut jobs walking around on the loose causing distress on family, friends and the public. This country needs laws that would more easily permit at least a combination of close relatives, friends, law enforcement and judicial to commit those in question to professional evaluation and/or help. If a person was walking around bleeding help would be almost forced on that person. But the stigma of mental illness keeps help away, making fun is easier. Making excuses is easier. I am certain Sheens father has spoken to Charlie, to no avail. That there has been attempts to force Charlie to go to evaluation and help. But nooo. He hasn't hurt anyone (but yet) but himself, and that isn't physical. Time is up on this issue. There are millions like Charlie, only they don't get air time, and they won't get air time till they hurt someone.

Habu| 3.7.11 @ 10:24AM

Meltdown baloney

Everyone today "knows" that mental illnesses are brain diseases despite an absence of evidence Mental illness is so much a part of our culture that questioning the concept of mental illness is sure to elicit the comment that the doubter should have his head examined. However if I agreed with them then we’d both be wrong.
Doctors and legislators have for years been pathologizing of human behavior.
Society has always had certain individuals who defied convention and thus posed a threat to the reigning order. These individuals (mostly eccentrics, romantics, dreamers, dissidents, and heretics) were often rounded up by society's "protectors" and then identified as the "inner enemy" and thus conveniently "scapegoated". Tradition held that the scapegoat served as the embodiment for all of the sins within the given enclosed society. The so-called mentally ill individual is identified as an eccentric by the modern day "therapeutic state" and deemed to serve as the scapegoat for the sins of a given society through the process of forced confinement. Those who fall too far to the right or left of the bell curve are arbitrarily deemed "abnormal" after some cutoff point and therefore forcibly confined, their civil liberties denied to them…. Psychiatry has a long, bloody, and inglorious history involving forced medication and confinement, as well as electroshock and insulin shock therapies, and "insane" psycho-surgeries, as well as a thousand other tortures. The ridiculousness and obsession of psychiatry with various disorders which would otherwise be deemed as sinful, demonstrates the absurd lengths to which many doctors would go (supported by Freudian theory) to legitimize their practice. The fact is that certain individuals pose a threat to the dominant order, either as criminals or as causing a great deal of dissent. The question remains however who should the notion of "mental illness" serve principally. Should it serve the patient, should it serve the family, or should it serve society at large (which is increasingly coming to resemble a scientistic dystopia)? In a traditionalist based society, for example, the so called "mentally ill" would be regarded as seers, prophets, or magicians and treated with reverence. In today's world they are often treated maliciously. Mental illness often amounts to nothing more than what traditionally was known as eccentricity, magic, religious experience, mysticism, the experience of being truly "awake", and other unusual experiences. These experiences should not be declared abnormal or somehow outside the human condition by a scientistic and materialist based culture. If Charley wants to self-destruct, let him.

Steve A| 3.7.11 @ 10:41AM

Hey Habu, Why don't you invite all of these "eccentric" wack jobs over to your place & spare the rest of us the magic?

Habu| 3.7.11 @ 1:37PM

You have the right to remain silent and in your case very wise advice.

Steve A| 3.7.11 @ 3:05PM

What, are you going to cast a spell on me or something?? Oooooh

Occam's Tool| 3.8.11 @ 12:14AM

Steve, again, you say in few words what it takes me many to say. Thank you.

And now, I leave this site to read a few pages on treatment resistant schizophrenia. I am required to complete 30 hours of Continuing Medical Education yearly. I do about, ummm, 150---all on my own dime.

i. o.| 3.7.11 @ 11:13AM

Habu, do you by chance belong to the Church of Scientology?

Habu| 3.7.11 @ 1:48PM

Absolutely not;
First Caligula Church (reformed)

Seek| 3.7.11 @ 11:34AM

But Thomas Szasz, among others on the libertarian side, argues that mental illness is a myth, a set of labels that the psychiatric profession pins on deviant behavior to increase its power. How does one respond to this in the context of Sheen?

Occam's Tool| 3.8.11 @ 12:05AM

Szasz is an idiot; I've read him, and it doesn't correlate with my clinical experience in both the Northern and Southern Hemispheres. Maoris and Ojibwe and Caucasion schizophrenia presents very much the same, and gets treated in the same way. Just as Wellington said of Napoleon.

Grzmlyk| 3.7.11 @ 11:57AM

I get your point, and I don't disagree at all with your conclusion.   

But you paint with a mighty broad brush - really?  In a traditionalist society the so-called mentally ill would be revered?  Across the board? I don't think so. 

Every functioning society has taboos, and every society must deal with outcasts who transgress against those taboos.  Certain pathologies - serial killing or raping, for example - are pretty much universally shunned (yes, I'm aware that, within the context of some cultures' mores, these activities are sanctioned and even ritualized - but there remain rigid proscriptions against these behaviors when they occur outside of their mutually agreed-upon institutional constructs). 

Until the advent of progressivism, which turns logic entirely upside down, the very definition of a society or its culture, the very glue that held it together, was its reverence for its traditions.  

Among today's progressives, however - those who would eradicate morality, destroy the nuclear family and make serfs of everyone who isn't them - there is a constant ratcheting up of tolerance, and even the wholehearted embrace, of evermore pathological, narcissistic, self-aggrandizing, antisocial and antithetical behaviors.   

The very point of progressivism is to destroy norms, and, to that end, we have "normalized" egregious behaviors such as transgenderism, which only a generation ago was considered a pathology more closely related to an identity disorder or compulsion for self mutilation than a sexual disorder. 

Thanks to progressives, today transgenderism isn't a disorder of any kind; it is revered, along with homosexuality, as the apotheosis of sexual expression, somehow having attained a rarefied status superior to mundane, monogamous, heterosexuality - what most of our civilization's non-discontents - consider "normal" behavior. 

A healthy society needs its norms; when individuals fall outside of those norms - which to a great extent are the very exceptions that prove the rule of normal behavior - the proscriptions against those behaviors have to be enforced and the transgressors have to be sequestered somehow.   

We run into a very similar sticky wicket when it comes to our legal system as well. 

But sticking with the topic at hand, it is true that the DSM is woefully inadequate; like every pursuit and institution, psychiatry and medicine fall prey to fashions, fads, trends, prejudices and good old-fashioned bribery. 

Unfortunately, our institutions have all agreed to succumb to an entirely false consciousness such that looking askance at a transgendered individual - or eschewing the culture of victimization - invites opprobrium, while standing up for a free market - or embracing individual responsibility and holding Charlie Sheen solely culpable for his acts - invites scorn, derision and ostracism. 

But, despite the reprieve that our erstwhile outcasts now enjoy, we tear down the parameters of traditional morality at our peril; no utopia awaits us.  Anarchy, corruption and misery do.   

We are certainly justified in denigrating modern efforts that ultimately prove no more efficacious at circumscribing acceptable behavior than primitive societies invoking taboos once did - indeed, I contend that we are gleefully, tragically, bringing about our own demise.   

Unfortunately, though, that's our lot as flawed human beings; human nature, despite liberals' onanistic fantasies to the contrary, remains stubbornly immutable.  The inescapable consequence is that every civilization eventually collapses due to entropy.  Every representative republic eventually expires due to its addiction to fiscal profligacy. 

And therefore, as a bellwether for America's overall mental health, the fact of Charlie Sheen is a very, very discouraging sign.

Habu| 3.7.11 @ 2:05PM

Many good points that I could attach to my thinking.
To take one example where we differ is in the progenitors of the breakup of the nuclear family. I believe that can be ascribed directly to the "Great Society" et.al. and within that context the doctors and legislators who have for years been pathologizing of human behavior. This allows them greater power over the population and there isn't apolitician alive who doesn't want more power..doctors of course speak directly with God so they have the inside track on defining what is a pathology and what is not.

I also believe my closing paragraph remains highly relevent:

Mental illness often amounts to nothing more than what traditionally was known as eccentricity, magic, religious experience, mysticism, the experience of being truly "awake", and other unusual experiences. These experiences should not be declared abnormal or somehow outside the human condition by a scientistic and materialist based culture.

Grzmlyk| 3.7.11 @ 2:37PM

Well, I would say this:

The Great Society was simply LBJ's attempt to finish the New Deal that FDR started - which in itself was taking up of the torch of progressivism as spouted by Woodrow Wilson, among many others.

So I don't disagree - I believe that, among other evils, the Great Society in and of itself destroyed the black family, created street gangs and destroyed New York, Chicago, Los Angleles and every other major city with a large black population in the 60s.

But I think the logic of your closing paragraph is erroneous - basically, what you are saying is that no behavior can be considered outside the realm of humanity because, after all, human beings engage in it. This is an abstraction with no application in the real world. The only possible manifestation of this has got to be an erasure of concepts of right and wrong.

By that logic, the Great Society itself cannot be considered a "wrong turn," can it? I mean, human beings came up with it; if no behavior can be considered abnormal and therefore undesireable, then there is no right or wrong in any way.

So, employing your logic, we can't call murder outside the realm of normal because, after all, some humans engage in this act. So the guy who lives across the street from me killed a family of four. The guy next door is an avid fisherman. What's the difference?

If I'm watching the drama on earth from a planet millions of light years away, there is no differents; those ants are all ants, and occasionally one walks in a different direction from the others. But they're still just ants.

But if I'm living across the street from the guy who slaughtered a family of four, it makes a hell of a difference.

I am willing to bet you don't personally live your life that way - for example, if someone entered your house and stole your TV, you'd call that wrong, because it was your TV.

But really, isn't the entire concept of ownership itself an artificial construct? Do any of us really own anything? And can you call it wrong that the guy stole your TV in any case because, after all, it's just another human behavior that humans occasionally engage in.

for that matter, how can you say you own your home? Because some realtor gave you a piece of paper? Is that land yours? I think not - it could be the government's, or perhaps some native American tribe's, or maybe it just belongs to the universe.

This is sophistry that lives only in the realm of the abstract and theoretical - like liberalism itself. Because the moment human beings decided to live in enclaves, they had to come up with rules as to how they were going to get along. This meant prohibiting some behaviors and rewarding others.

It's the reason marriage was invented. Because while wanton, wholesale screwing everyone you see might be a natural, human urge, and would probably be fun for a while, you can't erect (no pun intended) a civilization without codes of morality that circumscribe behavior. It's just that simple.

In the end, to say that nothing is abnormal because everything can be considered normal because it's all part of the human condition is ultimately a meaningless concept.

Sure, you might be right from a universal point of view - why get pissed off at the pedophile who just raped your toddler? Hey, shit happens.

Somehow, I don't think a society can survive that, and so we build our paramaters based on individual freedom vs. the common good. I was going to say the struggle of conservatism vs. liberalism is this very struggle, but that is not true; conservatism vs. liberalism is in fact the struggle between individual freedoom and tyranny.

Steve A| 3.7.11 @ 3:16PM

Grz, Our friend Habu is a typical idealist. All of the theories & labels sound good on paper until one of his "dreamers" or "magicians" walks up & smashes him in the face. Then, & only then, does poor Habu toss his philosophy aside & see things in black & white terms as the blood flows from his nose.

No offense Habu. I do not wish for you to get smashed!

Habu| 3.7.11 @ 3:53PM

Steve, a bit further down I mention that I worked for IBM in Beverly Hills...but more to your point here allow me to fill in my"idealism".
I'm a former US Marine and CIA covert operator circa 1968-the 70's. I've fought in Vietnam,Angola, and Rhodesia...there is very little idealism left in my being....at 62 I can still benchpress 300 pounds so at 6'2" and 260 not too many people have ever tried smashing me in the face.
I finished my working career as a stockbroker and made millions during the dot com era but hated the people I had to work with, but the fruit at that time was very low hanging so I stayed for the harvest.
Now tell us, how many firefights have you been in , how many times have you fought for your life?
I would classify myself as a cynic/skeptic before anything else.

Steve A| 3.7.11 @ 4:19PM

Habu, Thank you for your service, sincerely. No disrespect but none of what you just laid out in terms of your life experiences meshes with your original post suggesting a non-judgmental approach to nut jobs (for lack of a better term). This was my overall interpretation of your original point & if I am incorrect, you have my apology.

Have not had to fire away at anyone yet but I did have a gun pointed in my face about a month ago. It was not fun. Poker game

The fact that you feel compelled to tell me how much you press concerns me a bit but other than that, you sound like a good guy.

Grzmlyk| 3.7.11 @ 4:33PM

Habu, I was busy composing my tome and didn't read your post - but let me get this straight:

You're right because you've been in firefights?

How so? Please explain the logic.

Oh, I get it - you're SUPERIOR because you've been in firefights, and we all know might makes right.

What were you fighting for again? America, or the opportunity to lord your superiority over others?

For that matter, if Steve A had been in more firefights than you, and was 6'3," and weighed 270, and had made more money than you, would you then concede you were wrong on this point?

I find it depressing that a former CIA guy puts forward an argument in which he asserts he is in the right because he's bigger, badder and richer than the other guy.

Habu| 3.7.11 @ 5:16PM

Sorry for the confusion. I was responding to SteveA's 3:16PM comment on my "idealism", hoping to buttress the fact that I am far from an idealist but rather very much the opposite via my life's experiences. apologies if I did convey that too well.

It should also be noted that because one has certain beliefs in one area that doesn't bind them to a totally integrated logical linear philosophy. I was aPol Sci major, core study, Ancient and Medieval Theory,definitly arcane but it does introduce one to mans thinking throughout the centuries.
I could draw from Bertrand Russell and Alfred North Whiteheads work, " Principia Mathematica " in which it took them 247 pages of logic to prove that 1+1=2...... or on Schopenhauer who stated :
The laws of thought can be most intelligibly expressed thus:
1.Everything that is, exists.
2.Nothing can simultaneously be and not be.
3.Each and every thing either is or is not.
4.Of everything that is, it can be found why it is.

There would then have to be added only the fact that once for all in logic the question is about what is thought and hence about concepts and not about real things.

What I'm saying is that we are not logical in our lives and that one does not, and probably should not subscribe to one set of values and norms.
I also never claimed as you capitalized it that I was superior to Steve. I was simply providing him insight into his misinterpretation that I was an idealist. It seems to have vexed you terribly...don't sweat the small stuff ..I'm now just an older guy who had an interesting life.
Hope this helped some in explaining the answer.

Grzmlyk| 3.7.11 @ 6:28PM

Thank you for the clarification.  I appreciate it. 

I would not pretend to understand philosophy.  I've read a little, and everything beyond "Cogito ergo sum" gives me a headache.   So I will concede that you know your stuff, and I confess I'm operating from some ignorance here.

My only point is that, while it may be intellectually provable - indeed I've made the point myself - that even the most egregious behavior can be said to lie within the confines of the human condition, and therefore nothing can be considered entirely outside the realm of normality, it seems to me that the practical application of that is negligible; it's almost a tautology: People will be people. 

I've had many debates on sites with homosexuals who argue that their behavior is not abnormal since it is within the realm of human activity.  Intellectually, this is true. And I'm aware that the ancient Greeks and Romans, and many other, lesser known societies, have tolerated and even embraced homosexuality to varying degrees. 

But my argument to these folks is that, in the Judeo Christian construct under which we live, and as a matter of statistical, actuarial, demographic fact, homosexuality is far less common than heterosexuality.  Hence, on that basis alone, it can be described as abnormal.  On a graph, it would very much be at the edge the bell curve you described earlier; were it part of a grading scheme, it would be thrown out as a statistical aberration. 

Our society - American society - used to proscribe homosexual behavior - it was a taboo within the rubric of our morality.  Is this arbitrary?  Well, perhaps more so than our proscribing mass murder, but not as arbitrary as all that; indeed, homosexual behavior (particularly prior to the industrial, and then the digital revolutions) is antithetical to the nuclear family, which is the very building block of Western civilization (indeed, all civilizations). 

That doesn't mean I don't have a certain sympathy for homosexual people; I do not understand it; I cannot really comprehend it, frankly, but I know I wouldn't be happy killing these people  as they did in Nazi Germany (and I know the double standard there was flagrant).  I believe being homosexual does not preclude one from being able to contribute to society. And I don't believe homosexuals should be persecuted in any way.   

However, while I think they should be able to live their lives, pursue their goals, live with whomever they want, and direct their financial dealings with whomever they choose, I will never accept it as on a par with preferring blondes over brunettes; I think there is some pathology there.  As a result, I'm not real happy about homosexual marriage. 

And I don't know that adopting kids into a homosexual "family" is a particularly salubrious development.  On the contrary, I believe it is detrimental. So I perceive homosexuality to be on a continuum of human behavior as an outlier, and I react to it as such.  But I don't react to it with the same vehemence as if I were a Sunni Muslim.

We cannot escape judging things through the lens of our culture and our experiences.  You say we'd be better off if we didn't subscribe to a single set of values and norms, but how can we not?  In my earlier example, I mentioned someone stealing your TV out of your house - well, if we applied Marxist values to this incident, personal property does not exist, so it really isn't stealing. 

But it would sure feel like stealing to ME, and I would want to pursue justice - not Islamic justice or Hindu justice, but Judeo-Christian justice – in seeking redress. 

Ditto property rights, which is why the Kelo decision a few years back was one of many direct assaults on our Judeo-Christian understanding of Lockean rights.  In fact, the left's relentless pursuit of a Balkanization of our culture through the trojan horse of "multiculturalism" is a bigger threat to this country than the Soviet Union ever was.

We can't embrace multiple values systems simultaneously.  We may be aware of other value systems that are different from our own, and we may respect them to some extent; we even may adopt some values from other cultures - although I think this usually has more to do with current fashion trends (the bourgeois fascination with Hare Krishna that mesmerized the Beatles, for example) or finding a moral loophole in order to absolve oneself of guilt than any actual embrace of multiple value systems simultaneously.  

Then, too, as they say, to believe in everything is to believe in nothing, and I believe that the sine qua non of a healthy society is that it promulgates one clear, definitive value system that is shared by all (which America is moving away from).  Sometimes it's not fair, and sometimes it's ethnocentric, but we are imperfect creatures trying to coexist in an imperfect world, and we know that all systems move toward chaos (the second law of thermodynamics). 

So in order to keep the dogs of chaos at bay, a cohesive culture is essential. BTW, that's why bringing Sharia law to the U.S. is a terrible idea, even if we limit it to Muslim enclaves – it sure hasn't worked out so well in Europe. 

Ok, that’s it for me. But thanks again for taking the high road in this discussion.  I do appreciate your service and respect the hell out of those who serve - and I'm sure that seeing what you have seen can make a cynic out of anyone.  

Jamup| 3.7.11 @ 9:03PM

Grzmlyk says, "I believe being homosexual does not preclude one from being able to contribute to society."

What a fool you are, Grzmlyk!

Homosexuals have contributed enormously to Western Civilization and Culture! And just like the Jews, they are hated for it by right-wingers--right wing nuts like you!

Grzmlyk| 3.7.11 @ 9:26PM

Hey, genius, do you happen to know what "preclude" means?

Can you even read, or did your little Daily Kos buzzer go off?

Crawl back under your illiterate rock, moron.

Grzmlyk| 3.7.11 @ 4:27PM

Yes, I can't quite get a fix on him - is he a typical liberal? He can't be if he skewers The Great Society era - those are the high holy days of liberalism.

But that IS the problem with liberalism - these people all deal in hermetically-sealed abstractions that are never intended to be exposed to the air of reality.

Liberal platitudes always remain fresh and pretty - as long as they remain unopened, safely ensconced in the vacuum-sealed packages of theoretical gossamer in which they were purchased from the nearest academic institution.

So in the abstract, these morally superior progressives hate rich people and think the "poor, unwashed masses" deserve ever larger handouts from the omniscient, beneficent government (i.e., the confiscated wealth of taxpayers) just for existing on the planet.

Meanwhile, of course, back on planet earth, where the rubber meets the road, these phony leftists want far more tax-free wealth for themselves - and it's a sure bet that most of the "poor, unwashed masses" they personally encounter are riff raff they wouldn't lend five bucks to.

But as abstractions, these same slobs they're giving the finger to in the parking lot and cursing for eating Twinkies or - gasp - dining at McDonalds or shopping at Wal-Mart glow with the golden aura of the righteous downtrodden.

Our burgeoning victim class is nothing more than fodder for social justice porn, fueling as it does the moral vanity-aroused fantasies of Good Liberals who want only to get off on their own superiority.

As long as libs can reside in the purity of their sandcastles in air, designing Utopias that they will never set foot in is a very entertaining hobby.

That WE pay for.

Habu| 3.7.11 @ 5:28PM

If you're referring to me then to even get close to the word "liberal" is risable. I campaigned for Barry Goldwater in 1964 as a teen, and have been more than once described as close to Atilla the Hun. At the Univ. of Florida, which in my day Walter Cronkite called the" Berkley of the South" I use to go to anti war rallies to #1 check out the booty and #2, step on the toes of the left wing liberals.
If any of my friends heard you describe me as a lib they'd ROTFL.......no I have a place in FL and one in Montana, enjoy shooting at targets and horseback riding......nope, no lib here.

Deborah D | 3.7.11 @ 4:20PM

I've enjoyed scrolling down and reading all of your posts, Grz. Thanks. Somehow this last and your discussion with Habu made me think of this: "An intellectual is somebody who thinks ideas are more important than people." -- British historian Paul Johnson

Some people are too far out in the atmosphere -- they need to bring those thoughts back to reality. You always do.

Grzmlyk| 3.7.11 @ 4:37PM

Thank you, Deborah - I never heard that before.

I think a lot of these intellectual concepts are untenable to begin with. I mean, ok, you can deconstruct the universe to the point where you can irrefutably prove nothing and no one exists.

Try telling that to the IRS when they want their money!

Habu| 3.7.11 @ 5:38PM

Am I understanding correctly that there is a bias on this blog against ontology: the philosophical study of the nature of being, existence or reality as such, as well as the basic categories of being and their relations. ?

Deborah D | 3.8.11 @ 8:36AM

Um...no. No bias. Just an observation. I haven't read most of your posts, so I'm uncertain why you suggested that. I had just read that quote in a recent article about Paul Johnson in the (I believe) Wall Street Journal the other day. It seemed appropriate to a great multitude of people who seem unable to bring their ideas (good, bad or indifferent) back to the reality of the situation. Didn't mean to offend you, Habu. I'm sure you're able to do so. I just thought it was an interesting observation by someone I admire.

Habu| 3.7.11 @ 7:13PM

Whew...talk about writing.....and the bottom line is you believe our society will survive. How unreal.....NO society in history has survived "in saecula saeculorum"...for ever and ever ......and yes, many disintegrate from within, but not all....we, more than likely will not be around for the denouement of the USA, but don't despair because the USA will pass into history at some point in time.One other thing ......" the abstract and theoretical - like liberalism itself “part of your waxing philosophic.  So what you're saying is that items such as splitting the atom was a "liberal" deal…..well sorry but in the real world ALL new discoveries etc begin with a hypothesis, a proposed explanation for an observable phenomenon. Then and only then does the work begin.

simon templar| 3.7.11 @ 4:20PM

The problem is not that they are declared abnormal as they are indeed abnormal by definition of the concept of normal. The issue often comes in that we as a society have at times labeled some mental illness such as depression as weakness or inferiority. As a conservative, I have respect for the individual and all life and believe that the individual retains self worth and dignity even when they suffer from various mental illnesses. I want to see these individuals get help not approval or be seen as eccentric or cool nor do I want to see them as inferior, sub-human or something to be feared.

Occam's Tool| 3.8.11 @ 12:06AM

Sure. And when you have some guy running out in his underwear in 30 below zero because the voices are making him do so, of course you shouldn't give him meds so that he can live a normal clothed life. Habu, you are a Bubo.

Occam's Tool| 3.8.11 @ 12:02AM

If you're through, I would advise you to look up neuroimaging of mood and obsessive compulsive disorders.

Josh 2005| 3.7.11 @ 10:26AM

Honestly, I think he was coked up during that very first radio interview. But then, everyone starting thinking his crazy rants were so hilarious and interesting. So I think he's doing on purpose now. Despite his problems, I think he's smart enough to know that he is gaining sort of a weird cult following through his crazy rants, and he wants to cash in on it. Seriously, I think this is all calculated.

Jamup| 3.7.11 @ 11:16AM

You got it, Josh. The "act" is definately calculated. Charlie's antics will win him even more fans (stupid fans).

Charlie knows what he is doing, and his critics be damned.

simon templar| 3.7.11 @ 12:19PM

You nailed a very important part of this story that is overlooked. he really is not the story..we are..this whole thing says more about us (as a society) then him. Think about it.

Anthony| 3.7.11 @ 11:04AM

My hat is off to you folks who blog with empathy and concern for Sheen.
Frankly, I don't give a damn about this twit.

The Bruce| 3.7.11 @ 10:00PM

Seconded.

LarryK| 3.7.11 @ 11:10AM

Who says that 2 1/2 men is canceled?

I see Charlie Harper every night on TMZ.

Emily| 3.7.11 @ 11:36AM

Meanwhile, in a small town I know, a young teen has just left for rehab for the second time in a bid to kick his meth habit. This and stories like this are happening all over the country. We don't seem serious about the drug problem at all, just interested in watching--or horrified by-- the train wrecks.

simon templar| 3.7.11 @ 12:22PM

Well, now if that kid starred in several box office winning movies..then I would care so much I would be in line for a good hug, a cuddle, an editorial in a major newspaper or web magazine reviewing his poor, sad life, his victimhood, his triumps, his failures. C'mon get your priorities straight!

Bob Grant| 3.7.11 @ 11:59AM

The bottom line is our culture has always been fascinated by eccentrics, loons, and crazy people with unlimited funds and/or power.

From Howard Hughes, Kim Jon il, pick any banana republic dictator south of the equator, Anna Nicole Smith, Michael Jackson, to Charlie Sheen, the public loves to watch these train wrecks as they conduct their twisted lives unchecked. There is something fascinating and scary about watching these people push the limits of human depravity as the public projects their own twisted thoughts on to these people.

In simpler (and better) times, these people would be forced to quickly exit stage left and be sent on an extended "vacation", rarely to be heard from again.

Today, not only are they the object of the public's interest 24/7, they are compensated for such actions...the ultimate bread and circus.

The cultural decline is quickening.

simon templar| 3.7.11 @ 12:08PM

Yeah, he is a poor victim and we need to throw our arms around him..give him a good cuddle. Seems everyone is now an expert on mental illness as well.

Occam's Tool| 3.8.11 @ 12:11AM

No, what he needs is a good evaluation, followed by a strong consideration of inpatient chemical dependency treatment, with mental illness evaluation. I don't boo-hoo him; whatever he has/had has been made worse by substance abuse, but I don't think this guy is faking it.

And I do get tired of psychiatry being constantly slammed. I know a lot of psychiatrists who devote a LOT of time taking care of the seriously mentally ill. The work is necessary and worthwhile. And I must say, these illnesses look the same in Britain, in New Zealand, in California, Alabama, Kentucky, New Mexico, Minnesota...there is a consistency of presentation. Sorry, this is what I do---no hand holding---only suicidal, homicidal, or gravely disabled people hit my doorstop.

simon templar| 3.9.11 @ 4:19PM

OT, I did not intend to slam psychiatry and all your points are well taken. What I object to is the inordinate, obsessive, and inappropriate attention people like him receive from the public. He and many like him are treated differently and seem to recieve benefits, excuses, breaks, and apologies that all the rest of us do not. Look at the ridiculous coddling and misappropriation of justice in recent cases of the spoiled female song writers caught stealing, using drugs, etc. This should not be in our headline news! Yes, these people need help and their families need to take responsibility to intervene and assist. I also believe that this guy is responsible for his actions and needs to hit bottom if necessary. No, I do not think this guy is faking a addiction..he is an addict. I think he is conciously using his situation with his employer, the buzz surrounding his rebelliousness, his life style, etc, for more self promotion. My apologies if I did not make that clear. I respect your views, experience, and enjoy reading you comments. Man, you have led one interesting life!

GraceInIndy| 3.7.11 @ 1:07PM

I am so over the “Hollywood” altar of worship. I am sure there are some very sincere, good and decent people out there in LaLa land. But, for the most part they are a bunch of hedonistic, immoral narcissists. It says a lot about our society that we are so engrossed by the train wreck of the troubled celebrity flavor of the month.

I expect any day now to read that Sheen has driven his car off a cliff, been shot by a high priced pimp, or simply just overdosed on drugs. I pity his children and family in that respect but I couldn’t care less. I’m simply tired of seeing his name in the headlines.

Franco| 3.7.11 @ 2:28PM

Sheen's slow self-suicide and resultant intellectual vomitus aside, I always though that one of the perks of Fabulous Hollywood Stardom was that you didn't have to pay for sex because women were always throwing themselves at you. After reading that this idiot -with his tiger blood and whatever--still has to pay for it, I feel a lot better about myself.

Le Cracquere| 3.7.11 @ 6:59PM

He's not paying for the sex. He's paying for the craftsmanship. (Time to feel worse again.)

Martin Owens| 3.7.11 @ 2:55PM

AmSpec degrades itself by even dealing with this.
Plenty more where he came from. And plenty better uses of time and brainpower.

PhilTheCapitalistPig| 3.7.11 @ 3:17PM

I don't think Charlie is Bi-Polar... I mean, Geez, do you expect the guy to be all the way back to the real world a couple of days after a Cocaine bender that would have killed 99% of the population?

David| 3.8.11 @ 1:17PM

Phil: Yes indeed. He's the Hollyweird version of Lemmy Kilmister and Kieth Richards...combined!
Charlie can't be killed with conventional weapons, no sir. And, he's just about run the gamut of tried and true methods of offing ones self in the name of tortured celebrity and enhanced royalties.
Sounds like he's tried the William Holden, John Belushi, Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, Bon Scott method only to have it "Blow" up in his face.
With all the porn stars he's been with you'd think AIDS may have entered the picture, a` la John Holms, Rock Hudson and Magic Johnson, but AIDS is probably afraid of him.
By my count the only three options left are:
The Michael Hutchence, David Carradine method of self strangulation while trying to enhance bizarre sexual episodes.
The Kurt Cobain method of the self induced "Pink Mist Hair Cut" via 12 gauge.
Or, the James Dean method of applied physics.

Habu| 3.7.11 @ 3:37PM

In the late 70's and early 80's I worked for IBM as a Marketing Rep. My territory was Beverly Hills and I had a condo on the beach in Playa del Rey.

If you have never been in that environment you simply cannot understand what they believe is "normal" and acceptable behavior. The wealth is staggering and as F. Scott said...the wealthy are different from you and me.
If you're pulling down 2 million a week, live in BH or Malibu or anywhere near there it is a TOTALLY different world and mere words cannot describe it. It has to be experienced.
So while Charlie may be over the top to most of us the reason he got canned was that he went anti-Semetic on the Jewish producer ...but hell Charlie was floating in money by that time and money gives you a good deal of freedom to be and act as you please,even if you're way,way outside the "norms".

Steve A| 3.7.11 @ 4:00PM

Habu, That was interesting insight.

I had a pal who worked claims for an insurance company out in the BH area years ago. He told me a story about a home (mansion) he had to inspect for a small fire loss. It happened to be owned by a porn producer couple. They had 2 small children & he said the walls of the home were decorated with various giant size stills of his "product." Graphic shots all over the house as little Bobby & Suzie drink from the sippy cups on the sofa.

The Bruce| 3.7.11 @ 10:04PM

That's a picture I never thought I'd have painted for me. Bizarre.

idalily| 3.7.11 @ 4:05PM

I'm trying to work up the energy to care.

Nope. It's not working.

loulou| 3.7.11 @ 4:16PM

Dr. Drew Pinsky is NOT a psychiatrist. He is an internist who has an interest (and business) in addiction medicine. He really should not be opining on Sheen's psychiatric condition because he is not a psychiatric and because he has not examined and evaluated Sheen. Dr. Pinsky can legitimately comment on Sheen's addiction, I suppose.

CalMark| 3.7.11 @ 5:23PM

A vulgar end to a vulgar man whose biggest fame was a thoroughly vulgar show.

Negro X| 3.7.11 @ 5:44PM

'Notice how he goes from thought to thought and they are sort of disconnected? " Sounds like they are describing obama.

Pat| 3.7.11 @ 6:11PM

So, if we’ve got all this straight, a wealthy star and from a family of stars (no Jane Fonda, not you) earns more for one week’s work than most Americans will earn in a lifetime of work. He was diagnosed by a medical professional who never actually examined him as having all sorts of mental problems, he does drugs, and more drugs more frequently than most professional drug users can routinely handle and yet he remains the acknowledged “star” of a mega-hit TV series – which kinda leaves us all wondering just how difficult is it to be a functioning professional actor by Hollywood’s standards?

His hit show makes the studio and network mega-millions from their advertisers – they must be coining money in order to pay Sheen the big bucks – but the producers are willing to cancel the show because he bad-mouthed them on a talk show or he is anti-semitic or he had a blow-out with a porn star? Sure, that makes sense, those studios and networks will always reject making big money when a non-monetary principle is at stake, right? And being a recognized bad boy is anathema to family show advertisers just like it is with an ex-con star football player who used to enjoy dog fighting but is now a “rehabilitated” Mr. Nice Guy, right?

What’s next in this network fairy tale? Will Sheen go on Oprah and receive absolution after a teary confession – assuming they’ll bring Oprah back. And he will probably suffer financially and professionally for what he’s doing with his life exactly like what once happened to Jane, except that didn’t really happen either, right? Somehow Hollywood always manages to con the American public with this star struck nonsense – and we love it.

Don Pardo| 3.7.11 @ 8:25PM

At the beginning, the 2.5 show was cute, funny, a little daring, but ultimately sweet. Quickly, it became an unfunny cesspot, with society's vilest themes, including most recently incest (his brother and mother).

He, and this show, should go away.

Lisa | 3.10.11 @ 1:35AM

To Don Pardo:
As one commenter opined, "Why am I wasting precious time on this?" And why did "American Spectator" waste column space on it? But I'm glad you wrote about '2.5 Men' (hadn't heard of the show) and its quick evolution into evil. And that's been the problem with Hollywood for the past 45 years - the descent into evil and horrific TV/movies. The 1970s were dreadful enough what with all the slasher movies - still don't understand why talented Jamie Lee Curtis (another 2nd-gen H'wd actress) went that route.

As someone who is Jewish and practises my faith (Orthodox in my beliefs if not always in practise) I apologize for the disgusting lowlifes (in name if not in faith) who produce this revolting garbage. I'm ashamed for my people and believe it's high time our community took its head out of the sand and addressed the issue. Trouble is, those who attempt serious discussion are shouted down and vilified as self-hating and brazen. We in the Jewish community will pay a stiff price in the near future for this.

Lisa | 3.10.11 @ 1:35AM

To Don Pardo:
As one commenter opined, "Why am I wasting precious time on this?" And why did "American Spectator" waste column space on it? But I'm glad you wrote about '2.5 Men' (hadn't heard of the show) and its quick evolution into evil. And that's been the problem with Hollywood for the past 45 years - the descent into evil and horrific TV/movies. The 1970s were dreadful enough what with all the slasher movies - still don't understand why talented Jamie Lee Curtis (another 2nd-gen H'wd actress) went that route.

As someone who is Jewish and practises my faith (Orthodox in my beliefs if not always in practise) I apologize for the disgusting lowlifes (in name if not in faith) who produce this revolting garbage. I'm ashamed for my people and believe it's high time our community took its head out of the sand and addressed the issue. Trouble is, those who attempt serious discussion are shouted down and vilified as self-hating and brazen. We in the Jewish community will pay a stiff price in the near future for this.

WAKE UP| 3.7.11 @ 11:09PM

The best thing that could happen tp Charlie Sheen rioght now would be for Everyone to ignore him completely ( including this website, which has just wasted a lot of valuable space on him. Indeed, even I am wasting space saying this little).

WAKE UP| 3.7.11 @ 11:11PM

ps - from an early comment: "Celebrity psychiatrist Dr. Drew Pinsky...etc etc"

Beware of the words "celebrity" and "psychiatrist" in the same sentence !

Dee See| 3.8.11 @ 12:29AM

----Even as 'North Korea style' blackouts are
announced coming to Britain, as RED China
mans not only the Panama Canal but bases on
BOTH our coasts, as the Globalist capstone
traitors of our 'shadow government' and eugenics
grid walk free-------------------------

If you OWN your ouwn imperatives you'll
find you won't need to project your manhood's
adventure onto 'stars' and Super Bowls---------

Go to the mirror, look into your eyes and
say ---"We're dealing with TREEEEEESUN"

AGAIN!

AGAIN!

-----------------------LOUDER!

David| 3.8.11 @ 12:37PM

Charlie Sheen has Tiger Blood!
So, his father had sex with Tigers?
Jeez my knee's, I can't wait for the National Geographic video of Charlie stealthily stalking, killing and devouring a gazelle on the Serengeti Plain . Excelsior!

David| 3.8.11 @ 1:39PM

CalMark:
"A vulgar end to a vulgar man whose biggest fame was a thoroughly vulgar show."

Right on Brother!
He should have been shunned and tried for treason for what he and Ollie Stone-d did to Viet Nam Veterans with that piece of crap movie Platoon.
Amazing, when you think of how our returning Veterans, the wounded and the dead, have to contend with the Westboro baptist church lunatics, public indiference, clueless leaderless government and now queers in fox holes.
When I think of all the wounded service men and women and what they've been subjected to over the last 10 years I can't, for a minute, even begin to feel sorry for this idiot.

Lisa | 3.10.11 @ 1:16AM

David & CalMark:
Agree with both of you! I don't understand the whole media blitz on this guy. It's said that the 18th-century French elite went to insane asylums for amusement. Today's social and mass media does for many what the lunatic asylums did for them.

Joe Average| 3.8.11 @ 3:04PM

Without meaningful intervention, Charley Sheen will be dead before the end of the year. What a waste...

marshcope| 3.9.11 @ 1:15AM

Maybe Charlie is trying to emulate the concept of Macho found in much of the nonUSA world, where to be Of Consequence one must be Muy Loco and feared, and then women will line up for you and your uncle will be proud of the fame you brought to the family, and songs about you will be sung in your village, and you will never again have to work trying to farm your wore out dirt and you will be a Big Crazy Bull. Suicide bombers will obey you, and you can chop off heads in Sinaloa and Mindanao, and the pobres will honor you for your Loco. Instead of waiting to see when
Charlie dies, we should wait to see when he does his OJ on one of his women.

Dale Cord| 3.9.11 @ 1:17PM

Because of their indestructible mentality as most multi-millionaires in Hollywierd and across our immoral nation are plagued with. We have built permanent residence for them in the posh graveyards for those who think they can lead a decadent life of immoral behavior and get away with it. Unfortunately Mr. Sheen will join the ranks of those drug induced and self destructive individuals who cut their lives short by being their own worst enemy. To name just a few of the millions. Michael Jackson,Elvis Presley,Janis Joplin, Rock Hudson,James Dean,Sal Mineo,Jim Morrison,John Kennedy,Marilin Monroe,etc,etc,etc. Victims that kept company with the snake of the Garden of Eden until its venom eventually caused their demise.

marshcope| 3.9.11 @ 2:52PM

Poor Sharon Tate, who was tied to the evils of Manson, and Polanski, is buried next to Jim and Marion Jordan (Fibber McGee and Molly). In a couple of online bios I found of the Jordans its related that Marion was an alchoholic and periodically was off the radio show when she was being dried out before going back to her habit. And a list of showbizers who were human messes should include both Hank and Audrey Williams.

Lisa | 3.10.11 @ 1:09AM

Don't know much about Charlie Sheen's acting - haven't seen his movies (except for PLATOON many years ago) or the TV show. But for cryin' out loud - where is his Father, actor Martin Sheen??!! He's still going strong at age 70+; shouldn't he provide some guidance and much-needed help???

JF| 3.10.11 @ 11:34PM

I wonder what it says about American society that so many can watch Charlie Sheen spiral into advanced mental illness and consider it "entertainment"?

Creative Recreation | 8.11.11 @ 2:19AM

is good

Creative Recreation | 8.11.11 @ 2:23AM

is good

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