On the Michael Jackson circus

So Jermaine Jackson has moved up to second place on the list of most successful living Jackson sibling recording artists...

Yes, very snarky. I know. You may not want to congratulate him on this if you meet him in person in the near future.

If you're sick and tired of hearing about anything related to Michael Jackson, I apologize for contributing to the barrage. And a barrage it is. Between the radio stations playing his music, the TV networks' coverage, the Internet, the stories continue to pile up as the questions continue to swirl -- about his death, his family, his finances, his music, etc.

Just in the last two days (these are between 12:01 am Sunday morning and 8 pm tonight), Entertainment Weekly's various blogs contain the following Jackson-related posts:

• SMITH magazine asks readers to sum up Jackson's life in six words -- can you do it?
• Jamie Foxx does the Moonwalk at the BET Awards: Fitting tribute?
• Michael Jackson-themed 'American Idol' repeats tonight: Set your DVRs!
• Huey Lewis remembers recording 'We Are the World' alongside Michael Jackson
• Michael Jackson in 'Captain EO': A fellow dancer remembers
• TV Ratings: Michael Jackson and Farrah Fawcett continue to dominate with viewers
• Michael Jackson's final rehearsal: 'He was at his best,' says associate choreographer
• Michael Jackson: LAPD interviews personal physician; second autopsy reportedly completed
• Jackson's former nanny talks about singer's drug use
• Janet Jackson appears at BET Awards
• Michael Jackson: Doctor's lawyer says singer was not injected with Demerol
• Michael Jackson's mother granted temporary custody of his children
• Joe Jackson: 'We're the parents. This is where they belong.'
• Michael Jackson radio play rises an astounding 1,735 percent

And people are crawling out of the woodwork to worm their way into the spotlight. From the aforementioned ex-nanny, to the lawyer who used to work for Jackson making statements on TV shows about Michael's drug usage like "I said one day we're going to have this experience. And when Anna Nicole Smith passed away, I said we cannot have this kind of thing with Michael Jackson...The result was I warned everyone, and lo and behold, here we are," to Al Sharpton, to Flavor Flav (TMZ has shown him on two occasions, including this one, showing up outside the Jackson estate in Encino and leaving a message for Katherine Jackson through the intercom).

I think the biggest weasel, though, has to be Joe Jackson. We haven't heard anything from him in years, and why would we? But now that Michael's dead, he's all over the place making statements and doing interviews. He showed up at the BET Awards and used the occasion to promote a new record label he's starting! As if it has a chance in hell of being successful. What has he ever accomplished that wasn't done on the backs of his children? Has he ever done anything since they all left him and got real management companies?

This is the man whose abuse may be primarily responsible for all of Michael's problems. The physical abuse, the emotional abuse, the loss of anything resembling a normal childhood, all of this may have led to the behavior we saw from Michael, from the plastic surgeries to the child molestation.

And now Joe Jackson will pimp Michael out one more time, posthumously. Someone stop him, please.

One other thing: I recorded the BET Awards show last night. Later I started watching it. The show opened with New Edition performing a Jackson 5 medley. It was a bit ragged vocally but it connected emotionally. Both groups hit it big while they were kids so it was an appropriate tribute. Then host Jamie Foxx hit the stage dressed like Michael from the "Beat It" video. He said it was to be a celebration of Michael's life, then made a cheap remark about Michael's nose and felt the need to emphasize that Michael was "a black man! He belongs to us and we shared him with everybody else." After the second time he yelled at Sean "Diddy" Combs, the second time saying something that was bleeped out, I turned it off and deleted it. It was that horrendous.