For the Material Girl, charity, apparently, does not begin at home. Born and raised in Bay City, Michigan, Madonna gave $135,600 in campaign donations to Democrats last year. And two years ago she contributed $11 million of her own money toward Raising Malawi, an elite academy she founded for impoverished girls in Malawi. The academy was abandoned this year after $3.8 million was spent without a brick ever being laid.It's one thing to spend on a charity — and Madonna seems to have a problem getting that right — and another to hand out money to individual friends and family. What is the whole story here? What problems led to this man's downfall? I see that he was fired from a job in his father's vineyard and winery. I know, it seems so easy to punch Madonna around, but we're talking about a 50-year-old man. There's a long history to his predicament, and we don't know what it is.
October 23, 2011
Madonna's homeless brother.
Reason's Hit & Run takes the opportunity to attack the big pop star:
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108 comments:
It's hard for me to vote because there isn't enough information to know how to vote. For me, the big problem is the bad balance between huge publicity for celebrities' charity projects vs their lack of involvement in their projects. And I don't mean a photo shoot of a celeb dishing out food. Christ's admonition of giving alms privately comes to mind. Same goes for looking after family members.
Madonna knows her brother better than we do (I believe he already wrote a tell-all book about her) and can decide for herself whether he is a worthy object of her charity.
Which is Reason's point. Madonna thinks the government should be deciding should be in charge of taking care of people. However, if her brother is worth helping she could help much more effectively; if her brother is NOT worth helping she, and not the government, is in a position to know that.
It's much bigger than Madonna.
I would add another choice to the poll:
"Set up a trust and make distributions from the trust principal and income conditional upon the brother's meeting ______________ (fill in the blank for behaviorial requirements/milestones specific to his issues.)"
Liberals love humanity, they just hate people.
Thanks, Irene!
By the way, how do we know this guy is really who he says he is? Or that, if he is, that Madonna isn't channeling money to him, perhaps with the strings Irene suggests attached?
Agree with Irene there should be another option, but something along the lines of, "Realize her 15 minutes are long since up and nobody buys her pretensions anymore (if they ever did), go back to the States, open an Italian restaurant in some Rust Belt city, and hire her brother as a dishwasher".
It would be reasonable, for example, to require the beneficiary to get monthly tests for drug use. If the test were a scalp scraping, then they could check DNA at the same time.
Urine tests for "trust babies" are not uncommon.
I think she should give him money the day after Obama does the same.
I do not think Madonna should underwrite her grown brother's life.
He has made choices. He should accept the consequences of his choices.
Madonna's under no obligation to provide for this guy, but the taxpayers of Bay City, Michigan are and somehow that seems wrong.
wv: grotrug-- that's just potentially a great word.
What does it say about Mr. Ciccone's situation that he was fired from his family's business in Traverse City? If they won't employ him it's more than likely there's a good reason. Just sayin'.
TS:
'grotrug' is potentially two great words, depending on whether you read it as 'gro trug' or 'grot rug'. I guess the latter would be a scuzzy ('grotty') floor covering ('rug'), but the former could be almost anything.
Madonna's other brother, Christopher, wrote the tell all book about her. Reading the comments at the link and doing a little more research, it seems Madonna's relationship with her brothers has not been good for a long time, if ever.
Reading the entire article, Traverse City sure seems to make the homeless welcome. Nothing wrong with that if that's what they wish to do.
Why did Anthony get fired? From what I've read, there's quite a bit of dysfunctional behavior in this family. I'm giving Madonna a pass at this point.
Don't we all have a family member who is a bottomless bit of despair?
I've got one.
No amount of personal charity helps, because that family member always finds a way to fuck up again, flush the money down the drain, and land right back in the gutter.
It's a perpetual cycle of despair.
Don't know if this is Madonna's case, but it could well be.
I vote with Irene.
Many people that I worked with, who had significant sums to pass to their heirs, would set up these types of trusts to protect the beneficiary from themselves and from being preyed upon by others.
Sometimes just giving someone a large sum of money or subsidizing their lifestyle is a destructive act.
He was doomed as soon as he was named Anthony. Tony Ciccone. Rhyming names are not cute.
Where I come from, you help your family FIRST.
Madonna is an asshole.
Where I come from, you help your family FIRST
Sometimes you help by NOT enabling or 'helping'.
Some people are not ready to be helped and have to hit rock bottom first. They can't be 'helped'...yet...sometimes never.
Madonna is an asshole
You have no idea what is really going on in their family and are in no position to make such a judgement about this situation.
Seems like you are the asshole by making such a blanket statement without any evidence. You aren't an OWS person by any chance?
"Mary Beth said...
He was doomed as soon as he was named Anthony. Tony Ciccone. Rhyming names are not cute."
I knew a Nancy Ann Cianci. My son went to school with an Eden Seamon.
I don't know about a trust, but I think one ought to funnel money to a destitute family member, do what one can to keep him from annoying others by begging, or going on welfare and being a drain on the public.
There's also the personal aspect to consider. Giving money to a charity is safe because the recipients can come back to Madonna directly and guilt her into giving more. A brother can do that if he squanders any cash she gives him.
If he's really homeless on the street, she should find a way to help him out, but she shouldn't have to fund his entire existence. Pay a one-year lease on a studio apartment in his name, and let him pick himself up.
I don't know about a trust, but I think one ought to funnel money to a destitute family member, do what one can to keep him from annoying others by begging, or going on welfare and being a drain on the public.
That crap (action of throwing money at the problem)always fails to produce any positive results when you give money to the bum or wino on the corner begging for money (other than the fact that they can now go buy some more cheap booze or drugs which I'm sure they think is a positive...yahooo). You give them money and they are back the next day begging for more.
Why do you think that Madonna throwing money at her brother is going to 'fix' her brother's problem any more than we, taxpayers, throwing money at the people "going on welfare and being a drain on the public" fixes our problems?
I agree....I don't want to fund his lifestyle either. Why should Madonna be forced to just because of an accident of birth?
Maybe she knows her brother.
Under what theory would she have some sort of "obligation" to give this guy money? I can think of two: 1. He's a family member. All families are different, and whether this applies has to be between them. 2. She's wealthy and he's not. That's just crap.
No wonder Madonna supports Obama.
But nobody knows how to work the system better than the Obamas.
Obama's aunt, Zeituni, an illegal alien with a deportation order, was on welfare and living in Boston public housing until she was arrested by ICE this year. After previous denials and a standing deportation order, this time a federal judge granted her asylum. No undue influence there. Nor, evidently, was a Support Affidavit required of her "fat-cat" nephew. She's still in public housing on welfare.
Obama's uncle Omar, an illegal alien living and working in Massachusetts for decades, was just arrested for drunk driving in Massachusetts. He's now also seeking asylum through the same attorney as Zeituni.
And that's just the Obama relatives in the US that we know about.
I am going to make the guess that you have to be pretty far gone to lose a job at your father's winery.
It sounds like his family tried to provide for him and my guess, alcohol or drugs got in the way. If it was alcohol or drugs, giving him money is tantamount to feeding his addiction.
Sad isn't it.
Madonna should hire her brother to lay bricks at Raising Malawi. Win win.
Madonna is an asshole and I don't need or care to know her insider family deal.
Her brother is homeless. Period.
According to Madonna, John McCain, who suffered torture at the hands of the North Vietnamese, is a Nazi.
Madonna gives over a hundred thousand dollars to democrats. Democrats are corrupt.
I think it's silly to argue about setting up a trust. Whatever. Help your bother - he's homeless. I suppose Madonna, a good little money shoveling leftist democrat, thinks that the rest of us should pick up the tab.
Madonna was married to Spicoli, the communist. I am still waiting for Spicoli to open his home to the homeless.
Madonna just needs to issue a press release saying her brother once gave her hydrangeas.
Problem solved!
Her brother is homeless. Period.
No. Not "period".
Why is he homeless? What did he do to become homeless? What have they, the family, already done to try to help him.? He had a job at a family business and was fired. What is he doing to try to get out of his homeless status? Anything?
For some people it is a choice or a string of bad choices. Personal choice.....right?
Helping them to continue to make those bad choices is not 'helping' it is enabling.
Fools and their money...
Sounds like Madonna is an easy target for grifters. She isn't smart enough to run the scam herself like Al Gore does.
Commons sense would lead Madonna to just send the brother guy a check each month for a few thousand dollars. Her conscience would be clear and the brother would have enough money to get through the month and we would have no issue to talk about. Of course, she may be doing that already.
So he's not homeless?
But I swear, a woman's breast is the hardest rock that the Almighty ever made on this earth, and I can find no sign on it.
--Bear Claw (Jeremiah Johnson)
Goes double for Madonna's pointy cone breasts.
Shouldnt you all be cheering for her? This is his fault right? Why should he get a handout?
If you read the link, Anthony doesn't really sound like in incoherent drunk.
I have a good friend whose brother has been a street person in San Francisco for over 30 years.
My friend has enough money that he could house and feed his brother without it pinching very much, but he does not send any money. Instead he travels to SF about twice a year and tracks his brother down. They have a meal together, spend the afternoon, and then my friend gives his brother 50 or 100 bucks and flies back home across the country. The visits go ok but my friend is never sure if his brother remembers the prior visits.
This is really all my friend can do. I consider his actions quite noble. Financial support would be wasted or, worse, turn the street person brother into a victim of the many predators who circle such unfortunates. It is all very sad.
Is Madonna's brother something like my friends--a confirmed outcast who has found a strange niche that most of us can't understand, and try to avoid? Who knows? But because we do not know we really should not judge.
"Madonna is an asshole". Couldn't agree more. I just don't think that's the correct criteria for deciding that she has an obligation to give her money away.
Madonna grew up in a family with 8-9 children, including three brothers (she also has a half brother, but I don't know anything about him.
Of the three full brothers: 1) Christopher she used to be very close to, he was her tour manager and danced in her early videos, but at some point they had a falling out, he got fat, and wrote a tell all book that trashed Madonna; 2) Martin appeared in the documentary Truth or Dare and has been a drug addict and in and out of jail for many years, and he apparently hasn't gotten better since that documentary; 3) Anthony is apparently homeless.
We never hear anything about her 3-5 sisters, but Madonna references them in her music, so I assume she's closer to them. In the song Jump, Madonna sings, "we learned our lesson from the start / my sisters and me / the only thing you can depend on is your family." There are similar lyrics in an earlier song called Keep It Together that reference her "brothers and sisters."
Don't diss Madonna.
She rules.
Madonna can afford to save his life by getting him off the street. She does not have to do anything, and clearly she is not. Let's assume he's a louse, a drug addict, and a drunk who cannot function or cope. He’s freezing to death. Michigan winters a cold.
What am I saying? He might not deserve it. "My brother's keeper" - What a load.
The gummint encourages donations to recognized charities by giving a huge tax deduction, effectively doubling the value of the charitable contribution in the case of Madonna.
Madonna is just apparently responding to what the Amerikan people want. They don't want to help individuals; they want to help large organizations like churches and United Way.
If the commenters here wanted to help poor individuals, they should just vote to kill off the tax deduction for charitable contributions. Then they could start making more babies, something the gummint favors even more with tax exemptions, deductions and even credits, for chrissake.
I really don't like Madonna but I'm not going to cast judgement on her in this matter.
I don't think she has an iota of responsibility, here.
The brother, it seems, (or people who like to feed the homeless), believe she has a responsibility to him. When she does not!
Obviously, the "break" in their relationship came before she really got famous.
And, it's nobody's business.
Her brother isn't the first guy to fail at business, himself.
Also, what if he'd had gone to the media, seeking attention, no matter what? The only think Madonna has to weigh now, is the costs to her of the negative publicity.
Meanwhile, if you're going to be lucky enough to get famous, you really have to develop pretty tough skin.
Steve Jobs was put up for adoption. At some point he learned his dad had a syrian background. And, owned a restaurant in Silicon Valley. (Turns out he had eaten there a few times. And, had even met the "owner.")
But Steve Jobs didn't think his dad was entitled to knowing him has "his son." The man who adopted him, Michael Jobs, got that honor.
And, I doubt Steve Jobs' estate will "honor" the guy who didn't prevent the adoption out of his son.
What goes around comes around.
And then Jesus and Mother Theresa said... "I'm not going to help you until you fill out this questionnaire and change your behavior."
“I am my brother's keeper” sayeth Barack Obama, quoting the Bible. But wait, it's a saying from the Bible's story of Cain and Abel; After Cain had murdered his brother Abel.
Cain lied to God and said “I know not; am I my brother's keeper?"
Sleazy.
"There's a long history to his predicament, and we don't know what it is."
"Leave him in the gutter where he belongs..."
Reconcile, please.
I mean, "we don't know the story" followed by instructions on what she should do is pretty hypocritical.
Madonna can afford to save his life by getting him off the street
What do you want her to do? Lock him in a room? Forced de-programing? Hire a body guard to follow him around 24/7 to keep him from doing whatever it is that caused him to become 'homeless'?
I have a friend whose daughter left her husband and three young children to pursue a life of drugs, sex, rock and roll and alcohol. She and her new boyfriend live in an unheated camp trailer without doors: squatting on someone else's property....so I guess you could say she is homeless.... drinking and doing drugs. AND on welfare and SSI for her addictions.
She drove herself into a tree, broke her neck and back, punctured her lungs almost died while on the way to pick up her son and take him to football practice. Blood alcohol level of over .20 Thank God she hadn't picked him up yet.
After getting out of intensive care she had these options. 1.) go to rehab for 6 months or stay at a family member's home....only if she didn't have contact with her dirtbag drug dealing boyfriend 2.) could see her children ONLY in the company of her mother or father (the grandparents) or in the presence of her ex husband.
Within days of being established at her mother's house, and while still in a neck and back brace, she had her boyfriend and his friends over...did drugs and got drunk. They stole things from the home and vandalized the place.
Her mother kicked her out of the house and said don't come back until you straighten out. My friend's sole goal now is to protect her grandchildren from their own mother.
Evidently the daughter has still not hit rock bottom.
Should the mom/grandmother be accused of being 'an asshole' because she isn't "helping" her daughter.
Some people you CANNOT help. They CHOOSE to be self destructive. All the money in the world isn't going to 'save' them.
Titus said...
Don't diss Madonna.
She rules.
Titus, is Madonna a gay icon? Just trying to stay au courant here.
I'm more disturbed by the fact that she laid down a huge chunk of change for Malawi and let the project falter. One wonders what her money really supported.
Some people cannot be helped. Everything you give them they trash or turn into crack or booze. It is up to them to hit bottom and decide THEY want to change. Preventing them from hitting bottom is no kindness, and may well kill them.
Resentment devours everything around it. To pick at old wounds day after day for years makes every experience a bloodletting.
Poor, poor whatshisname. Anyone who would destroy himself to make a point neither he nor anyone around him can fathom deserves his fate.
How about another choice...."It is none of our business"
Yes yes - lending help to those who abuse that help is no help at all. That's easy. What's interesting to me is that a woman who claims to care about her family-- who campaigned on behalf of a man who proclaims on his teleprompter that "he is his brother's keeper" ( a quote from a murder scene in the Bible) isn't following that protocol with her own family. Yes yes - we don't have all the facts as to why Anthony Ciccone is homeless and how it's probably his own fault. "I am my brother's keeper" is the backbone of the Obama agenda. It's the grand manipulation to guilt us into agreeing to his socialist welfare state that really doesn't help the poor, but does in fact help funnel private money and property into democrat coffers.
Madonna and her brother seem confused about his existential purpose. The brother exists solely to generate favorable publicity for Madonna. In this. he has failed, but Madonna deserves some share of the blame. She should be subsidizing him to such an extent that he wakes up feeling grateful for her bounty and has nothing but good things to say about her in the press. I hope they resovle this impasse. We all want to hear only good things about Madonna and her selfless efforts to improve the world.
I'm more disturbed by the fact that she laid down a huge chunk of change for Malawi and let the project falter. One wonders what her money really supported.
Exactly.
If your brother is homeless because he's crazy, you help. If your brother is homeless because of a series of unfortunate circumstances and just needs to get back on his feet, you help. If your brother is homeless because he's disabled, you help.
But if your brother is homeless because he's a drug abuser or a criminal or a louse, you wouldn't be helping at all by sending him money. You'd only make it worse.
So no, there's not enough information to know what Madonna should or should not be doing here.
It's her money. I don't care what she spends it on.
I disagree with democrat politics, but I respect the idea of someone donating and speaking. I really don't understand the mentality required to start telling people what to do with their adult siblings, charity, money, etc.
Freeman Hunt said exactly what I was going to say:
http://althouse.blogspot.com/2011/10/madonnas-homeless-brother.html?showComment=1319394085729#c164719370327234954
Shame on Reason.com! This was a cheap and sleazy shot.
(The Uncredentialed, Crypto Jew)
How about this? Madonna has NO obligation to support her brother? And how about this, NEITHER DO I. Also,also IF Madonna isn't evil for not supporting her brother, NEITHER AM I. Also, also, also IF Madonna would shut up about public causes, I won't point out she has a brother in poverty.....
To me, that's Reason's point...big time Liberal, who has lotsa resources CHOOSES, rightly or wrongly, to not expend them, BUT she thinks I SHOULD...hypocrite.
@Joe (10/23/11 1:51 PM),
Agreed...
Government should never engage in anything that even remotely resembles "charity".
Charity by coercion is not charity -- it is the forcible (and usually counter-productive) redistribution of wealth.
The private sector -- relying upon voluntary charity -- is (by FAR) the most effective and efficient way to provide true charity.
I don't know the reason why her brother is in the situation he is in. There isn't enough information to make a judgment. That said Madona is a seriously wealthy woman. What would be a serious money for the average person, what would be enough money to live the rest of his life out on the equivalent of a median annual income would be a rounding error for her.
She could set up a trust fund for him with a couple of million bucks and in that fund buy him a modest home and have the annual proceeds tasked to pay the taxes, insurance and maintenance of the home including utilities and have it administered by a bank so as to not have to deal with him. The trust would be easily capable of giving him a middle class life style and the bank can be the heavy in who the money is doled out. This way she takes care of a relative and avoids the guilt tripping.
Madonna's under no obligation to provide for this guy, but the taxpayers of Bay City, Michigan are and somehow that seems wrong.
This.
She wants everyone to pay more in taxes, even people much less well-off than her, so their money can be pooled to take care of her brother. A brother she apparently doesn't think is worth the money.
She should take whatever money she would be paying at Obama's chosen tax rate and use it to support her brother so other, poorer people don't have to.
I'll speak to this--a bit
I was born in the city adjacent to Bay City, and am roughly her age.
Those of us who spent their high school years under Carter were very pessimistic about the future, and sought to escape the seriously depressed Mid-West.
She left for New York, vowing to never look back. She loathed everything about her up-bringing;including her family.
She bought that vineyard as a way to keep her family at bay-
The vineyard is going belly-up; as are many over there, except for the corporate owned based out of Napa.
As to being her brothers keeper-
It takes a village?
Empty libtard sloganeering?
Do as I preach, and not as I do?
"Madonna knows her brother better than we do (I believe he already wrote a tell-all book about her) and can decide for herself whether he is a worthy object of her charity."
And what did he do with the money from the book?
Family does know better who could use some charity and what they'll do with it.
"Madonna knows her brother better than we do (I believe he already wrote a tell-all book about her) and can decide for herself whether he is a worthy object of her charity."
That was a different Madonna brother.
For cryin' out loud! You always help family. The rationalizations are just that. You are supposed to do the hard things in life, anyone can do the easy and obvious. Rent an apartment for him and give him a modest amount to live on every month--$800 or so. She may even wind up better for it taxwise if she structures it correctly. If he harms himself with that help, it is all on him.
And don't be so dismissive of those that come to you looking for a dollar. You can see that the need is real if you buy them that hamburger. You may even find out that they have kids in the same boat and that is why they want the cash. Yes, I live in a big city so I know the tricks. But personal experiences have made me glad that
I look closely everytime.
@Robert Cook,
Yep...
The homeless brother is Anthony. The brother who authored the tell all book is Christopher:
http://www.mailonsunday.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-1034635/My-bizarre-life-Madonna-Guy--BROTHER.html
Darrell says:
"For cryin' out loud! You always help family."
True enough. But, enabling addiction (if that is the root of this problem) does NOT provide "help" -- quite the opposite.
Sometimes doing nothing (financially) is the best "help" family (or anybody else) can provide.
By the way...
The last paragraph of the following link (written by Madonna's brother Christopher) could shed some light on what's going on now with her homeless brother Anthony (or not -- none of us really know and none of us ever will):
http://www.mailonsunday.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-1034635/My-bizarre-life-Madonna-Guy--BROTHER.html
I care about what she does or doesn't do about as much as anyone should care about what Hank Williams Jr. does or doesn't do or say. Why anyone gives an minute of their time to celebrities who claim to know about what's going on is beyond me. I don't care what side of the aisle they are on, they are celebrities, talking just to hear themselves talk.
Vicki from Pasadena
@Victoria,
1) Did you not just criticize yourself?
2) For my part, I could care less about Madonna. My interest is how best to offer assistance to those in trouble.
For my part, I could care less about Madonna.
How much less could you care?
There was an old Peanuts strip where Linus talked to Lucy, and then he talked to a brick wall, and then he told Charlie Brown that talking to Lucy was like talking to a brick wall. This popped into my head when I saw DBQ and AprilApple's dialog. Dust Bunny Queen, you are Linus.
SBVOR said...
Darrell says:
"For cryin' out loud! You always help family."
True enough. But, enabling addiction (if that is the root of this problem) does NOT provide "help" -- quite the opposite.
Sometimes doing nothing (financially) is the best "help" family (or anybody else) can provide.
10/23/11 4:07 PM
And then they get SSI disability. Marvelous. I'd rather that she help her brother than being forced to pay taxes to help him.
But, enabling addiction (if that is the root of this problem) does NOT provide "help"...
It does. Just not the kind you want to give. How about enabling life of any kind? And without the State's involvement and the taxpayers' wallets. Maybe you could get her to hire a couple of burly guys to follow him around and scare off the people that are about to give him a dollar. Cold kills. Being on the street kills as surely as drugs/alcohol with the additional risk added to an already damaged life. I rather set him up modestly as I laid out and see how that goes. What are her monthly bills for cut flowers and the assorted parasites like "lifecoaches," "feng shui advisers," and the other leeches she surrounds herself with? Enabling them isn't good, either.
Pricks always have a rationalization. I remember, quite a few years ago, Warren Buffet's son and daughter were in trouble financially (both through no fault of their own and with cancer in his daughter's case) and the reporters made clear that Buffet had done nothing to help (although I believe the kids didn't ask because they knew better.) Making someone stand on their own two feet is bullshit when you have the financial resources to help and it represents the same percentage of your total worth as my dollar represents to mine. I'd kick Buffet in the balls if I had the chance. Or at least think about doing so.
Madison Man says:
"How much less could you care?"
You got me! My bad.
CubanBob says:
"And then they get SSI disability. Marvelous. I'd rather that she help her brother than being forced to pay taxes to help him."
In which case...
1) The addict (if he is one) still gets the SSI.
2) You still get stuck with the tax bill.
3) The addict (if he is one) now has two enablers, not just one -- thereby extending his stay on SSI.
Not really the best solution, eh? If he's an addict, the best "help" available might be for nobody to offer financial aid. Tough love is often the best love.
How about the government never engages in anything that even remotely resembles "charity"?
Charity by coercion is not charity -- it is the forcible (and usually counter-productive) redistribution of wealth.
She is not her brother's keeper.
And the rumour has it that he is a man. And Madonna don't support men. They support her because she is a Diva.
Darrell sez (paraphrasing):
"blah, blah, blah... more of the same old counter-productive bleeding heart hypocrisy"
Hey, Darrell...
If enabling addiction is your bailiwick, why don't you go find some addict and offer him or her financial "aid"?
Oh, yeah, I forgot...
Your sort always wants to coerce somebody else into soothing your guilt.
I suspect the guy's a scumbag. His own dad fired him and his brothers and sisters would apparently rather he be homeless than let him crash at their place. That sets off all sorts of alarm bells for me.
On a side note -- what a weird article to see at Reason magazine!
Personally I wouldn't be so arrogant to presume that I could tell Madonna what to do about her relationship with her brother and if she does/does not have responsibility to be her brother's keeper.
However, Madonna is so arrogant as to tell the rest of us that we need to give our money to the government so we can take care of her brother...and that it must be mandated for us to do this.
That is a problem for me.
Hey SBVOR--
I do help and have done so more than I could afford.
But then again, I am not an insufferable prick like you are.
If Madonna can doesn't want to subsidize her worthless brother, surely she can understand why Republicans don't want to.
Darrell,
So...
What you're telling me (truthfully or otherwise) is that you have enabled addiction?
How noble of you. Don't break your arm while patting yourself on your back.
Darrell, you advocate enabling an addict? You realize that this often dooms the person to a lifetime of drug abuse, yes?
@Gabriel 9:51 this morning
And if Madonna doesn't think he's worth helping, why would she expect the government to use the taxpayers' money to help him?
Maybe the left should just decide who needs to live and die and save themselves a lot of money ...
Oh. Wait .... just give him a red pill. Or was it the blue one? Or put him on an ice floe ...
Whatever it is, when the government does it the "workers" bear no responsibility, right?
Irene's idea is most responsible. $25,000 a year and medical expenses dependent on drug (or whatever) testing.
Althouse sez:
"By the way, how do we know this guy is really who he says he is?"
Good question. Verifying that would be Journalism 101. But, we all know the state of "journalism" these days.
It's "interesting" to note that -- among the family photos in the following link -- there is no "Anthony":
http://www.mailonsunday.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-1034635/My-bizarre-life-Madonna-Guy--BROTHER.html
Of course, each photo could have predated the birth of brother (or, half brother) Anthony.
We don’t know the details of the relationship between Madonna and her homeless brother. We can be fairly certain that they do not get along and that Madonna does not believe that he is a proper recipient of her charity.
The interesting thing about this situation is this: Madonna is a fairly typical Liberal who advocates government programs to help the poor and down-and-out, like her brother. Government programs, unlike private charity are not allowed to differentiate between what was once called the “deserving” poor and the “undeserving” poor. When our tax dollars are used by government to spend money on people like Madonna’s brother we are not allowed to ask if he deserves our support; he simply gets it because he qualifies. The government is not allowed to get as granular as that. And, frankly, I don’t trust the government employee to make those distinctions. But to the Liberal, the government program is “good” and ever more of it is demanded.
On the other hand, Madonna has determined that her homeless brother does not deserve her help for some reason. Getting fired from a family business gives us a clue, but is not definitive. Madonna is using her knowledge of her brother to decide whether to support him or not. She is familiar with the details of his situation; her decision is based on her determination that he does not deserve her charity.
This is a fascinating case of the Liberal mind. The inability to see that there are no “people” only persons. Each has a story and a problem. For some, a helping hand financially may be the answer. For others the gift of faith may be worth more than all the money in the world. The old adage about not being able to see the forest for the trees, can also be turned around; many cannot see the trees for the forest.
Again addressing the question of:
"how do we know this guy is really who he says he is?"
The following link indicates Madonna has an older brother named Anthony. Whether this individual is that Anthony is another question:
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,193740,00.html?sPage=fnc.entertainment/madonna
You can go to his funeral and be very proud of yourself. Can't you think of a way to give him food and shelter only? I can. I'm sorry that your intellectual capacity is so limited. Maybe you should look past pop psychology and after school specials to give yourself broader insight. It couldn't hurt.
Always help family. Forget the petty bullshit when it's a matter of life and death.
Darrell sez:
"Can't you think of a way to give him food and shelter only? I can."
And, if he is an addict...
All you will have accomplished is to make it that much easier for him to comfortably afford his substance of choice.
All you will have done is to perpetuate his addiction and increase the odds that addiction will kill him.
In reality, all you will have done is to feed your own desperate need to feel good about yourself. And you will. You will be too blinded by your own self-righteousness to see that you contributed to his premature death.
But, of course, you can then...
"go to his funeral and be very proud of yourself"
“I got frostbite on my feet last winter, Ciccone said. “A friend of mine lost all ten toes. Several have died of hypothermia.”
What kind of dick-tard decides to remain "homeless" in MICHIGAN?
Never heard of FLORIDA? The land of milk and honey...and cigarette trees.
Do you think he can't use SSI or other taxpayer-funded help to keep on using? Keeping someone alive gives them a chance to finally make that decision to quit on their own. That's the only way that works.
Look, he going to die on the streets. It's not a matter of "if,"
only when. Glad that it makes you feel somehow superior. Little minds need to stick with the script of the after school special to give their lives meaning and direction. You might want to invest in a ballguard, though. Something gives me a feeling that you'll probably be needing one someday.
Half the people in Madonna's world are probably using something and she is quite comfortable "enabling"
them by using them on her projects. If you have hundreds of millions of dollars and you can't think of ways of really helping a brother, you should hire someone who can. It would cost less than the amount she spends monthly on cut flowers.
Here. I'll give you one idea for free. Hire a P.I. firm run by ex-cops or FBI and have him followed and photographed with all buys going to the police. Pretty soon, no one will sell to him. Or even talk to him.If the dealers take a run at the PIs, ex-cops should know what to do. Madonna could wind up cleaning up some streets as a side benefit.
Darrell sez:
"Keeping someone alive gives them a chance to finally make that decision to quit on their own. That's the only way that works."
Which only serves to further prove the adage that:
The entire "Progressive" ideology is pure mythology.
I am not guided by "pop psychology and after school specials". I am guided by countless examples of real life up close and personal experiences demonstrating that tough love works.
Any addiction specialist would identify you as a counter-productive enabler in a New York nano-second.
Darrell sez:
"have him followed and photographed with all buys going to the police. Pretty soon, no one will sell to him."
And...
What if his substance of choice is alcohol (the worst addiction of all)?
Then do something else.
Or do nothing and clack your teeth and say "What a shame!" when he kicks. I see it as more reason to provide food and shelter until he's ready to quit. Your brothers and sisters, your sons and daughters are as you find them. Work with that instead of some stupid ideal.
The academy was abandoned this year after $3.8 million was spent without a brick ever being laid.
But did Madonna help the girls get laid?
And I'm as Conservative as Ronald Reagan. I even met him once in the Oval Office*. Guess your guesses aren't worth very much, are they?
*While I was there, Patty barged in to speak with him. I tried not to listen but she was upset about something he said about her to a reporter, and she was reading him the Riot Act. Later, when he spoke to me he asked if I were married and I said "No." He said, "Then, do I have a girl for you! [meaning Patty]...We all laughed.
Patty? Anytime you're ready! Not that I'm rushing you, of course. . .
I see it as more reason to provide food and shelter until he's ready to quit.
If you provide an addict with food and shelter, why would he EVER be "ready to quit"?
You've removed the cost of his addiction!
You've removed the cost of his addiction!
And here I thought there was so much more to life. But it's OK if he is on SSI and "in the system?" OK then. One learns something everyday. Mostly that there are a lot of assholes out there that would let there real brothers and sisters, sons and daughters die to make a stupid point. Fair enough. But I already knew that.
And here I thought there was so much more to life.
I see you're lucky enough not to have addicts in your family.
Addiction is not the flu. It does not get better if you wait patiently and make sure the sufferer drinks plenty of fluids and eats healthy. Addiction is, by definition, the willingness to sacrifice the "so much more" aspects of life for the sake of the addiction.
Most family members of addicts start out like you, but after they've been lied to and stolen from often enough they eventually realize that while they may love the addict, he doesn't love them -- at least, not as much as he loves booze or cocaine or whatever.
Family isn't society.
How a family deals with individual people has little or nothing to do with ideology or how society should be run.
Really none of our business.
Madonna has inserted herself into politics. I'll make her my business. Miss leftocrat is a capitalist. Feel the hypocrisy. At her stadium concerts, Madonna installs huge screens to propagandize her fawning fans into the assumption that John McCain (a war hero) is no different than Hitler.
ESPN doesn't seem to care.
I think ESPN should care.
I swear, sycophancy (which is a pillar of cultism) is a HUGE problem in this world:
You guys talk as though Madonna hasn't been the celebrated embodiment of a nutcase bitch from Day One of entering the public sphere - I challenge you to watch "Truth Or Dare" (her own documentary) and tell me you like her as a person, or explain her demand we put Kabbalah water in nuclear reactors - as though her ill-gotten fame dictates the usual responsibilities of family don't apply to her, because of what Tony "may" or may not be is ridiculous.
You sold your soul - not even for Rock 'N' Roll but some silly girl-power pabulum pop.
You're just plain sad, man.
Crack, people get a pass for success. If someone accomplishes enough the rules no longer apply to them.
It's amazing how much people defer to money, fame, and power. It's not what is said but who is saying it.
I'm surprised Reason is into this. It's none of their/our business.
I think her brother once tried to give her Hydrangeas ...
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