It's one thing to be a corporate tool. It's entirely different if you build your whole persona on being just the opposite. Is it irony or hypocrisy for Buffett to speak out about endangered species, to take a bit role in Carl Hiaasen's movie "Hoot" which has an environmental anti-overdevelopment message, all the while building 44 Cheeseburger in Paradise Restaurants and at least a dozen Margaritaville Resorts? The Margaritaville in Negril has helped change Negril from a laid back hippie enclave to an all-inclusive nightmare. BTW, friends at a small hotel are losing their beach. Hurricanes are largely responsible, but so too is the overdevelopment of the north end of the beach where Margaritaville, now joined by a dozen other all-inclusives, is located.
Remember Dennis Kozlowski, shamed CEO of Tyco? He threw a 2 million dollar birthday party for his wife - guess who was the entertainer? Jimmy Buffett. He was paid $250,000 for the bash. Here's a question, though. Why does a guy who nets 25 mil a year from concerts alone (not to mention what he makes writing books, building chain restaurants and theme hotels, plus royalties) go to the mediterranean for a $250k gig?
Greed.
How is Buffett different than a guy like Rush Limbaugh whose schtick is hating on the French and the Cubans all the while filling his fat gullet with French wine and Cuban cigars?
Just wondering.
30 comments:
Wow--gross! I'd never been a big Buffett fan, but now even less. He's just another corporate shill.
Thanks for the info, Jess!
If his garbage tunage wasn't bad enough, now this. Maybe he'll choke on a parrot.
I've hated Buffet for years along with the so called "Parrotheads." Yuck.
I was nearly killed by the crush of "parrotheads" trying to get into the show at Alpine Valley about five years ago. They were, for the most part, drunk assholes. Problem is they think they are fun party people, but you would not believe the fights that were breaking out as people were trying to push their way in to the show. (This was 2002, new security measures were in place following that hysterical event in September the year before). Security was not prepared to search all those people. It was ugly.
I went back to Alpine a week later to see Dave Matthews (DMB is another band that loves it some money and does everything it can to maximize a buck). Since everyone at that show was floating on a mellow rather than beer bongs and tequila, entering the show was a picnic.
Everything about the Buffett mythos is fake, fake, fake.
What a great post and so true true true.
He is just a jerk who really sold out, greedy asshat I say.
Parrotheaded asshat.
I was never a fan. However, about 25 years ago, a friend of mine who was a super parrot head (what can I say, I was less discriminating then!) talked me into going with her.
It was one of the most hateful evenings I have ever spent. People were drunk and stupid and obnoxious. It was nothing like the more punky things I was used to frequenting, in less savory venues. At least there, you expected a certain amount of color.
This one guy in the row in front of us actually turned backwards (he was standing as all people were) puked into his seat at Radio City and went back to his Hawaiian shirted nonsense, singing, clapping and hooting. I just looked at the floor and told my friend I was leaving.
I waited it out in the lobby, thank god the show was almost over when that happened.
Ugh. That is my Buffet memory.
Ugh again!
"How is Buffett different than a guy like Rush Limbaugh whose schtick is hating on the French and the Cubans all the while filling his fat gullet with French wine and Cuban cigars?"
One is a shrill shill and the other is lowlife parasite.
Franiam I found a quote by a friend of his from early on who said he knocked on Buffett's hotel room door and when Buffett opened it he was real sneaky, looking around to see who might be watching. He told his friend to get in quick. The friend, assuming their was reefer smoking or hot bikini babes, beat feat inside the door. Inside, Buffett was counting receipts and "chits". This was when he was supposedly drunk and shooting holes in the freezer. Liar.
dr. z try saying that three times fast after a few margaritas. Or do you only drink Mai Tai's these days?
i "sat through" a buffet concert at MSG once ---- because it was a fund raiser for Katrina.
it sucked. he sucked. i dont get it.
this sort of reminds when Roger Clemens charged kids to sign a baseball.
Regarding Jimmy Buffett, he's no different than any other successful performer. He has his fans, and he has ex-fans, and he has detractors. Big deal.
As for his income, well, I'm sure he hasn't shown his tax returns to anyone reading this website, but he undoubtedly does pretty well.
As far as owning resorts goes, he gets paid for the use of his name, but whether he actually has a financial stake in any of the resorts or the restaurants, well, only Jimmy and a few others know the answer to that one.
Anyway, it seems the attitude among most posters here is to hate success.
Jess, my thoughts EXACTLY. After seeing the movie Hoot, I commented to dear Mr. Ether about the fact that Jimmy Buffett didn't seem to have any problem being part of a mega farmland-gobbling, habitat-destroying piece of unnecessary development right here in our own backyard. Maybe he's not evangelizing about his greed alá Rush Libaff, but yeah, I smell a whiff of hypocrisy. Buffett will probably be playing at the Giuliani inaugural. Thanks for writing about it.
I don't know how you feel as a "local", but from my point of view across town, the city of Middleton has not met a development project that they don't like. Sadly, Madison is going much the same way with Mayors Baumann and now Cheesewhiz at the helm.Upscale shopping and luxury condos -- a surefire recipe for urban success!
BTW, no_slapz -- I do not hate Jimmy Buffett's success. I don't care for his hypocrisy. Whether or not he profits immensely from the hamburger chain, his name is on it. I'm indifferent to his music, I simply have never paid attention to it. I will say that one of my kids' favorite books -- The Jolly Mon -- was co-authored by Buffett and his daughter. (Although currently I despise the genre of celebrity-authored children's books. His came out long before that.)
But I really appreciate big-name performers who have integrity.
Thanks for this post. I felt the same way when I saw Hoot. Mr. Buffett reeks of hypocrisy, and possibly a bit of snobbery, as well. It's okay to destroy Wisconsin, but leave his precious Florida alone. Give me some money.
no_slapz: I don't think anyone, not one single person, deserves to earn $25 million a year, or anything remotely close to it, while other people are going hungry, homeless, without healthcare or a decent education. If that is hating success, then, okay, I hate success. Personally, I call it selfishness or greed, not success.
As far as the use of his name goes, if you give someone permission to use your name, you are endorsing whatever they do with it and you also share responsibility for whatever action is taken using your name. Some people, like Mr, Buffett, seem to care more about money, even though he doesn't need it, than the common good. Oops. There I go again, hating success.
suzy, you wrote:
"I don't care for his hypocrisy."
When was it that Jimmy Buffett signed a social contract with the citizens of the world to comport himself according to their wishes?
You wrote:
"But I really appreciate big-name performers who have integrity."
You have constructed an oxymoron. Or, you mean you like the performers you like because you like them, which means they have integrity.
ed, you wrote:
"no_slapz: I don't think anyone, not one single person, deserves to earn $25 million a year, or anything remotely close to it, while other people are going hungry, homeless, without healthcare or a decent education."
Since we live in a democracy, you are empowered to send all your excess capital to the US Treasury for redistribution. You can also send your excess capital to any of the world's 6.5 billion citizens living outside the US. Buffett enjoys the same option. But he's got other ideas regarding the best use of his excess capital.
Meanwhile, there are countries in the world that share your attitude toward individual wealth. Have you looked into life in those economies? Are you just another utopianist who would convert the US into a dystopia? Can you explain the failures of the world's marxist states?
You postulated:
"If that is hating success, then, okay, I hate success."
Okay. Then it's settled. You hate success. Financial success, anyway.
You determined:
"Personally, I call it selfishness or greed, not success."
In other words, people like Buffett, who entertain for money, should stop entertaining because too many people are showing their appreciation by willingly exercising their capacity to enjoy his work.
You must really hate the Rolling Stones, Paul McCartney and a long list of other performers who rake in millions per year.
Based on your topsy-turvy view, you must believe people should subject themselves to a night at the ballet when they truly want to spend the night with the Grateful Dead.
Meanwhile, your concern about other people's incomes suggests you believe that entertainment revenue collected by a guy like Buffett deprives other entertainers from earning a buck. Sorry, but aging entertainers either update their acts or see their fan-base shrink.
One of the most depressing performances I've ever seen was Levi Stubbs and the Four Tops about 10 years ago at a corporate event. It should have been a charity ball -- for the benefit of the Four Tops. But it wasn't. On the other hand Mick Jagger is still a crowd pleaser. I'm sure if you were dictator, Stones fans would face arrest for the excessive enrichment of a gang of musical misfits.
You wrote:
"As far as the use of his name goes, if you give someone permission to use your name, you are endorsing whatever they do with it and you also share responsibility for whatever action is taken using your name."
Partly true. Anyone lending his name is associated with the goods or services endorsed. But, as with all contracts, there are indemnity issues that limit the impact of risks undertaken by the endorser.
You wrote:
"Some people, like Mr, Buffett, seem to care more about money, even though he doesn't need it, than the common good."
Common good? Exactly what is the Common Good? Why would your definition guide the country better than mine? (Hint. It wouldn't.).
You said:
"Oops. There I go again, hating success."
Yep. There you go again. Dreaming of misery for all.
No_slapz, I can criticize Jimmy Buffett's company's destruction of farmland in my home county if I feel like it. But, as there is obviously nothing I could say that you wouldn't twist to some other meaning that suits you, I'm done.
Sorry, Jess, that it turned into muckraking.
I purposely referenced DMB because I think Dave Matthews runs his band like a corporation, too. He maximizes his bucks and does whatever he can to be financially successful. But he also does alot of charity. I hope he enjoys his fabulous wealth.
slappy's problem is that he has a preconceived notion of what liberals believe/what conservatives believe and he can't think beyond those stereotypes. For example, I think Warren (Jimmy's distant cousin) would like to bitch slap no-slappz for his love of systemic financial inequality.
And slappy-stop with the Carol Gotbaum posts. Somehow you believe she deserved to die. I believe she was mistreated by airport personnel and by the police, and that she should still be alive today. All further Gotbaum posts in my blog by you will be deleted. You are a sick fucker. That's all.
Suzy-I really hate the development out by Cheeseburger in Paradise. I try to never eat at national chains, if I can help it. I hardly think old Buffett would give a shit if my favorite Middleton burger joints shut down. In the movie Hoot there is a little joke where the mayor is welcoming a pancake house and praises the development that will bring 12 jobs. About sums it up.
suzy, you wrote:
"No_slapz, I can criticize Jimmy Buffett's company's destruction of farmland in my home county if I feel like it."
Did Jimmy Buffett arrive at the door of the farmer and force him, Godfather-style, to sell his land for use as a restaurant. Or did you neighbor Mr Green Jeans receive an offer too tempting to pass up?
If you're angry about the conversion of the property from farmland to restaurant, your beef is with your local zoning board and your ex-neighbor who sold the land for an amount that satisfied him.
But, typical of people like you who see boogy men in all the wrong places, you believe Buffett's restaurant was an unwanted change and that farmland was preferable. To you perhaps.
But you can be sure that Buffett's location assessement people did their best to determine local acceptance of the restaurant before investing a dime in a plot of land. And like I mentioned, the farmer was glad to get the money.
jess, you wrote:
"And slappy-stop with the Carol Gotbaum posts. Somehow you believe she deserved to die."
Somehow you miss the obvious.
You wrote:
"I believe she was mistreated by airport personnel and by the police, and that she should still be alive today."
I believe she was mistreated by her idiot husband. Had he acted responsibly toward his wife, she would be alive today.
As it was, his utter and stunning thoughtlessness was fatal. Sending her to Arizona, according to his own recorded and replayed statements, was an act of sending a severely depressed, suicidal alcoholic substance-abusing woman into the wild.
If he really cared about her, he would have personally checked her into a de-tox facility within driving distance of home. Instead, he went for the lunar space shot and missed.
Jess- I have banned it from my blog and just delete its comments now.
Spartacus slapped no_slappz into some kind of weird submission, which actually freaks me out, but I have witnessed the change in tone.
Also interestingly enough it does not use its blog id. If you have the stomach you can see for yourself that it does have a blog at http://no-lappz.blogspot.com.
You will note the same lame using other people's words. It seems to have none of its own, unless it is being submissive to Spartacus.
And No_Slappz, if you come back to my blog I will delete every comment that you write. Period. No exceptions.
No slappz-
You wrote
"I believe she was mistreated by her idiot husband. Had he acted responsibly toward his wife, she would be alive today."
But what you really meant is-
I'm so desperate for interaction with other human beings I force myself on them, and I constantly return where I am obviously not wanted because I have no where else to go.
As for "success."
What in the hell do you know about success?
I wrote-
People in an ethereal world despise you, and no one reads your pissant blog.
I also wrote-
This post has more comments than all of your posts combined.
I'm writing this as well-
If anyone ever wants an inside look into "No-slappz" and his pathological self-loathing, do a search for "No-slappz" on Google. The dude/chick/whatever has a long history of harassing people.
Look, it's me writing again-
He does that dissecting of people's comments everywhere he goes. It's an indication of a disturbed person. He's so bent on being in control, even when he's being mocked he cannot stop.
This too was written by yours truly-
Has anyone ever witnessed him/her/it come up with an original idea or is it always commenting on what someone else said?
Almost parasitic isn't he/she/it?
What a douche.
Oh, and Fran the "submissive" thing is not unusual with parasitic people. He wants to feel powerful, but he knows in the real world Sparty would smash his skull. He's a pretend Alpha.
All sociopathic people are cowards at heart.
I worked with dozens of people just like him/her/it. The grandiosity, bravado, "confidence," etc. is simply a cover for, as I said, an intense self-loathing. He/she/it must always be right, and the only way that's possible is to tell everyone else that they are wrong. That's why there's never any original ideas because they might be criticized, which is something "No Slappz" cannot stand.
Wow, I think that was a fairly sufficient Psych Eval.
I promise "No Slappz," I'm worse than Sparty. I know who you are.
In regard to Limbaugh and Buffet, I thought they were the same person.
Sorry for taking up so much space.
If that's the best you can do No Slappz, maybe you should give up now.
I'll admit, you are entertaining. You just can't help yourself.
As for the, "physical harm" nonsense. Please. Stop acting like a victim. You're the one harassing people. No one sought you out. You came here on your own, just as you have all over the Internet.
If I was interested in "harming" you, I sure as hell wouldn't announce it.
Despite your desperate attempts at presenting yourself as an "intellectual," you are apparently only able to see in black and white, which goes right along with my analysis.
No Slappz is so sad, after trying to post the same comment on my blog four times, over a two day period (Which means he saves his own comments), he then went to one of my friend's blogs and posted it there. Only to have it deleted once again.
It has nothing to with "self-esteem" issues No Slappz. You're a dick. You intentionally try and aggravate people you don't know, using the anonymity of the Internet much in the same way a drunk uses booze.
The evidence is on Google. You've been doing this for a while, all over the Internet, and I must admit I'm disappointed. I'm rarely challenged, and I was hoping you could do better.
For most people, blogging is simply fun, and a way to interact with people from all over the world. For you, it's a way to feel powerful, and important.
But I imagine that fades when you look at your Blog Stats. The only way you can get people to respond is when you disrespect them.
Oh, as for your comment about people on the Internet being "fair game." Unfortunately, the law disagrees. What you're doing is called harassment/stalking. The law makes no distinction when it comes to the Internet.
Maybe that's something to think about, if you ever really think about anything at all.
Jess, I apologize for this little back and forth. I know I'm new here.
I'm finished now.
Fairlane, you are always welcome here. I deleted slappy's comment because it was far too aggressive, and frankly, I've grown a little bored of him.
My biggest problem is that he never actually understands the issues at hand, but somehow that doesn't keep him from writing really long comments anyway.
jess, you wrote:
"My biggest problem is that he never actually understands the issues at hand, but somehow that doesn't keep him from writing really long comments anyway."
That's an interesting comment. Your blog is clogged with posts about all the aspects of life that disturb you. You rail against them and spew names. You riff on the politicians and political mavens you dislike.
But there they are, in their offices and broadcast booths and in other venues, there because large numbers of people elevated them either by election of simple popularity to where they are.
You rant about Jimmy Buffett as though he possesses the right of eminent domain. As though he decrees that his hamburger stand will open on land you'd prefer to keep as farmland. Of course no construction project moves ahead on your imaginary terms.
In short, you focus your anger on the wrong parties almost every time.
See? you're trying to prove you understand the point and clearly, you don't.
Buffett is a hypocrite. He pretends to be something he is not to further his own bank account. You seem unable to comprehend that doing so is disingenuous. You are oblivious to the fact that I am pointing out that Buffett is not now, nor has he ever been what he pretends to be.
In every engagement that I have had with you on these boards you have never actually debated the subject at hand. Not once. And when you can't you make up peoples opinions for them.
I'll be joining the rather lengthy list of bloggers who've banned you. If you could present a coherent argument, I'd let you stay. But fairlane is right. You are simply pitiful.
Ciao.
I am wonderin' what I missed but thinking I am grateful to have missed it too.
Wow. This has certainly been an interesting exchange. One thing that seems to be consistant is that no_slappz continually tries to put words in other people's mouths and thoughts in their heads. I need to thank him/her/it though; she/it/he told me numerous things about myself that I never knew before. For instance, I had no idea that I was a ballet lover until it/he/she told me it was so. Now I need to go out and see what I've been missing all these years! Right after I have some Stones fans arrested, that is.
It's a lot like Bill O Lielly. You just scream "Shut Up" in the faces of those who disagree with you.
And Ed (I type this here, so I don't have to turn my head an look at where you're sitting at the dining room table, and besides I don't want to strain my voice to call out across the room) you are so disingenuous: I know you dislike both ballet AND the Grateful Dead. Ha!
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