In 1991 The U.S. was fighting the Persian Gulf War at the time, and Whitney Houston stood at the microphone of Super Bowl XXV to sing the national anthem in a red, white and blue track suit. The field was filled with military personnel. Thousands of spectators clutched American flags in the stands.

Another shining example of how militarism is so interconnected with the world of sports. Since Iraq never invaded the United States in 1991 nor even threatened to do so against the world's lone superpower, one has to wonder at the lack of any kind of critical thinking of so many Americans whenever they are so quick to accept what the government tells them especially when the U.S. invades and bombs third world countries. What the government and the military just loves is when celebrities like Ms. Houston make statements like this:

"If you were there, you could feel the intensity," Houston later said. "You know, we were in the Gulf War at the time. It was an intense time for a country. A lot of our daughters and sons were overseas fighting. I could see, in the stadium, I could see the fear, the hope, the intensity, the prayers going up, you know, and I just felt like this is the moment. And it was hope, we needed hope, you know, to bring our babies home and that's what it was about for me, that what I felt when I sang that song, and the overwhelming love coming out of the stands was incredible."

People like Ms. Houston certainly made the government's job of spreading propaganda about another one of their unjustifiable wars that much easier. If Ms. Houston was really concerned about "bring [ing] our babies home" then she should have been speaking out against that idiotic war instead of being a cheerleader for it. The irony about her statement is that the sanctions that the United States imposed upon Iraq subsequent to the invasion resulted in the deaths of at least 500,000 Iraqi children. That inconvenient fact is something that Ms. Houston and her devoted fans would much rather ignore than address.

Ms. Houston may have been a great singer but her politics left a hell of a lot to be desired.

Whitney Houston was an incredible woman - one of the fine black women who broke through to the masses and kept the road paved for so many other women and black artists to be accepted. She had an incredible voice and she was gorgeous.

She also had problems with drugs and alcohol like so many artists. She could have had a few more decades. I've enjoyed her music and her acting. It's sad she's gone.

May she RIP. She'll be remembered for her great talent and for her great accomplishments.

I refuse to hold singing the national anthem against her.

In earlier cultures, singers and bards were respected and even feared by the ruling Elite, because their performances could literally bring down a noble house.

In later times, singers and other performers were regarded as a slightly more socially acceptable form of common criminal. Entertaining, but not to be trusted.

In today's Corporate controlled pseudo-culture, singers are nothing more than product. They are near deified, worshiped by uncritical masses, and their all to frequent deaths due to substance abuse routinely displace the critical information about a collapsing empire.

Something is seriously screwed up here folks.

I just loved this woman's voice. May she rest in peace...

Thomas Gilbert-

Hey folks

Hate to break it to you, but singers, artists, et al, have always been controlled by corporate. It's how everything gets sold to make money, since the beginning of it all. Centuries ago, there were those that were substantial in their art, though funded by the 1%. Back then, the Vatican was the primary source. But there were other private patrons as well, like the bankers, the Medici family, a political dynasty and banking family in Florence, late 14th century.

Perhaps in the early days of nineteenth and early twentieth century, it was more a 'company' doing the wheeling & dealing, but the same paradigm none-the-less.

Look to the artists, no matter the discipline, who struggled and made no money in their lifetime. They didn't play by the rules, hence, they lost out on the $$$.

But those who stayed true to themselves, and their art, live on through their art.

Point is, as I've told students time & again: want to be an artist, or musician: don't give up the day job, lest you are willing to sell all of your soul to the 'man'.

Peace

Pet

Whitney Houston, Chris Hedges, Martin King, Michael Jackson, Ted Kennedy, Abraham Lincoln and legions of others are blessed with rare gifts of communication. Their gifts remain, using ordinary words, through arrangement and sound they lift us, connecting our Spirit Eternal, Perhaps, they are the angels who live amongst us.

For Whitney, all the days of this earth are in, She is home now. Reality reigns, Her voice, forever a bridge, to the secret place of Spirit that reside in all of us.

I wouldn't expect anything less from any corporation that owned the rights to her works. Her estate will receive increased royalties in return. It's how the "business" works.