In spite of her manifest dottiness, including the famous tearing-up-a-picture-of-the-pope incident, I have a soft spot in my heart for Sinead O'Connor. That's based mainly on a few interviews I've read with her, and a few songs; I've never actually heard much of her music. But somehow I have the impression of someone who is a genuinely seeking the truth, misguided though she may often be. That's why I read her open letter to Miley Cyrus. I have made a conscious effort to avoid seeing the recent Miley Cyrus video performances which have attracted so much attention. But there have been enough descriptions and still photos popping up on the online news sites that I think I get the picture, a very sad and sleazy one. So I'm pretty sure the advice in this letter, which is obviously sound in general, is something Miley Cyrus, along with millions of other young women, needs to hear (it's also full of vulgar language, so be ready for that).

[People in the music business] will prostitute you for all you are worth, and cleverly make you think its what YOU wanted.. and when you end up in rehab as a result of being prostituted, ‘they’ will be sunning themselves on their yachts in Antigua, which they bought by selling your body and you will find yourself very alone.....

Yes, I’m suggesting you don’t care for yourself. That has to change. You ought be protected as a precious young lady by anyone in your employ and anyone around you, including you. This is a dangerous world. We don’t encourage our daughters to walk around naked in it because it makes them pray [sic] for animals and less than animals (a distressing majority of whom work in the music industry and the associated media).

"You ought to be protected as a precious young lady." What a beautiful sentiment. When a Christian says something like that, it's scoffed at, and I suppose there will be a lot of people scoffing at what Sinead O'Connor says--she's over the hill, she's old and bitter, etc. But I suspect that even the scoffers recognize the truth in it. Try though the entertainment industry and various sexual ideologues may, the idea that there is something especially sweet and vulnerable and deserving of protection about young female sexuality simply won't be crushed.

Miley Cyrus has apparently responded with mockery, and Google results for the two names refer to a "feud" between the two.