MADONNA’S NEW TATTOO

 


“It is a rare and difficult attainment 

to grow old gracefully and happily.”

~Arnold Palmer

       Getting old.
        Not just the age thing.
        The worn-out thing too.
        Could be they’re the same thing when it comes to Lady Madonna. I’m her senior by enough years to know all about old. Like in the tired old cliches of life and culture.
        We read recently that the old broad wants to get a tat on her twat. Now that’s culture. Last month it was free oral sex for Hillary voters. And not long before that she was strutting around in an outfit designed to showcase her sagging buns. Who does that sort of thing? Someone terrified of the dark outside the spotlight. But running around like a clown, chasing the spotlight in the circus’ center ring only serves to scream “I’m old! I’m old!” This Eveready Bunny’s out of juice.
        If you insist on getting that tat, Madame, here are a couple of suggestions: “Out of Order.” Maybe “Dry Well,” or even “Free!” I’m sure others will forward some zippy suggestions.

        Oh, I know about old alright. Anyone who tells us growing old is a picnic is either fooling herself or lying. It’s Destiny having its way with us. There is no escape. The best we can do is do nothing to make it worse. Or relax, stop chasing elusive spotlights, enjoy the people and things you love that are still around you. Otherwise all those who have cursed and hated you finally get their revenge: your old age. 
           Now here is a lady who refuses to negotiate with the reflection in her mirror. Apparently unwilling or unable to age gracefully. I seem to recall Camille Paglia saying pretty much the same thing. It probably hurt more coming from Camille because she has female creds and I have none. I don’t want them. We over-the-hill-male-vampires live in the penumbra, averse to bright light.
           I say to all these old ones, those who never stop doing stupid things in order to draw the spotlight toward them; get the hell out of the way. Let the younger clowns get their brief time in the center ring. Recognize, for most (though not all), the spotlight won’t warm them for very long. So what’s the big deal, dear Lady? You made your fortune, got your awards and name on The Walk, and managed to corrupt an entire generation of young girls in the process. Congrats. What the hell else do you want? Be on your way, Lilith! Lead all those other never-let-go celebs and politicians into the Valley of Shadows.

        This phenomenon of things and people unable to adjust to getting old is a sad one. I recall, as a long-time-ago newbie in the creative field, that the guiding mantra was “don’t do it the old way.” Don’t be a hack. Find a fresh, memorable way to get your ideas across. And way back then, during the 1960s-1970s “Creative Revolution,” when we had Peter Max, The Beatles and Warhol, we were finding new ways. Back then, it was a shock to see beautifully published photographs of black men with ‘fros in sexual poses with alabaster women. To see sophisticated women smoking slim cigarettes. To hear 80-year-old ladies curse in tv sitcoms. To see a reclining Namath in nylons... oh wait...forget that.
           Now all that shocking “new” stuff has gotten old. It’s all become a boring, unclever exercise in repetitive cliches done by new people with little if any creative talent. And it’s all still fawned over by shallow critics with even less talent. Which may suggest that we have either run out of ideas, or that real creativity now resides in other realms. What could be more creative than the digital revolution and all the amazing things which it has set upon us? And it’s only just begun!
          Which is why it’s all the more tiresome seeing old cultural cliches continuing to be used in entertainment as if they still raise eyebrows. The good-looking but tough lady President. The gay priest. The latest moronic manifestation of Spicoli. The good-looking, silver-haired, crooked Senator – yeah, that one always was way too realistic to be shocking.  Let’s not overlook the gullible or desperate woman who reveals her breasts, or opens her legs for the hungry camera, or tattoos her privates in the spotlight. But cheese melts quickly in the hot light.
          So what next, Lady Madonna? Already the light dims.

CHAOTIC IMMIGRATION POLICIES; A ROAD TO HELL

 
“The road to hell is paved with good intentions.”

~Saint Bernard of Clairvaux                        

          But what about when intentions are not even good? Then we have to turn to AC/DC’s “Highway to Hell.”
          In my view, it is with less than good intent that America’s liberal Left pursues its broad immigration agenda.
        If liberalism had solved one, just one, of America’s immigration problems over the last hundred-plus years, I might have a different view. But they have not. In more practical times, immigrants were needed to fill jobs created by the Industrial Revolution and Westward expansion. They were not invited because of liberal sentimentality. Some came because of their own desperation, others came with starry eyes, filled with hope, with gratitude and with ambition.
       Young America was a nation of unbounded possibilities with a rapidly expanding geography. A nation in great need of workers to fuel the expansion. Over time, immigrants from many European countries succeeded in alloying themselves in America’s crucible of cultures. But the period of sensible, needs-based immigration ended almost a century ago. Today, it’s different. America’s demographics are at a tipping point.
          Today, opening the nation’s doors to Emma Lazarus’ “wretched refuse of every teeming shore” is less out of the necessity of America’s Industrial Age; more about the politics of the Left. It’s that simple. The Left operates with the tools of Marxist intellectual tyranny. Tool number one: political correctness. Denigrate, embarrass and intimidate those who attempt to end or even slow the growing importation of immigrants, regardless of who they are or where they come from, regardless of whether or not they have anything to contribute to America’s well-being, growth or culture. The poorer they are, the more likely they will add to the growing base of life-long dependents, supported by America’s tax-payer, but indentured to the liberal Democratic Party. The price? Their vote.
        Republican President Abraham Lincoln, in his efforts to keep the nation from breaking apart, used the freeing of America’s slaves as his hammer. While the Left rarely if ever acknowledges that there were many white slaves or indentured servers from European countries, it is quick to push the narrative that all slaves were black, and that all slave owners were white. This is false on its face. Black slaves were “unwilling immigrants” primarily purchased from African slave traders. Freed slaves of white Irish and other caucasian origins managed, over time, to integrate themselves into American society.
        Unfortunately, after freeing America’s black slaves, Lincoln’s government could come up with no effective way to integrate them into American society. Some said send them back to Africa. Others wanted to establish new communities  of black freemen, built with funds taken with questionable legality from white citizens of the Southern States. And so the seeds of modern liberalism, the Robin Hood Party, were sown.
         Somewhere along the way, wealthy, well-educated liberals managed to convince poor African-Americans that the wealthy, well-educated Democratic Party was the right party for the down-trodden. Over a hundred and fifty years later, the Robin Hood Party’s liberal promises have done little to change the circumstances of the majority of African-Americans, while liberal Democrats in Congress do everything in their power to resist efforts by Republicans to change the way government views the black community. Perhaps the new Republican leadership will be able to change that. But I don’t recommend holding your breath waiting for that to happen. It could take decades, if ever.
        Meanwhile, today’s brand of immigrant often arrives by surreptitious methods, helped by the International Left and its legion of “social justice” lawyers. Some are willing to work, others come looking for Robin Hood, still others are here to do harm. The Obama administration often moves them “under the radar,” inserting them into unsuspecting American communities, establishing a crazy quilt of small foreign neighborhoods, ghetto nations within our nation. In a stunning display of ingratitude, the new brand of immigrant clamors for its own set of laws and special benefits, burdening the courts, the welfare and healthcare systems. This seems to be driven by the Left’s Alinskyite agenda... trying to over-burden America’s social network to the point where it collapses, taking traditional America with it.
        If such intentions are not evil, what do you call them? If we do not reform our immigration laws, we will soon be cutting the opening ceremonial ribbon on the highway to hell.