Entertainers! Your Guides to Life.

     We here at Bloody Nib Manor have never been of the star-struck type. This is not to say that the ever-lovely Lady Nib and your faithful correspondent have not had favorite actors or actresses, musicians or singers who we admired for their skill in their trades (and be it know that most of them are tradesmen and not professionals despite their protests. The best are artists of a sort, but really not creators or builders. They are interpreters of the sweat and skill of others).
     And, historically, actors and actresses, have been considered people of questionable morality. This sense goes back to the days of classical Greece and up until the 1940s. This writer's grandfather, Baron William of Talequa, used to say, "Actors are whores and the only attention you should give them is when you're in the movie house." But that was three or four generations ago and things have changed for some reason. No longer is entertainment bought and paid for (a opposed to home-made such as front porch music, poetry recitals in the kitchen and plays put on in the barn by the bairns) just a diversion from real life. It seems to have become real life for many people, and actors have suddenly gone from playthings for the wealthy like Nell Gwynne or Lily Langtree or Junius Booth or Colly Cibber. Somewhere along the line they decided that they were Solons or Wilberforces with the morality and wisdom that we all seem to lack.
     The reason seems to be that because the populace in general has mistaken them for the roles they play on the screen. Sally Fields played a union organizer in "Norma Raye" and she then became some sort of expert on labor relations. Merle Streep played played reporter Karen Silkwood in a film and almost single-handedly ruined the apple groing industry through her false allegations regarding Alar. Neither had a background in labor or science, but for some reason they were listened to because, not of what they pretended to know, but because of their roles in movies.
     Some years ago Laura Ingraham wrote a book called "Shut Up and Sing." Yours is no fan of Ingraham, though he does agree with her politically (she comes across as a snarky and angry teenager). The book was made up of essays, one of which addressed the country-bluegrass band, The Dixie Chicks, expressing their anger with President G.W. Bush going to war with Iraq and Afghanistan, and the D.C., with no knowledge, in fact, of the complications of this decision and deciding from their gut, used their fame as not only a platform for their opinions, but almost insisted that their opinions were better than anyone else's because they were, well, famous and much-loved among the C&W fans. Well, they were before they opened their traps and they found out that all people were interested in about them was that they made decent music.
     And therein lies the problem, the joke, the gag about entertainers spouting off politically or even scientifically. Leonardo Di Caprio wants you to get rid of you air conditioner, your car and your gas powered lawn mower to help cool the planet because he knows better while he wastes more energy and contributes more to "global warming"  in a day making a movie or flying around in a private jet than the average American family does in six months. He knows better than you do despite the fact that his education is no better than yours. And he's more right and moral than you do because he's an...well... an actor with a string of girlfriends he takes up and discards like Kleenex. Just hope you don't have a pretty daughter; you'll have to get out the Iver Johnson to chase him off the porch like you would do to keep a horny Tom screaming for your female tabby.
     This awful past two weeks of political conventions have brought this out in spades. Most actors tend to gravitate towards the Democrats, but there are some who consider themselves Republicans. And almost any actor or actress who can managed to punch a card or pull a lever in a voting booth is all too ready to tell you, dear reader, how you should vote because, well, they're actors. They work less than you do, they usually have less life , real life experience on the ground, than you do. But you pay them to play pretend  and "let's dress up." In other words, they do for a lot of money what you as a child did for free. Is it any wonder that they think that you are the rube of rubes in the same way that a carny laughs at some bachelor farmer from a dry land farm in the middle of South Dakota looking at the Mermaid of the Java Sea in wonderment not knowing that the thing is half stuffed spider monkey and half stuffed sea bass.
     It's a joke. The problem is that neither the populace nor the entertainers know that it's a joke.  It's almost a matter of the unthinking being led by the unknowing. The unthinking population, nor realizing that their best interests lie in thinking and deciding for themselves politically and morally, follows the march of the unknowing, who think they know what it is to be a working man or woman with kids and a job that is threatened by outsourcing when, in fact, the average actor, while perhaps spending some time waiting tables or driving cabs, doesn't know what it's like to make a living as a bricklayer, a plumber, or office drone or a veteran. But they pretend that they are bricklayers, plumbers, office drones or veterans while actually, not only not being these things, not actually knowing anyone who has done these things  It is almost a Judas goat situation. The Judas goat doesn't know what it's doing, but will lead the herd to the slaughter thinking that it is going good by being the leader because, well, as an actor, it is the leader.
     Actors and musicians are no smarter than you. In fact, many of them are not. Their skill lies in their ability to recreate emotions and remember written text. They are like mynah birds or parrots. Would you take your political opinions from a black bird named Rajah or a red bird named Polly? You'd be better off discussing your opinions with your dog. At least a dog cares what you think. Or better yet with your neighbors, friends and co-workers. They have a lot more in common with you, and live lives a lot more like your, and have much more the same problem as you do, than does some guy or doll stepping out of a limo at the Academy Awards in February.
     Somewhat related is the joke about musical artists and bands pitching a bitch about their songs being used at the political conventions or during the political campaigns (nota bene: it's usually the Republicans being complained about). There's no point in naming names or incidents as they are too numerous. But what is interesting is that the bands and artists, by doing so, are working against their own self-interests. According to ASCAP every time a song is played in public the song writer and the artist is paid a few cents or more. One could say that the stand was a principled stand because that artist will be losing money from royalties, but know if the singer of a popular song went into the local IHOP and found his or her song played over the PA from a radio station said "artist" would immediately get in contact with his or her ASCAP representative and demand his or her royalty. The "artist" wouldn't demand that the IHOP stopped playing the song even if the "artist" was against bacon. It's all what the Social Justice Warriors call "virtue signalling." In other words, the "artists" are like the Pharisee on the story of the Pharisee and Publican; they'll toot their horn when there are people to hear it.
      One wonders what what the reaction would be if, say, Mercedes Benz demanded that rap and hip-hop groups stopped driving and featuring Mercedes Benz products in their videos because Mercedes Benz is opposed to rap and hip-hop culture.
     Once a product is out it's not yours.
     Now that it's later afternoon this writer has some roses on the grounds that have to be groomed.

Taurus

      As anyone who knows either the lovely Lady Nib or this writer is well aware, we are against animal cruelty. We will have no truck with dog fighting, cock-fighting, quail-fighting (there really is such a thing) or Siamese fish fighting on the estate or in the shire.
    But, strangely for some people, this writer is no opponent of bullfighting. Especially Spanish bullfighting---Mexican bullfighters are pretty sloppy.
     For sure, the bull is tired and bruised before the matador gets to it, but the bull is still a dangerous animal that can kill if given the chance.
     And bullfighting is, in some ways cruel. But life is cruel. It comes from a traditon when life was much crueler than it is today. The Cretan "bull-dancers" were, in fact sacrifices that were finished off by bulls. The women were not dancing. They were trying to survive.
     Bullfighting (Spanish bullfighting) pits a small man against an animal that weighs near a ton. The man has a sword and his brain. The bull has his horns and his bulk and his instincts. The bull has a chance to kill the man who is trying to kill him. Your hamburger never did.
     And while bullfighting may be cruel, is it any crueler than UFC fighting or boxing? In one case you have a dead bull who was teased before it was killed. In the second case you have young men and women abusing one another in ways that no one would want to undergo and living their later lives with brain damage, broken bones and a form of PTSD.
     Bullfighting is a pre-Christian ethic or value that has survived into the modern world because there is a primal sense about the "sport" that modern life does not satisfy. It's an awful thing. But it may be necessary for the good of the culture that there are cruel things, bloody things that are real and not movies, for people to realize that there is danger, there is blood, there is a certain amount of cruelty in the world and in the West. And there is also the sense that must be brought out that animals are animals and they are not fuzzy humans. A bucking Brahma bull can kill or maim a man in a second. A Jersey bull isn't loathe to pin a man against a fence until the man is dead. Your cat, when he looks at you, sees not a friend, but a source of food, and won't be shy about eating you if you die in your house.
     Life is often a rotten thing. Especially when one realizes that the My Little Pony world is a fake (Pinkie Pie!), which the media encourages despite the fact that it's a lie.
     In a kind world only Portuguese bullfighting (at least until the final denoument) would be allowed. But life is not kind. The world is not kind. The world wants blood as some sort of sacrifice and is not satisfied with the Blood of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. And so, since most of the Western world is pretty much pagan, why not let them be satisfied with the blood of bulls or the blood of a bullfighter?
     https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/1419158/shock-as-prize-winning-pro-bullfighter-is-killed-during-tournament-in-front-of-audience/
     Some people will say that the killing of a bullfighter is a good thing. Those are the same people who say that a pig or a dolphin is a boy or girl. Or even their boy or girl.

Which Foot?

      When Brexit passed in the United Kingdom we here at Bloody Nib Manor hoisted our Union Jack and St. George's Cross flags up the flagpole on the south tower for about five minutes in celebration. Then, knowing that the actual implementation of the of the withdrawal will be left to the cosmopolites in the U.K. who voted against the referendum, we lowered the flags, folded them up, and went back to our gardening and lawn bowling with the sure knowledge that that we'll breathe our last with the United Kingdom under the heel of the E.U. The E.U. is somewhat like a tick that buries it's head into the flesh do draw blood for its body, which is on the surface. Pull off the blood bloated body and the is still trying to draw blood. And the result is an infection unless the head is dug out with sometime brutal results on the host. It hurts. And who wants to be hurt? The infection is worse, but doesn't hurt as much. The head of the E.U. tick is in the flesh of the United Kingdom and the Leavers would rather leave the head in rather than do the better thing and cut it out no matter the short term pain. The Leavers have their blood to suck and they will do it any way they can.
     Which, strangely, brings to the mind of your faithful correspondent, the current Presidential campaign between Mr. Trump and Mrs. Clinton.
      Mr. Trump is a vulgar, ill-educated (note: not un-educated, his education was fine, but he paid little attention to much), bellowing (well, as bellowing as a man with that nasal Manhattan voice can bellow), base bullying populist, and panderer of the Mussolini type. This writer is not calling Mr. Trump a facist. In fact, yours doubts that Mr. Trump really knows what a Fascist is or if he's read D'Annunzio. But he poses and preens like Benito and one finds one's self wondering when he will start wearing that funky cap with a trick golden eagle on the front. He fancies himself a street fighter, but an eight year old karate kid could double him over with a punch. To be short, he's pretty much a dope when it comes to Constitutional governance and he seems to think that the United States operates in the same way that his often failing corporations do. In other words, he's in charge and you are not.
     Mrs. Clinton, on the other hand, is a personally vulgar but publicly smooth, well-educated (though she never shows it), shrieking (if old Bill had had any manliness he would have folded up his tent and de-camped the first time he heard a tirade from this harpy, but he didn't), elite, and leftist who knows what is better for you than you do of the typical European Socialist/weak Communist type. Think Sweden with a much harder edge and uglier people. Unlike Mr. Trump, she preens and poses in other ways. The reader will never see her in khaki with a funny hat, but will always see her in a modified Star Trek pantsuit which has leanings toward the old Mao uniform of Communist China. She knows the Constitution and will take every loophole and groove to get what she wants. Mr. Obama ignores the Constitution. Mrs. Clinton works it like a wax nose. In other words, she's in charge and you aren't
     And both people, Constitutionally and and for the good of the nation, are awful candidates. They are both ticks of one sort or another. He from the populace through his casinos and hotels, she from the people through the government. They have both buried their heads into the flesh of the nation, and no matter which of them is elected, the head of the other will be buried into the national body infecting and corrupting. And the one who is elected will not only have its head stuck into the body politic, but their body will bloat and corrupt not only the nation,l but everything around it.
     Some "Solon's" -- and most professional opinion writers, political commentators and talking heads are idiots in real life because they've never done an honest day's work in their lives and really never have to worry about losing their jobs for being wrong -- have been doing "rah-rah" or "nah-nah" for one or the other candidates as if there is actually a good choice between the two. Twitter explodes with #NeverTrump or #NeverClinton and people ignore #Screw'emboth.
     The whole thing reminds your faithful correspondent of an old Polack/Russian/moron/Irish/etc. joke:
     Two (name your favorite out group here) are walking down a road. They come across a pile of brown stuff on the road. Socrates looks at the pile and says to his friend, "My dear Plato, whatever can that be?" Plato says, "It looks like dog turd."
      Socrates: "But do we know for sure?"
      Plato: "Let's find out by tests."
      Socrates: "Good idea."
      So both Socrates and Plato stick their fingers into the mass.
      Socrates: "It feels like a dog turd."
      Plato: "Surely it does."
      They both smell the stuff that is now on their fingers.
      Socrates: "It smells like a dog turd."
      Plato: "So it does, my dear Socrates."
      Then they taste the stuff on their fingers.
      Socrates: "It tastes awful. Like dog turd."
      Plato: "Wholly disgusting. It's a good thing we didn't step in it."
      Well, we've looked, smelled and tasted. The only question is will we step in it with our left foot or right foot? Or will be avoid it?