Reflections From a Murky Pond

I firmly believe that it is safe to say that most everyone realizes that there has been significant and ongoing moral decay in the West during the last half century or so, especially in America where people had further to fall. While there is great disagreement over the nature and cause of this erosion of character, all the camps seem to agree that the degeneration of our cultures’ ethical and moral character has occurred and continues to do so.

But, if one boils the issue down to purified essence, the root cause of the erosion of character, ethics, and morals is simply that our society has been twisted in such a way that many people receive that which they need and/or want without needing to earn it or feeling that they have truly earned it.

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Art, when well done, is always evocative. It’s also very subjective and personal, drawing meaning and emotion from the beholder as well as the artist and, especially in the case of artist photography, the subject.

Take, by way of example, the photos below. To me they portray a beautified and romanticized vignette of the “fallen women” of 19th century London, especially those of the White Chapel district. Ethereal beauty, hope, despair, elegant style, an odd Catholicism to the fashion, and a certain tawdry sexuality combine and create a frisson that is, to me at least, very compelling.

Others would likely see the photos completely differently and within completely different contexts, but very few, I think, would see them merely as part of the fashion shoot which was their commercial purpose.

The above are photos taken of Anne Hathaway taken in London by Marcus Piggott and Mert Alas as part of a piece by Chelsea Handler of Interview Magazine. They also preview the upcoming issue of the magazine since Anne Hathaway will be on the cover of the magazine’s magazine’s September 2011 issue.

Politicians speak a great deal, especially to the press, and they say as little as they can possibly get away with while doing so. The ability to spew or drool an incessant stream of bullshit is a core job skill for the average politician and the one most required in order to keep their jobs.

From The Politician’s Mouth To The Press’ Ears

When comes right down to it, in the absence of statesmen, the only benefit that politicians provide to the people is a source of fertilizer and, even then, they spew it so profligately and indiscriminately that they poison far more than they stimulate.

We all know that environmentalists include amongst their numbers some odd individuals. Some of them really love those trees – hence, the often derogatory term, “Treehugger.”

Still, those of them that haven’t been suborned by neo-Socialist movements or the racist “environmental justice” fringe groups, do serve as a useful counterpoint to pure business concerns and, as such, they deserve some pleasure in life…

Got Wood?

There you go, Greenies. Enjoy with my compliments, but watch out for splinters if you try this out at home! 😆

Watch and wait for it. You’ll never figure it out until you see it. Then you’ll likely laugh until you cry.

Begone! Demonic Filth

Yep. The Devil’s got her, alright – just not quite in the way that one would expect… 😉