Madonna and Michelle

Michelle Pfeiffer at 50 ( you can find 100 photos on Google) is so much better looking than Madonna at 49.

I will explain.

Of course, I never liked Madonna, not since she came out at the same time as Cyndi Lauper in the early 1980s. I liked Cyndi Lauper much better.

But Madonna is back in the news because she has been linked to A-Rod, Alex Rodriguez, who plays for the New York Yankees.

I began to despise Alex Rodriguez when he deserted the Seattle Mariners and went to Texas -- Texas! -- to play for big bucks for the Texas Rangers. And then A-Rod went to the Yankees for even more money.

Only I put this weight on A-Rod -- He will never play in the World Series -- because I don't like him.

Anyway, A-Rod gets linked with Madonna and the tabloids are going nuts. They are meant for each other as far as I'm concerned. Two brass-plated marriage wreckers in the same bed. They'll make a fortune for the divorce lawyers. Geraldo is salivating.

So, this morning at coffee, Stuart was saying that Madonna is pretty hot for 49. Jimmy said yeah, because she works out. But I said phooey, you can buy a figure like that if you have enough money, and she's much too skinny for an Italian woman.

But I've said that before, and they thought I prefer women on the plump side. I said no, fat, thin or in between, it's all good. You start out with who you are and you make it better. It's about posture and attitude and how you carry yourself. That's good looking. Well, they began to see my point.

Madonna at 49 is trying -- trying! -- to look like she's 25. Wrong.

Then I remembered Michelle Pfeiffer. Beautiful, lovely Michelle, beautiful at 50, not trying to look 25, not trying to look like someone she used to be. But looking like who she is, only more so --- and you should be able to afford her hairdresser and jewelry which can be a big help no matter who you are.

Michelle Pfeiffer is better looking than Madonna. It's a matter of aesthetic judgment, which is not entirely subjective.

MBECKI WARNS ABOUT CIVIL WAR IN ZIMBABWE. President Thabo Mbecki of South Africa went to the G-8 summit meeting of world leaders and warned them about the dangers of civil war in Zimbabwe. World leaders have been pressing for tough economic sanctions against the Mugabe regime. Concerned people all over the world have wondered about Mbecki's "go easy" approach to Mugabe. They say it's appeasement, but that is a term with no context in Africa.

We should take heed of Mbecki's warning. Daily reports from Zimbabwe describe dozens of murders and tortures by rampaging thugs. Yet a civil war would have ten times that level of brutality. As bad as it is, Zimbabwe can get far, far worse.

And the African context, not the European context, is the one that counts. It is a memory of horrible civil wars in neighboring Angola and Mozambique -- wars that raged for decades and reduced the human population to savagery and beggary.

Besides that, there is no message from the Zimbabwe opposition, neither stated or implied, that suggests any armed resistance, and we ought to respect that. We might choose to take up arms under such provocation, but the people of Zimbabwe have not made that choice.

What we can do is pay attention and pray.

BARACK OBAMA'S SUMMER. Obama is floundering and flipping right now, unsure of himself. This is to be expected. He's only 46 and he rose up much higher and faster than he expected to. He is faced with an overwhelming responsibility.

Sure, he wanted to be President, but now it seems that he will be President. In private moments, he is shaking in his boots. In public moments he is making false gestures. I say, give him a chance to gather himself up.

Besides that, it's summer. The real fight with John McCaine begins in September. That's the time of Judgment.