Keeper of the Clown Bell

Ringing out 2015 I salute artist Will Espada who has been painting clown faces on political personalities - why I'm not sure, but I like what he's doing. One of the nice things about living in America is the freedom citizens enjoy including the freedom to be-clown the high and mighty. Frankly, there's not nearly enough of it here in the USA or around the world (and believe me, the world leaders are even more deserving of the Bullfighters efforts than are our domestic politicians). "Leaders" hate this stuff, which is to be expected, but it is important that they be ridiculed and defaced to instill some humility in their warped consciousness. It's just too bad a man of Espada's talents focuses on the big dogs and doesn't use his clowning gifts to paint the faces of these guys and gals campaign manager, communications director and staffers. Oh well, maybe in 2016 he'll take them on.

There's a lot of consternation in the political class because the Elvis from Queens is kicking everyone's ass and on a glide path to becoming President Trump. Talking heads and DC lifers can't understand the appeal or "stamina" of the man or his message. But yesterday he spat it out for everyone to hear and see. No matter how indignant the protectors of the status quo get, they can't convince the American people to take them seriously and Trump knows that - he actually knows how normal people feel about the political class and gives voice to it. That's why he's winning.

Christmas came early this year with the abrupt closing of FitzGibbon Media over charges of Sexual Harassment by the firms CEO and namesake . "The team that comprised FitzGibbon Media is incredibly sad and disappointed to confirm that allegations have been made against Trevor FitzGibbon, FitzGibbon Media founder and President, for sexual assault and harassment of multiple female staffers," the statement said. "Staffers reported over a half dozen incidents of sexual harassment and at least two involving sexual assault committed by Trevor FitzGibbon against his own employees." Knock me over with a feather! As faithful readers of the KOTCB Blog know, I have little patience for  men of the left who pollute the minds of women the world over by acting like Trev FitzG.  This makes life miserable for normal, wholesome men who must spend significant time and effort to deprogram the bitter, jaded psyche of the woman he loves because some cynical hypocrite who talked a

Finally, a GOP candidate that National Review can whole heartedly endorse and champion for US President. It's been a difficult year for the refined opinion of "conservative" reason what with the turmoil that has occurred in the Republican primary. Now we have the voice of authority this country has longed for and it comes from the most unlikely source imaginable but, like it or not, there it is.

Golf - It's the greatest , am I right? If you're a golf person the answer is a no brainer. People get obsessed with golf, fill their homes with golf stuff (throw pillows, wall hangings, knick-naks, drinking glasses, picture books - the list is endless, they even put golf joke books in the WC so they can chuckle about golf during their morning constitutional) and talk about the game endlessly.  How a person can get so wrapped up in what is arguably the most frustrating and emptiest of all human endeavors is amazing but "to each his own". If you're the kind of person who likes walking (or driving) around in spiked shoes on 200 acres of insecticide drenched, hyper landscaped, faux natural fairways swinging titanium sticks at a likeness of your testicle and then telling stories about it for hours of drunken revelry at the 19th hole then you're probably a Republican. I know that there are many Dems who love golf just as much (or more) than Donald Trump but most o

Trump - Kicked Jeb!'s ass twice and cannonballed into the GOP Pool. In all honesty, he wins. Dr. - A fine man. I'd love to see him as President but I'll probably have to settle for Surgeon General. Cruz - Badass. As always. Cherub - Wonderful young man. Very optimistic. ! - "I'm at 41%, you're at 3%, you used to be standing here next to me, soon you'll be of the stage," Carly - Everyone's had a boss like Carly. Christ - Will be the greatest Attorney General in American history Hands - There is something seriously wrong with this guy. The Professor - He's a true believer and I love him for it. Look at my hands

An attractive female friend of mine tells a very humorous anecdote of an impromptu encounter she had with a pro football quarterback while vacationing in the West Indies at a fashionable resort. For her part she was innocently urinating in the ladies room located near the pool bar when Mr. QB walked into her stall, dropped his drawers and suggested she perform falashio on his meat flute. "I'm not giving you a blow job! Who do you think you are? Get out of here right now and leave me alone." The player protested but eventually pulled up his pants and sheepishly walked out into the bright Caribbean sun singing "do I really look like this?" There is a downside of the Direct Approach practiced by athletes and thespians (primarily) and it requires persistence to achieve success because for every 9 women like my friend there is a tenth that says, "sure, why not." The repeated rejection does take it's toll on the human psyche however and produces strange

Do you like inadvertent humor? I do and William Greider had me buckled over in side splitting laughter with his latest column in  The Nation  titled " Hillary Clinton is Whitewashing the Financial Catastrophe ". He's always unwittingly funny - for years at Rolling Stone and now at The Nation - in presenting seeming heterodox, but ultimately orthodox, Leftist perspective on US economic and political happenings. But last week he dove into turbulent waters to save something or someone, what it was I must confess is a mystery to me - perhaps it was Bernie Sanders or Pocahontas Warren or the "truth" as he perceives it - and drowned himself by uselessly flailing around and grabbing at rocks and branches that gave way with every tug of reason. I thought watching him glub, glub, glub was funny, anyway. Get a load of this opening: "Hillary Clinton’s recent op-ed in The New York Times, “How I’d Rein In Wall Street,” was intended to reassure nervous Democrats who

The other night I was talking to family and friends about the mass murder (psychopathist) attack in San Bernadino, CA and how incredible and ironic the location was, knowing the Inland Empire as I do and particularly its citizens who, in my experience, have all moved there NOT because they love the hot, arid dessert but because they couldn't stand living in LA for another day. They fled the corruption and social turmoil that's decimated middle American communities in established Southern California cities and pitched their tent in one of the most unforgiving, inhuman environments ever devised by man - think of them as domestic refugees escaping a festering war zone. "Well, what would you compare it to here on the East Coast?" asked one of my companions. Nothing - There are some south western cities that resemble it - East Phoenix, Albuquerque (maybe), LVNV - but There's nothing East of the Mississippi that a person could point to and say, "yeh, that's s

Nothing like a walk among the grave stones when ruminating on the cost of intolerance to drive home the message - especially if you've got one foot in the grave yourself. What's it to you if ISIS uses Americas incredibly generous and wide open immigration laws to export Jihadi nut jobs into the country and terrorize the population? You'll be gone in a few years anyway and it'll be some other fellows problem. Yes, Tom Brokaw has seen a lot in his lifetime, but NOTHING as dangerous as Donald Trump from Queens, NY who's intentions are analogous with FDR and Hitler - Tail-gunner Joe and Jim Crow. That's bad man, really bad because Muslims are just people like Japanese and Jews and Communists and Blacks - all of which have fought and died in the US Armed Services (hey, don't forget the Irish!). The best thing about the NBC News handwringing was the lead in WebVert for Psoriatic Arthritis titled "Double Whammy" because it describes the kind of tr

Learning is hard because it requires making mistakes and if you're the kind of person who doesn't make mistakes (which most people are) then admitting you've made one, which is the prerequisite for learning, hurts - it hurts bad. This President has been strapped to the couch and "analyzed" over and over throughout his two terms and pro or con I think most of these armchair shrinks fail to diagnose the man and his mind. His Presidential Address to the Nation last night left his supporters and critics flailing about for a very simple reason - he didn't say much of anything that he hasn't said a thousand times before and everyones already commented on those previous times with barrels of ink and mountains of bits or pixels or whatever. But there was, mixed in with all the usual cant , a glimmer of hope - the distant sound of the Whos singing far down in the valley reaching the Presidents ear and, perhaps, some growth in his heart. "The FBI is still

Just shoot'n their guns for no particular reason I do a lot of work with the local health department so while I won't say there was a justification for Syed Rizvan Farook and his bride Tashfeen Malik to murder his colleagues in a hot-blooded, jihadi inspired massacre, there probably was a rational for his actions . Syed Farook, born in the United States, worked as an environmental health specialist for San Bernardino County, inspecting restaurants for health violations, according to authorities and a website that tracks public employees. As part of his job, he also inspected public pools at locations including apartment and senior housing complexes and country clubs.  These health inspectors have a tough job - the building I have to visit is a very industrial bland brick cube warren that shouts GOVERNMENT and, if my experience is universal, deadens the life spark of  its employees. These folks push A LOT of paper, charge exorbitant fees for licenses, over regulate and

There are those who claim that BHO is very smart, too smart for his own mouth , but it takes a special kind of stupid to blurt out the line: "I mean, I say this every time we go one of these mass shootings, this just doesn't happen in other countries." From a city in another country that's still wiping up the blood from a mass shooting. Watch the video clip and see the expression on Obama's face as he realizes how stupid the slow words from his fast brain sound - his expression sums up his "strategy" and the terrible mess we've put ourselves in by electing this genius to high office. Fast Brain, Slow Mouth

Poor Jonny Football - he's playing pro football in the wrong century . There was a time when no one gave a damn what the QB did as long as he played well and lead the team to victory. Those days are gone, long gone . Tonights pre-game "analysis" had Steve Young's claim that NFL QB's must have the same dedication to his craft as a brain surgeon - the same focus and commitment - to which I say, who the hell would want to be a NFL QB if that's the measure? Easy for the progeny of Brigham Young to forswear hooch and whoring in favor of football neuroscience but what about the player that considers the night life a key element of his game. I mean seriously, why risk life and limb every Sunday sling'n the pig skin if not for the rewards of booze and broads that come along with it. I grew up a Sonny Jurgensen fan and his off the field exploits were as legendary as anything he did on the grid iron - the fact that he'd be out until daylight on a Saturday night,

Paris, France is having a tough November. First the Psycopathism and now the Tree Huggers are attempting to bring down the most civilized city on earth. Climate Change The Earth is composed of 4 distinct layers . The terra firma that humanity builds its cities upon, farms and navigates from sand to sea comprises just 1% of the earths volume. Its a thin crust floating atop a ball of liquid fire that keeps plants and animals warm and toasty.  Most of our earth is composed of molten rock churning around at a temperature of two thousand degrees Fahrenheit near the crust and getting much, much hotter at the center. This ball of lava has no effect on our climate claim the skeptics of the climate skeptics, but I simply can't believe that assertion. The heat emitted from the earths core and the radiation from the Sun are so much more powerful a force than man made mischief that blaming industry for global temperature variation seems insane to me. I'm not a climate change skep

The Pixies nailed this one almost 30 years ago: Well sit right down my evil son   And let me tell you a story   About the boy who fell from glory   And how he was a wicked son This ain't no holiday   But it always turns out this way   Here I am, with my hand Pilgrims Happy Thanksgiving from the White House : "Hi, everybody. In 1620, a small band of pilgrims came to this continent, refugees who had fled persecution and violence in their native land. Nearly 400 years later, we remember their part in the American story -- and we honor the men and women who helped them in their time of need." So begins one of the most pathetic Thanksgiving addresses ever delivered by a sitting President (or anyone). Starting with the informal "Hi, everybody" and ending with the concept of honoring the Indians for helping the Pilgrims in "their time of need" it's an exercise in failure and impotence. The rest of the chat doesn't get any bette

Safe in Waukesha Creating a "safe space" or "safe zone" is the new fad on college campuses all over America. Some people are very concerned about it, but I figure it will have about as much impact on national life as pole sitting, streaking or planking did - none.  "Safe spaces" are difficult to create and maintain, especially in "gun-free zones" which most college campuses are, and no school president or administrator is going to bloody their hands to establish them in a meaningful way. It's just a passing fancy that students who are dedicated to learning and intellectual exploration are going to have to put up with for a year or two and, once they graduate, remember with grim amusement once they're living and working in the un-safe world of reality. This years fad started in the magical land of Mizzou and quickly spread to those infamous copy-cat Ivy's . Now it's everywhere - including  Carroll University in Waukesha, WI wh

I found a This or That quiz from a decade ago and here are my results . Towards the bottom of the quiz the choice of John Kerry or W is presented - easy for me even after 10+ years to pull the GOP lever on that one. During the 2004 Presidential election I was living on Manhattans Upper West Side and I remember, with great clarity and relish, the morbid atmosphere that enveloped Columbus Ave on that first Tuesday in November and tarnished the civic spirit for days once the election results were tallied. For my part, I wore a cleaver little sherifs pin with the engraved words Bush 2004 on my lapel and rubbed it in the face of my neighbors for a good long time. The looks of disgust, horror and (sometimes) hatred I would receive from pedestrians walking to the subway, shoppers at Zabar's, music lovers at Lincoln Center and other self righteous lefties who make the UWS their home was... gratifying. I frigg'n loved every minute of it and while my apartment building was figuratively

Everyone's Private Driver When I sit on a park bench beneath the shade of a leaf filled tree and look off across the green grass filled with children playing and dogs romping under the blue, cloudless canapé and conjure up the image of a Mastermind in my minds eye Abdelhamid Abaaoud is NOT what I picture. But what do I know? This dude had been on the Homeland Security watchlist for months - they had even predicted the Paris attack and warned the French to be on the lookout. Still, this genius pulled it off in spectacular fashion surprising EVERYONE including his family who had no idea that monsieur Abaaoud was a radicalized jihadist. Totally shocked, really, just gobsmacked. Mohamed Abdeslam, brother of Salah Abdeslam who was an accomplice of The Mastermind explains it for the dense Western mini-mind: "My brother who participated in this terrorist act must have been psychologically ready to commit such an act. These are not regular people ," he said. "You can

Though the KOTCB Blog has many readers in America and around the world for which I am humbly surprised every time I check out my analytics reporting (and I'm happy that so many people around the world take time to check in on my postings) it is, from it's inception, a project with a target audience of 3 people + my children who are all school age and need the deprograming the KOTCB provides. Here's a sampling of txt msg banter from over the weekend by this blogs primary audience: Friday 6:51 PM EST Earlyman - I am voting for Donald Trump no matter what! Deport deport deport! Are you guys aware of the serious terrorist attacks all over Paris tonight!? Horrible!!! Lemonjello - France is always the first to fall. Deport! Mr. White Chocolate Chas T - It's horrible and France will take action Earlyman - Finally they must!! Lemonjello - This is the prize for being tolerant and accepting of those kind of folks Earlyman - Liberals. Lemonjello - I'd been hearing that