Keeper of the Clown Bell

mullet over for awhile We're down on our knees and we've nothing to say Nothing to say Nothing to say... The hints have been dropping since the inauguration but now the day of atonement is upon us and my guess is that this thing is about to get real, real fast. Until now the knife fight has been shrewd with many lunges and feints - solid blows landed by both sides but eventually they were going to get close enough to grab each other by the neck and kill. The NYTimes set it up on Monday with Five Key Questions as a Government Shutdown Looms which was the high sign to everyone able to read between the lines that this thing is going to happen. While folks on the news shows and web sites were talking about NORKS and Ivanka the Hill and WH have been prepping for the shutdown. Pulling funding for the boarder wall, keeping funding in for Planned Parenthood and whatever "concessions" Trump made were simply tactical moves to pull talking points off the Democrats (and...

I was talking with someone the other day about my impressions of Bruce Jenner from my teenage years (I was 14 when he won the decathlon at the 1976 Olympics) and the almost universal awe with which he was promoted during those years to young minds - like mine. His achievement was so amazing and wonderful (there's no other word for it) that you couldn't help but admire him and with his good looks, flowing locks and warm personality he really was an all American hero. Youngsters can't even imagine Jenner's place in the psychic imagination of a teenage boy from that era 1. because there's no one like him in today's sports world and 2. The Cold War Olympic Games carried real weight and to beat the Russians at one of "their" sports was a huge thing. What happened to this heroic man is analogous to what happened to his adopted home of California and their mutual transformation over the past 40 years is a crying shame. Man and Woman Caitlyn Jenner: ...

It is my opinion that no nation was more negatively impacted by The Great War (WW1) than France when the flower of French manhood was cut down in brutal trench warfare and the nation never fully recovered from this trauma. The KOTCB blog is a strong supporter of France and its magnificent culture including its storied colonial history . While many Americans think they "get" France it is proven over and over again that even the earnest Francophiles from America don't have the slightest idea why the country is so great. But yesterdays results from the election run-off shows the world the cold hard numbers and who's who in France and what makes the country so special. A 4 way split between Left-Right-Left-Right candidates each getting roughly 20% of the vote leaving that perplexing 20% known as "the undecided" voters controlling the fate of the nation. Eleven candidates enter and two emerge having won the approval of 1 in 5 voters respectively - meaning 6...

The KOTCB blog is pretty hard on late night talk show hosts (or any comics really) because I see them as court jesters for the administrative state and consider most of their commentary stupid and their humor juvenile, but we're talking about a mass audience appeal here so what should I expect? A point of view is the pre-requisite for making any kind of joke and to be funny a comedian must understand his audience and their assumptions before choosing a foil to lunge, perry and riposte against so that he might deliver a satisfying touché moment. The piste of acceptable opinion is long but narrow so none of these guys (or gals) can step too far to the right or left, nor can they turn around and stab the invisible force that propels them forward, ever forward. In short, it is a job for half-wits in that, though they might be witty (and certainly many of them are) their humor is only unleashed on half of their available targets - at least 50% of the people, places and things that sho...

In a perfect world Pretty much all that needs to be said about the Bill O'Reilly affair has already been said in an earlier KOTCB blog post titled  The Real Story with Gretchen Carlson so why say it again. O'Reilly has been at the top of his game for 20 years and is the highest rated cable news program ever - the idea that he's getting the boot over some indiscretions with Fox News bimbos is ridiculous. This is all Trump related house cleaning, just as Ailes was booted for supporting the Elvis from Queens and it's another example of the battle lines being drawn. The war is coming and they're clearing the field of anyone who might take the "wrong side" so watch your back Hannity - you're next.

Here's the deal, and no one (or almost no one) is willing to talk about it, but women are societies civilizing influence. Women make a difference and that difference is what makes one culture or community pleasant, prosperous and hopeful and another spiteful, poor and despondent. Look around the world - look around your country - look around your community - look around your neighborhood and you will see the homes that have strong, loving mothers and daughters living in them because they exude the beauty and grace of their homemaker. The hearth is warm and well swept. The meal is wholesome and nourishing. The children are tucked in at night and well dressed each morning. There is a calm efficiency and creative inspiration found in the daily routine that brings peace to the home. Most importantly, there is a counterbalance held in place by a husband - a man - who provides a very different, but essential energy to any domestic arrangement. This duality is part of God's design for...

Things are getting kind of bumpy for the Left as Easter Sunday approaches and their day of judgment (it's already happened) starts to sink in to their thick sculls. Strange stuff is happening in the land of the free and the shenanigans they are accustomed to getting away with are being met with a fist in the face. Unfortunately for them, if not for the country, they're pussies and only get away with what they're allowed to get away with which is soon to be less and less. So they fight back with bumper stickers: Best Trump Bumper Sticker Yet "Elect A Clown, Expect a Circus" ... So True!!! https://t.co/Wy0DMx8sGQ — Impeach Donald Trump (@Impeach_D_Trump) April 15, 2017 And if you're willing to put that bumper sticker on your car I suggest you limit you're travel radius to big cities and the suburbs because once you get out to the Red lands bad things might happen to you or your car. Mensch claims these are "Russian actors" https://t....

HuffPo says that Assad Is A Monster But If Trump Overthrows Him, Syria Will Likely Be Run By Terrorists. You don't have to do much digging to see why - take a look at this from the Wikipedia entry on Bashar al-Assad . Bashar Hafez al-Assad was born in Damascus on 11 September 1965, the second oldest son of Anisa Makhlouf and Hafez al-Assad. Al-Assad in Arabic means "the Lion"; Assad's peasant paternal grandfather had changed the family name from Wahsh (meaning "Savage" or " Monster ") upon acquiring minor noble status in 1927. Bashar Wahsh is hardly what I would call a monster - an eye doctor maybe, married to a computer scientist and international banker. His glide path was to live large in London with a beautiful and glamorous wife while his brother Bassel took over the family business of butchering rebellious Sunni's in the south and keeping Syria in Ba'athist order. Fortune, sadly, had a different destiny for this lanky lisping ...

When I was a lad rolling around in the back of a big GM station wagon with my pre-pubescent crew while one of the moms hauled ass down some winding Piedmont road on the way to the roller-skating rink or movie theater or horse race or wherever the hell we were going and the song "Mandy" by Barry Manilow melodiously poured from the squawk box I would belt it out at the top of my friggin' lungs. Remembering it now I can imagine how the mothers must have hated my impetuous chorus and though I was too young to have ever had a Mandy of my own (yet) I could feel Barry's anguish and loneliness conveyed so powerfully in his rendition of the song. It's almost like he really had blown it and let this kind, loving woman slip away - worse, he pushed her away. What an idiot! It turns out that Manilow is gay and was gay even then so there probably never was a Mandy and the heartache was all a put on. It's a wicked world, filled with twists and turns - lies and decep...

You thought I was down You thought I was gone Thought I wasn't around That I left you alone Well, look up in the sky Just look up in the sky See that I'm everywhere, everywhere Shining down on you Lupe Fiasco - Shining Down Lyrics Many readers might be surprised to learn that New York City is littered with armories and arsenals - not that Manhattan is a City of Military Glory or anything like that but they have built some great military buildings. One of the best, the  Seventh Regiment Armory , sits on 4 acres of prime Park Ave. real estates and was built by the swells who populated this famous "champagne unit" who spared no expense on its construction. The Park Avenue Armory , as it is called, hosts many performances and exhibits now but for years it also served as a site for Art & Antique Shows, Antiquarian Book Fairs and the like which I would attend from time to time when I lived in the city. On one of these visits I was milling about the booths c...

Ground Zero Today The truth is Merick Garland was never going to be a Supreme Court Justice - Just ask Hillary Clinton . The "Nuclear Option" works out just fine if you give it a few decades to heal. Got this in my email last night from an expat reading the news (lies) from over seas. "Mr. White Chocolate Chas T,  WTF is wrong with Trump? McMaster is poison to us Need to get rid of Kushner Restore Bannon right now Get back to Flynn-like view of world as it really is Anne Coulter has been right on every point This is getting out of hand Play offense Stay on point" My response: There’s a gigantic spook war going on in DC right now. Stakes are high. McMaster is the compromise Trump needs to make to keep them from taking him out. Jared ain’t going anywhere - he’s the ambassador to the Tribe and Trump needs him. Bannon just wanted to nix the Russia collusion impeachment pipe-dream the Dems were working - #DirtyRice and that’s done. Dems will ba...

The KOTCB blog has a primary target audience of 3, a secondary audience of 6 or 7 and a tertiary audience of (maybe) 20 people so it's content is composed for 3 readers and "enjoyed" by 30 people at most. However, because it's open to the public and erratically promoted its viewership has grown, over the years, to a world wide audience of thousands. I wish it were required reading for the #NeverTrump pundits and journalists because I think it would help them, and so help all of us, to consider the wisdom (if I can be so bold) in its irregular postings - most of them are short and designed to be read while sitting on the toilet or waiting in the checkout line at the supermarket. Alas, they (the pundits) don't read it or if they do, they don't  understand it or believe it or change their mind - they just go deeper and deeper into Trump Derangement Syndrome. Exhibit A is Jonah Goldberg who writes for National Review and had his bell rung on the KOTCB way ba...

There is confusion in the land. New York, NY is a baseball town. That's just the way it is and for good reasons. 1. The NY Yankees are the winningest franchise in US sports history and they symbolize the cities majesty and power. 2. There is a symbiotic and intense rivalry between the Yankees and the Boston Red Sox that is probably the greatest rivalry in sports (I know, I know, Packers/Bears, Lakers/Celtics, Mich/OSU, Tide/War Eagle... I'm just gonna stop there, but screw all of you nay sayers the depth of animosity and civic pride that rests upon the annual contests between these two great baseball teams is unmatched in the USA) 3. The Brooklyn Dodgers were (are still) a team that fired the imagination of many hardball fans in the 5 boroughs and they talk about them to this day as though the team never moved to LA. 4. The NY Giants (now SF Giants) were a storied team that competed fiercely with the Yankees and Dodgers winning 5 World Series contests and playing in the 195...