Keeper of the Clown Bell

“There must be progress, certainly. But we must ask ourselves what kind of progress we want, and what price we want to pay for it. If, in the name of progress, we want to destroy everything beautiful in our world, and contaminate the air we breathe, and the water we drink, then we are in trouble.” -- Marjory Stoneman Douglas I recently expressed my hatred for The Matrix and its culpability in mass murder shootings at schools (and other places) in America. It's true that there are many factors that compel a psychopath to indiscriminately kill people who are simply going about their business and posing no imminent threat to the gunman. Those factors include personality disorder and the prescribed medication to "solve" that problem, easy access to firearms, incompetence on the part of law enforcement or security guards and moral/cultural rot endemic in modern society that is exploited and exacerbated by a soulless and corrupt political/media class who live in a world co

“Have you ever had a dream, Neo, that you were so sure was real? What if you weren’t able to wake from that dream? How would you know the difference from the real world and the dream world?” In the late 1990's "Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery" came to the big screen as a campy send up of James Bond film, MI6, Super Villains, the Cold War, the 60's, sexual liberation and therapy culture. Lighthearted and goofy, the picture is something of a throw away time travel farce that fast forwards a swing'n sex crazed British spy 30 years into the future using cryogenic technology to "keep him on ice". as it were, until the fateful day his diabolical nemesis, Dr. Evil, would return to earth from his orbiting layer. There is one scene from the film that resonates and has become something of a cultural touchstone that far outshines other more dedicated and earnest efforts to root out the source of evil. It is that moment in the film when Dr. Evil is c

Senator Jeff "He Broke Me" Flake is bowing out after one term on the Hill and is basically an empty suit with no legislative power so it's only natural that Chuck Todd would invite him on Meet The Press to find out what he thinks about things (note to NBC News: I'm available and happy to come on the air any Sunday because what I think and what Jeff Flake thinks hold equal weight). Here's what the Zonie Flake thinks: Flake said, “I think the president stops — needs to stop calling Democrats or Republicans or others who don’t stand or applaud at every line that he has, that they are un-American. He also used that term, or treasonous. Words matter, and when he talks about fake news, for example, I gave another speech where I talked about how that gives aid and comfort to authoritarians around the world who are labeling their position or dismissing real dissent as fake news.” He added, “So those things matter. I don’t think it’s a joking matter to say that so

Anyone who's ever worked at any business, be it corporate industry, non-profit or government, of a significant size understands the purpose of a memo, short for memorandum meaning literally ‘something to be brought to mind,’ As a rule, memos are transmitted from the top down to inform workers or volunteers or mindless schlubs sitting in their cubes about some change in policy in the organization or to scold said workers about their failure (or if it's an ethical breach or crime, somebody's failure) to adhere to existing policy. It's where the cheeky phrase "did you get the memo?" comes from or where the snarky retort "I didn't get the memo" goes to. The memo, for almost everyone, is an object of ridicule - a directive from management who sit in their top floor executive suite, eating catered lunches and using their own private bathroom to people who are trying to get things done and keep the enterprise afloat. It is supposed to go something l

through the looking glass This is how it's done. Trump SOU was strong and I have to say that watching the POTUS announced to the joint session by the Sargent at Arms and seeing the Elvis from Queens walk into the chamber left me momentarily shocked and (still) in awe. Dude, that's Trump! Donald Trump is the President of the United States of America!!! Are you kidding me? Many high points but I loved the most how he took the "Dreamers" language away from the Dems and will now beat them over the head with it forever. Truly a savant when it comes to media manipulation and branding - The journalists who cover this stuff are baffled and shellshocked because whatever narrative they create to defeat him will, at exactly the right moment, get ripped from their very own lips and crammed back down their throat. Examples - #FakeNews, Steve Bannon, Sexual Misconduct, Personal Wealth, The Wall, Bad Language, Racism, Russia, Rule of Law, Abortion = feminism, Black unemploy