This Is Not Written In Defense Of Whatever It Is That Mark Cuban Did Or Did Not Do

From the get-go I will address those of you who just said to yourself, “What kind of sandwich is a Mark Cuban?”

He is not a sandwich nor is he Fidel’s Other Brother. Mark Cuban is the owner of the Dallas Mavericks NBA Basketball Team and, more importantly, he the reason for this Blog Posting.

The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) filed charges for something that Mark Cuban did or did not do. They charged him in 2008 for something they said he did or did not do in 2004.

Did you take note of those dates above? It is now 2013. 2008 is a long time in the past. Our crack SEC took 4 years to even notice that Mark Cuban did or did not do something. Now it has been 5 years and counting that the SEC has been going about whatever it is they go about doing after they bring charges against a doer or not doer until they get around to actually going to trial.

Has anyone in the SEC ever heard of, “Justice Delayed Is Justice Denied?”

If the Wheels of Justice would only grind faster we would not be hearing opening statements like this, which have become all too common:

“Your honor, please do not permit your judgment to be unduly influenced by the fact that the Justice Department cannot exactly remember what the defendant is charged with doing or not doing.

To be perfectly honest with you, the Eisenhower Administration was not yesterday. Therein lies part of the problem with our case against the defendant. President Eisenhower was very good about keeping track of such things for us but he went and died. If he had not chosen this rather uncaring and unpatriotic course of action, he could have reminded us of the original charges and our prep for this case could have gone a lot smoother.

I ask you to consider our past record of usually remembering why we bring charges against our fellow Americans. You can rest assured that normally we are very thorough in our investigations and we do not charge anyone with anything where the charges are not based on sound evidence or, at the very least, well-founded rumor.”

The Smartfella’s thinking is the SEC ought to say to Mr. Cuban:

“We sincerely apologize for holding this issue over your head for 5 years. We realize that it is a rather foreboding situation when you have the full force of your Federal Government hovering over your head for an extended period of time threatening to put you in jail or fine you a bunch of money. We will try and do better next time you do or don’t do something of which we do not approve. Have a nice day. Go Mavericks!”

Would I kid u?

Smartfella

Technorati Tags: Mark Cuban,Secuities and Exchange Comission,SEC

NOTE: Don’t blame me… BlogSpot (Google) is responsible for those ads at the bottom of my Foolishness.

Papal Frenzy

The Archbishop in Milan was said to be a favorite to become Pope but he was passed over twice. Below is a news tidbit from April 2005...

Cardinal Angelo Scola, the patriarch of Venice, is a scholarly pastor intent on raising the church's cultural and social profile.

His pastoral energy and theological intensity have made him the latest and perhaps most formidable Italian candidate for the papacy.

Even though he was a favorite for the last two elections he did not get the job. As we all know Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio of Buenos Aires bumped Cardinal Scola aside. Why do you think this happened? Was it because Cardinal Bergoglio was more Pious, more Humble, more Holy, was a Jesuit, was more educated or was better looking?

Smartfella is here to tell you that it was none of the above. The real reason was the Cardinals could not stand the thought of having a “Pope Scola”. If you did not catch on to this one, say it out loud...

Pope Scola       

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Is it the sweaty hands, the breathing hard and the frenzied look on their faces that makes people with microphones sound stupid? You are going to think I made this one up...

Within 30 minutes of the announcement of the new Pope I heard one of them blurt out, “There were strong forces pushing to name the new Pope from inside the Church’s Inner Circle. There was equally strong movement for someone outside this Inner Circle. In choosing Cardinal Bergoglio they got neither.”

Is it really possible to not be from the inside of the Inner Circle and not be from the outside of the Inner Circle both at the same time?

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Don’t say Jewish Rabbis don’t have a sense of humor. I saw one on TV the other day tell how he had a close friend who was an American Cardinal and how they had talked about that Cardinal becoming Pope one day. They were so looking forward to this new American Pope choosing the name...

John Paul George Ringo

Would a Jewish Rabbi and his American Cardinal Friend kid u?

Smartfella

BuzzNet Tags: Pope Resigns,Pope Francis,Papal,Bergoglio

Negotiating With The Taliban

I find it hard to understand why there is so much talk about Negotiating with the Taliban. How exactly would such a dialog proceed?

The crying need for clarifications of this type is the reason the Smartfella invented himself. Here is what the opening statement at a Taliban “Negotiation” from those sitting opposite the Taliban would sound like...

I understand and accept the fact that your strongly held beliefs are that you want to kill all those who oppose your strongly held beliefs.

Can we not come to some common ground here?

How about setting your sites a little lower?

Would you consider only killing 60% of those who do not agree with everything you advocate?

In the interest of compromise, could you not see your way to acquiescing to this rather small percentage and later we can talk about a number closer to your true Objective of 100%?

Would I kid u?

Smartfella

43 Things Tags: Taliban,Negotiation

The Near Occasions Of Sin

As a Catholic Educated Catholic in the process of being Catholically Educated the Nuns tried very hard to get me to understand how I needed to avoid the Near Occasions of Sin. It was not until very recently that I fully realized how hard it is to avoid such occasions.

Last month my newspaper told me about one of my fellow Georgians who stole a Krispy Kreme Donut Truck. He and his sticky fingers and sticky steering wheel were eventually caught but not before he was the leader of a protracted high speed chase.

I decided to look up my fellow Georgian’s high speed chase on the Internet and found that there have been other Krispy Kreme Truck Hijackings in other places throughout the Good Ole USofA...

• Madison, WI on 11/24/07
• Tampa, FL on 5/11/11
• San Antonio, TX on 1/6/12

I don’t think the nuns would be too harsh on anyone who stole a Krispy Kreme Truck. I always found Catholic Nuns to be very understanding (except when one of their students tried to write left handed).

They would have seen right away that these hijackers did not put themselves in the Near Occasion of Sin. Those trucks were driven to where these weak willed hungry people were minding their own business and all of a sudden there was the Near Occasion of Scrumptious Sin right in front of them. It was not their faults that Krispy Kremes are so irresistibly delicious.

Our Federal Government ought to get involved. They ought to make Krispy Kreme take out some of the scrumptiousness. Exactly how much, you ask? I would not be so bold as to impose my own opinion on the donut industry because they have always tried so hard to make us happy.

I do think that a Congressional Blue Ribbon Panel ought to be appointed to come with the 3 R’s (Right Removal Requirements).

We all know that this is going to take time because the Congressional Blue Ribbon Panel will need at least 10 years of donut sampling and many trips to the Krispy Kreme Factory in Hawaii before they can arrive at the proper ambiguous decision.

Seriously this is getting to be serious. First we lost Twinkies and now a yet to be determined amount of Scrumptiousness is going to be removed from Krispy Kremes.

Actually I really do not care about any of this. On the other hand, if they start hijacking Cannoli Trucks, then you would certainly see me sit up and take notice.

Would I kid u?

Smartfella

del.icio.us Tags: Krispy Kreme,hijacking,Cannoli,near ocassions of sin

What’s That You Say?

We have been told that the Sanctions against Iran are Extremely Hard Hitting and are the most Stringent ever imposed on any country in history.

A very High Level Official in Iran was asked by an intrepid member of our Tenacious Foreign Correspondent Corps the following question: “How is your country coping with the Hard Hitting and Stringent sanctions that have been imposed on it by the International Community?”

The High Level Iranian Official got a confused look on his face and replied: “What Sanctions? I don’t know of any Sanctions.”

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Back on the home front a High Level Administration Official was asked the following question by a Hard Driving Member of our Crack News Media: “Does it not concern you that the Good Ole USofA has a Budget Deficit that is growing by 3 Billion Dollars a day?”

The High Level Administration Official got a confused look on his face and replied: “What Deficit? I don’t know of any Deficit.”

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You are kidding yourself if you think I am kidding u.

Smartfella

Flickr Tags: Feficit,Iran

Cost Of Living Increase Will Fix Everything

I heard a High Level Government Official say that the latest proposed increase in our Minimum Wage will lift a whole bunch of people out of poverty.

We all believe that there is no one in our government that lies to us but we have seen a few times when they have been fed bad information which they were tricked into quoting as fact. Is this the case with this High Level Official?

Let’s look at the numbers...

•  Current Minimum Wage is $7.25/hour which means that this unfortunate individual is making $15,080 ($7.25 X 40 hours a week X 52 weeks a year).
•  If the Minimum Wage were raised from $7.25 to $9.00, that would mean that the above unfortunate individual would see his pay increase by $3,640 ($1.75 X 40 hours a week X 52 weeks a year).
• This means the above unfortunate individual would now be making $18,720.

There it is! Poor unfortunate person has been raised out of poverty! ... Or has he?

The Current Poverty Level for a family of 4 is $23,550. Is the Proposed New Minimum Wage based on $9/hour of $18,720 at or over $23,550? It does not look like it is. Many times I have blogged about the crying need for Members of Congress to understand Arithmetic. It looks like this High Level Official is Arithmetically Challenged.

I always like to look for ways to cover for misstatements of Members of Congress and High Level Officials because they try so hard to be honest with us. Please allow me to stretch for cover on this one...

Maybe this High Level Official was talking about a single worker saddled with a mere $7.25/hour Minimum Wage. The Current Poverty Level for a family of 1 is $11,490. Oops, that did not work, did it? At $15,080 that worker is already over his Poverty Minimum Wage Level by $3,590.

Am I being too harsh? Am I saying I wish I were making these kinds of wages? Not really. I am only espousing the use of correct and truthful numbers when Members of Congress and High Level Officials attempt to sell us on why we ought to do what they say we ought to do.

This calls to mind what Geraldine Jones (Flip Wilson) used to say...

“Honey, a lie is as good as the truth as long as you get somebody to believe you”.

It is incumbent upon me (Oh my gosh! I am starting to speak like a Member of Congress!) to keep speaking the truth to Members of Congress and High Level Officials.

I know this is why so many Members of Congress and High Level Officials have started reading my blog. They really want to do the right thing ... Or have they? ... Or do they?

Would I kid u?

Smartfella

LiveJournal Tags: Minimum wage,Poverty,Poverty level

You Should Pay Attention To What People Say Because They Don’t

People are always saying things that they don’t think about before they say them and/or they don’t know what they are saying when they say them and/or both…

In A Talking Political Head Debate Recently

• One Talking Political Head immediately attacked the stupidity and dishonesty of what his opponent Talking Political Head had just said.
• He did an excellent job of attacking the stupidity and dishonesty his opponent.
• I, being a keen observant of foolishness, caught the words he began his counterargument with … “That’s all well and good but”.

“That’s all well and good” … What does he mean? If he thought his opponent was speaking “well and good”, why did he paint him stupid and dishonest?

In Interviews The Following Happens All The Time…

Somewhere deep into the many questioned interview the interviewee will begin an answer by saying one or the other of these idiotic statements…

“I’ll be honest with you…”

or

“To tell you the truth…”

Smartfella has two questions…

“I’ll be honest with you…” Does this mean that the interviewee has been dishonest up until this point in the interview?

“To tell you the truth…” Does this mean that the interviewee has been not telling the truth (was once called lying) up until this point in the interview?

Smartfella has one answer to the two questions above … Yes.

Would I kid u?

Smartfella

Technorati Tags: Talking Heads,Honest,Truth,Lying

 

Pogo said: "We have met the enemy and he is us"

If you don’t know who Pogo was … Google It!

Smartfella said: “We have met the enemy and he is not us. He is those pesky elections.”

Think with me for a moment. Recall how many times you have seen a news article telling you about a riot overseas right after an election had been held. Here is a recent example of which I speak...

“Djibouti: Police battle protestors of election results”

It may surprise you to know that Smartfella does not know where Djibouti is or how to pronounce it. Do not comment on this blog posting telling me to Google It! I’ve gotten this far without knowing such tidbits about Djibouti and I have determined I can make it the rest of the way not knowing. I don’t have to know everything.

In the Middle East and the Far East the news articles seem to be coming out of Word Processors with little changed from the news articles that came out of those Word Processors immediately after the prior election...

• Riots in the streets
• Demands for a new election
• Claims that the election was rigged
• Demands for a recount 
• Claims of cronyism

All of these bad things occurred even though Jimmy Carter, his clip board in hand, was present at every polling place in each country. Jimmy is amazing!

Since we seem to have so much money lying around, our Federal Government ought to use some of it to help these various governments deal with this growing discontent.

If we were forward thinking like this, we would then have firsthand experience handling our own Post Election Riots when they come on the scene.

Did I just hear you say that I am exaggerating? Well, of course, I am ... Or am I?

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Better More Efficient Dictators...

To be perfectly honest about the Dictators we have seen come and go, they have gotten a bad rap because they often were not very good at how they went about their dictating duties.

Some say they get themselves into such dire straits because they simply lack training. Here is where we could help. We could borrow some money from China and use it to set up Dictator Community Colleges and help these dastardly people hone their skills before they actually come to power.

Do you know why I said we had “so much money lying around” in that above paragraph? That’s because... We are excellent borrowers.

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Better Election Rigging Equates To Happier People...

Those of you who have been reading my blogs for a while would probably give me some credit for being able to peck out some clearly laid out trains of thought. When it comes to the subject of Election Rigging I will not even attempt to gather and type out my thoughts. I will simply reproduce the words of a really sharp U.S. State Department Official that I heard speak on this issue yesterday...

“If only these governments were better at how they go about rigging their elections, their people would not take to the streets as they now do because they would be completely duped into thinking that their elected leaders were really not the Crum Bums they actually are.”

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I know you will agree with me when I say how glad I am that we don’t rig elections in the Good Ole USofA.

On the other hand, after looking back on our State Department Official’s comments above, I am not so sure of what I thought I was sure about before I read his words.

Would I kid u?

Smartfella

BuzzNet Tags: Pogo,Rigging elections,Elections,Jimmy Carter

All Your Worries About Money Are Going To Be a Thing Of The Past

If you are a person who has a hard time acquiring money or, once acquired, you can’t seem to control your spending of it, you are about to have all your prayers answered.

I saw the sign below in the window of a local business. If this is the Tip of the Iceberg, you will never have to worry about money ever again...

I admit I have only seen this sign in one single window but, trust me on this one, have I ever kidded you before?

Smartfella

43 Things Tags: Money,Cash

I Know! I know! I Should Not Use A Broad Brush

If I said...

It is impossible to have a logical discussion with someone of the Islamic Faith

...many people would tell me that I am using a Broad Brush and I am wrong to do that.

They would be right, however, please read the quote below from my newspaper of 2/15/13 and, at the very least, agree with this Politically Corrected Statement of my Broad Brush Statement above...

It is sometimes hard to have a proper meeting of minds with a well-meaning proponent of the Islamic Faith

To Prove My Contention...

On Valentine’s Day there were protests in Pakistan over the celebration of Valentine’s Day. Here is what a spokesman for the protestors had to say about his fellow protestor’s protest...

Valentine's Day is against Islamic culture. In our view, relationships are sacred. We have arranged marriages in this culture and people don't get married for love.*

Did you just say I am still painting with a broad brush? If you did, I give up.

Would I kid u?

Smartfella

* I did not make up this statement.

This Is The Absolutely First Place To Cut Spending And There Is No Doubt That Everyone In D.C. Will Agree

There has been much discussion about being forced to cut money for Policeman, Fireman, the Military, Border Patrol Agents, Prisons, Federal Prosecutors, Airport Traffic Controllers, Teachers, Food for Children, Vaccines for Children and Soccer Balls for Children.

The Smartfella is here to tell you that the first thing they will cut in the Big Meeting today is going to be Money for Egypt...Or will it be?

Would I kid u?

Smartfella

IceRocket Tags: Sequester,Egypt,Budget Cuts