The Slippery Slope Is In Overdrive

Euthanasia or physician-assisted suicide is legal in Switzerland, Holland and Belgium, as well as a growing number of U.S. states, including California, Colorado and most recently Maine, whose governor recently signed the Death with Dignity Act.

Death with Dignity is a Catchy Name for a law. Be afraid. Be very afraid of catchy names. Remember the Peacekeeper Missile? The implication was, if we blow them all up, they will stop shooting at us and we will have peace.

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New medical guidance in Canada, where the practice has been legal for three years for terminally ill patients, hints at the monstrous ways Assisted Suicide might be expanded in the coming years.

Did you just say, “Huh? Again I don’t know what Fella is talking about!” Here come the clarification bullets…

Ø We are standing with scalpel in hand ready to pounce on people who have agreed to be euthanized as soon as they are actually dead.

Ø We have always waited for the dying to die before we removed their organs but now more thought is being given to taking the organs from living, about to die, moaning and moving people.

Ø It is a medical fact that organs are better if they come from actual alive bodies (i.e.: kidney transplants).

Ø There are more and more people who are saying death can be caused by the removal of organs from those who have given up for the benefit of those that are viable (except for the organ that is failing).

In the bullets above I have used words that seem to say we are thinking about, considering, arguing about, planning for, etc. The truth is this kind of thing is actually happening where local laws permit such things to happen.

All of these happenings were unthinkable in the recent past but the Slippery Slope is Alive and Well and getting Slipperier.

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Let your mind wander with me for a bit…

Ø It is the finals or the U.S. Open Tennis Tournament in the not too distant future.

Ø Actually it is about to be the Final Point of the Finals.

Ø Pierre Wonderful is charging the net to put away the Final Point because his hapless opponent has just framed a shot that is now floating into perfect position to be the Final Point of the Finals.

Ø The set up is so perfect that the tennis ball looks as big as a basketball.

Ø As he reaches back to slam the tennis ball he is tackled by 2 Nerdy Guys in white coats.

The following conversation takes place as the Nerdy Guys scramble to put a tourniquet on Pierre’s serving arm…

Pierre Wonderful (PW)… “What the heck are you 2 Nerdy Guys doing?”

Nerdy Guys (NGs)… “Lay still. You have been selected.”

PW… “Selected by whom?”

NGs… “By the U.S. Department of Organ Removal and Re-Implantation.”

PW… “Selected for what?”

NGs… “To have several of your vital organs removed and given to a person who can make better use of them.”

PW… “But I’m not dead yet!”

NGs… “It won’t be long before you are dead because we are about to remove several of your vital organs.”

PW… “You can’t do this!”

NGs… “Yes we can. We have been given the authority to do this by Section 2, Sub-Section k of the Organ Removal for the Betterment of Society Law which was passed in 2,045. It plainly says that Society has a right to your organs and can take such organs as needed when needed.”

PW… “But I am important! I am a great tennis player and, if you hadn’t tackled me, I would have been the first player to win the Grand Slam since Rod What’s His Name back in 1969!”

NGs… “That’s not the kind of great that’s important to society as a whole. The person needing your living organs is a Renowned Scientist in the field of Scientific Stuff who is doing important research on issues that can benefit all of mankind and who has paid a lot of money to be at the top of the Highly Recognized and Important People of the World List.”

PW… “Wait! Wait! I object! I am impo r t a…”.

Would I kid u?

Smartfella

Lagniappe: This lagniappe is added on to show you that I did not make this up. If you read on, think about this as you do…

Isn’t it amazing how darn near anything can be made to sound logical on the Slippery Slope to You Can’t Be Serious!  

WSJ Article … Euthanasia and Organ Harvesting

About 30 euthanasia patients in Canada have donated their organs after death since 2016. On June 3 the Canadian Medical Association issued guidelines for how the process should work. The grim document describes how the organ donation and euthanasia decisions might be disentangled, but allows doctors to raise the possibility of organ donation with assisted-suicide patients. It also clarifies that organ removal should not begin until the patient is medically deceased and the heart has stopped beating.

But some experts quarrel with this restriction. Last year in a New England Journal of Medicine article, two Canadian medical researchers and a Harvard bioethicist argued that it could reduce the quality of donated organs. A superior model, they suggest, could be to kill the patient by removing his organs. After all, the best organs come from live people, like those who donate one of their kidneys.

Organs can be “compromised” if doctors have to wait until death—meaning minutes after the pulse has stopped. Even a gap of a few minutes between removal and transfer makes a difference. Organs would be in better shape if they were removed while the heart is still beating. Death by organ removal would be a more efficient method of organ harvesting for assisted-suicide patients.

This is more than a little ghoulish, and the New England Journal of Medicine authors admit some patients won’t want the organ harvesting to begin until they are dead. Others, they note hopefully, “may want not only a rapid, peaceful, and painless death, but also the option of donating as many organs as possible and in the best condition possible.”

Teen Love Letters to America

I seem to be getting less Foolish lately. 

Maybe that’s because the Foolishness in the world around me is getting so Crazy that it’s no longer Funny.

I hope not because we need to laugh as much today as we ever have.

I’ll get back to Foolishness as soon as I can but, in the meantime, please read this article.

Teen Love Letters to America

Students at a Queens middle school for immigrants pour out their appreciation.

By 

Bob Brody

July 4, 2019 2:20 pm ET

Migrant children play soccer at a shelter in Homestead, Fla., April 19. PHOTO: WILFREDO LEE/ASSOCIATED PRESS

“I came to the United States two years ago,” wrote Sara, because of “the civil war which made it unsafe for us to stay” in Yemen. “We had to leave to save our lives.” Sara, 13, plans to become a physician.

“A lot of fighting, robbery, murder and political problems” forced Taslima and her family to come to America from Bangladesh three years ago. The eighth-grader intends to be a cardiologist or neurologist. “I will study hard,” she promises.

“The situation in our country is horrible,” wrote Milagros, also 13, about Venezuela. Her family arrived here three years ago “looking for a better place to live.” Milagros dreams of becoming the first Latina to start a company valued at $1 billion. 

So go three letters from teenagers I recently received. In December the Journal published “Requiem for a Doorman,” my essay about Carlos Nino, who’d worked in my apartment building. I knew him for 40 years and called him a friend.

Carlos came to the U.S. from Colombia at 18 with little education or money. A model citizen, he worked two jobs and put both his sons through college. He retired prematurely to care for his ailing wife, only to die of heart failure months after her cancer went into remission.

Soon after my essay appeared, I got a letter from Evelyn Gomez, a veteran social-studies teacher at IS 235, the Academy for New Americans, a public middle school in Astoria, Queens, that serves newly arrived immigrants from grades six through eight. She had read the piece to her 20 students. Those students then sent me letters, too.

They explained why they had migrated—from Africa, Asia, Europe, Latin America and elsewhere—to the U.S. Some had fled hardship. Most acknowledged pursuing educational and economic opportunities all but unavailable back home. They plan to be computer scientists, lawyers, dentists and mechanical engineers.

I was invited to speak at the school, among the few in New York City that specialize in educating immigrant children. In mid-May I gave my talk to some 150 students, teachers and parents. I told why I had honored Carlos in my essay. I revealed my own immigrant history, with both my grandfathers coming here in the early 20th century and eventually starting families and successful businesses. I explained, too, why my essays so often pay tribute to Queens, the most ethnically diverse place on the planet. Finally, I urged the students to write about themselves to benefit generations to come.

Afterward, a student handed me a packet containing handmade cards with personal messages inside from 81 of his schoolmates. Card after card spoke of families coming to our country to seek better lives and better futures.

I could write back to wish these kids luck. But that would feel redundant. Living here now, they’re already getting all the luck they’ll likely ever need.

Mr. Brody, an executive and essayist in New York City, is author of the memoir “Playing Catch with Strangers: A Family Guy (Reluctantly) Comes of Age.”

After The Bomb

Only Two of Us Are Left … One Is a Conservative and the Other Is a Liberal

This Blog Idea was originally published in Foolishness...Or is it? in February 2009 but I know you forgot all about it, so I have updated it and published it again. I bet you are excited…Or are u?

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The big war the Kingston Trio sang about in the 1960s has just come to an end. As it turns out the only two survivors happen to be in the United States. It is fortunate they are staggering around in close proximity to each other and, within a very few days, they find each other.

Somehow they know that they are the only two left on all of Planet Earth. They do the only logical thing. They set up housekeeping. They tell each other that the return of the human race depends on them and only them. They even start calling each other Adam & Eve.

One afternoon they get into discussing politics. A heated argument ensues and they become really angry at each other.

After dinner, still angry about the other's political beliefs, they go to sleep in separate bedrooms.

About 3 am the male gets out of his separate bed and sneaks into the female's separate bedroom and stabs her to death while she is asleep.

Within minutes he dies of the poison she had put in his dinnertime meatloaf.

Are you wondering which one was the Conservative and which one was the Liberal? Does it make any difference?

I will leave you with this thought … There are a lot of things in our world more important than politics.

Would I kid u?

Smartfella

Lagniappe: In case you have forgotten what the Kingston Trio sang about so long ago, here are their lyrics…

But we can be tranquil and thankful and proud
For man's been endowed with a mushroom shaped cloud
And we know for certain that some lovely day
Someone will set the spark off
 And we will all be blown away

The actual music is much better. Click below:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Z26XJbnpeA

Strange Numbers of World War I

Arch Duke Franz Ferdinand and his wife Sophia were assassinated on June 28, 1914.

World War I started exactly one month later on July 28, 1914 when Austria declared war on Serbia .

The war ended at 11am on 11/11/18 (the 11^th hour of the 11^th day of the 11^th month).

The Versailles Treaty officially ending the war was signed on June 28, 1919, exactly 5 years after the Assassination of Arch Duke Ferdinand.

Here are the strangest numbers of them all…The License Plate of the car the Arch Duke Ferdinand was riding in when he was assassinated was A111-118. It does not take that much of a stretch to read that plate as 11/11/18.

Would I kid u?

Smartfella

Lagniappe: World War I was an awful thing. The deaths were astounding. Don’t ask me to explain how the total deaths attributed to such a great long lasting war comes out to be An Exact Number but Total Deaths are recorded as 17 Million!

We had to wait all the way to World War II to surpass World War I for making people dead…Or did we?

Actually the world did not have to wait any time at all because while the war was still going on in 1918 the H1N1 Worldwide Flu Pandemic had already started. Between the Spring of 1918 and into 1919 and 1920 50 Million would die worldwide. 

Does not seem fair does it?

My Wife’s Grandfather was 1 of the 50 Million... 

Cornelius O'Brien

Stick With Me On This One. I May Have Said Something Brilliant! … Or May I Have?

Today it seems like all the TV Talking Heads and the Newspaper Writing Heads are bombarding us with stories about Big Social Media and the way they are controlling what we hear and read about.

The Conservative Side of the Spectrum wants us to worry about what stories are not allowed to reach to us at all. They contend Conservative Thought is being stopped dead in its tracks by the Googles and the Facebooks of the world.

Prager University is actually suing YouTube (owned by Google) for banning its Videos. Fella has watched many of the Banned Videos and found that many of the many simply appear to be History Lessons. They are not even Leaning History Lessons. They are just History.

Recently I communicated with 14 people in my Address Book and pointed out a Prager Video that sang the praises of the British Empire. As I watched it I felt unease about the glowing praise it spoke about the British Empire.

Anything as large as the British Empire must have done something wrong but this video gave no hint that the British Empire had ever strayed from Truth, Justice and the British Way (excuse me, Superman, for using your 1950s TV Show Introductory Words).

Google's corporate mission is "to organize the world's information and make it universally accessible and useful." 

http://panmore.com/google-vision-statement-mission-statement

Think about the above Mission Statement as you read on…

Based on its own Mission Statement, if YouTube (owned by Google) does not agree with the contents of the video, it is not within its prerogative (according to its own Mission Statement) to ban it. The video is the opinion of those who made the video. If YouTube (owned by Google) were being true to its Mission Statement, they would publish the information (see the words “Universally Accessible” in the Mission Statement). Those who saw the video could counter the “facts” presented in the video (there were many comments countering the “facts” of the British Empire video) but they would have been informed about the beliefs of the people who put together the video.

The people who did not like the “facts” of the video might even change their minds. There was a time, before the time we live in when people actually changed their minds.

Changing your mind is unlikely when you do not see anything but those things that support what you already believe.

Google's corporate mission is not "to organize the world's information that we approve of and agree with and make it universally accessible and useful." ... Or is it?

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The above may not be as brilliant as I had hoped it would be. Allow me to try again…

Starting Point…

Ø The Wall Street Journal is Conservative

Ø Google is Liberal

YouTube (owned by Google) is preventing publication of Conservative Videos from Prager University.

On June 27, 2019, the Wall Street Journal published a Commentary where the first 2 paragraphs were…

“America will never be a socialist country,” President Trump said as he launched his bid for re-election last week.

That declaration was an effort to frighten Americans and undermine growing support for expanding Medicare and Social Security—two popular programs that have long been derided as “socialist.” Mr. Trump’s declaration hypocritically ignores that he and his Republican colleagues are the nation’s leading purveyors of an insidious form of corporate socialism, which uses government power and taxpayer resources to enrich Mr. Trump and his billionaire friends.

Do any of you think the Wall Street Journal agrees with these 2 paragraphs? Knowing what we know about the WSJ we should all be able to agree that they do not agree with these 2 paragraphs but the entire commentary was published in the WSJ for all to read and agree or disagree with.

Fella has a question for all of my Dear Readers to think about…

Think about how YouTube (owned by Google) is Censoring Prager University Conservative Videos. Then think about this, if the Wall Street Journal were the Google Street Journal and it used the same criteria YouTube (owned by Google) uses to decide what to publish or not publish, would Google Street Journal have published Bernie Sanders’ Commentary as the Wall Street Journal did on June 27, 2019?

It gives Fella great comfort to know that all my Dear Reader Liberal and Conservative friends agree with every logical word I have pecked out in this brilliant Blog Posting…Or should I feel so comforted?

Would I kid u?

Smartfella

Lagniappe: I am sorry this Blog Posting was so complicated. It’s not my fault. It is they (whoever they are) who have made it so complicated.😀

Droves Of People Are Leaving Our State Because We Tax Them Way Too Much. Maybe, If We Give Them A Little Bitty Bonus To Stay, They Will Not Leave. Then We Can Continue Taxing Them Way Too Much.

(This Blog Posting was originally published on April 18, 2017)

I apologize for this Blog Posting being so long but there is a lot of Silliness in Connecticut.

Somewhere in Connecticut’s past, this bullet-pointed conversation happened in their State House...

(Yes, the people in Connecticut talk in bullet points.)

Ø We need more money.

Ø I have an idea. Let’s tax the other 49 States.

Ø We don’t have the power to do that.

Ø Are you sure we don’t?

Ø I’m not certain and I will check on it but, for the sake of this discussion, let’s assume that we don’t have that power. Let’s continue to kick around some ideas about how we can increase revenue.

Silence...Thinking…Silence

Ø What about cutting spending? Wouldn’t that be like increasing revenue?

Ø Come on now! We were not sent up here to not spend money. We were sent here to spend money and we have done an excellent job of that if I do say so myself.

Silence...Thinking…Silence

Ø The only tried and proven method of increasing revenue I can think of is we will have to tax the people here in Connecticut some more.

Ø Do you think they will stand for that? We have started to hear rumblings that they have taken note of what we have been doing to them.

Ø They have rumbled before. We have not pushed them to the breaking point. Besides, Football Season starts this weekend and they will not pay any attention to us till early February and, we all know what follows February, March (College Basketball) Madness and then the NBA Playoffs. Trust me. We can do this to them a lot more.

Ø OK, I’ll defer to your political savvy. You were right about the last 12 tax increases.

Ø Good! That settles it! Let’s go to Happy Hour!

Ø You know you said the same thing after we decided to enact each of the last 12 tax increases. OK, let’s go to Happy Hour.

Actually, the above Bullet Point Conversation is Foolishness. As you read on below you will see ample evidence that the people of Connecticut have taken notice of their tax burden as evidenced by the fact that they are leaving in large numbers for other states.

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What caused The Fella to start pecking out a Foolishness...Or Is It about little ole Connecticut? To find the answer, read on and learn about Connecticut’s Tale of Taxation Woe...

Ø Connecticut’s progressive tax experiment has hit a wall.

Ø Tens of thousands of residents are leaving for lower tax states.

Ø 25 years ago Connecticut was a low-tax haven for Northeasterners.

Ø In 1991 the state enacted an income tax and it was later made steeply progressive.

Ø The Slippery Slope started doing its slippery thing but, as is usually the case with taxes, it was upward slippery.

Ø In a fine example of Taxpayer Trickery, the top rate on individuals earning $500,000 or more has been lifted to 6.99%.

Ø The beleaguered taxpayers of Connecticut breathed a huge sigh of relief because they had feared that the rate was going to go up to 7%.

Ø Many taxpayers were heard to say, “I’m going to find out if my representative voted to keep the rate below 7%, and if he did, I’m going to be sure to vote for him again”.

Ø In 2012 the Tax Foundation ranked Connecticut’s state and local tax burden second highest in the country behind New York.

Ø Due to recent Property and Income Tax Hikes, Connecticut may now be in the lead.

Ø You don’t need a Yale degree to figure out that the tax hikes have been a disaster.

Ø A net 30,000 residents moved to other states last year.

Ø Since 2010 seven of Connecticut’s eight counties have lost population.

Ø In the last five years, 27,400 Connecticut residents have moved to Florida.

Ø More than 3,000 Connecticut residents have moved to Zero-Income-Tax New Hampshire in the last two years.

Ø In a fine example of the Blind trying to Lead those they believe are the Stupid, many Legislators are denying that tax policies influence personal or business decisions.

Ø After losing General Electric last year, the Governor bribed the hedge funds Bridgewater and AQR Capital with $57 million in taxpayer subsidies not to leave the state.

Ø Other beneficiaries of the Governor’s corporate welfare include Cigna, NBC Sports, ESPN and Charter Communications. (If these giveaways continue, Connecticut is going to have to raise taxes.)

Ø Legislators have now taken the subsidy idea one step further by proposing a tax credit averaging $1,200 for grads of Connecticut colleges who already live in the state to stay in the state after graduation.

Ø It is estimated this tax credit would cost the state $6 million each year assuming only 10% of eligible college grads sign on.

Ø They better pray that more than 10% don’t decide to take the State up on this silly offer. (If these giveaways continue, Connecticut is going to have to raise taxes.)

Ø The elephant in the room and the main reason young people are escaping is the lack of job opportunities because businesses are leaving because of high taxes.

Ø Since 2010 employment in Connecticut has grown at half the rate of Massachusetts and more slowly than in Rhode Island or New Jersey (another high tax state).

Ø Meanwhile, Legislators are worried about a projected $1.7 billion budget deficit next year because tax revenues keep trailing projections. (No Chit Sherlock!)

Ø To make matters worse, the state’s teacher pension bill is projected to grow by a third over the next two years.

Ø The Legislators who are causing all this mess have a solution. Some of these mental midgets want to impose a 19% tax on Hedge Funds’ Carried Interest.

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By now you are thinking I made all this up.

It looks like many of the We’re Gonna Stay Here for $1,200 (Wink Wink) Graduates will use the money to spend on Graduation Parties and then they will move out of state anyway to get a job.

I have an idea! What they ought to do is Build a Wall Around Connecticut!

Did I just hear you say a Wall is a silly idea? Do you want to read something sillier? If so, scroll back up this Foolishness and read Connecticut’s Tale of Taxation Woe again.

Would I kid u?

Smartfella 

Lagniappe June 2019:

Corporate Tax Rate and Corporate Welfare

Ø In 2015 Connecticut imposed a 20% surtax on top of the state’s 7.5% Corporate Tax Rate, effectively raising the tax rate to 9%.
>>Connecticut estimated the Corporate Tax Hike would raise $241 million a year.
>>Revenue increased by only $161 million in 2016.
>>Meantime, the state’s Department of Economic and Community Development, in 2016 alone spent $358 million (mostly on direct payments and loans) to induce businesses to stay in the state or move to the state.
>>This means that Connecticut doled out more than twice as much in Corporate Welfare as it generated from the Corporate Tax Increase.
>>The business handouts cost even more than that because the state tapped bond funds to pay for them.

Thus we have Connecticut’s business model: Raise costs for everyone and then leverage taxpayers to provide discounts for a politically favored few. 

Business Flight

Ø More and more businesses are leaving Connecticut as they get walloped with higher taxes that are bleeding the state.

Ø The state has lost population for the last five years…
>>As stated above, in 2016 GE moved its longtime headquarters from Fairfield to Boston.
>>Hallmark, RBS, Bristol-Myers Squibb, Boehringer Ingelheim Pharmaceuticals and Rogers Corporation have also announced job cuts or moves.
>>Alexion Pharmaceuticals, which had already received $26 million from the state to stay, checked out of New Haven in 2017.
>>While United Technologies will continue making jet engines in Connecticut (at least for now) 100 of its high-paying corporate jobs will move to Boston.

All this could have been averted if only the “Geniuses” running Connecticut had read my Blog Posting of April 18, 2017. If they had, they certainly would have seen the error of their ways and changed their ways…Or would they have if they had?

Community To College: As An Institution Of Higher Learning You Are A Mere Shadow Of Your Former Self. One Of Our Juries Has Just Levied An Award Against You Of $44 Million. Community To Jury: You Got It Right!

In a recent Blog Posting, I used this word string… “My postings are all about Silliness, Foolishness, Goofiness, Folly, Absurdity and such”.

After you have read this Blog Posting, I hope you will agree that this modified word string is appropriate… “My postings are all about Silliness, Foolishness, Goofiness, Folly, Absurdity like what happens at Oberlin College”.

Oberlin College is being run by the Silly People who are supposed to be preparing Silly Students for the real world. 

To complicate things even further Oberlin’s Silly Students have been bombarding administrators with endless demands for accommodations like these…

Ø Abolish midterms.

Ø  Ban grades below C.

Ø An $8.20 hourly wage for engaging in activism.

Ø Addition of “trigger warnings” to classic literature (Yes, I had to look up “Trigger Warnings”)…
>>Definition of Trigger Warning: A statement cautioning that content (as in a text, video, or class) may be disturbing or upsetting. Colleges across the country have been wrestling with student requests for what are known as “trigger warnings”. These are explicit alerts that the material they are about to read or see in a classroom might upset them or, as some students assert, cause symptoms of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder in Victims of Rape or in War Veterans.

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Here come the Bullet Points…

Ø On Nov. 9, 2016, an African-American male Oberlin student attempted to buy wine from Gibson’s Bakery using a fake ID.

Ø A grandson of the shop’s owner, refused to sell the underage customer alcohol.

Ø The grandson then noticed the student had two bottles of wine concealed under his shirt.

Ø The grandson called the police.

Ø The student fled and dropped the bottles on the floor as he fled.

Ø A scuffle ensued when grandson pursued him.

Ø Two African-American female Oberlin students, apparently accomplices of the suspect, joined in the physical confrontation.

Ø When police arrived on the scene, the three were beating Mr. Gibson on the ground.

Ø None of these facts were ever in dispute, even among the three suspects…
>>They all pleaded guilty to an array of charges.
>>The first suspect swore in his plea statement that Mr. Gibson “was within his legal rights” to detain him.
>>He also swore he did not believe Gibson’s actions were racially motivated. 

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That’s the name of that tune. Open and shut case. That’s how the cow eat the cabbage…Or is it?

Ø Oberlin students organized and began a campaign alleging these suspects were actually victims of racial profiling.

Ø Students launched a campaign to destroy Gibson’s Bakery, a fifth-generation family business that had served the Oberlin community for more than 130 years.

Ø Students organized protests and distributed leaflets accusing the Gibson family of racism.

Ø Students worked with school administrators to impose financial sanctions on the bakery.

Ø Demonstrations became so aggressive that police say they considered calling the riot squad to restore order.

Ø Oberlin administrators agreed to boycott Gibson’s, which had long held catering contracts with the college’s dining service.

Ø Oberlin administrators allowed students to skip class to participate in protests.

Ø One of Oberlin’s Deans handed out a flier accusing Gibson’s of having a “long account of racial profiling and discrimination”.

Ø College copy machines were used to print up the flier.

Ø College Administrators told the Gibsons they’d reinstate the catering contract if they dropped charges against the 3 shoplifting students and promised to contact the school, not police, if other students stole from their store in the future.
>>This is Fella…Wow! They anticipated more theft by their students. I wonder if the College ever told the students that theft was wrong. 

Ø Ignoring the facts, the College and Students attempted to destroy a business without concern for the damage they were inflicting on a family and workers in their own community.

The Gibson Family went to court and showed that using the legal system, it is possible to fight back and win.

For Oberlin, it didn’t have to end this way. At the height of the controversy, the Gibson family says it asked the school to send a letter to students reiterating what had already become clear: The bakery didn’t engage in racial profiling.

Oberlin refused the offer. Had the college agreed to refute the baseless claims of racism, it is unlikely that the Gibson family would have pursued the matter in court.

The amount of money awarded is certainly a big story but it is far from the only big story. The jury spoke loudly when it held accountable a college that had lost concern for the lives of working people in its community.

Would I kid u?

Smartfella

Lagniappe: In researching for this Blog Posting I came across the courses that have been taught by one of the Key Professors in this whole crazy affair. I know I am old fashioned but I don’t have a lot of respect for the preparation for the real world that these courses of instruction will impart to the Knowledge Seekers being “educated” at Oberlin College…

Ø  Gender and Sexuality

Ø  Race and Ethnicity Studies

Ø  Social Justice

Ø  HIV/AIDS

Whatever happened to Reading, Writing and Rithmatic?

I Am Absolutely Devastated That The NBA Finals Are Over!

Did I just hear many of you say any or all of the following?...

Ø Shucks I really wanted to watch the Finals but I did not know they were being played.

Ø I’m really sad they are over! Did Michael Jordan do well?

Ø What’s the NBA?

Oh well, we don’t all have the same interests.

Time to Get On With the Foolishness for Today

I know how I could get 1 Million Instagram Followers very quickly. First a little background…

Ø The newly crowned NBA Champions, the Toronto Raptors, have a ballplayer who averaged only 3.4 Minutes Played and only 1.1 Points Scored through the entire playoffs and, since he was on the team (on the bench on the team), he will still receive a Championship Ring just like all the players who earned a ring while actually playing in the games.

Ø This player may not have made a huge impact on the court but he has a strong following on Social Media because he boasts nearly 2 Million Instagram Followers.

My plan is simple. I am going to play with the Golden State Warriors next year and I am going to Play 1.7 Minutes and Score .55 Points/Game. This is half of what he played and scored. That ought to be good enough to get 1 Million Instagram Followers.

You are snickering. Don’t deny it! I can see you snickering. I am not going too far out on a Proverbial Limb here. It’s not that I alone think I am good enough to achieve these less-than-lofty goals. The Golden State Warriors think I am good enough.

Now that they have been dethroned I just know they are going to come looking for me and my considerable talents again.

Allow me to explain the word “again”…

Ø It was only a couple of years back that the Warriors thought I was good enough to play on their team.

Ø The General Manager called me on the phone and begged me to join them in time for their playoff run.

Ø While I negotiated with him I could hear several of the players shouting words of encouragement to the GM in the background.

Ø Encouragement hell! They sounded desperate!

Ø We negotiated a very Lucrative Contract but at the very last moment, he asked if I had any Tattoos and, when I replied in the negative, he abruptly hung up the phone.

I am certain that they now see the error of their ways (they lost) and they know for certain that I am what they need to Get Over the Hump and claim their 4^th Title in the last 6 years.

Just to play it safe and to make sure they do not hang up on me when they call this time, starting tomorrow I am going to get the first of 24 Tattoos and I have already started Growing a Beard that any Muslim would be proud to have growing out of his face.

Would I kid u?

Smartfella