- He can’t have any Guns.
- He can’t drink Alcohol.
- He can’t use Illegal Drugs.
I have been released for a long time now.
Heck, they have probably forgotten I am out here.
Would I kid u?
Enjoy my mind wanderings. Thought provoking. Serious humor. Stimulating thought since 2006. Nathaniel Hawthorne-"Easy reading is damn hard writing." Tertullian-"Credo quia absurdum", I believe it because it is absurd. John Lennox-"Nonsense remains nonsense, even when talked by world-famous scientists." George Burns-"Someone who makes you laugh is a comedian. Someone who makes you think and then laugh is a humorist." Willy Wonka-"A little nonsense now and then is relished by the wisest men."
My newspaper tells me that our intrepid United Nations has sent 300 U.N. Observers to Syria. I have a question. What are they there to observe?
For more than a year now the ruler of Syria has had his Security Forces shooting his unhappy people. They may have once been happy people but being shot and killed tends to make most people unhappy.
A truce has been in effect for many days but the shooting seems to be continuing. I wonder if a person who is shot and killed during a truce is less dead than a person who is shot and killed before the truce was declared.
The Smartfella does not want to be too critical but I think the U.N. is guilty of not being explicit enough about what their observers are supposed to observe.
Syrian Security Forces General’s announcement to his troops:
It appears that the United Nations is interested in observing how we kill our minions. Three hundred U.N. Observers have started arriving in Syria. Go get ‘em boys! Show them how good we are at doing what we are trained to do.
Strother Martin told Paul Newman in 1967 in Cool Hand Luke, "What we've got here is failure to communicate".
The U.N. should have explained that the observers are there to observe people standing upright and not to observe them falling down dead.
Want to read more of my nonsense about Syria? Click below to read what I blogged on January 19, 2012...
http://forii.blogspot.com/2012/01/its-got-to-be-worst-than-you-think.html
Would I kid u?
Please note the Gadget on the left called “Share it”. If you are entertained by this Foolishness (or one in the future), use “Share it” to tell your friends or enemies about it on Facebook or Twitter.
Chapel Hill, NC has come up with a plan of action that could get everyone in this country employed in no time at all.
They are banning all electronic device usage while driving. This means no texting and no cell phone use. When they say No Cell Phones they mean No Cell Phones. This includes all Hands-Free cell phones.
The Smartfella thinks the No Hands-Free aspect of this law is going to be tricky to enforce. How will a ticket-at-the-ready officer be able to tell if driver is talking through his car (like me) or with one of those little earpieces? I see only one possible way to make this enforcement policy work...
A bureaucrat is going to have to be stationed in every car in Chapel Hill to make sure that there is no Hands-Free Tomfoolery going on inside moving cars.
Expand this Bureaucratic Stationing nationwide and, there you have it, Full Employment!
Heck, our 9% approval rating Congress just might have to institute a Bureaucrat Guest Worker Importation Program.
Would I kid u?
My newspaper is talking to me again.
This time it told me about a Solar Panel Company that was worth $20 Billion in 2008 but, as of last week, it is only worth $2 Billion.
It has had several setbacks recently, not the least of which has to do with the company’s need to make higher warranty provisions because its solar modules may suffer “increased failure rates in hot climates”.
Silly me, I thought solar panels were supposed to be specifically designed to be installed where there was a lot of sun and a lot of heat.
Many of you know that in the real world I enjoyed a very successful mediocre automotive career. I once knew all about cars. I can tell you for certain that the Chief Design Engineer who came to the Chairman of the Board with the following statement would not have been The Chief much longer...
Sir, I can assure you that this revolutionary vehicle we have developed will get 257 miles per gallon. The only problem is it shuts down when it gets in the vicinity of asphalt.
Would I kid u?
At an Eagles Club in the St. Louis area during the first two months of 2011 a man sold 50 baby alligators. The people who took the cute little critters home bought them because they were cute little critters. Now the alligators have come home to roost.
These former cute critters are now monsters and the owners seem to be mystified as to how this could have happened. Many say they are shocked that alligators have grown so large.
One unsuspecting owner almost had his hand bitten off. Some alligators have escaped or been released into the “wild” (the neighborhood). Neighbors are worried about letting their children go out of their houses to play.
Some residents are organizing gator hunts while others are organizing against the gator hunts and saying, you guessed it, “Gators are people too!”
As usual, the Smartfella has a remedy to prevent such future consternation. As the Subject of this blog posting says, Another Federal Law Is Needed...
In order to protect human limbs, small children, grown adults and (most of all) household pets, all Americans are hereby required to watch Nature Television Shows about alligators. The producers of these shows are also required to give particular emphasis to the fact that alligators have been known to grow in size and can become very large.
That oughta do it.
Would I kid u?
Below is a quote from Yahoo News. As you read it you will note that I falsified the name of the high-level security person who said something stupid enough to inspire this Foolishness...Or Is It?.
It is not that I am trying to protect him. I am actually trying to protect myself from being sued by him.
Here is how I could be sued...
With the conclusion of the above bullet I have completed the Introductory Phase of this blog posting and I will now begin reporting the actual stupid words from Yahoo News...
Peter Fernerk, deputy assistant to the assistant national security adviser for critical security stuff said, the U.S. is "committed" to implementing the missile defense system, "which we've repeatedly said is not aimed at Russia”.
I would be disappointed in you, my dear reader, if you did not immediately catch on to the stupid part of this statement. Just in case, I will explicitly lay it out for you...
The only logical conclusion that can be drawn by the Russians from the above Offending Words is...
Russia can feel free to launch their missiles at us at any time they darn well please and we would be glad to receive them.
It is just those countries that we have our Missile Defense Shields aimed at that would make us mad.
If you think I am being foolish about what I have pecked out above, I have this to say to you... Thank you very much! I am glad I could be of service.
Would I kid u?
According to USA Today there are two statistics about the current $640,000,000 Mega Millions Jackpot that are very interesting...
Would I kid u?
My newspaper recently told me that there are 915 million ways to combine Six LEGO Blocks.
Such published reports beg many questions in my inquisitive mind...
There are times when I think I may be running out of subject matter for any more Foolishness...Or Is Its? and then I open up my newspaper and I find myself covered up with Foolishness.
Would I kid u?
A few days ago I took jabs at American Sanity (or should that be American Insanity?).
Part 1 of this 2 part series discussed Ted Kaczynski’s Personal Belongings Auction. If that did not prove my point, I am ready to take another shot at it.
This craziness is not unique to the good ole USofA but knowing that there are other nuts in the box of candy somehow makes all the nuts feel better.
To set the stage, allow me to fill you in on one Pablo Escobar...
Does all of the above sound wild and crazy? Wild and crazy it was but what I am about to tell you is not only wild and crazy but also Bizarre...
Mr. Escobar Is Now A Tourist Attraction
Down in Columbia two companies are vying to run tourists through his life and death. It appears Business Is Booming. Here is the spiel used by one of the Tour Guides as he begins taking his tour group of mostly 20-something backpacking travelers through Pablo’s World...
“We’re going to bring you to the very places where he lived and died, and you will sit on the actual motorcycle Pablo road for his first-ever drug run.
I am sorry to tell you that many of the backpacking tourists mentioned above are from the Good Ole USofA.
This is Medellin’s hottest ticket with hundreds being sold each month. For $30 you can be taken on a 4-hour tour and see and experience the likes of the following...
All of this is described as part of Columbia’s “rich, colorful history”.
Don’t be too hard on the Columbians for trying to make a Peso or two. In England they try and make a Pound or two too.
If you ever get to London, you can take the very popular tour of 20B Baker Street.
Those of us who have enjoyed reading Sherlock Holmes will remember that this is the address where the fictional detective would have lived if he had not been fictional.
Would I kid u?
May I recommend to you that you do not skim this posting? Please read it slowly and let what you are seeing sink in. This is serious stuff.
Here is what my newspaper has been telling me...
Some are pressing the West to negotiate with the Iranians. The Iranians believe that they have an obligation to kill all Jews. How does one negotiate with the mindset as laid out in all of the bullet points above? Does it go something like this...
I can appreciate that you want all Jews dead but can’t we be a bit more reasonable about this? “All” is a Big Number. Are you open to another figure?
Compromise a good thing, don’t you think? How about killing 60%? Would that make you happy? Let me tell you this, 60% would be a great batting average in baseball.
What’s that you say? You are not real comfortable with only 60%? I tell you what. When you start getting close to 60%, we can meet again and revisit the final number.
Don’t be so firmly fixated about this “all” thing. After all, Rome wasn’t destroyed in a day.
Would I kid u?
Here is the scenario...
I just heard you say to yourself, “Self, this blog posting is not that long.” (I bet you are wondering how I know what you are saying to yourself.)
The Smartfella says it could have been a lot longer if the nine bullets above had been repeated over and over and over because these nine bullets have happened over and over and over.
We now have a new agreement with North Korea. The News Media is calling it a “Breakthrough”.
Let us all hope that the Umpteenth Time Is A Charm.
Would I kid you?
Here I am again posting a Foolishness...Or Is It? about names. Please do read on because I have put a different spin on it this time.
Below is a list of ten Modern American Names. As a side note, I gather such names from the Police Reports or the Sports Pages of my local daily newspaper.
Attention Modern American Parent:
If you use these kinds of names, your offspring will either end up in jail or they will sign a multi-million dollar professional sports contract and they will buy you a house.
Those are the chances you take when you choose (or make up) such names.
Here are the ten names I promised. Five are from the Police Reports or from the Sports Pages and five I made up all by myself. Test your skills. Can you tell which ones are real Modern American Names and which ones are Smartfella Made Up Names? ...
Jadeveon or Brundae or Dunchein or Joylinda or Ke$ha or
Lupeleon or Manjit or Doruchia or Shekinna or Monnussia
Do not look at the answer until you have tried to figure them out on your own.
I tried to get the Jeopardy Thinking Tune for you to click on here but the download failed.
Just imagine Alex Trebek humming it to you for a bit and then look at the next paragraph to see which were real names and which ones I made up.
Was not easy was it? The answer is: Every other name, starting with the second name, are the five names I made up.
Go back up and look them over again. I would be willing to bet that you would have been willing to bet I had made up the one with the Dollar Sign in it.
I did not list my favorite name... Tai-ler. It is my favorite because I saw little Tai-ler’s mother interviewed on TV. The interviewer was having trouble with the little fellow’s name so he asked mama how to pronounce it. Mama seemed to get miffed at the interviewer’s ignorance and responded, “The dash is silent!”
Would I kid u?
The word “Polight” is derived from a combination of “Politician” & “Light”.
Almost 4 years ago I posted the first Foolishness...Or Is It? about the Polight. Today I have revised it because of the current Presidential Election.
There ought to be a law requiring a red light be surgically implanted on the top of the head of any candidate running for President. The light would function as follow...
Because of some politician's propensity to lie unceasingly or make statements on subjects about which they have no knowledge, the Polight would have to be rigged so that it would blink every 20 seconds. If this were not the case and the light stayed on all the time, voters might begin to think the Polight was broken. Then where would we be?
I can hear you out there saying to yourselves, that this is Foolishness. However, can you picture in your mind’s eye how wonderful it would be if only this Foolish device really existed?
Would I kid u?
I have commented in the past about our seemingly unquenchable thirst for anything Celebrity. Those attention grabbing magazine headlines in our Wal-Mart checkout lines make sure those magazines keep flying off the rack, into our shopping carts and right into our hearts... 
I am always going to be fascinated by our society’s Celebrity Fascination. There is, however, a much more unsettling phenomenon of which I have started taking notice and that is Evil People Fascination.
Recently an auction was conducted to dispose of the personal belongings of Ted Kaczynski the infamous Unabomber. This awful person set off 16 explosions, killed 3 people and wounded 23 other people.
In total 58 items were sold for $232,246. Some of the items were...
I am at a loss to understand why would any one of us want to display ole Ted’s belongings on our fireplace mantel?
Smartfella Predicting the Future...
The person who bought his Flip-Flops is having them reproduced in China and in a few weeks they are going to start being sold in retail establishments all over this country.
If the Chinese can get these imitation Flip Flops to smell like his real Flip Flops smelled, this is going to be a really Big Seller.
And last, but not least, if they can get Kaczynski to sign his own death certificate after he dies, there is no telling how much that piece of paper will be worth.
Would I kid u?
Have you ever noticed how often huge numbers reported by the News Media are exactly exact? It is not uncommon to see these kinds of numbers in news reports...
The above exactly exact figures are strange enough but recent reports have brought to light unsettling information about how the News Media just might have complete control over the numbers they report in their stories.
It is even more baffling when there is More Than One Exactly Exact Number in a single story...
Since the uprising commenced 8 months ago, 17,600 demonstrators have been killed, 63,700 have been injured and 8,200 have been reported missing.
My sources tell me, speaking on the condition of anonymity because there is no way the anonymously speaking people can know what the heck they are talking about, the News Media keeps in constant contact with the people who are making the story the story and are actively involved in orchestrating Story Numerical Configurations.
Tweets are constantly going back and forth between the News Media and the Story People to make sure story numbers are Neat & Tidy. Below is a series of Tweets my Twit Interceptor captured involving a recent big time news story...
Actually the Smartfella has a lot of admiration for our New Media regarding their efforts to keep the news Neat & Tidy. He has always been a very persnickety person. Neat & Tidy is a big part of who he is.
Would I kid u?
I am more observant than most people. I see things other people don’t see. Sometimes I think it is a curse. Other times I think it is a wonderful thing. This time I think it just might save my life. If you heed what I am about to convey to you, it may save your life too.
EMT stands for “Emergency Medical Technicians”. Some think it means “Emergency Medical Transport”. Either one conveys to all of us the same thing. If you call 911, these emergency people are going to come in their emergency vehicle and haul you off to a hospital where you are supposedly going to be made all better.
That’s where my powers of observation kick in. Have you ever noticed how many times your newspaper story reads...
Patient was pronounced dead shortly after arrival in the hospital.
There is the problem! The hospitals are killing us!
As usual I have a solution...
Why not just take the patient to the nearest Starbucks and get him a cup of coffee?
I can read your mind. You are worried about the expense of all these cups of coffee. Worst yet you are expecting the usual expense explosion of such Well-Meaning Programs when patients start asking for Lattes or Cappuccinos.
Don’t worry about running out of Starbucks Bucks because our Federal Government has invented China.
Would I kid u?
In America today we are worried about lots of things attacking us. One of our new fears has gotten to be one of our biggest fears.
We Are All Afraid Of Gluten
We lie awake at night hoping that the Gluten that is already in us will not clog something up, make our hearts attack us, stop something from functioning properly or start something like pimples functioning that ought to be lying dormant.
Millions of Americans are now feeling comfortable with themselves because they are on a Gluten Free Diet.
Research has also shown that 87.4% of the millions of Gluten Free Dieting Americans do not know what Gluten is.
I wonder how much frenzy could be created if someone with a morbid sense of humor made up a mysterious word that sounded like something Americans ought to be worried about and spread fear about all the evils it can do to the human body.
This type of information dissemination is one of the great “benefits” of the Internet
A word like Silvact ought to do the trick. Who in the heck wants to get all clogged up with Silvact?
Actually it would not be a lie to advertise that your product is Silvact Free because your product is Silvact Free.
Back To Gluten...
The real shock to Glutenless Americans is going to be when National Enquirer reveals that “Gluten Free” does not mean there is no Gluten in there. It only means they just do not charge you for the Gluten that is in there.
Would I kid u?
When I was young it was often said, “Times are a changing”. I have not heard that phrase in quite awhile. I am not sure why I have not heard it because it is as true now as it was then.
The Smartfella usually gives three examples of whatever to “prove” his Foolishness and he is about to do it again....
First Proof...
A few years back I was watching TV and a commercial about subscribing to the New York Times caught my attention. I am not saying that the NYT is evil because of their commercial but it certainly was a sign of the times.
The scene was set in a beautiful young couple’s living room (yes the male and the female were both beautiful). The dialog did not go like this...
“It’s Sunday Morning. We are just back from Sunday Church Services. It’s at times like this we just love lounging around reading the New York Times.”
Instead the commercial went like this...
“It’s Sunday Morning and we have nothing to do but lounge around reading the New York Times.”
Ah yes, the beautiful couple were not of the sort that went to church. In this case, the Times was a Sign of the Times.
Second Proof...
I was listening on my car radio to a very intelligent sounding lady talking about herself and her life. At one point she said, “My Partner”. The Talk Show Host picked up on this and said she had sounded like a married person from other things that she had said. She responded that she was married but she and her husband had decided not to refer to each other as “Husband and Wife”. They felt that they were more comfortable with, “Partner”.
Shows how old fashioned I am. I kind of like, Husband and Wife.
Third Proof...
There was a time, not so long ago, when American Families made it a point to gather each night for supper. This was a time when we got to know each other and shared what was going on in our lives.
This was when a father got the opportunity to ask, “What did you learn in school today?” Not having supper each night may be a blessing in disguise for our modern day fathers. Ole dad might get indigestion if he were told by his children that they had learned multicultural dancing, so much about sex that he might find himself hiding his face behind his pizza slice or statistics about the number of Canadians coming across our Mexican border (wherever that is).
We don’t have to worry about dinner conversations in Memphis. The schools in Memphis have started serving supper in school. The Family Dinner is dead in Memphis. I just hope the Family is not dying along with it.
I am sure glad I make it a practice to only give three examples in my blog postings because I am getting depressed. 😞
Would I kid u?
(Modified & Reposted 2/9/12)
I spend a lot of time in a health club trying to keep my heart from attacking me. So far it is working but it’s not easy. As I always say...
Staying Healthy Is Enough To Kill You
Today there is a new threat to my health from inside my Health Club. It is the Rock Music that the owners of the facility must think is an essential element of staying healthy because it is always there, it is always loud and it is always awful.
The other day in the midst of this musical assault, as my head was about to explode, I got a brainstorm about how I am going to spend my declining years ... I Am Going to Write Rock Music.
Why am I going to undertake such a difficult task, you ask? That’s just my point. It Is Not A Difficult Task. It is actually going to be one of the easiest things I have ever done...
There you have it. Another modern-day Smash Hit Rock Tune that is sure to be a big money maker.
I did leave out one thing. Actually it is the most important thing ... My rocking tune is sung VERY LOUD! In the world of Rock Music, LOUD is more important than the Five or Six Words or the Seven Musical Notes or the Over and Over.
One thing I will make sure I will not do. I will not make the sound as loud as a TV Commercial. That would be Beyond the Pale (whatever that is).
As Ed McMahon used to say to Johnny Carson, “How bad is it?” I’ll tell you how bad it is. I told the manager of my health club that, if I die and go to heaven and they announce upon my arrival that they will be playing loud rock music for all eternity, I am going to ask for a transfer.
Would I kid u?
Please note the Gadget on the left called “Share it”. If you are entertained by this Foolishness (or one in the future), use “Share it” to tell your friends or enemies about it on FaceBook or Twitter.
One of the biggest benefits of being a faithful reader of Foolishness...Or Is It? is that it trains you become more observant about what is happening around you.
Those of you who are regular readers are well aware of the specifics of what I have selected to be the subject of this blog posting. They rest of you could hone your observation skills by spending your day going back and reading old postings. Those that do go back and read old postings have a delightful day ahead of them because humor never goes out of style.
It is a Law of Nature that only so many words can be spoken in a day.
Current momentous events have created an extreme increase in spoken words. The Arab Spring, the GOP Primary Campaigns, the upcoming Presidential Campaign and the Super Bowl have been using up our daily Word Quota so fast that many of our Talking Heads on TV have been forced to slow down.
During the run up to Super Bowl Sunday this unsettling word shortage became apparent when several Sporty Talking Heads began having difficulty getting words to actually come out of their mouths. The time between word eruptions had lengthened to as much as 5 to 7 seconds. In one case a Sporty Talking Head could not utter a single word for 27 seconds. The look on his face during this episode was painful to behold.
Not only is the actual total volume of words affected by this law of nature but certain individual words are being driven into extreme short supply like...
There were some words which saw a meteoric rise only to fall into oblivion just as fast as they shot up...
There are words I wish would disappear forever...
Trust me on this one, it may seem like an eternity but one day the Presidential Campaign will be over. Once it is history we will all have 27 days of peace and quiet before the 2016 Campaign starts up.
Would I kid u?