What caught my eye today was the House of Commons Debate itself. Allow me to contrast British Debating with what we see in our 12 Percentage Point Approval Rated House and Senate...
Would I kid u?
Smartfella
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."
We could save a lot of time if only each one of my dear readers would come over to my house each morning and read the newspaper over my shoulder as I read my newspaper.
OK, I know that is not possible so you will have to continue reading about what I read by reading Foolishness...Or Is It’s. Not a bad way to spend a small part of your day... Or is it?
My newspaper recently told me another reason why I am glad I am old and retired. That reason is I am not out in the working world of today experiencing what they are experiencing and being required to act as if I understand the “Changes for the Better” that are constantly raising their ugly collective heads.
Here is the headline of the article that caused me to start pecking out this bit of Foolishness...
Beer on Fridays. Pets In The Office. Weekly Yoga.
I will direct this Foolishness to Pets In The Office...
In the Old Days: I would be confronted with tears and/or requests to write a rebuttal when I wrote up an employee in the Areas for Improvement Section of their Performance Appraisal as follows, “Breaks pencil points in pencil sharpener because puts too much inward pressure on pencils.”
In the Now Days: I would be confronted with tears, demands to write a rebuttal and/or their lawyer’s business card when I wrote up an employee in the Areas for Improvement Section of their Performance Appraisal, as follows...
or
or
Let’s not leave Organized Protests out this discussion...
If you are one of My Dear Readers who is still working, please don’t despair. You will be old and retired before you know it.
Would I kid u?
Smartfella
(453)
Bob Dylan sang to us in 1964
The Times They Are A-Changin’
Allow your Mind’s Eye to wander with me for a few minutes...
You are on duty in a Convenience Store at 3AM. You are getting dozy when three customers walk into your store. You are jolted into wide-awake consciousness. You are suddenly on edge because of the danger that you may be confronted with in the next few minutes.
What would make you the most nervous, the entrance of...
Three Hells Angles?
Or
Three Teenagers?
If you have been watching or reading the news lately, you know what prompted this probing question.
John Wayne is dead. Watch your back out there. ![]()
I wish I were kidding u.
Smartfella
Have you ever taken notice of how we are covered up with Medical Warnings?
Actually, the above sentence is an incomplete sentence. The complete sentence is, Have you ever taken notice how we are covered up with Medical Warnings ... of things that we were once told were bad for us but which have now been reclassified as good for us?
The opposite is equally true, there are a lot of things that we were once told were good for us but now have been reclassified as bad for us.
There are lots of examples...
The Health Warning/Advice below just might be of more interest to some of you than all 6 of the Good/Bad/Bad/Good Examples I listed above...
Moderate alcohol drinkers gain less weight over time than people who abstain from drinking alcohol completely.
As the subject of this Foolishness stated above, Life Is A Delicate Balance. If you heed this warning, you just might end up being an Overweight Alcoholic before you find out that this is another one off the long list of erroneous health warning that the future will correct for us.
It may take even longer for this warning to be corrected because the people who issued this the warning have since become Overweight Alcoholics and have not been spending much time in their research labs since they started buying elastic belts to wear to Happy Hour.
Even worse than all of the above, are the warnings that told us, if we did something, we would die. Think of all the people who did as instructed and died of something that the Medical Community later decided was not really deadly. I bet those Dutiful Deceased are really mad that they got dead when what they died of was not really a problem after all.
I hope I did not confuse you. If I did, this would be the first time that a Foolishness...Or Is It? has done that to you... Or would it be?
Would I kid u?
Smartfella
(374)
The head of the Republican National Committee has taken dramatic action against both the CNN and NBC News Networks. He is angry with them because they are both planning to run programs prior to the 2016 Election praising Hillary Clinton.
CNN is planning to run a Biopic slated to run in 2014 and NBC is going to run a Biographical Film in 2015. He is really playing hardball because he is going to bar these two networks from participation in the GOP Debates leading up to the Presidential Election.
The Smartfella believes that his calculation about the harm this barring will do to these two networks is not well thought out and flawed to the point where it will have no negative effect on them at all.
I have my sources and my sources are never wrong. My sources tell me that the two networks are both planning to run episodes of Big Bang Theory opposite the airing of the GOP Presidential Debates.
They are sure to dominate the viewers using this strategy. I don’t want to come down too hard on the Head GOP Guy but he should have seen this coming.
Would I kid u?
Smartfella
Back in April 2008 I blogged this bit of Foolishness...
Princess Diana Will Never Die
What a great purchase! I now own a genuine crystal ball certified by the FDA, the American Medical Association, the CIA and Gypsies Are People Too, Inc. It really works. I am so pleased.
I gave it an initial tryout and looked to the year 2108. The ball told me that the 716th trial and/or hearing and/or investigation into the death of Princess Diana has ruled that she was killed in an accident in a Paris street tunnel while being chased by paparazzi in an automobile driven by a drunken limo driver. That’s the same verdict that was rendered in the prior 715 trials and/or hearings and/or investigations into how she died.
The article goes on to further state that the ruling will be appealed with the money coming from a Perpetual Appeal Trust Fund that was set up by the late Mohamed Fayed, the father of Diana's boyfriend at the time of her death.
Would I kid u?
It is now August 2013 and like the guy who jumped off of a 14 story building who said as he passed floor number 7, “So far so good”, my Diana Forever Prediction is right on target.
Now we are being instructed by our various News Organizations that we must get excited about Diana Being Murdered!...
Princess Diana Death Probe: British Media Reports Allegation That Royal's Death Was No Accident
If you want to read the entire article, you can go to this link: http://gma.yahoo.com/princess-diana-death-probe-british-media-reports-allegation-170105344--abc-news-topstories.html?vp=1
If not, here are some Tidbits...
As usual the Smartfella will try and speak sanity to our insane world...
Can you imagine how many people would have to be in on such a murder conspiracy? In this day and age when everyone is spilling the beans about everything, does anyone really believe that one of the umpteen people that would have had to be involved to pull this murder off would not have tweeted this story, wrote a book about this story, posted on his FaceBook Wall or met in a downtown garage in the middle of the night to fill in Bob Woodward about all the juicy details?
The Smartfella just put on his Predicting the Future Hat and here is what I see...
After all this is over the temporary final determination will be that Princess Diana was killed in an accident in a Paris street tunnel while being chased by paparazzi in an automobile driven by a drunken limo driver.
I would think that Alex Rodriguez is looking around, after seeing all this Diana Consternation, and saying, “Hey! What about me?”
Would I kid u?
Smartfella
(606)
Just read in my Newspaper the following, “began what could be a lengthy legal battle”.
Do you see what’s bothering me? Why not? It ought to be bothering you. It is right in front of you. Oh well, this is why you have me.
Everything legal takes too long. I would love to see the following legal proceedings become commonplace in courtrooms throughout the Good Ole USofA...
I’m sure the lawyers reading this Wee Bit of Foolishness are saying to their collective selves...
Smartfella, you do not understand. Any issue that is brought into court ought to be properly obfuscated, dissected and twisted so that our clients can be assured that they have their Constitutionally Guaranteed right to receive that which they do not deserve.
Faced with such unassailable Lawyer Logic the Smartfella would feel properly put in his place and would readily admit he was sorry he had ever brought this issue up... Or would he?
Would I kid u?
Smartfella
(274)
Yesterday I published my blog about that Petri-Dish Beef Burger on the verge of being eaten in Europe. Yesterday there was also a news article in my local newspaper that would have told me (and you through me) that the burger had already been eaten. I did not read my newspaper yesterday. Please forgive me.
The link to my posting is (if you want to read it as a refresher): http://www.forii.blogspot.com/2013/08/save-world-go-out-and-shoot-cow.html
If I had read the news article in a more timely fashion, I would have known that the world has bigger fish to fry about this imitation beef burger. For many Jews, Muslims and Hindus, the first question is whether their faith allows them to eat this kind of beef.
I don’t know much of why the Muslims and Hindus are concerned but my newspaper did explain to me why there is much consternation in the Jewish Community about whether the patty is Kosher or not.
It seems that the Jewish Faith says a beef burger cannot be Kosher unless the cow in question had had its throat slit while it was still conscious. You probably just jumped the gun and shouted at your computer, “Hey Smartfella, there was no cow in that petri-dish to have its throat slit”.
Actually the Stem Cells that were put into that Petri-Dish did come from a cow that was once live. The burning question is, were the stem cells that grew in the Petri-Dish from a cow that was nervously looking left and right at the moment its throat was slit?
The Smartfella is of a mind to say that we really do have bigger fish to fry than this issue. We still have to come to grips with the likes of...
I’m sure glad I was destined from birth to be the Smartfella. If I were responsible for seriously addressing such thorny issue as these, I might go off the deep end and start pecking out things that really did not make sense...Or do I?
Would I Kid u?
Smartfella
(398)
I read an article in my newspaper entitled...
Scientists to Cook World’s First In-Vitro Beef Burger
It seems that 2 scientists over in Europe have been working for years trying to grow beef in labs in petri dishes. They have gotten to the point where they have grown enough beef to cook a Beef Burger. They are about to make up a patty, fry it in a pan and 2 volunteers stand ready to chow down.
The scientists are apparently trying to save the world with this experiment. Do you think I got carried away with this “save the world” comment? The scientists would contend that I was right on target.
They are saying this about the importance of their experiment...
Success would mean not just a tasty burger, but also the prospect of finding a sustainable, ethical and environmentally friendly alternative to meat production.
Did I just hear you say to yourself, “What’s so wrong with meat production?” I don’t want to come down too hard on you, dear reader, but it is this type of antiquated thinking that has held back real progress since God, or The Big Bang, invented the Human Race. Their contention is that Meat Production is one of the most evil happenings that has ever happened since Adam noticed that Eve was quite attractive.
The above far reaching statements did not just come from the silly mind of the Smartfella. According to a 2006 report by the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization...
Industrialized agriculture contributes on a “massive scale” to climate change, air pollution, land degradation, energy use, deforestation and biodiversity decline.
During WW2 a lot of bullets and bombs were directed at the competing forces. Imagine how much better off we all would be today if all those ballistics had been directed at cows.
It is just a shame that we were not as enlightened during WW2 as we are today. If we had been, we could have stopped a lot of cows dead in their tracks before they had their way with us and we could have turned that awful war into a thing of beauty.
Would I kid u?
Smartfella
(357)
My newspaper tells me that the Mayor of Rome is Pedestrianizing the busy street that cuts through Rome’s Ancient Forum to the Colosseum.
A lot of Romans are mad at him but that’s another story. This Blog Posting is going to concentrate on why my Newspaper thinks this street is Historically Significant.
I am fairly certain that in the long history of Rome there have been some awe-inspiring happenings on Colosseum Street but my Newspaper does not think they are as noteworthy as the one I will tell you about later in this Blog Posting.
Here are a few truly significant historical events that my newspaper overlooked...
My newspaper does not think that any of the above obviously significant historical events is very important. My newspaper thinks Colosseum Street is most famous for...
...a route immortalized by Audrey Hepburn and Gregory Peck’s scooter ride in the 1953 film Roman Holiday.
As I have always said...
Everyone Is Entitled To His Own Stupid Opinion & That Includes My Newspaper
Would I kid u?
Smartfella
(264)
In some circles this Time Magazine Cover Story from April 8, 1966 is still being praised as historic and ground breaking...
In the eyes of those Some Circles People, Time Magazine has now come up with another equally historic and ground breaking cover. The Smartfella wishes they would quit trying to be historic and ground breaking...
THE CHILDFREE LIFE
When having it all means not having children
There is something wrong with our Society when "all" does not include Children. Those two beautiful people lying on that beautiful beach would not be lying on that beautiful beach if their parents had been as “enlightened” as they are.
Would I kid u?
Smartfella
(126)
Through the magic of TiVo I have recorded the detailed warnings about a Very Popular Pill that is being advertised heavily on TV these days…
There was a tag on the bottom of the screen at about this point in the ad warnings that said...
“Including ulcers or bleeding or intestines, kidney or liver problems, or heart failure.”
I guess this must be called an Etcetera Warning.
The subject of this Foolishness...Or Is It? was...
Are You Smart? or Are You Dumb?
I will know the answer to this question if you contact me asking for the name of this Very Popular Pill because you are very anxious to start taking it.
Would I kid u?
Smartfella
(303)
I have been hard on our System of Justice in many a Foolishness...Or Is It? Blog Posting. I now have a whole new respect for our Judicial System.
I would like to send an apology but I don’t know where to send it. I thought about sending it to Chief Justice Roberts but I’m not speaking to him. Maybe he will read this Blog Posting and he will know how sorry I am without any direct contact groveling from me.
Oh yea, I need to tell you why I have this change of heart. That Cleveland Guy who kidnapped those 3 women for 10 years has been sentenced to...
My first impulse was to comment about the 1,000 years. That seems to be unrealistic without Congress passing a law that stipulates that the Cleveland Guy cannot die in less than 1,000 years. Since Congress has not acted in this regard I was ready to take our Judicial System to task for being quite a bit silly in giving him a penalty that he cannot serve out.
Then it dawned on me. Our Judicial System knows from past experience that, if they had sentenced Cleveland Guy to...
...he would have been back on the street in 7 Years.
I am sorry about all those bad things I have been saying about them. Our Judicial System is Brilliant!
Would I kid u?
Smartfella
(267)
The president is going around making beaucoup (Louisiana talk for Many, Much, Lots) speeches about our economy. I have a brilliant idea about how he could stimulate the economy of the Good Ole USofA but I’m not going to tell him because I am mad at him.
You probably think I am being unpatriotic by keeping my Economic Wisdom to myself but I have good reason to be this way and that’s because I gave him good advice and he has ignored that good advice.
Within days of him being elected in 2008 I sent him a list of perfectly logical ideas that would have made our country a better place to live in but he has not enacted a single one of my very logical recommendations. He has hurt my feelings, and to be quite honest with you, I have lost a lot of faith in his good judgment.
I’ll give you an example of just one of my brilliant ideas...
Make sports teams with the largest amount of tattoos lose every game.
If you wanna see the whole letter, read the Yellow below. If you remember every word because you have read the list over and over since its publication, skip over the yellow below and continue on with today’s Foolishness which follows...
Please take into consideration the pressing issues I am directing to your attention by way of this communication…
Mr. President, I am well aware that you may have one or two more pressing issues on your plate than some of my requests. I trust that you will do your best to get right on what I am asking of you because, I am equally certain, you can see that the need for action on each of these pressing issues is self-evident.
Please do instruct your Chief Of Staff to advise me once these ten have been addressed and I will send you some more.
Would I kid u?
Today’s Brilliant Idea...
My TV told me that last week in Great Britain the celebration that followed the birth of their new prince George Alexander (cuz he was born on the Smartfella’s birthday) Louis resulted in the consumption of $95 Million of Alcohol. That’s a lot of stimulation to the British Economy!
The Talking Head that informed me of the above fact went on to say that there are 55 Million British Type People. In contrast there are over 300 Million Americans. This means, if we had had a baby prince born last week like they had a baby prince born last week, we would have consumed over $500 Million in Alcohol Sales. What a boon to our struggling economy this would have been!
In order to stimulate our economy we ought to get ourselves a King and a very fertile Queen as soon as possible. We ought to not assign them any responsibilities other than the production of little Princes and Princesses.
Imagine more than $500 Million in economic stimulation every 9 months and 3 days! This by itself could turn around our dire economic situation all by itself.
I wonder if our president has any ideas about who should be our first king.
Would I kid u?
Smartfella
I used to understand everything because everything used to be logical. I can follow logic.
I always thought that if a person killed someone, and everyone knew he killed that someone, he would be put on trial and he would get the death penalty. I do understand that “would get the death penalty” has been changed to “may get the death penalty”. This “would” vs. “may” conundrum is not the reason for my confusion.
It’s the proceedings in the James “Whitey” Bulger trial that has me so baffled. This trial has taught all of us that, if a person kills 10 people, he will not get the death penalty.
Here is a quote from my newspaper...
“A former top henchman of James “Whitey” Bulger said he pleaded guilty to 10 murders so he could avoid the death penalty”.
This makes the Smartfella wonder, if he had killed more than 10 people, would he have been given a Letter of Commendation?
Would I kid u?
Smartfella
(182)
My newspaper tells me...
“In the next phase of the case, the city must prove that it is insolvent.”
If my trusty newspaper were talking about any other city I would understand the need to jump through this Legal Hoop but my newspaper is talking about Detroit!
Detroit is Insolvent and its Insolvency ought to be obvious.
What’s next?...
It just may be that our Judicial System will be able to forgo any further legal haggling over whether or not Detroit is Insolvent by looking into any of the Online Dictionaries which now have a little picture of the Detroit Skyline next to... “Insolvent” and “Bankrupt”.
Would I kid u?
Smartfella
If Jackasses do wear the same kind of shoes as horses do, then there is a lot of work for The Detroit Water Department’s Horseshoer.
(I’m giving 3 links to assure you that I did not make this up.)
Click Here: http://www.michigancapitolconfidential.com/17404
or
http://now.msn.com/the-city-of-detroit-still-has-a-horseshoer-on-staff
or
Would I kid u?
Smartfella
The above picture is entitled, “You Named Me What?”
(Yes, my son, your name is, “What?”)
We are all well aware of the fact that some of us (or should I say some of them?) have been choosing Unusual (to say the least) Baby Names.
Celebrities seem to have a particular need to do this to their newly born offspring...
This name I am hereby proposing is perfectly appropriate for the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge’s baby boy born yesterday. Yes they are Celebrities but they are Royal Celebrities and that makes them smarter than the average Hollywood Celebrity, does it not?
The more I think about my name for Baby Cambridge the more confident I am that this is the name that they will choose...
Union Jack
See, I told you it was perfect!
Would I kid u?
Smartfella
Lagniappe: Boy! When I finished with this one my Spell Checker was Smoking.