Are Leprechauns Victims Of Racism?

A day does not go by where we do not read a newspaper article about someone being offended, see a news piece on TV about someone being offended or even have someone tell us that we have offended them by saying what we just said.

 

In the cases where we have done the offending, we frantically try and figure out what the offended was offended about. Many times we never do figure out what caused the offense. All too often we find ourselves apologizing for whatever we said that was offensive when we really want to say what our parents would have said in this situation, “Get over it! You sure are sensitive! Want a beer?”

 

We are often told that the most offended class in the Good Ole USofA is the American Indian (now known as the Native American). The interesting thing about the Native Americans being offended is they are often unaware they have been offended, until someone who knows more about being offended than they do, informs them that they need to get upset.

 

There are a whole bunch of advocates that are ready, willing and certainly able to carry the Native Americans’ Cause forward for them.

 

Here’s a good example. When the Washington Post polled Native Americans in 2016, it found 9 of 10 were not offended by the name of Washington D.C.’s NFL franchise—the Redskins. The results did not vary much by age, income, education, politics or proximity to a reservation. And the results hadn’t changed much since a similar 2004 poll by the Annenberg Public Policy Center.

 

Maybe because the Native Americans do not seem to care much about getting upset the Advocates for the Offended are now looking elsewhere for “victims” and, believe it or not, they are now getting upset on behalf of Leprechauns.

 

Since Leprechauns are not real, you would think that Advocates would quickly lose interest. Don’t count on it because, once these things get started, they seem to develop a life of their own.

 

A hot under the collar Advocate for Leprechauns recently said, “Many Irish-Americans are not offended, but many are. Should that also change? The answer is yes! Unequivocally yes. Pernicious, negative stereotypes of marginalized people that offend, even some among them, should be changed.”

 

The Fella is very confused...

Ø We are being told that Irish-Americans are offended.

Ø We know that Irish-Americans are not Leprechauns.

Ø Irish-Americans know that they are not Leprechauns.

Ø We also know that Leprechauns do not exist.

Ø How can Irish-Americans be offended about something that they are not that does not exist?

 

Also take notice of the use of big words by the Advocates for the Offended...”unequivocally”, “pernicious”, “stereotypes” and “marginalized”. People with weak arguments often use big words to hide the weakness of their argument.

 

Finally, I would like to zero in on the words “even some among them” in the above quote. How many hoops are we to jump through for “some”? How many is “some”? Could “some” be one? Are we destined to tie ourselves in knots for “some” when “some” is only a few and the few do not seem to be paying much attention anyway?

 

How far away are we from hearing an impassioned lawyer say to a disbelieving judge...

“Your honor, this is unconscionable! Quoverts have suffered long enough under the yoke of this pernicious stereotyping. Their whole existence is being unequivocally marginalized. The prosecuting attorney has attempted to make a point of the fact that Quoverts do not exist. I ask you what difference does that make at this point. If they did exist, they would exist and, having made the point that they do not exist, it certainly follows that they would be offended if they did exist by all of what did or did not happen to them. Quoverts are people too!”

 

Would I kid u?

Smartfella

California’s Affirmative Action for ‘Marijuana Entrepreneurs’

The Source for this Blog Posting is...

Jason L. Riley

Wall Street Journal

 

(Excerpts from Mr. Riley’s column are in Italics below.)

 

In California, a criminal record can prevent you from obtaining a liquor license but give you a leg up in obtaining a permit to deal dope.

 

It’s all part of an effort in the Golden State to help more minorities become “marijuana entrepreneurs”. On New Year’s Day 2018, California became the ninth state to legalize cannabis for recreational use, but officials are worried that not enough blacks will qualify for the permits needed to sell weed legally.

 

To address this “problem,” Los Angeles, Oakland and other cities have created “equity programs” that offer no-interest loans and other perks to people who live in poor black neighborhoods and have been convicted of drug crimes.

 

If you’re a white applicant, you can improve your own chances of receiving a permit by “incubating” an equity applicant, which means making him a 50% partner in the business or giving him floor space in your establishment, rent-free.

 

The people who dreamed this up sold it as a way to compensate blacks, who have been disproportionately affected by the war on drugs. But what about the disproportionate number of blacks who have been victims of these drug dealers? What about all the law-abiding blacks who reside in poor neighborhoods where drug gangs have taken over playgrounds and street corners and school yards and made the sound of gunfire a summer-night norm?

------------------------

Above is what Mr. Riley had to say about those who have been disproportionately affected by the war on drugs.

 

Below is The Fella’s Wise Guy Retort...Will all those who have been negatively affected by the actions of those who have been disproportionately affected now be positively affected proportionally?

 

How far are we away from hearing this conversation in courthouses across the Fruited Plain?...

Ø Potential Entrepreneur: Good Morning, Mr. Bureaucrat, I would like to fill out the required paperwork to open a bank in our fair community.

Ø Potential Entrepreneur: This is a big day for me.

Ø Potential Entrepreneur: I have always wanted to own a bank and, as long as I can remember, I have had this burning desire to enrich my fellow Smithvilleian’s lives by granting hard working and ambitious members of our community loans to start new business ventures and allow them and Smithville to prosper.

Ø Mr. Bureaucrat: Have you ever robbed a bank?

Ø Potential Entrepreneur: No.

Ø Mr. Bureaucrat: Sorry. If you have never robbed a bank, you are not entitled to become a banker.

Ø Potential Entrepreneur: Sigh.

 

Would I kid u?

Smartfella

In Recognition Of Our Volatile Stock Market

Here are 2 Blog Postings I wrote in 2009. They may be old but they are still Right On Target with a Touch of Humor Thrown In...Or are they?...Or is there?

June 2009...

The Stock Market Is Predictable…Or Is It?

I have always distrusted the Stock Market. I don’t like having my money subject to unexplainable influences.

 

Sometimes the Stock Market moves because of actual, factual and understandable forces. Sometimes it moves based on rumor, innuendo and statements or non-statements from anonymous sources whose brother-in-law’s neighbor may or may not know what he is talking about.

 

My unease about the Stock Market was verified yesterday. General Motors filed for bankruptcy and the Stock Market took a dramatic downturn … Right? … Wrong! The Stock Market went up 221 Points. Someone please explain that to me.

 

Years ago I pulled my meager resources out of the Stock Market. Considering what is currently happening to our Stock Market, the Smartfella, at present anyway, is proving that he is a Smart Fellow.

 

Now if only I could remember where I buried that coffee can, I would feel a lot better.

 

Would I kid u?

--------------------------

October 2009...

Why Do They Look So Happy? (Or More Puzzling) Why Do They Always Look So Happy?

There is one thing about the Stock Market that has always puzzled me. It happens at the closing of the New York Stock Exchange each and every day.

There is an overhang that looks out at the exchangers who have just finished their day’s exchanging.

 

If the Stock Market has gone up dramatically that particular day, there is a group of people standing on the overhang that are applauding and smiling and smiling and applauding. They look really happy!

On those days when the Stock Market has fallen like a heavy rock, there is another group of people standing on the overhang and they are applauding and smiling and smiling and applauding. They look really happy!

This does not seem to make sense. Why are they happy when the Stock Market goes up and are just as happy when the Stock Market goes down?

 

On those horrible down days do they not understand that fortunes have just been lost? Do they not see that lives have just been ruined? Do they not comprehend that in the next several hours a number of recently-used-to-be-rich people will be jumping out of tall buildings all over the country?

Maybe that is it! The people applauding on those crash days are the people who rent window space to that day’s jumpers. The used-to-be-rich are desperate to end it all and the Jumpers R Us Industry is always ready to serve. They advertise...

Space is limited. Take a number. Have a donut on us. We promise to move you through as quickly as possible.

Would I kid u?

Smartfella

The Fella Has Been Saying For Years, “It’s Not That I Don’t Trust My Fellow Man. It’s Just That He Keeps Stealing Things From Me”.

Google has built a massive business organizing the world's information but it's having a lot of trouble keeping track of its own bicycles.

 

Google maintains roughly 1,100 free bicycles known as Gbikes (does the name surprise you?) for its employees to get around on its sprawling Googleplex Campus Headquarters in Mountain View, California. (As you read this Blog Posting, remember this underlined part.)

 

However, Google's bikes consistently go missing from its campus. The company estimates that between 100 and 250 a week leave the campus for parts unknown.

 

Among the solutions, the company hired a team of 30 contractors and five designated vans whose only job is to retrieve Gbikes from around the community.

 

Some bikes are simply stolen. Other bikes have shown up throughout the town at local schools, on neighbors' lawns, at the bottom of the town creek, on the roof of O'Malley's Sports Pub and at outside local movie theatre where the Town Mayor left it.

 

One 68 year old unauthorized user who rides the bikes several times a week says, "It's like a friendly gesture. They don't really want us to use it, but it's OK if you do." (The Fella does not want to sound picky but did she just contradict herself?) When a bike is available at the train station she rides it 10 minutes to her house and keeps it overnight behind her gate. The next morning, she rides it back to the station, where she catches the train to her job at Google’s rival Oracle Corp. She was quoted as saying, "I rent it for a day". (Now the Fella is wondering how Google chooses to spend the “rent” proceeds.)

 

Still, Google is trying to slow the losses. Late last year, it started adding GPS trackers to the bikes, which revealed thieves were taking them as far as Mexico, Fairbanks, the snows of New England and the Nevada desert.

 

One of the Google employees charged with retrieving the bikes (a full time job) started carrying a lock to secure bikes he finds around town. When he tries that in front of his family, they reprimand him because they say he’s going to leave somebody stranded.

 

When an elderly person who was spotted with one was asked what he planned to do with it, he said, “Oh, I've got a whole garage full of them”.

 

Send in the Lawyers…Gbikes (up to $300 purchase price, repair, replacement, retrieval) are costing Google a lot of money. The Fella is wondering, if Google decided to scrap the whole idea, would the Thieves, the Town People, the Town Mayor, the People Employed to Retrieve Them, the Mexicans, the Alaskans, the New Englanders and Desert People in Nevada sue Google.

 

Would I kid u?

Smartfella

My Grandpa Was A 7 And 7 Kind Of Guy

Here are 2 stories about my Mother’s Father...

 

Grandpa’s house was divided into several different living sections. Most of his family lived there after they got married. Some lived there for a short period of time and some lived there for many years…

Ø My own family lived there before I was born.

Ø Uncle Leon’s family lived there a long time.

Ø Aunt Josephine’s family lived there twice.

Ø Uncle Guy’s family lived there.

Ø Aunt Carmela lived there before her marriage, during her marriage and after her divorce.

Ø Aunt Sarah’s family lived there.

Ø A couple of cousins lived there.

Ø The Little French Girl lived there. I never knew her name. The family always referred to her as The Little French Girl.

 

Grandpa even lived there.

------------------------

Why was he a 7 and 7 kind of guy? That’s because he raised 7 children by delivering Ice, Coal and Wood Door To Door and he played cards 7 nights a week.

 

My cousin, who lived in Grandpa’s house, told me this story…

Ø One night Grandpa got a Royal Straight Flush.

Ø Another player got a very strong hand that he thought could not be beaten.

Ø They started betting against each other.

Ø Neither would give in.

Ø They kept raising and raising the bet.

Ø It got to be a really big pot (probably about $10).

Ø Eventually they laid down their hands and the garage went crazy!

Ø All these Old Italian Men (I say “old” but they were probably far younger than I am now) got up and started dancing around the table and around the garage.

Ø They eventually took the Royal Straight Flush and nailed it to the garage wall.

Ø Then they nailed the pot to the wall also.

 

The Hand and the Pot stayed there for many years to come and I bet they all smiled every time they looked at what they had nailed there and thought about the Night My Grandpa Got The Big One.

 

Would I kid u?

Smartfella

 

Lagniappe: I contacted a cousin of mine before I published this Blog. He and his brother (also my cousin) grew up in Grandpa’s house. I asked him if there were any inaccuracies in these stories. He replied, One night the card game was raided by the police. Uncle Johnny talked to the police and they went away. They shut down the game for that night but the game was back on the next night. 

 

Lagniappe Another: As I pecked out the above Lagniappe I could not help but wondering if those cops’ 50 pound blocks of ice were not a little light the next morning. 

Is The State Of California In A State Of Open Rebellion?

The Fella used to live in California (actually lived there twice) and I don’t remember it being as radical as it is now because it was not as radical as it is now.

 

The second time I lived there (1990 to 2000) I read a lot of articles in the newspapers about the high number of people from California that were moving out of California. The legislators in California looked at the large number of people who were leaving and said, “We can do better!”

 

Silly me, I thought they meant they could take action to slow the Exodus. I was wrong about what I thought they were thinking. What they meant by saying “We can do better” was that not enough were leaving and they could and should get more to leave.

 

Many of my Dear Readers are Lawyers. Below I have posted three Legality Questions for you Lawyering People to ponder.

 

The people who rule California seem to have moved from Silly and Confused to Open Rebellion against these United States of America...

 

Ø Is this Legal?...Lawmakers from California have proposed a bill that would compel companies making more than $1 million from the recently passed Federal Tax Reform Legislation to turn over half their tax-cut savings to the State of California. 

Ø Is this Legal?...The State Senate President Pro Tem has introduced legislation that would allow Californians to get around the State and Local Tax Cap, which is part of the recently passed Federal Tax Reform Legislation, by making a voluntary donation to a charitable fund created by the state of any amount of owed taxes above the $10,000 cap. That donation — in lieu of taxes — would allow donors to write off the gifts on their Federal Tax Returns.

Ø Is this Legal?...The State Attorney General warned employers in California that they must comply with a New California Law that limits their cooperation with Federal Immigration Officials. He said, if they assist Federal Immigration Officials in any crackdown in the State of California, they will face fines of up to $10,000 from the State of California.

It looks to the Fella as if California is doing its level best to remove “United” from the United States of America.

 

Would I kid u?

Smartfella

 

Lagniappe: Follow The Money. I wonder who or what entity will benefit from the “charitable fund created by the state” in bullet #2 above.

The Missing Victims

The Good Ole USofA has sleep-walked through another Government Shutdown. As is Standing Operating Procedure with all Shutdowns all media outlets are required by law to point out all the “Victims” of the ongoing Shutdown while it is Going On.

 

The word “Victims” above was placed in quotes because it is a bit hazy as to whether they are, in fact, “Victims”. The only real inconvenience they have is they are subjected to a Cash Flow Problem because they are not receiving their pay checks but they will all get their missed pay checks as soon as the Shutdown is done being down.

 

I will now list some of the Cash Flow “Victims” for whom the Media demanded we feel sorry. As you read the list try and think about who is not on the list...

Ø The Military but we are told we should not feel too sorry for them because they are too busy to spend their pay checks anyway.

Ø The Non-Essential Bureaucrats all of whom were told to stay home. I always wonder, if they are Non-Essential, why do they have jobs at all.

Ø NASA Workers and this one was a real dilemma for Congress. A special committee had been set up which was trying to figure out a way to stop the Astronauts up in the International Space Station from working on an emergency Space-Walk Repair that was threatening to kill everyone on board.

 

OK, that’s enough examples of “Victims”. Did you come up with any group of “Victims” that were not on the list? By golly you hit the nail on the head! It’s the Members of Congress. Why did they not make the “Cash Flow Victims” List?

 

Could it be that they were protected by the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990? Allow me to quote wording from the law itself... “An individual with a disability is a person who has a physical or mental impairment.”  (I did the underlining of the word “mental”.)

 

Would I kid u?

Smartfella

Congress Always Waits To The Last Minute To Address Any Thorny Issue...Or Do They?

I am irate about a recent attack on the Congress of the Good Ole USofA. I certainly can be critical of Congress but most of all I am a believer in Truth. When I see unjustified and scurrilous attacks on anyone or anything I can’t help but attempt to use the meager resources of this Blog to publish the Truth.

 

I was starting to doze off in front of my TV the other day when I heard an Uninformed Talking Head say such outlandish things about our Congress that I was jolted into wide awake consciousness. It was at that moment I knew I had to do something to set the record straight.

 

You got a hint about what shocked me so in the Subject Line of this Posting. The Uninformed Head That Talked said, “Congress is notorious for waiting to the last minute to address almost anything but certainly any issue that is controversial.” When I heard this I saw myself as George H. W. Bush and said to myself, “This will not stand!”

 

Allow me to lay out my case...

Ø For the last 30 years there has been a certain member of congress who is universally acknowledged as the most Unpopular Member of Congress for a stand he has repeatedly taken on a very thorny issue.

Ø You all know of whom I speak.

Ø He is Congressman Basel Slug.

Ø He and the unpopular stand he repeatedly takes is the reason that an elaborate alarm system (called the BS Alarm) was installed 6 months into his first term in office.

Ø Basel has one important area of Congress’ Daily Operational Procedure that he is passionate about and which he has repeatedly offered proposals to eliminate.

Ø When word gets out that he is going to submit another Elimination Proposal, the BS Alarm is triggered...
>The alarm bell is sounded throughout the halls of Congress.
>Members spring into instant awareness of what is going on and head toward their desks prepared to vote down Basel’s latest proposal.
>Members who are napping have left strict orders that they are to be awakened immediately.

 

Many attempts have been made to get Basel to give up his crusade but, as of yet, no one has come close to changing his resolve. In an interview on CNN recently Basel drew his red line even redder. The steely look in his eyes convinced every other member of Congress that he will never give up his quest as he said, “I will never give up on my desire to eliminate Congressional Happy Hour. I am closer to my goal than I have ever been. Last month 1 Congressman and 2 Senators over napped and missed the vote. I have been in Congress so long that I do not remember which State sent me here but, one thing I do know for certain, the Folks Back Home (wherever that is) are behind me 100%!”

 

Would I kid u?

Smartfella

Yes, I Am A Millionaire. Yes, I Don’t Need The Food Stamps I Am Collecting. Yes, I Have Every Intention Of Removing Myself From The Food Stamp Rolls But It Will Have To Wait Because I Am Too Busy Counting My Money.

Even before I get started on this one, I just heard 12 of you saying I am making a mountain out of a molehill. No need to waste a Blog Posting on a few millionaires collecting a few coins. My dear readers, this is a Pretty Big Molehill!...

Ø The Internal Revenue Service reported that 2,362 millionaires collected a total of $20,799,000 in unemployment benefits in 2009.

Ø 18 people with an adjusted gross income of $10,000,000 or more received an average of $12,333 in jobless benefits for a total of $222,000.

 

Before we get started, allow me to save you some reading time. Right at the beginning of this Blog Posting’s weighty points of interest you are going to see this term used... “Broad-Based Categorical Eligibility”. I have researched this and am posting what it means for you to read and not understand.

 

I recommend that you do not read what “Broad-Based Categorical Eligibility” means because you will not understand what it means after you read what it means. Just skip down past what it means to the string of 6 asterisks and continue on.

 

BROAD-BASED CATEGORICAL ELIGIBILITY

Broad-based categorical eligibility (BBCE) is a policy in which households may become categorically eligible for SNAP because they qualify for a non-cash Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) or State maintenance of effort (MOE) funded benefit. The chart below shows which States implemented BBCE, the programs that confer BBCE, the asset limit of the TANF/MOE program, and the gross income limit of the TANF/MOE program.  

 

BBCE cannot limit eligibility. Households with seniors or disabled members that are not eligible for the program that confers categorical eligibility may apply for and receive SNAP under regular SNAP rules. Under regular program rules, households with elderly or disabled members do not need to meet the gross income limit, but must meet the net income limit.

******

How Millionaires Collect Food Stamps

Wall Street Journal

January 16, 2018

by Kristina Rasmussen Vice President for Federal Affairs for the Foundation for Government Accountability

Ø You probably assume that food stamps go to poor people only. But this policy, which the U.S. Department of Agriculture instituted during the Clinton administration, allows state food-stamp programs to grant benefits to anyone having moderately low wage income, regardless of net worth. A family with a seven-figure bank account can be eligible for food stamps.

Ø That’s how lottery winners—including actual millionaires—wind up getting food stamps. In 2012 a millionaire from Detroit was revealed to be receiving $200 in monthly food aid despite having won $1 million the year before. “I feel that it’s OK because I have no income,” she said, “and I have bills to pay. I have two houses.”

Ø In 2011 another Michigan resident, was found to be receiving food assistance despite having taken home $850,000 in lottery winnings the previous year. To his credit, he had contacted the state food-stamp bureaucracy to ask if he needed to come off public assistance after getting his newfound wealth. He was told he could stay on it.

Ø To collect food aid you need two things:
1. An income below a multiple of the poverty line, ranging from 130% to 200%.
2. Eligibility for some sort of benefit funded by Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF), the main welfare program for single parents.
(Here is where you will accuse me of making things up)...
There’s “one weird trick” in play here. The state spends TANF dollars to print a welfare brochure. The brochure itself is defined as a “benefit”, which everybody is “eligible” to receive, thereby meeting the USDA requirement for receiving a benefit funded by Temporary Assistance for Needy Families.
(I recommend you read the above One Weird Trick 4 times. That’s how many times I had to read it before I got it. Wow!)

Ø Of the 47 million Americans who received food stamps in 2014, some 4 million got them under “Broad-Based Categorical Eligibility” (that’s the part you skipped above because you were not going to understand anyway)—most because their wealth would have made them ineligible otherwise.

 

From my No and Yes Department...

No, I did not make any of this up.

Yes, it is awful.

 

Would I kid u?

Smartfella

 

Lagniappe... If you think this all came to light yesterday, think again. Read as much as you can stand...

 

October 1, 2010...

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2010-10-01/almost-3-000-millionaires-claimed-jobless-benefits-in-2008-irs-data-show

also

January 6, 2012...

http://www.politifact.com/texas/statements/2012/jan/06/kay-bailey-hutchison/hutchison-says-getting-millionaires-food-stamps-un/

also

Last but certainly not least...

The GOP has found out about this unbelievable situation and they are going to do something about it pronto!

In the above sentence the word “pronto” (without delay) is misleading.

The article that prompted me to write the bolded sentence above was written on December 12, 2011 and this awful issue is still with us.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/12/13/us/gop-bill-would-block-food-stamps-and-jobless-pay-for-millionaires.html

The Fella Saw It Coming

For years the Smartfella has been warning all of you within warning distance of the possible dangers of the Smartphone. Now even the people who became filthy rich because of the Smartphone are beginning to see that it may not be the smartest thing they have ever sent down the pike.

There is no doubt that the Smartphone itself is a wonderful and amazing technological advancement, however, the Social Consequences of the Smartphone have started to raise their ugly heads and there is nothing pretty about their ugly heads…

Ø Even Apple Executives are worried about their iPhone’s tendency to monopolize attention.

Ø Facebook’s biggies are concerned about social media’s tendency to consume more and more user time.

Ø The situation is getting so bad that the American Psychiatric Association has come up with a name for what’s happening to our children. It’s called Internet Gaming Disorder.

From the early days of Digital Everything, the Fella has preached (but no one was listening to me) that an understanding of math is necessary to know if what a Calculator tells you is the answer is the answer. If you are solving for 2+2 and your answer comes out to be 255, you need to know that is a wrong answer. (You hit some wrong keys while inputting you input.)

A recent Wall Street Journal article tells me that the Wall Street Journal was worried…For homework, point an iPhone Camera at an Algebra Problem and PhotoMath solves it.

How can children learn to solve problems in an age when Smartphones provide instant answers? Their once knowledge seeking minds are “thinking” to their selves, “No need to understand the answer. It has to be right because my device says it’s right. The answer is the answer.”

Some pretty tech-savvy and influential organizations are urging Apple to develop new software tools that would help parents control and limit phone use more easily and are recommending that Apple dedicate money and attention towards studying the impact of overuse on mental health. (Wow! Mental Health! This is getting serious.)

------------------------

Of course you all remember my blog posting about the witness in court being unable to answer questions because he no longer talked but could only communicate by Texting…Or do u? That was silly of me…Or was it?

Actually that was just the tip of a Not-So-Silly Iceberg...

Ø The family of 6 sitting in a restaurant and every one of them working on their iPhone.

Ø The many videos on the Internet of people walking and looking down at their phones and bumping into things and actually falling to the ground then getting up and walk off while looking down at their phones.

Ø Again on the Internet, the famous video of the lady at a mall walking into the water fountain.

Ø The mother and child in a restaurant where she is on her phone and the child is playing with the salt and pepper shakers. (It’s called Modern Day Bonding.)

Ø The case of the 16-year-old Eagle Scout who found it hard to break away from online videogames (even at 3am) who told his mother he thought he was addicted. He tried to wean himself off the games by pledging to give them up till after final exams. While weaning, his mother observed that he was having trouble sleeping and he could not sit still.

Ø Psychologists say social media creates anxiety among children when they are away from their phones—what they call “fear of missing out,” whether on social plans, conversations or damaging gossip teens worry could be about themselves.

Ø About half the teens in a survey of 620 families in 2016 said they felt addicted to their phones. Nearly 80% said they checked them more than hourly and felt the need to respond instantly to messages.

Ø About 16% of the nation’s high-school students were bullied online in 2015, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Children who are cyber bullied are three times more likely to contemplate suicide, according to a study in JAMA Pediatrics in 2014.

Ø The drivers at stop lights who do not get moving when the light changes until the car behind blows its horn. The driver of the car behind blows his horn because he is anxious to get to the phone store because he lost his Smartphone and he is on the way to get a new one.

Ø The Big Game is over. The 17 Gathered Game Watchers have just seen their team win the big game and all but 5 of them are jumping around with excitement. In the midst of all the excitement are 5 Smartphone users pecking at their devices as attentively as they would be pecking at them in the back of their chemistry class.

Ø The people who come down from the mountain top with 27 Selfies being asked, “Did you see that beautiful sunset?” and responding, “What sunset?”

Ø I also blogged about the fact that Dr. Jonas Salk would never have invented the Polio Vaccine if he were being constantly interrupted by text messages, emails, facebookers facebooking him, reminders, alarms and notifications about any of the these interruptions.

Ø The Tech Industry Executive was asked by his son, “What does God look like?” The Tech Daddy said, “No one knows?” The Tech Son replied without irony, “Why don’t we just go on God’s Facebook page and see?”

Don’t think that, now that the problem has reared its ugly head, everyone is going to step up and address this ugly problem. Some say it the parent’s responsibility to fix the ugly. Parents say it is Apple’s responsibility. Apple is defending its parental controls and other protections for children who use its iPhones, saying that it started offering some of them as early as 2008. In response parents are saying, “Oh yea! You are trying to shirk your responsibility. Well here is what I have to say about what you just said! … Oh, wait a minute. … I’ll get back to you. I just got a text message”.

Would I kid u?

Smartfella

Lagniappe: I’m a realist. I know that only 17.4% of you will read any further because 82.6% of you are tired of me for today but am pasting “I Was Gonna Find A Cure For All Forms Of Cancer” (a blog of mine from 2010) because I know that 17.4% will get a real chuckle…

I Was Going Find A Cure For All Forms Of Cancer

The smartest man who ever lived in the entire history of humankind on the face of the earth is about to publish an open email to every email address in the entire world. Since us knowledge seekers often seek the counsel of other knowledge seekers he first sent the email to me for proofreading and spell checking. He was so grateful to me for the misspelled word I found he gave me permission to publish his email, in its entirety, in Foolishness…Or Is It?

I bet you are excited! Here is the email…

“At a very young age I came to the realization that I was, without a doubt, the smartest man who ever lived in the entire history of humankind on the face of the earth. I then quickly determined that what I wanted to do with my life was find a cure for all forms of cancer. I took out my calculator and quickly ascertained that it would take 7.45 years of dedicated hard work and research to accomplish this lofty goal. (I may have been a few months off in my 7.45 years estimate above but it was very close to the actual number because you should remember I am the smartest man who ever lived in the entire history of humankind on the face of the earth.)

I was three weeks into my Herculean Cancer Cure Task and was making great progress when I discovered Social Networking (My Space, Twitter, Face Book, etc.). I was instantly captivated. I could not think of doing anything else with my life other than Social Networking.

During my Social Networking endeavors I am proud to say that I have accomplished many Great Social Feats. Space limitations (and an irresistible compulsion to get back to my morning Twittering regimen) prohibit me from bragging too much about my Social Accomplishments but here are a few…

Ø August 2, 1998 … I am sitting on my couch thinking about getting up to make myself a peanut and jelly sandwich.

Ø June 27, 2005 … I mailed the Social World the first in a series of pictures of myself eating a cinnamon and raisin bagel.

Ø January 8, 2007 … I laughed so hard that I had tears in my eyes after getting a picture of Alfonzo (an accountant from Bulgaria whom I have never met but am proud to say is one of my 21,376,412 Face Book Followers) sticking his tongue out at the camera while wearing a red clown nose ball on his left index finger.

I cannot tell you how Socially Fulfilling my life has been to this point. Each day is another pleasure to me. There are times I start to feel a twinge of regret for all those millions of people all over the Earth I could have saved from the debilitating effects, pain, suffering, financial ruin and death that cancer caused them but in life one must make choices and I chose Social Networking.

If any of you reading this email wants to send me your address, I will be more than glad to add you as a follower of mine on my Twitter Account. Nothing could make me happier than to have you as a fellow Twit.”