The Kind-Hearted Smart Aleck

Well, I finished the manuscript for my political satire(s), the covers and should be receiving a proof copy in the next few days. Hopefully by this time next week, it'll be available for purchase. I'll provide details in the coming days...

It feels like I haven't blogged in weeks (even though it's just been a few days). I do have a reason for that - I've been hard at work on my sixth book. I finished fact-checking and getting all 106 of my footnotes placed last night. I'll now be proofreading and editing it over the next day or two, then work on the cover and hopefully within the next week, I'll be completely finished with it and ready to spread the good word of it being available within a couple weeks. In any case, I'll try to blog some more before too terribly long, but they will be few and far between until I can get this book completely finished and ready for publication. I'm pretty excited. It's kind of a short read (cheaper in price then), but with the election just 5 months away and my buddy's political radio talk show only a couple months away, I felt the need to work on, finish and get this book out as soon as I possibly could. For politically-minded individuals (especially th...

Marilyn Milfus: "Billy, why did you take that?" Billy Milfus: "Because it's mine! All mine!" Marilyn: "No it's not. It's your father's. Now give it back." Billy: "Make me!" Marilyn: "Am I going to have to count to 10? 1...2...3...4...5...6..." Billy: ::hands over the gun:: Marilyn: "There...that's better. Now apologize to Jerome for threatening to shoot him." Billy: "No! Never!" Marilyn: "That's it! Go to your room! When your father gets here..." Billy: "No! It wasn't my fault! It was my friend, Jess!" Marilyn: "Where's Jess at now?" Billy: "He's right here. Can't you see him?" Marilyn: "No... Is this that invisible friend of yours again, Billy?" Billy: "He's not invisible. I can see him. He's the most powerful person in the world and forced me to point the gun at Jerome and say some thing...

In recent days, more and more Republican talking heads have come out in saying that Republican presidential candidate, Mitt Romney, should attack Barack Obama with regard to his ties to Reverend Jeremiah Wright. Personally, I feel this would be a mistake by the Romney campaign. Yes, I will be voting for the incumbent president, but I'm not saying this because I think attacking him on Wright will hinder his chances any. ...quite the contrary actually... Why do I feel this way? First off, Jeremiah Wright is old news. The far-right attempted to attack Obama in this way four years ago and guess what? It didn't work. Last I heard, Obama is the president. So it's not going to help them any to give this worn strategy another try. Secondly and probably most importantly, if Romney goes after Obama due to Reverend Wright, this puts his being a Mormon in play as well. I've said time and time again I don't think that people should factor Romney's religious beliefs into ...

There are two issues which have dominated the hard-core Christian right's thoughts in recent years - abortion and homosexuality. This has played a very large role in their refusing to vote for Democratic candidates and instead opting to support the pro-life, anti-gay marriage Republican candidates. The two phrases which have been repeated by them more than "Go team!" by a group of high school cheerleaders suffering from a combination Alzheimer's and Tourette's Syndrome are "They're baby-killers" and "homosexuality is an abomination!" Yeah, because if a person is pro-choice and supports a woman's right to choose what she does with her body post-pregnancy, then obviously this person supports the killing of babies. It's just like if they support people's right to eat what they please (within reason, that is...), they're obviously animal-killers. The reason many of them seem so insistent homosexuality being an abomination is ...

There's a war on women being waged in this country by the Republican Party, so say the Democrats anyway. Republicans tend to disagree. So, where's the evidence to support such a claim? Oh, let's see here... Congressional Republicans have proposed bills that would do the following: Re-define rape, require "invasive" vaginal ultrasounds before abortions, cut off Planned-Parenthood funding, make it legal for any employer to deny reproductive health coverage to women on moral grounds, restrict health services to low-income women, etc. In 2011, the Center For Reproductive Rights "monitored over 600 anti-choice bills that would undermine women's autonomy and fundamental rights to health and well-being" at the state level. The report went on to state, "The Center is hard-pressed to cite a time in the last twenty years that can rival -- in volume and in severity -- this most recent period of anti-woman, anti-child, and anti-health legislative actio...

I remember about four years ago, I looked at myself in the mirror after getting out of the shower and didn't like what I saw. On that day, I told myself I'd change my habits, lose some weight and one day be proud of what I saw in that same mirror. I did that. I lost 20-25 lbs. before becoming seriously ill for almost two years and being unable to work out at all. Fortunately, I stuck to my new lifestyle as far as eating habits and the like went, so I only gained about 5 lbs. in those two years. When I magically got to feeling better in late December of 2010, I found a motivation I had never felt before and went on to lose another 20-25 lbs. for a total weight loss of 45 lbs. It even got to the point where a few people said I was too thin. Then in July of last year, I underwent gall bladder surgery and it took a long time to get to the point where I was comfortable working out again. Unfortunately, I fell back into some of my bad habits during this time and wound up gaining 29 l...

Former Atlanta Braves outfielder, Andruw Jones, is typically looked at by baseball analysts as a potential Hall-of-Famer, but likely on the outside looking in when all is said and done. For his career, Jones has compiled the following stats: 1,184 runs scored, 1,899 hits, 377 doubles, 36 triples, 424 home runs, 1,263 RBI's, 152 stolen bases, a .256 batting average, .338 OBP, .488 slugging percentage and .826 OPS. Those numbers in and of themselves I don't think warrant him an induction. However, he's also won 10 Gold Gloves while playing centerfield. Only three other players have compiled 400+ home runs and 10+ Gold Gloves. Those players? Willie Mays, Ken Griffey Jr. and Mike Schmidt. That's a pretty special group right there. Mays was inducted in 1979. Schmidt was inducted in 1995. Griffey will surely be inducted when he becomes eligible. So if and when all three of those great players are inducted into the Hall of Fame, why should Andruw be left out? Former St. Loui...

That's right. If Barack Obama is re-elected this year, the end will be near. This is, more or less, what many far-right Republicans have been proclaiming. Humorously enough, these same individuals were making similar declarations in the run up to the 2008 election. So the world hasn't ended in Obama's first 3.5 years in office and so these doomsday predictors are 0 for 1 on that front. What's to say they won't be right this time and finish an impressive 1 for 2? Sure, in school, that'd be a failing grade, but when it comes to doomsday predictions, it's not half bad. One such spokesperson is NRA Executive Vice President Wayne LaPierre. What has he said would occur if Obama is re-elected? Read for yourself... "All that first term, lip service to gun owners is just part of a massive Obama conspiracy to deceive voters and hide his true intentions to destroy the Second Amendment during his second term." He added, "We see the president's ...

How I love political chain e-mails. You know, the e-mails that are sent to you and 25-50 others from an uncle of yours named Bucky, which portrays a wild conspiracy of a politician being a martian from Neptune as being factual. I especially love such e-mails when they center around Barack Obama. All I can say is thank the Internet gods for Snopes.com. Snopes fact-checks these very e-mails and allows people such as myself to check on the e-mail's validity and report back to the sender of the e-mail and all its recipients. No, I haven't made too many friends doing this, but I just hope I've been able to positively influence at least one person to fact-check these darn things before sending it to half of the country and Neptune. Of course, I have run into a couple occasions where the sender of the chain e-mail has, upon receiving my fact-checking response, told me that Snopes is liberally-biased. Yeah, that again. I swear, if the source doesn't include Fox News, Rush Limba...

ABR - Anybody But Romney No, I'm not speaking from the perspective of a liberal democrat not wanting the favorite in the republican primary race (or any republican for that matter) to win the 2012 presidential election. No, I'm speaking from the perspective of a very conservative republican not wanting Romney to be the party's nominee. People can deny it all they'd like, but throughout most of the republican primary, there seemed to always be an anti-Romney candidate coming out of nowhere to challenge the favorite to represent the party in the coming election. Why? Far-right conservatives don't much care for Willard Mittopia Romney. He's a Mormon. He passed something resembling Obamacare while Governor of Massachusetts (his plan actually provided the blueprint for Obamacare). He has tended to be fairly moderate on social issues (until he ran for president that is). Yeah, to the far-right, he's about as liberal as they come, well, outside of any democra...

It can be quite the task trying to engage in political dialogue with a hard-core evangelical conservative Republican and attempt to get them to at least see your more moderate or liberal viewpoint and perhaps even alter their mind ever so slightly on one topic or another. In fact, I believe I've had more success attempting to fly off roofs using only my arms to aid me from plummeting to the ground. My doctors may disagree with me on that front, however (front, back, sides, etc.). After experiencing such conversations before, having little success and pondering about the perfect scenario of how the practice could be perfected, I've come up with a series of tips on how to win over the mind and heart (figuratively, of course) of a die-hard conservative and welcome them to the dark side (aka liberalism). Please note that these tips are for the most religious and conservative of Republicans. The more moderate, liberal, independent-thinking Republicans are generally reasonable peo...

First, here is the letter to which I will be responding: "President Barack Obama has done a 180-degree turn from his view in 2008 that marriage should be between a man and a woman. I find it curious that he says he wants states to legislate this matter for themselves, but when it comes to other issues, such as Arizona’s right to protect its borders, he is against that autonomy. The real question is: “What’s the big deal about gay marriage?” I mean, it doesn’t really hurt anyone, right? Wrong. It hurts those who practice the behavior. Studies show emotional and psychological harm not only to the partners, but also to those close to them, including their adopted children. Health risks abound with the AIDS epidemic. Isn’t it odd that a monogamous, heterosexual couple, celibate until marriage, have zero chance of contracting AIDS (barring intravenous drug use)? Maybe God, who claims infinite wisdom, really knows what he is talking about. There also are financial repercu...

I really wonder where some people are getting reports that President Obama has not given credit to the Navy SEALS for the killing of Osama bin Laden.  In the president's speech where he announced the killing of bin Laden, which he gave on May 2nd of 2011, he said the following: "...thanks to the tireless and heroic work of our military and our counterterrorism professionals, we've made great strides [in fighting against al Qaeda to protect our citizens, oru friends and our allies]." "A small team of Americans carried out the operation with extraordinary courage and capability...." "We give thanks for the men who carried out this operation, for they exemplify the professionalism, patriotism, and unparalleled courage of those who serve our country..." In a speech he gave less than a week later (May 6th), in Fort Campbell, Kentucky, Obama said the following: "Thanks to the incredible skill and courage of countless indi...

First, let me share with you the letter-to-the-editor to which I'll be responding: "It was fascinating to see France elect Francois Hollande (Associated Press article, Monday Dispatch). He is an avid socialist who has used class warfare to sweep into office. Hollande is going to tax the rich at 75 percent to cure the economic woes of France. Of course, it won't work. Compare this with President Barack Obama, who is pitting the rich against the poor and wants to tax the rich to fix the country's problems. Experts know that even by taxing America’s rich at a much higher rate, it would take 250 years to pay off this year's deficit. This is nothing but politics; it’s not a solution. Socialism does not work. But, of course, Obama is not a socialist. Right? KAREN HANAS Pickerington" http://www.dispatch.com/content/stories/editorials/2012/05/13/socialism-doesnt-work-there-here.html Here is my response: This letter-to-the-editor is in response t...

I don't have the numbers to back this up, but I have to believe that 99.6781284% of people past the age of 6 years, 4 months, 13 days and 27 minutes have changed their mind at least once (margin of error +/- .0000000394861%). I can't remember the first time I did such a thing. Perhaps it was when I wanted to play chess, but then changed my mind and wanted to play strip poker. This was when I was a week old and still in the hospital. What can I say? I've always liked nurses (no, not just the male ones). So yes, even I have changed my mind a time or forty-six. Most of these changes occurred during my teenage and young adult years, when other "parts" of me were changing as well. I still love to pull a Johnny 5 from "Short Circuit" and feed my brain input on a very regular basis, which makes it possible that my mind can change again. However, with so much more information lodged inside my noggin than when I was in middle and high school, it'll be a muc...