The Kind-Hearted Smart Aleck

Getting a little fed up with professional fact-checkers researching their claims and telling the world they're wrong, all remaining Republican presidential candidates decided to get together and release the following  New York Times op-ed piece, entitled, "A Fact Is Like Your Opinion, Man": "We're all getting a little tired of fact-checkers listening to and researching what we have to say, and then telling the world we're wrong - you know, doing their jobs. What these fact-checkers fail to realize, though, is that a fact is like your opinion, man. For example, to us, it's a fact that 240% of Planned Parenthood's services are geared toward abortion. It's a fact that all Muslim cab drivers are likely terrorists and saying such a thing is in no way racist. Not only that, but it's a fact that a virgin woman gave birth to the perfect person, who died on a wooden cross for our sins, and rose again three days later, even though we've never pers

Well, I'm heading out of town for the holiday to spend it with family. I hope all of my readers have a very fun and safe Thanksgiving weekend! I'll be back Saturday or Sunday and hopefully writing again by Sunday or Monday. Travel safe, eat well, drink plenty, and when a crazy conspiracy-prone drunk uncle attempts to talk politics with you, be sure to grab the list of exit-excuses you have in your pocket and choose wisely!

I'm slightly bothered by this whole Johnny Manziel situation, but not like most ESPN commentators it seems. While Manziel was in rehab over the summer and appears to have a history of alcohol problems, the guy is 22-years-old, fresh out of college, so it's not too terribly crazy to think such an individual would like to enjoy his weekend off partying. Yet after this occurred, he was demoted to 3rd string by Cleveland Browns head coach Mike Pettine. Where was the outcry and demotion after he allegedly hit his girlfriend? Am I necessarily criticizing the Browns for demoting Manziel? No. But why in the world did this not occur after the alleged domestic violence incident and instead occurred after TMZ showcased videos of Manziel partying? It boggles my mind to think the NFL and Cleveland Browns would come down harder on this 22-year-old kid (kid in my mind) for drinking alcohol during the team's bye week than of hitting his girlfriend. I do hope the young Browns quarterback ge

Receiving a great deal of criticism for retweeting a white supremacist's false murder statistics on his Twitter account, even from conservative Fox News host Bill O'Reilly, GOP presidential frontrunner Donald Trump released this video to the press to try and silence his critics on the matter: "Look people, so called fact-checkers have their sources and I have my sources. They have their guys and I have my guys. And let me tell you something, America, I've got the best sources, the very best guys. So I'm a little tired of the liberal media fact-checking things I've already fact-checked and know to be true. I've got the best memory in the world, so when this one guy, I forget his name, but when he comes to me with some numbers, I'm going to believe him, because I know it to be true. I know the liberal media wants names to my guys, to my sources, but unless your name is Donald Trump, what's in a name really? I mean, seriously? I'll just say I hav

Due to Thanksgiving this week, I'm a bit strapped for time, so I won't be adding any analysis to the rankings this time around. In having said that, here are my rankings: 1) Carolina Panthers (10-0) 2) New England Patriots (10-0) 3) Arizona Cardinals (8-2) 4) Cincinnati Bengals (8-2) 5) Denver Broncos (8-2) 6) Green Bay Packers (7-3) 7) Minnesota Vikings (7-3) 8) Pittsburgh Steelers (6-4) 9) Seattle Seahawks (5-5) 10) Atlanta Falcons (6-4) 11) Kansas City Chiefs (5-5) 12) Buffalo Bills (5-5) 13) New York Giants (5-5) 14) New York Jets (5-5) 15) Tampa Bay Buccaneers (5-5) 16) Indianapolis Colts (5-5) 17) Houston Texans (5-5) 18) St. Louis Rams (4-6) 19) Oakland Raiders (4-6) 20) Washington Redskins (4-6) 21) Philadelphia Eagles (4-6) 22) Chicago Bears (4-6) 23) Miami Dolphins (4-6) 24) New Orleans Saints (4-6) 25) Baltimore Ravens (3-7) 26) Dallas Cowboys (3-7) 27) Detroit Lions (3-7) 28) Jacksonville Jaguars (4-6) 29) Sa

Thursday Game: Philadelphia at Detroit Prediction: Philadelphia - Philadelphia looked awful in their home loss to Tampa Bay on Sunday. Detroit, meanwhile, managed to win their second straight. While the Lions offense continues failing to impress, their defense has stepped it up since its embarrassing showing in London against the Kansas City Chiefs. I don't think the Lions are as bad as their record would suggest, but the Eagles have a lot more to play for in this game, will likely be inspired to place their horrendous showing against the Bucs behind them, and I like for them to bounce back in a big way in this Thanksgiving Day game. I'll take the Eagles by 4. Result: Detroit 45 Philadelphia 14 Record: 0-1 Game: Carolina at Dallas Prediction: Carolina - Dallas may have snapped their 7-game losing streak on Sunday against the Miami Dolphins, but Tony Romo did appear a bit rusty, and I have a difficult time seeing him shake that rust against this Carolina Panthers d

In Week 11 of the NFL season, I learned... - ...it's more fun watching paint dry while completely sober than watching Tennessee and Jacksonville play something resembling football. - ...the last thing Chip Kelly plans on doing at the moment is singing "Don't Worry, Be Happy" to Philadelphia Eagles fans. - ...ESPN analysts apparently don't need to take Cialis while talking about Brock Osweiler leading the Denver Broncos to an unprecedented 17 points. - ...the St. Louis Rams and Philadelphia Eagles are asking for a do-over when they swapped quarterbacks preseason; the New York Jets, however, are not asking for Mark Sanchez back. - ...the media was probably quite tempted to start yelling at Washington Redskins quarterback Kirk Cousins following his team's dismal performance against the Carolina Panthers, "You like that?!? You like that?!?" - ...it'll only be a matter of time before a referee says, "Breathing in the direction of the

Here's the URL to my Facebook business page. I update it fairly regularly, but still haven't put forth a great deal of effort yet in researching matters and attempting to make the most out of it. In any case, it can be perused here: http://www.facebook.com/AuthorCraigRozniecki?ref=hl Up next is my Twitter page. I'm still not 100% certain what I'm doing on there yet, but feel I'm gradually getting the hang of it and am up to 30,475 followers. I update it daily with many of my own tweets, but also by retweeting some others'. It can be found here: https://twitter.com/CraigRozniecki Lastly, here's my Tumblr page, which I've neglected quite a bit recently, but if you're at all curious, you can find it at the following link: http://www.tumblr.com/blog/rozzy81

For new readers (and regular ones, I suppose), here's some information pertaining to my books. All twelve of my books can be purchased in paperback form at the following site (and others): http://www.lulu.com/shop/search.ep?type=&keyWords=craig+rozniecki&x=7&y=5&sitesearch=lulu.com&q= The ten books I've written and released in the past 4 years (yes, I've been on a roll) can be purchased for much cheaper in Kindle form at the following link: http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_ss_i_0_22?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=craig%20rozniecki%20kindle&sprefix=craig+rozniecki+kindle%2Caps%2C228&rh=i%3Aaps%2Ck%3Acraig%20rozniecki%20kindle

On July 28th, I posted a blog entitled, "An updated Obama chain email continues to be filled with BS (http://thekind-heartedsmartaleck.blogspot.com/2015/07/an-updated-obama-chain-email-continues.html). In this chain email, which has been continually updated throughout Obama's tenure, 37 claims were made. Thanks to a fact-checker by the name of Matthew ( http://barnson.org/node/1880), here are how things broke down:  True: 4 (10.8%) False 27 (73.0%) Mixed: 3 (8.1%) No grade: 3 (8.1%) In other words, anywhere from 30 to 33 of the 37 claims were at least partially false (81.1% to 89.2%).  Just this afternoon, I received a response to this post, which said something along the lines of this:  "I think you're at least half wrong. What qualifies you to fact check anyway? I know #36 is true. This is probably something the White House came up with." It honestly doesn't take much to fact-check, dear reader. If someone tells me that Nairobi is the capita

Earlier today, I read an article by Kyle Smith of the New York Post , entitled, "Colbert's 'Late Show' has become propaganda for Democrats." Yes, this is the same conservatively-slanted Rupert-Murdoch owned New York Post , which has long been propaganda for Republicans. Don't believe me? Here are the titles of a few other recent Kyle Smith writings: - "For the love of God, de Blasio, start working and stop screwing around!" - "A Democratic politician goes to jail, now advocates for prison reform" - "How Ahmed's clock became a false, convenient tale of racism" - "Pope Francis should take a vow of silence on capitalism" - "Only Trump understands how angry the average American is" - "Dear Michael Moore, America doesn't want socialism" - "Hillary's desperate pitch: Did I mention I'm a woman?" - "Wealth inequality isn't a 'crisis' - and the vot

I'd say roughly once a month I read an article which is titled something along the lines of, "What not to say to someone who is transgender" or "Ten questions you should never ask a transgender person." Now, granted, some of these comments and questions are so insensitive and ridiculous, even Ben Carson opened his eyes for a change to roll them. However, some questions which were mentioned came across as genuine and like the person simply wanted to learn more about the other and to understand them better. So, where do we draw the line between asking a transgender individual a question to learn more about him or her and yet do so in a way that doesn't leave them feeling uncomfortable? Is there a way? As my long-time readers should know by now, I'm rather progressive on most issues. The large circle of people I regularly associate with are quite diverse in terms of: Gender (well, duh), age, race, religious beliefs, political affiliation, orientation, etc

In light of the recent barrage of college protests regarding discrimination, multiple columnists, both left- and right-of-center, have made it known that they believe far left-wing liberals are going too far with their alleged politically-correct sensitivities. Yesterday, I commented on an article from the right-leaning Peter Scheer, where he seemed to believe the Black Lives Matter movement and college protesters fighting discrimination are thin-skinned, will be rudely awakened once they enter the workforce, and need to stop whining. My response to him was, certain demographics have sat quietly on the sidelines long enough while they attempted to wait for authority figures to actually grant them the equalities supposedly afforded to us all courtesy of the U.S. Constitution. So this reported "whining" can be defined as the before-mentioned demographics finally standing up against discrimination and fighting for equal rights and respect in the eyes of the law and their sup

Tinder CEO Sean Rad has come under fire for a recent interview he had with UK's Evening Standard . Here are just a few of the things Rad said in the interview: - "[This woman is] someone really, really famous [who] has been begging me for sex and I've been like, no." - "[I'm addicted to Tinder]. Every other week I fall in love with a new girl." - "[Tinder isn't responsible for the so-called hook-up culture]. Feminism has led to it because now women are more independent and pursuing their desires. And that leads to both parties being more sexually active. It's not because of Tinder." ...and here is my favorite quote of them all: - "Apparently there's a term for someone who gets turned on by intellectual stuff. You know, just talking. What's the word? ... I want to say 'sodomy'?'" Actually the term for that, Mr. Rad, is sapiosexuality. Sodomy is defined as, "Anal or oral copulation with a mem

A recent New York Times report let it be known that Ben Carson's foreign policy adviser, Duane Clarridge, thinks the GOP candidate knows less about foreign policy than an elephant knows about frequent-flier miles. In hilarious fashion, Mr. Carson attempted to refute Clarridge's claims by saying the following in an interview with PBS NewsHour on Tuesday night: "[Calling Mr. Clarridge an adviser] would be a great stretch. He is a person who has come in on a couple of our sessions to offer his opinions about what was going on..." So Duane Clarridge was offering Ben Carson some words of advice. In other words, he was an an adviser to the GOP hopeful. Alex Trebek: "...and the answer is, 'One who gives advice.' Yes, Mr. Carson..." Ben Carson: "What is a person who has come in on a couple of our sessions to offer his opinions about what was going on?" Trebek: "Yes, and what is the word we're looking for here?" Carson:

As I did at this point in the season last year, I thought I'd release my first set of NFL Power Rankings. 1) New England Patriots (9-0): As one of the two remaining undefeated teams in the league, it's difficult to argue with the Patriots being the best team in the NFL at the moment. With their recent rash of injuries, however, they're anything but a guarantee to go to another Super Bowl. 2) Carolina Panthers (9-0): Here's the only other undefeated team in the league. For whatever reason, the Panthers still aren't garnering a great deal of respect from ESPN talking heads. They're anything but a lock for the Super Bowl, but being two games ahead of Arizona and Minnesota for home-field advantage, they'll have to choke down the stretch to not attain that great advantage come playoff time. 3) Cincinnati Bengals (8-1): If the Monday Night game had never happened, I would have liked ranked the Bengals atop this list. However, in falling 10-6 at home to th

I stumbled across an article written by First Amendment Coalition Executive Director, Peter Scheer, today, and felt the need to respond. The article's entitled, "College Students Need Lessons in Tolerance and Free Speech." I'll share the opening two and final full paragraphs of the article, because I think they provide a clear picture of what Mr. Scheer is trying to express. "There's nothing like the massacre of 129 Parisian civilians at the hands of jihadi sociopaths, utterly convinced that their barbarism manifests the will of God, to provide some perspective on the recent whining of students at a number of America's most elite colleges and universities. For the past few weeks, students across the country -- at Yale University in Connecticut, Amherst College in Massachusetts, New Hampshire's Dartmouth College, the University of Missouri, and southern California colleges Claremont McKenna and Occidental -- have been testing the limits of academ

Conservatives seem to have a twisted idea of what constitutes "freedom of religion." While we are granted this freedom in the U.S. Constitution, many Republican politicians haven't been satisfied with that due to the progression of LGBTs rights over the past few years. Even though the concept of separation of church and state is also mentioned in the Constitution, many GOPers seem to ignore this, and instead take their "freedom of religion" to be absolute, at work or at home, used to ensure their freedoms or to ironically deny others of their own. According to these far-right individuals, if they're forced to serve LGBTs at their workplace, that's discrimination toward them and their beliefs, even though if they refused service to the LGBT community, that would in fact be the epitome of discrimination. If that rationale isn't demented enough as it is, in light of the recent terrorist attacks in Paris, some freedom-of-religion-loving Republicans, in

Allow me to introduce all my readers to Texas state Representative Tony Dale. He's a Republican currently serving his first term in office, was given a 92% grade by the National Rifle Association, and just recently sent a two-page letter to U.S. Senator John Cornyn (R-TX), making it fully known he adamantly opposed allowing any Syrian refugees in the state. Why? I'll allow the anti-gun-control Texas state representative to tell you himself: "While the Paris attackers used suicide vests and grenades it is clear that firearms also killed a large number of innocent victims. Can you imagine a scenario were [sic] a refugees [sic] is admitted to the United States, is provided federal cash payments and other assistance, obtains a drivers license and purchases a weapon and executes an attack?" That's right, ladies and gentlemen; Tony Dale just admitted gun laws are too lax in his state. Since his recent statement contradicts pretty much every talking point he and the

After receiving heated criticism due to his foreign policy adviser, Duane Clarridge, claiming the former neurosurgeon knew less about the Middle East than a puppy knows about calculus, Ben Carson outlined a new strategy in an attempt to quiet his detractors. When I caught up with the GOP candidate and asked for him to elaborate on the matter, this is what he said: "The Middle East is a very dangerous part of this country and we need to do everything in our power to remove its belt buckle, stab it several times, and make sure it does no further harm on our people. In order to do this and bring peace within the region, we need to go after two main groups: the radical Quakers and the Amish extremists. These terrorists reside all throughout the Middle East portion of the United States, from Pennsylvania to somewhere south of there, like maybe Maine or Hawaii. Once we root out the masterminds of these two terrorist groups, you know, the head Quakers and Amishites, we can again feel

Ben Carson may be brilliant when it comes to neurosurgery, but as one of the two GOP front-runners recently said himself, the man appears to suffer from a "suspension of intellect" when it comes to many other topics. One of his very own advisers brought this further to light in a recent New York Times article. When speaking to reporter Trip Gabriel, Carson's foreign policy adviser, Duane Clarridge, said this with regard to one of the GOP candidate's shortcomings: "Nobody has been able to sit down with him and have him get one iota of intelligent information about the Middle East." That's right; the man polling either first or second in most GOP polls, potentially representing the party seemingly obsessed with being at permanent war with "radical Muslims" in the Middle East, apparently knows less about that region of the world than a newborn knows about quantum physics. GOP: "Our #1 priority shouldn't be creating jobs, nor with

I always found it ironically humorous how most members of the Republican Party countered the Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement by saying, "All Lives Matter." In light of their rejection of Syrian refugees, this is increasingly so today. Here are the two groups' bumper-sticker-worthy slogans regarding the subject and how they should be interpreted: BLM's Slogan "Black Lives Matter!" Interpretation BLM: "Like everyone else's lives, Black Lives Matter too!" GOP's Slogan "All Lives Matter!" Interpretation "All Lives Matter! Well, except for: Women, gays, lesbians, bisexuals, trannies, Muslims, blacks, Latinos, low- and middle-classes, Syrian refugees, agnostics, atheists, etc."

I'm sure a decent percentage of people have had another tell them, "You know who you remind me of?" before uttering a celebrity's name. However, this happens to me on an almost weekly basis, and while I hear one celebrity's name more frequently than others, I think I've been told I resemble twelve different celebrities over the course of the past year or so, and am starting to think I should change my name middle name from Matthew to Look-alike. According to others, who do I apparently resemble? Oh, just the following: 1) Tom Hanks 2) Matt Bomer 3) Jeff Duhamel 4) Jon Hamm 5) Bill Hader 6) Topher Grace 7) Joshua Jackson 8) Gavin Rossdale 9) Arnold Schwarzenegger 10) Rob Lowe 11) Ewan McGregor 12) Cary Grant Update: I was just told I resemble two other actors: 13) Mark Valley 14) Patrick Wilson Update: Here's another... 15) Christopher Reeve (as Superman) Update: ...and another... 16) Peter Bergman Update: ...and ye

Thursday Game: Tennessee at Jacksonville Prediction: Tennessee - I consider this to be a toss-up game. The only reason I'm leaning ever so slightly in the favor of the Titans is that Marcus Mariota has been much less prone to making mistakes than Blake Bortles, who seems to force one to two interceptions each and every game. Given that, I'll take the Titans by 3. Result: Jacksonville 19 Tennessee 13 Record: 0-1 Sunday Game: Oakland at Detroit Prediction: Oakland - No, I'm not really sure what I saw at Lambeau Field on Sunday afternoon either. For the first time in 25 years, the Detroit Lions beat the Packers in Green Bay to improve to 2-7 on the season. I have a hard time seeing that happen in back-to-back weeks, so I look for the Raiders to get back on track with a 7-point win on the road in this one. Result: Detroit 18 Oakland 13 Record: 0-2 Game: Indianapolis at Atlanta Prediction: Atlanta - Atlanta's made me nervous over the past month of th

In Week 10 of the NFL season, I learned... - ..., if he becomes the 2016 Republican nominee, Donald Trump is probably seriously thinking about naming Rex Ryan as his running mate. - ..., to some in Green Bay, a moment of silence is code for, "Scream lots of crazy sh*t." - ...approximately 50% of announcers aren't sure how to pronounce Marcus Mariota's last name and it may only be a matter of time before a minority of them refer to the rookie quarterback as Mariachi. - ...two 10-year-olds could probably score at least 28 points against the New Orleans Saints defense. - ...Pittsburgh Steelers quarterbacks are secretly wondering whether or not shaking Sam Bradford's hand at one time left them all more prone to injury. - ..., with Mark Sanchez in at quarterback for the Philadelphia Eagles, Chip Kelly is trying to creatively find a way to work the butt-fumble into the offense. - ...Peyton Manning just threw another interception, and the game's been ov

Here's the URL to my Facebook business page. I update it fairly regularly, but still haven't put forth a great deal of effort yet in researching matters and attempting to make the most out of it. In any case, it can be perused here: http://www.facebook.com/AuthorCraigRozniecki?ref=hl Up next is my Twitter page. I'm still not 100% certain what I'm doing on there yet, but feel I'm gradually getting the hang of it and am up to 30,149 followers. I update it daily with many of my own tweets, but also by retweeting some others'. It can be found here: https://twitter.com/CraigRozniecki Lastly, here's my Tumblr page, which I've neglected quite a bit recently, but if you're at all curious, you can find it at the following link: http://www.tumblr.com/blog/rozzy81

For new readers (and regular ones, I suppose), here's some information pertaining to my books. All twelve of my books can be purchased in paperback form at the following site (and others): http://www.lulu.com/shop/search.ep?type=&keyWords=craig+rozniecki&x=7&y=5&sitesearch=lulu.com&q= The ten books I've written and released in the past 4 years (yes, I've been on a roll) can be purchased for much cheaper in Kindle form at the following link: http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_ss_i_0_22?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=craig%20rozniecki%20kindle&sprefix=craig+rozniecki+kindle%2Caps%2C228&rh=i%3Aaps%2Ck%3Acraig%20rozniecki%20kindle

As terrorists struck Paris on Friday, like many Americans, I thought back to what happened on our soil 14 years ago. While I was only 20-years-old at the time of the 9/11 attacks and quite ignorant and indifferent to the world of politics, I'll never forget that day, and the days, weeks, and months thereafter. I was in college at the time, a night owl, and insistent on taking classes during the afternoon hours so I could maintain my atypical sleeping habits. Just as the Twin Towers were struck, my father raced to my room, woke me up, and told me something was transpiring which I had to see. When I first saw video showcasing the attacks, I was left speechless, perplexed, frightened, and wondering if I was still sleeping and experiencing a surreal nightmare of the worst kind. Unfortunately, as I fully awoke, I started to realize it was no dream, no film; it was real. The surreal sensation I experienced initially never fully escaped me. Here I was, a 20-year-old college student