The Kind-Hearted Smart Aleck

I was quite ignorant and apathetic when it came to the world of politics until 9/11. Before that morning, I gave no thought to elections, party affiliation, lobbying and special interests, voter participation, or the world around my high school/college friends, family, and I. I was 20 years old, incredibly naive, took our liberties  for granted, and was finally awoken that morning. I have a feeling this was true for a lot of people - 9/11 was this country's ultimate wake-up call. However, unlike many others, who were prompted to develop severe paranoia, of Muslims in particular, due to the attacks, I was prompted to read, research, write, and discover who I was, what I believed, and what I could do to make a difference. Slowly but surely, I discovered I was a progressive, and for the first time in my life, got involved in the run up to the 2004 election. While I wasn't overly enthused about John Kerry as the Democratic candidate, I was not at all a fan of George W. Bush and h...

It seems like I did this just a week ago. Oh, that's right, because I did: http://thekind-heartedsmartaleck.blogspot.com/2016/01/my-updated-gop-candidate-rankings-were.html. Three candidates have suspended their campaigns since then (Rick Santorum, Mike Huckabee, and Rand Paul), so we're now down to 9. Here are my updated rankings of the remaining candidates: 9) Ted Cruz  (up 3 spots): It's ironic how the Cruz campaign has decided to roll with the slogan "TrusTed," considering every time the Texas senator opens his mouth during a debate he averages approximately four lies per sentence. 8) Marco Rubio (up 3 spots): Given how the Florida senator appears to prepare for debates, I have to believe when being introduced to someone, he says, "Hi, I'm Marco Rubio; hi, I'm Marco Rubio; hi, I'm Marco Rubio." Yeah, we got  you the first time... 7) Carly Fiorina (up 3 spots): I didn't hear her speak last night, so her silence was quite refreshi...

Well, here it is, my final blog of 2015! I hope all my readers have a fun and safe evening tonight and hope 2016 is your best year yet! Happy New Year everybody! Cheers!

After releasing four books in 2014, I focused mainly on marketing in 2015 and with good results. In 2016, I look to balance the two out a bit better. Expect at least one new book in the new year, if not more. They'll all be of the comedy variety (no matter how many I release). In the meantime, I'll continue writing plenty of satire, along with putting my two cents in on more serious topics as well. So, be sure to keep checking in with regard to all of that. I'll be certain to continually update readers on any progress I make with regard to future writing projects. Well, I just thought I'd let everyone know. Happy New Year!

I'm not going to beat around the bush (literally or figuratively); it's been a rough end to the year. I'm still not exactly sure what happened Saturday night. Everything's still kind of a blur (and yes, I was completely sober). All I can remember is alternately feeling warm and cold, being unusually shaky, and before I knew it, experiencing heart palpitations like never before, having extreme difficulty breathing, and reaching a point where I thought I wasn't going to live much longer. An emergency vehicle arrived shortly thereafter, rushed me to a local hospital, where I got fully hydrated and settled down, to the point where I was released early the next morning. It was a struggle the next three days, though, as I found myself having trouble sleeping, feeling anxious as deja vu struck me while laying in bed, and thinking about my breathing, almost paranoid about it, much more than usual. Four days after the frightening experience, while I still feel alternately wa...

I'm going to attempt to add a couple of writings before I leave town this afternoon, but I still have other things to get done in the meantime, so we'll see what happens on that front. In any case, I wanted to wish all of my readers a very safe and joyous Christmas/Hanukkah/Kwanzaa and New Year! I'll be back before too long, so I'll be sure to chime in again before the clock strikes midnight at the start of 2016! Have a great end to your year, a great start to 2016, and hopefully, no matter how you fared in 2015, 2016 is an even brighter, better chapter in your lives!

As I've done following every debate to this point in primary season, I thought I'd update my GOP candidate rankings. Last night was the fifth and final GOP debate of 2015, the second such debate aired on CNN, one which appeared to blur in with the rest. Missing from these debates was Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal, who recently decided to opt out of the race. I had him ranked 13th out of 14 contenders a little over a month ago (http://thekind-heartedsmartaleck.blogspot.com/2015/11/my-updated-gop-candidate-rankings.html). Here now are my updated rankings: 13) Ted Cruz (up 1 spot): Out of the 13 remaining GOP candidates, this guy scares me the most. If it were up to him, we'd have no federal government, yet he's running for the highest office in the land, and poll number wise, he's risen to second, behind only Donald Trump. 12) Mike Huckabee (down 1 spot): The more I hear him speak, the more I think he's transformed from a likeable middle-aged man to someone ...

Since the second Democratic debate was held on Saturday night, as I've done following each and every debate, I thought I'd update my Democratic candidate rankings. Following the first debate, I listed my rankings at this link: http://thekind-heartedsmartaleck.blogspot.com/2015/10/my-democratic-candidate-rankings.html Since that time, two candidates, Jim Webb and Lincoln Chafee, have dropped out of the race, and Joe Biden made it official he wouldn't be running for the 2016 presidential election. So, unlike the Republican primary circus, which still has 14 candidates up and running, we're down to just 3 such candidates on the Democratic side. 3) Martin O'Malley (no change): O'Malley has performed pretty well at both sets of debates, comes across as a fairly likable candidate, and could potentially be thought of as running-mate material, but with poll numbers being what they are, it's only a matter of time before he follows the way of Webb and Chafee. ...

The Jeb Bush presidential campaign has been anything but a smooth one. It started off with the former Florida governor showing a great deal of enthusiasm, which was even displayed in his name via bumper stickers: "Jeb!" As his poll numbers started dropping, however, so too did the exclamation point from his first name. Unfortunately for him, the downward trend continued, so he and his campaign team attempted to change the tide by coming up with a new slogan: "Jeb Can Fix It!" Since the slogan never caught on and resulted in more sarcastic memes than enthusiastic thumbs up, Jeb, in a last ditch effort, decided to share yet another campaign slogan change in the following ad:  "Hi, I'm Jeb Bush, the former governor of Florida, younger brother of George W., and hopefully your next president. We've gone through a lot throughout this campaign. I went from Jeb! to Jeb, and now, my fellow Americans, I want to be 100% honest with you and tell you that I'm...

While I'm an admitted progressive/liberal, I'm not blind to biases displayed on both sides of the political spectrum. I'll be the first to admit MSNBC leans to the left, but would be remiss if I didn't also say Fox News leaned to the right. I read and research more concerning the world of politics than I care to admit (yes, an AA-type meeting may be just around the corner). It's reached the point where even die-hard conservatives I know won't engage in political banter with me, because I rarely, if ever, make a statement without having researched and fact-checked it first, and if they utter a statement they haven't fully researched, they know darn well I'll likely be able to fact-check and debunk their claim within a matter of seconds. To this point in the seemingly never-ending election season (isn't the election next year?), I've watched each and every debate, from the three Republican junior varsity debates, to the one Democratic debate, to th...

On September 17th, I posted a blog where I ranked the then 15 Republican candidates in descending order based on my own personal opinion (http://thekind-heartedsmartaleck.blogspot.com/2015/09/my-updated-gop-candidate-rankings-were.html). Following three debates (well, six if you include the three junior varsity debates), I thought I'd re-rank the now 14 GOP candidates. Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker was the only candidate to drop out of the race between the 2nd and 3rd debates. Here were my rankings on September 17th: 15) Ted Cruz 14) Bobby Jindal 13) Mike Huckabee 12) Scott Walker 11) Rick Santorum 10) Marco Rubio 9) Donald Trump 8) Carly Fiorina 7) Lindsey Graham 6) Ben Carson 5) Chris Christie 4) George Pataki 3) Jeb Bush 2) Rand Paul 1) John Kasich Here now are my updated rankings: 14) Ted Cruz (up 1 spot): The only reason he moved up one spot was the fact Scott Walker exited the race. As former President George W. Bush recently said, ...

While chances are I won't be voting for the guy if he were to run for president since I'm rather liberal, I have to say I wouldn't be too distraught if Republican New Jersey Governor Chris Christie was elected in 2016 or beyond that. For a party that has veered so far to the right, Abraham Lincoln has reportedly yelled out, "Four score and for f**k's sake...," Chris Christie has become a rather refreshing presence in the GOP. Just last night, when answering questions from CEOs in this nation's capital, Christie said the following: "It's about human relationships, the fact of the matter is nobody in this city talks to each other anymore and if they do talk to each other it's not civilly. They don't develop relationships, they don't develop any sense of trust between each other." He added: "You have to compromise at times. If I walk away with 70 percent of my agenda, then New Jersey is 70 percent better than it would have...

Wanna know of a sure-fire way to get everybody at a party drunk? Play a game I like to call "Getting Foxed with Benghazi." Here's how you play. First, you grab a bunch of shot glasses, bottles of liquor, and pass them around. Next, turn on the Fox News channel. Lastly, whenever someone on Fox News utters the word "Benghazi," you take a shot. This will guarantee that everyone is drunk and passed out within 15 minutes. You're welcome. In all seriousness, however, talk of Benghazi has been floating about Congress and the airwaves at a greater clip than Gerard Butler, Katherine Heigl, and Nicolas Cage star in bad movies. Congressional Republicans and conservative talking heads have compared Benghazi to Watergate and Iran-Contra more than I've been compared to Tom Hanks by drunks. As a result, the right and left are pointing fingers more than Hugh Hefner's gotten laid. The right's general talking point is that four Americans died in the attacks an...