The Kind-Hearted Smart Aleck

What is with all the hate and trolling on #8 Central Florida (UCF) after their 40-32 loss to #11 LSU in the Fiesta Bowl on New Year's Day? I can't tell you how many times I've heard supposedly nonpartisan announcers/commentators say, "Well, that just goes to show you Central Florida didn't deserve any consideration to be part of the four-team playoff." Uh, no it didn't. Central Florida won 25 straight games leading up to their 8-point defeat at the hands of SEC-power LSU. They defeated another SEC-power, Auburn, in the same game a year ago to finish the season 13-0. It's not like they lost to a nobody or got dominated. The Golden Knights were an inch or two away from recovering an onside kick toward the end of the 4th quarter, which would have given them a chance to tie the game and send it to overtime. Not only that, but they were starting their back-up quarterback in place of their all-conference starter. So you're going to tell me an 8-point l...

The College Football Playoff Committee's job was easier than normal this year. The top three selections were easy ones to make: Undefeated SEC Champion Alabama, undefeated ACC Champion Clemson, and undefeated Notre Dame. I haven't heard anyone complain about Alabama or Clemson making the field of four. There have been occasional gripes made about Notre Dame making the field, but come on. As one of only four undefeated teams in all of college football, a team who defeated the likes of Michigan, Northwestern, and Syracuse, among others, deserves to be in the playoff. So the real debate centers around the #4 spot between Oklahoma, Georgia, Ohio State, and Central Florida. It seems as though the college football world is divided on what the main criteria for being playoff-selected should be. Roughly 50% think it should be based on which four teams have most earned a spot and the other 50% think, regardless of whether or not they earned it, the four best teams should be selected....

Do you want to hear a funny joke which wasn't intended on being a joke in the first place? Oklahoma Governor Mary Fallin, take it away... "I think he [Donald Trump] is trying to campaign as a racial healer. I think that has been part of his message, if you watch what he said this week, he talked about how devastating it was for Dallas, how we need to respect our law enforcement, to pray for those who are killed and those who are injured." Yes, the Oklahoma governor actually said that. Let's look back at some of Mr. Trump's previous quotes (with a sarcastic twist on them, of course) to see if Ms. Fallin's claim holds any water. Trump: "Obama's not really an American! He wasn't born here! He was born in CanYaOrCan'tYa or something." Fallin: "He's just trying to be a racial healer." Trump: "You can't spell 'negotiator' without 'Jews'." Fallin: "He's just trying to be a racial ...

It truly saddens me that red states are continuing to try and de-emphasize the importance of quality education. Instead of increasing taxes on the top 2% of earners, they feel it'd be better to strip funding from schools. Instead of lowering college tuition and interest rates in exchange for raising those before-mentioned taxes, let's continue to leave college-bound students (and their families) in large amounts of debt for several years. Not only that, but as Oklahoma lawmakers have recently suggested through the passing of a bill which would basically do away with AP U.S. history, instead of teaching students all that happened throughout history, both the good and the bad, let's just focus on teaching them what we want them to learn - you know, the good. As Republican State Representative Dan Fisher said, "In essence, we have a new emphasis on what is bad about America... (The new framework) trades an emphasis on America's founding principles of Constitutional ...

In yet another case of victim-blaming, an Oklahoma Highway Patrol officer and an Oklahoma City Police officer have been accused of repeatedly raping women in recent months. Just last week, a Tulsa County sheriff's deputy was arrested for sexually assaulting a woman after responding to a 911 call. So, what did Captain George Brown have to say about all of this? What were his words of wisdom to women? He lent KJRH (and women everywhere) this piece of advice: "He [the captain] says the best tip that he can give is to follow the law in the first place so you don't get pulled over." There we have it. If a woman gets raped by a cop, it's really her own fault for getting pulled over in the first place. What Captain Brown is essentially saying is this: "Girls, ladies, the women, or whatever you call yourselves anymore, look - as officers of the law, while it's our job to protect the people from law-breakers and arrest those that break the law, we aren't...

Texas Senator and craziest person this side of anywhere - Ted Cruz - may be cuckoo for cocoa puffs for a very good reason - his father, Rafael. When talking to a group of Oklahoma gun rights advocates earlier this month, Rafael Cruz said the following: "And of course, this leads us -- when there are no moral absolutes -- leads us to sexual immorality, leads us to sexual abuse, leads us to perversion. And, of course, no hope. No hope." Ironically enough, according to USA Today , "Nearly 17,000 people have suffered sexual abuse at the hands of the clergy since 1950." Those dam* atheist clergymen! I tend to find absolutes absolutely ridiculous. "Thou shalt not kill." That sounds simple and moral enough. However, what about in times of war? Defending oneself against an intruder? If Mr. Cruz is anti-war and anti-gun, perhaps he does believe in moral absolutes after all, but I'm thinking that's highly unlikely. If Cruz does believe in war...

Not long after Oklahoma was ravaged by tornadoes, Republican Representative of the state - Jim Bridenstine - decided to make this intelligent statement: "Even climate change alarmists admit the number of hurricanes hitting the U.S. and the number of tornado touchdowns have been on a slow decline for over 100 years. But here is what we absolutely know. We know that Oklahoma will have tornadoes when the cold jet stream meets the warm Gulf air, and we also know that this President spends 30 times as much money on global warming research as he does on weather forecasting and warning. For this gross misallocation, the people of Oklahoma are ready to accept the President's apology and I intend to submit legislation to fix this." Ah, so Mr. Bridenstine is a scientist. Who are these "climate change alarmists" and what's the source of this information exactly? Take your time. I'll be waiting... In the meantime, Tom Karl - Director of the National Climatic D...

Oklahoma Republican Senator Jim Inhofe has long been a global-warming denier. If it gets chilly on a single day in January, he'll shout to the world, "You see? Global warming is a hoax!" In light of the tornado which recently swept through the state he represents and hearing some Democratic senators claiming that global warming could at least be partially to blame for a tornado of that magnitude, Inhofe, said this: "The liberal media is trying to exploit a tragedy to advance and expand its own agenda. And, believe me, the victims all know this. We were being hit by tornadoes long before anyone talked about climate change, and even before it was called 'global cooling,' before it became 'global warming,' and then 'climate change.'" Why is it that, after tragedies such as the shooting in Newtown, Connecticut or the before-mentioned tornado, it's such a no-no in many of these Congressional Republicans' minds to talk about them ...

As I have just a little bit of time before I head out of town, I thought I'd touch on something that's been in the news lately and which has been irking me somewhat. Following the devastating tornado which hit Oklahoma earlier this week, I've heard some people say they prayed during the tornado, or that their prayers were answered, and have seen some die-hard religious individuals post these quotes on Facebook. Why is it that people tend to think they're one of the chosen ones? The tornado ravaged how many homes, killed how many people, including some children, yet some individuals still believe that their homes and lives were spared because they prayed? What, since the kids who died hadn't prayed that day, God decided to let them die? I don't think so. God: "Okay, a tornado is sweeping through Oklahoma again. Since I'm all-powerful, I'm going to allow the tornado to pass through. I'll direct where it can go. I'll spare the people whom...

CNN's Wolf Blitzer got caught in an awkward moment just following the devastating tornado which ravaged through Moore, Oklahoma. When speaking to a survivor of the storm - Rebecca Vitsmun - Blitzer said, "We're happy you're here. You guys did a great job. You've gotta thank the Lord, right? Do you thank the Lord for that split-second decision?" Vitsmun responded with, "I -- I'm actually an atheist." Blitzer came back with, "You are. All right. But you made the right call." Yes, Wolf, she thanked the Lord for a tornado which came close to killing she and her child, destroyed many homes in the area, and killed who knows how many people. Thank God for that...  http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/05/21/wolf-blitzer-atheist-tornado-survivor_n_3316312.html

I've always been someone who, no matter how difficult it may be to find at times, always tried to find the good in people. No matter how little I have in common with a person, I'm typically able to find one common interest or experience we can discuss with one another. This is how I've always been. No matter how different two people may seem to be, chances are there's at least one common interest or experience they have which they can talk and laugh about for hours on end. However, while I stand by everything I wrote in the previous paragraph, there are some people whom are just a*sholes. I know one such person (at least). Just a couple days ago, I tweeted information on how to provide aid for victims of the Oklahoma tornadoes. There was nothing political about the post. It simply provided a link with contact information for different organizations, like the American Red Cross, whom would provide aid to the victims of the tornadoes. Yesterday, I received a respons...

If anyone's interested in providing some aid for the tornado victims in Oklahoma, here's some information on how to do so at the link below, with contact information to the: American Red Cross, Oklahoma Baptist Disaster Relief, Salvation Army, and Feeding America. http://usnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/05/20/18381508-how-to-help-tornado-victims?lite

Republican Oklahoma Senator Tom Coburn was one of 46 Senators to recently reject the bill which would have expanded background checks on firearm purchases. Coburn is now attempting to pass legislation which would require all government agencies to "report the number and types of firearms owned, purchased or lost each year" - in other words, a background check. While I'd be perfectly fine with the government receiving background checks regarding firearms, it's not at all consistent for Coburn and like-minded individuals to believe in such legislation and reject background checks for everyone else. It would be akin to Coburn saying these following lines: - "Parents should be obligated to tell their children who they're with and what they're doing when they're out and about, but kids shouldn't have to do that. That would be unconstitutional!" - "Bosses need to disclose every bit of information at their disposal to their workers. Wor...

While the gun control debate has gone on for decades, it was brought into the national spotlight for the first time in quite a while due to the Newtown tragedy late last year, where 26 people, including 20 6- and 7-year old kids, were shot and killed. It prompted the president to enact numerous executive orders regarding guns, and for him to give a heartfelt speech about the tragedy and looking forward. This has led to potential gun control legislation being debated about in Congress to an extent not seen since the Clinton years. With Republicans threatening to filibuster a vote on gun control legislation, including the expansion of background checks, eleven family members of the Newtown victims were in this nation's capital yesterday to support this very initiative. The Newtown victims' families' presence led to Republican Oklahoma Senator James Inhofe to make the following remark yesterday - "See, I think it's so unfair of the administration to hurt these fam...

Republican Oklahoma state Representative Mike Reynolds said the following to lawmakers the other day with regard to making sure students have access to a college education: "It is not our job to see that anyone gets an education. It is not the responsibility of me, you, or any constituent in my district to pay for his or any other persons [sic] education. Their GPA, ACT, AS[V]AB, determination have nothing to do with who is responsible. Their potential to benefit society is irrelevant." Judging by his statement, I'd think Mr. Reynolds would be first in line to support legislation which made certain that students have access to a college education. It's quite something for a politician to make a typo when decrying the need for educating students, as Mr. Reynolds did when writing the following statement - "...It is not the responsibility of me, you, or any constituent in my district to pay for his or any other persons education..." In Mr. Reynolds' min...

Even before their big #1 vs. #2 showdown on Saturday night, there was already chatter about if the game were close, if the two teams should meet again in the National Championship Game. Of course, it's way too early to make such predictions. Either or both of the teams could lose from here on out. Unfortunately, the game was very tightly knit throughout with LSU eventually winning 9-6 in overtime. Yes, it was the game of the century indeed. Not... Now, if LSU had won by 3 points at home and the two teams went the rest of the way not losing a game, I could understand a possible rematch between the two clubs, so long as there wasn't another unbeaten outside of LSU. HOWEVER, the game was played in Tuscaloosa, where LSU was a 4-point underdog. Since LSU beat Alabama on their home turf, what really is the point of the two teams playing again, this time on a neutral field? This would do a disservice to the Tigers. What if Alabama won the game on a neutral field? The two teams would...