The Kind-Hearted Smart Aleck

Most importantly, as I've written about previously, the Supreme Court's Citizens United ruling in 2010 was awful for this country. Think people were fed up by big money in politics before the ruling? Of receiving seemingly countless fliers in the mail? Of seeing nothing put campaign commercials during dinner? Of thinking their voices meant little to nothing? Well, after the ruling, things just got worse on all of those fronts. Campaign spending increased, and with that, so too did the release of fliers and television ads, not to mention people's voices began feeling even smaller than before. But, while the ruling was awful for the country as a whole, it's also been awful for the Democratic Party. The Republican Party wasn't phased a great deal by the ruling. They've increasingly become the party of the top 1%, so to them, what would better give them a chance come election day than providing that very top 1% unlimited contribution capability? For the Democratic P...

Alright, I'm getting a little tired of hearing about the Riley Cooper story. I absolutely loathe the word he used, how he handled that situation at the Kenny Chesney concert, and think he definitely has some growing up to do. However, the kid is 25-years old, appears to have given a very sincere apology to his teammates, and the guy has been welcomed back to the team. The story may have been big news for a couple days, but believe me - the Philadelphia Eagles have far more important things on their minds than a 25-year old kid making a much publicized mistake during a heated moment at a concert. Now there's even a report of Tim Tebow getting into the discussion and saying that he's "praying" for Cooper. The start of the NFL regular season is almost exactly a month away. Here are the questions the Eagles and those covering them should be thinking about: - Will Chip Kelly's offense translate well to the NFL? - Who will be the starting quarterback? - With...

In recent months, I've learned of a woman whom I rejected, becoming, for lack of a better word, a slut. From about May of '09 to September of '10 (16 months), I was talking to one gal, we'll call her Medusa, fairly regularly. When I flew to Omaha in July and again in August of 2010, she and I spent quite a bit of time together. She claimed to have wanted to start a relationship with me and at one point, while drunk, she asked me to go grab some condoms from her purse. No, she wasn't strange and wanted to snack on some latex, but yes, she had a fetish for removing her clothing and spreading her legs as I soon discovered. She and I weren't dating and in the grand scheme of things, hadn't hung out very much, so that moment made me rather uncomfortable. I rejected her easy-access request and asked that she sober up and take me home, because of course, she was my ride and that was the only riding she was going to do that night. After that very evening, she ...

Is it all in our head? A buzz after one drinks alcohol? Love? Misery? Seizures? Highs? Depression? Is everything controllable? What is possible and not possible is dependent upon our thoughts and beliefs? If one believes they can beat depression, can they automatically flip the negative thoughts to positive ones and go from misery to joy? If one battles seizures, can they beat and overcome the seizures through outwitting them? Is everything a choice? Can we ultimately decide everything that will or won't occur in our lifetimes and how these events will affect us? Some would like to believe this. I wish I could believe it. But there are some things in life that we cannot help. I didn't have a choice as to what gender I'd be, whom my parents would be, what language I'd be born into, where I'd be born, what skin color I'd have, what orientation I'd be, what religion I'd be born into, what political leanings I'd be surrounded by, what health issues I...