The Kind-Hearted Smart Aleck

Former Vice President Joe Biden has come under scrutiny over the past week for what has been deemed as inappropriate behavior around women. It started with Lucy Flores alleging Biden had once placed his hands on her shoulders, sniffed her hair, and planted a kiss on the top of her head. A second accuser has since come forward alleging the 2020 Democratic front-runner of pulling her toward him and rubbing noses with her on one occasion. There was also a photo which went viral of Biden placing his hands on the shoulders of the wife of former Defense Secretary Ash Carter, Stephanie Carter, while whispering something into her ear. The social media mob immediately went to work before Ms. Carter said she was grateful for what Biden did. She called him a great friend who was simply trying to be supportive and relax her. Alyssa Milano and Meghan McCain have since come forward defending the former vice president. The saying goes that a picture is worth a thousand words, but in my opinion a pi...

Over the past week and a half, seven women have come forward about Alabama Senate nominee Roy Moore sexually harassing and/or assaulting them, most of whom were 14- to 16-years-old at the time. In response, many leaders on both sides of the aisle, including Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, have asked Moore to step down before next month's special election. Two days ago, Minnesota Senator Al Franken was alleged to have groped a woman while she was asleep, which can be seen via this photo -  http://www.startribune.com/al-franken-sent-me-personal-apology-letter-after-kissing-groping-report-leeann-tweeden-says/458254343/ . In response to the Franken incident, Senator McConnell and many others, while disapproving of the senator's behavior, tended to react less strongly than to the allegations made against Mr. Moore. Moore cried "double standard!' at this. Not to be outdone, President Trump, while criticizing Franken in a series of tweets, has remained mum with regard...

While (illegal) immigration has been a hot-button issue for quite some time, the temperature was raised exponentially after President Donald Trump signed an executive order temporarily banning travel for citizens from seven Muslim-dominated countries (Iran, Iraq, Syria, Somalia, Libya, Yemen, and Sudan). Due to the short notice provided by Trump regarding the matter and the vague language used in the order, chaos at airports was widespread, as natives from those seven nations who possessed visas or green cards were left waiting and wondering, uncertain what their ultimate fate was going to be. This prompted protests from both inside and outside the country, not to mention over 50 lawsuits (to this point), and plummeting poll numbers to boot. Unsurprisingly, this has led to heated immigration debates, so heated, in fact, many Trump supporters are now threatening to boycott Budweiser due to their pro-immigrant-themed Super Bowl ad. Yes, as Martin Lawrence's character said in the film...

I really hate that it's gotten to this point, but sadly, on December 14th of 2016, I feel I must explain the differences between satire and fake news. Sadder yet, renowned satirist Andy Borowitz has now decided to include the words "NOT THE NEWS" front and center on each and every one of his articles, because apparently, we're too stupid to figure that out for ourselves (well, some of us). I bring up Borowitz because, earlier today, a Facebook friend of mine commented on one of his articles, saying, "Fake news should be outlawed!" This prompted me to explain the differences between the two, in a condensed fashion, saying, "It's satire. If we went down that slippery slope, all comedy would be outlawed. There's a stark difference between 'fake news' with the intent of misinforming mass quantities of people to provide aid for a particular political agenda, and 'fake news' with the intent of stimulating thought and laughter by poki...

The most recent episode of The Carmichael Show  Sunday night revolved around the concept of civilized discussion and why it's healthy to consistently hear differing viewpoints. It also subtlely poked fun at the notion that liberals are open-minded yet often times have trouble accepting viewpoints different from their own. In the end, though, it provided hope that, regardless of a family's differing viewpoints, we can all come together to celebrate that which bands us. In light of seeing this show, I thought I'd share a few thoughts on the matter. Through research, observation, and conversation, I've come to the conclusion that, often times, liberals and conservatives have differing viewpoints on the concept of open-mindedness . To most self-described liberals, being open-minded means to accept people for who they are, regardless of age, gender, race, creed, orientation, etc. It also means to accept new ideas until one idea becomes fact. To most self-described conserva...

Denver Broncos quarterback Peyton Manning has come under recent scrutiny after Al Jazeera America aired a documentary,  The Dark Side , which insinuated the veteran quarterback may have taken HGH in 2011 when he was recovering from multiple neck surgeries. Investigative reporter Deborah Davies has since said the documentary never claimed to have proof the quarterback took HGH, only that HGH was delivered by Guyer Institute to Ashley Manning (Peyton's wife) in Florida on multiple occasions. My question is, even if Peyton Manning did take HGH while attempting to recover from injury, why should it matter? PEDs (performance-enhancing drugs) have been bastardized in the sports world, and rightly so if athletes use them to gain an unfair advantage on their competition (on the field/court/etc.). However, why, if an athlete and his/her doctor feel HGH (or another PED) will help speed up the recovery from an injury, is it also looked down upon? It would have been one thing if Peyton ...

I'm frankly getting tired of writing about "religious freedom" laws and arguments, yet it seems that at least once a day, I read a new headline and story regarding the matter. The latest such case involves Linda Summers, a former deputy clerk at the county clerk's office in Harrison County, Indiana, who was fired from her job for refusing to issue a marriage license to a same-sex couple due to her religious beliefs. In light of this, Summers has decided to fight back against her employer's decision and take the matter to court, as she's filed a lawsuit, contending that employers whom force employees to issue same-sex couples marriage licenses are the bigoted ones in this scenario. I'm going to try and condense this response as much as possible, because, as I just stated, I'm getting quite tired of reading and writing about this topic. Freedoms are not absolute. While we may be freer than most people in the world on a fairly regular basis, those freed...

It's really starting to crack me up how some on the far-right end of the political spectrum are flipping out over the Confederate flag debate not going their way. Last night, I wrote about Breitbart writer John Nolte and Bryan Fischer of the American Family Association comparing the rainbow flag to the Confederate and Nazi flags, suggesting that if and when the Confederate flag gets taken down, so too should the rainbow flag. Yes, because just like African-Americans were enslaved in the South, Christians have been enslaved by homosexuals. The situations are as identical as Arnold Schwarzenegger and Danny DeVito. Well, Fox News' Sean Hannity decided to join the crazy party when he made the following comments on his radio show yesterday: "A lot of music by those [rap] artists is chock full of the n-word and the b-word and the h-word, and racist, misogynist, sexist anti-woman slurs none of those retail executes would be caught dead using. If it's OK for Obama's te...

While I can perfectly understand why a person would seek revenge on one whom has wronged them, I've personally never been a big fan of the concept. It seems that some become so obsessed with the notion of revenge, they lose focus of their own lives and wind up suffering as a result. This is why I often times believe that the best revenge is to rise above the obstacle or hardship that was thrown one's way and to use the unfortunate situation as a springboard to a better life. Sure, that's often times easier said than done, yet I still find it's more productive in both the short- and long-term to try and improve one's own life than to try and destroy another's. Also, since the world has become hooked on phonics, I mean social networking sites, the concept of "revenge" has seemingly changed along the way, to the point where it often times comes across as immature and silly. The latest such case is with regard to sports broadcaster Erin Andrews and forme...

Ever since Barack Obama was elected president, he's tried to walk a very fine line on the subject of race. He's had to. Being the first African-American president in this country's history, if he brings up the subject too frequently, he'll be called out by far-right conservatives of always playing the "race card," and if he tends to back away from such matters when the subject is at the forefront nationally, far-left liberals will call him out for not caring enough about minorities. However, no matter how fine a line the president has attempted to walk throughout his tenure, the touchy subject of race has seemed to come to a head in recent weeks and months. From Michael Brown to Eric Garner to Tamir Rice and seemingly countless others, for each and every unarmed black man that has been killed, the cries of protest have become louder - to the point where serious changes in police departments all across the country are being considered (some already implemented)...

RedState.com editor and Fox News contributor Erick Erickson has never been coy about making ridiculous statements at the expense of the LGBT community. Well, just yesterday on his radio show, he was at it yet again. In light of the tragic shooting in Paris, which left 12 journalists dead, Erickson decided to make the asinine comparison of that to an Atlanta fire chief who recently got fired, due to, according to Erickson, being against the LGBT community. First off, Erickson's claim on why Fire Chief Kelvin Cochran was fired is inaccurate. According to Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed, Cochran was not fired because of his religious beliefs. He was fired because he distributed his self-published book condemning homosexuality, which goes against Atlanta's sexual orientation nondiscrimination protections. Even while Cochran was being suspended for a month due to complaints of him distributing said book, he openly stated that he would continue to do so. This, and not his religious views,...

Former NBA All-Star, current NBA analyst, and future Hall-of-Famer Shaquille O'Neal has run into some hot water of late due to the fact he mocked a man with ectodermal dysplasia via a picture on Twitter. Of course, O'Neal wasn't aware of this at the time due to his ignorance on the condition, and has since apologized to the man he was mocking - Jahmel Binion. After he apologized, O'Neal said, "Made a new friend today when I called and apologized to Jahmel Binion. Great dude." Once this story broke, a line of Donald Sterling defenders rushed to the scene, and said, "He (Shaq) should be banned from the NBA for life and fined $2.5 million for his comments (mockery)! Let's see how hypocritical Adam Silver is! Both Sterling and Shaq made derogatory comments against people! They did the exact same thing!" Others even pulled out the race card and said that Shaq, like other African-Americans, was getting a free pass, which wasn't fair, because ...