The Kind-Hearted Smart Aleck

Congratulations to five-term Hawaii State Representative Tom Brower for winning my all-too-coveted Douche of the Day Award! When talking to the Honolulu Star-Advertiser  about homeless people, Brower said: "If I see shopping carts that I can't identify, I will destroy them so they can't be pushed on the streets." He added: "I want to do something practical that will really clean up the streets." Yes, the five-time representative smashes homeless people's possessions by bashing them with a sledgehammer. Hopefully he doesn't loiter around grocery stores anytime soon or else you can expect to read the following headline - "Cart Fight at Hawaii Store." Annoyed by homeless people asking for money? Understandable. Fighting to provide the homeless with more options for shelter? Admirable. Bashing on homeless people's possessions in grocery carts to clean up the streets? That, my friend, is good enough to earn yourself the award for...

I hate being so hard on ESPN writers, but over the past few months, I've been noticing wretched articles with increasing frequency. The latest one comes courtesy of Phil Sheridan, and is entitled, "Kelly gets first taste of Vick turnovers." The article came in light of the Philadelphia Eagles 26-16 defeat at the hands of the Kansas City Chiefs last night, where Michael Vick was picked off twice in the first half - his first two interceptions of the season (compared to 5 touchdowns). Sheridan started his article with this: "Now Chip Kelly knows. Since January, when he was hired to replace Andy Reid as head coach of the Philadelphia Eagles, Kelly has dismissed his video record of quarterback Michael Vick's habit of throwing footballs to the other team. Kelly didn't know Vick's reads on the 24 interceptions he threw in his previous 23 games. He didn't know whether a receiver ran the wrong route or an offensive lineman missed an assignment. So h...

I get that most everyone believes their children, nieces, and nephews are adorable and special in some kind of way, unlike all the other kids. This is perfectly understandable. These are the people we spend time with and love. I'm sure I'll feel the same way when my niece is born in approximately three months. However, there is a significant amount of bias in play with such thoughts and feelings, and that brings me to what inspired this blog in the first place - biased and exaggerated Facebook posts concerning child relatives. One I read today said, "Fun fact: My nephew is cuter than yours. Sorry about that, but not really." This wasn't the first time I read such a status. I guess my question is, why? Why do some people feel the need to declare that their child relative(s) are superior to all others in one way or another? Why can't we just love our children, nieces, and nephews regardless? Why must it be a competition? So long as the children we raise grow...

I'm really beginning to feel sorry for New Jersey Governor Chris Christie. As much as I'd like to see the guy run for the presidency and become the Republican nominee (not saying I'd vote for the guy necessarily, but also wouldn't be incredibly bummed if he won, which is a definite step up from previous Republican nominees), I'm becoming more pessimistic that he'd be able to come out on top when the Republican Primaries are all said and done. The thing about Christie is, for as much as Independents, Reagan Democrats, and middle-of-the-road Republicans like him, conservative Republicans can't seem to stand the guy, and they'll probably be the bloc of voters most likely to participate in the primaries. While Christie would likely give his party its best chance of winning back the White House in 2016 (January of 2017, I suppose), I have trouble seeing him get past the primaries. I've especially felt this way since Hurricane Sandy struck New Jersey nea...

It humors me to hear die-hard conservatives bash President Obama, not on his policies, but on his personality and demeanor. Between this and their seeming love of rumors and conspiracy theories, it has led me to strike the facepalm pose on more than 1,319 occasions. The number one sign that a person listens to too much talk radio and/or watches too much cable "news" (especially of the Fox variety) and doesn't have a strong argument of which they're aware is they resort to criticizing a person's personality and demeanor, while hurling rumors and conspiracy theories faster than a meteorologists change their forecasts. I've already gone into great detail about the rumors and conspiracy theories that have been spread about the president in the first book of this series. So what is it about President Obama the person that many on the far right have such a problem with? I think the four such traits and attributes these conservatives cite more than any others are...

More information has been released regarding his recent call to donors, where he stated that the reason President Obama won was because of his gifts to minorities, women, and young people. In addition to that, Romney provided his insights on the Republican primary process and how it should be changed in the future: "...[the GOP should] agree that we're gonna do, you know, I don't know, eight debates, and we're gonna, we're gonna do one a month, and we're gonna pick stations that are reasonable, it's not all gonna be done by CNN and NBC, alright, I mean we're gonna try and guide this process that it's designed to showcase the best of our people as opposed to showcasing liberals beating the heck out of us." Here we go again - blaming the "liberal" media for defeat! Considering Republican candidates have won five of the past nine presidential elections, I have a difficult time believing that claim. The "liberal" media must ...