The Kind-Hearted Smart Aleck

There's a distinct difference between just loving oneself and loving one's country, yet it appears as if the wealthiest among us, as well as the most conservative of politicians, have been able to increasingly blur those lines over the past several years. For some strange reason, when a wealthy or powerful person loudly declares that they love this country or that it's the country in the world, people tend to respond, "They're such good, patriotic Americans! Nobody loves this country more than they do!" However, as the old saying goes, "Actions speak louder than words," and their actions tend to tell a different story. The extremely wealthy, and many far-right conservative politicians for that matter, live in a different world than most of us. They may all have loved this country at one point, but in their minds, they've made it, so now they can afford to stop looking after the country and simply just look after themselves. Many even deny the...

I'm really starting to think we should make world geography courses mandatory from grade school through college. Yet another recent report showcased our lack of knowledge in the area with regard to Africa and Ebola. It's being reported that Susan Sherman, a registered nurse and teacher at St. Margaret Mary school in Louisville, Kentucky, has resigned from her position at the school after the school received complaints from parents about her going to Africa on a mission and potentially endangering their children with exposure to Ebola. The problem with this is Ms. Sherman's mission work was in the country of Kenya, which is approximately 3,300 miles away from the Ebola outbreak. That's the equivalent of driving by car from Seattle, Washington, to Miami, Florida. It would take about 2.25 days to travel to Miami from Seattle by car. In other words, Ms. Sherman wasn't anywhere near Ebola while in Africa. Using this comparison as my guide, these parents would likely sa...

Bud Konheim - CEO and co-founder of the luxury-fashion company Nicole Miller - had the following words for 99 percenters when speaking on CNBC's Squawk Box  yesterday: "We've got a country that the poverty level is wealth in 99 percent of the rest of the world. So we're talking about woe is me, woe is us, woe is this. [That] guy making, oh my God, he's making $35,000 a year, why don't we try that out in India or some countries we can't even name. China, anyplace, the guy is wealthy." What this delusional man is forgetting is that the numbers he mentioned don't mean a thing without context. In the countries he listed (and other unnamed ones), the cost of living is much cheaper than in the U.S. Over the past several years, the top 1-2% in this country have experienced a very large majority of the income increases, while the middle- and lower-classes' incomes have been rather stagnant - all while the costs of living have increased. In other wo...

If there's one thing we learned from the 2012 elections, it's that many male Republican candidates appear to have difficulty talking to or about women in a respectful manner. Todd Akin - "If it's a legitimate rape..." Richard Mourdock - "[Children via rape] are a gift from God." Those are just two of the many examples of male Republican candidates failing the class Smooth-Talking Women 101. In light of all these troubles, the National Republican Congressional Committee is offering tutorials to male staffers and candidates on how to better talk to and about women in a respectful manner in preparation for the 2014 elections. In light of this bit of news, I thought I'd attempt to provide some assistance to these Republican staffers and candidates. - When the topic of abortion comes up, simply say, "I don't have a giant hole down there, so I'm not sure I should be answering that question. You all know how I feel about this, but I...