The Kind-Hearted Smart Aleck

Like many words, friendship is difficult to define in absolute terms, however, I do believe that there are some necessary components to a friendship which are nearly universal. In my opinion, here are some of those very components (with rare exceptions of course): - Friends try to life one another up, not tear each other down - Friends will be there to listen or give advice when needed, but not lecture whenever they feel like - Friends will give out of the kindness of their own hearts, not for something in return - Friends will make you feel like time with you is precious, not a burden - Friends will look out for your best interests, not how these interests will affect them - Friends will attempt to learn and be aware of your sensitivities, not try to learn them for the simple purpose of poking at them during future debates/arguments - Friends will show a consistent interest in you and your life, not just during the times when they need help - Friends will be forgiving,...

Ever since the start of the shutdown, Ted Cruz and his Tea Party ilk have regularly stated that they're speaking for the American people with their actions and demands, because America doesn't want Obamacare. Cruz even went so far as to say if the American public was polled on whether or not to defund Obamacare, we'd vote 100-0 to defund it. Of course, the only poll which shows such numbers resides in the mind of Ted Cruz himself, since every reputable poll has shown that the public doesn't want to defund the healthcare plan and they especially don't want it to be the reason for the shutdown. Perhaps what Cruz was really stating with his poll numbers is that he hears 100 voices, all of whom support the defunding of Obamacare. Cruz and company love to talk about poll numbers surrounding Obamacare. Why wouldn't they? The Republican Party spent how much money on negative ads surrounding the healthcare reform bill? They spent how much time during election season t...

It's been about three years since President Obama's healthcare law passed Congress and was signed by the president himself. Sadly, three years later, the public is just about as uninformed now on the healthcare law as it was right when it passed. A Kaiser poll was just released regarding the public's knowledge on the healthcare reform law, and the numbers were quite disturbing. When poll participants were asked if the healthcare law included the following components, more answered the questions incorrectly than correctly: - "Cut benefits for people in Medicare" - 43% correctly answered that the law does not do this and 44% incorrectly answered that it does do this, with 14% responding that they aren't sure. - "Establish a government panel to make decisions about end-of-life care for people on Medicare" - 39% correctly answered that the law does not do this and 40% incorrectly answered that it does do this, with 21% responding that they aren...