The Kind-Hearted Smart Aleck

I recently heard about a person contending that television had a double-standard on slurs, as while they'd bleep out the n-word, they'd air the term "honky." I then had a friendly debate with a third party about the matter. First off, if we want to purely look at things from a black-and-white perspective (no pun intended), all slurs are bad. However, as is almost always the case, things are more complex than that. There are several reasons why the n-word is regarded as a more offensive slur than "honky," the biggest of which is historical context. The etymology of honky  is unclear. One theory is that the term originated in Oak Hill, West Virginia, where coal miners were segregated into three groups: 1) Whites, 2) Blacks, and 3) Non-English-speaking whites knows as "Hunk Hill." Another theory is that the term started in the meat-packing plants of Chicago, where black employees referred to white employees as "honkies." Yet another theo...

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...

Before the outcry over his alleged ties to former Penn State assistant coach Jerry Sandusky, Tennessee Volunteers fans were hitting social media over the reported hire of ex-Rutgers head coach Greg Schiano, criticizing his 68-67 record at the New Jersey school. First off, Yahoo's Dan Wetzel, who has covered the Sandusky case more extensively than possibly anybody else, called the charges against Schiano "random, nonspecific (disputed) hearsay." Secondly, Schiano's 68-67 record at Rutgers might be more impressive than Phillip Fulmer's 152-52 record at Tennessee. In the 86 years prior to Schiano's arrival, Rutgers got invited to 1 bowl game. This occurred in 1978, 23 years before Schiano arrived as coach on campus. In the 11 seasons prior to his arrival, the Scarlet Knights went a combined 40-56-1 (.412), and as I alluded to earlier, were invited to 0 bowl games. After Schiano's departure, the team has gone 33-43 (.434), including a 10-26 (.278) record the...

I've heard every argument there is to hear from NRA enthusiasts whom believe gun laws are either unConstitutional or pointless, and upon closer inspection, each and every argument fails, bigly. Argument #1: "The 2nd Amendment!" I'm sorry, but the Constitution is 228 years old. When writing it, our Founding Fathers didn't think to themselves, "No matter the day, no matter the year, man should have the right to bear arms! Even well into the future, when these weapons evolve into machine-gun types, with or without bump stocks, anyone from elders to newborns should have the right to fire these motherf*ckers!" I don't think so. The more technology evolves, the more out-of-date the Second Amendment becomes. Does it need to be abolished? No, of course not. But should it receive an update, or at the very least, when discussing it, should more of us take into account the surrounding context of when it was written? Absolutely. It's like my mama alwa...

While bigly is actually a word, it's not commonly used, and sounds rather comical. So when it sounded as though Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump used this term on a number of occasions, comedians poked fun at him while supporters laid claim that their candidate said big-league , not bigly . Given the context of many of his quotes, does it even matter which term he used? First off, what is big-league ? Here are the two definitions of the term: 1) "of or belonging to a major league" 2) "among the largest, foremost, etc., of its kind" Given that, let's look back at some of Trump's bigly moments and see how he'd come across if he indeed said big-league : Original quote: "We're not going to lose. We're going to start winning again, and we're going to win bigly." Big-league version #1: "We're not going to lose. We're going to start winning again, and we're going to win of or belonging to a majo...

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)...

So, did you hear? Satirist Stephen Colbert - host of the Comedy Central show The Colbert Report - got heavily criticized by the media over the weekend due to a tweet he didn't post. I know - crazy, right? What happened was on Thursday night, someone involved with the show, tweeted the following message: "I am willing to show #Asian community I care by introducing the Ching-Chong Ding-Dong Foundation for Sensitivity to Orientals or Whatever." Whomever posted the tweet left the message void of any context, so understandably, some in the Asian community got offended. When conservative talking heads saw this, they jumped on the bandwagon, and before we knew it, #CancelColbert was trending on Twitter. However, if one were to view the before-mentioned punchline surrounded by the proper context, it seems painfully clear that Stephen Colbert and his writers weren't attempting to offend anyone in the Asian community. What they were doing was attempting to satirize Wash...

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...

President Obama recently received some criticism for a remark he made regarding California Attorney General Kamala Harris, especially from some far-left women supporters of his. The one line these offended individuals pointed to is when the president said the following in reference to Ms. Harris - "She also happens to be by far the best-looking attorney general in the country..." Some claimed that was a sexist comment. I happen to disagree. The word "sexism" is defined as: 1. "attitudes or behavior based on traditional stereotypes of sexual roles." 2. "discrimination or devaluation based on a person's sex, as in restricted job opportunities; especially such discrimination directed against women." How was the president discriminating or devaluing this woman who happens to be the attorney general of California? He was simply complimenting her. If I tell a woman I find her physically attractive, does that make me sexist? I certainly ...

I read a lovely letter-to-the-editor via The Columbus Dispatch today. The "piece" was titled "President seems to be protesting a bit too much." The letter read as follows: "It seems obvious that an action that is right needs little explanation; that which is wrong will cause the person taking the action to spend much effort trying to persuade that the action he took was correct. In his first term, President Obama made 699 speeches. In his first term, he also proposed the so-called health-care reform. Need I say more?" Let me answer that question - yes, you do. This man's link is about as solid as the link between water consumption and brain cancer. The author says that which is right needs little explanation, that President Obama made 699 speeches in his first term, and also proposed his healthcare reform plan in his first term. See the connection? Look closer... Closer... Alright, so it's not there. Whether or not the president made...

After a plane his wife was riding in had to make an emergency landing over the weekend, Republican presidential candidate and future leader of a group called Robot Nation, Mitt Romney, had this to say: "I appreciate the fact that she is on the ground, safe and sound. And I don't think she knows just how worried some of us were. When you have a fire in the aircraft, there's no place to go, exactly." He continued by saying,"...the windows don't open. I don't know why they don't do that. It's a real problem. So it's very dangerous... You can't find any oxygen from outside the aircraft to get in the aircraft, because the windows don't open." The New York Times  reported who reported the story - Ashley Parker - updated the matter, by saying, "...it was clear from the context that he was not being serious." I'm not sure if I buy that and if he was kidding, the guy has a very strange sense of humor. When one's w...