The Kind-Hearted Smart Aleck

Another day, another fact-check of a social-media post. This one is titled, "Biden-Harris accomplishments." - " Allowed 15M unvetted illegals into the country" False. This is malarkey to the max. How many undocumented immigrants were in the country when COVID struck, under Trump? 11.48M. How many were in the country at last count, under Biden? 11.5M. How many were in the country in 2006, when George W. Bush was president? 11.55M. 2006: 11.55M 2019: 11.48M 2022: 11.50M Call me crazy, but those numbers come across as awfully similar, leading me to believe this claim is complete bullsh*t. There aren’t 15M undocumented immigrants total in this country, let alone during just the Biden administration. https://immigration.procon.org/us-undocumented-immigrant-population-estimates/ - "Historic inflation crisis" Sweet dear, baby Jebus, this is a tired talking point. What was inflation when Trump entered office? 2.5%. What was it when COVID hit the country? 2.5%. In ...

No, I'm not a fan of the selfie. Some may even call me a selfie-Scrooge, but in any case, there are some locations where a person should never take a selfie. Take a recent story I read about five burglary suspects in California. Ed Mazza of The Huffington Post reported the following about the incident: "An alleged burglar keeping watch outside a California home while her pals ransacked and robbed the place took a moment to snap a selfie, the Los Angeles Police Department said. Here's the raw video taken from one of the surveillance cameras at the home and posted on YouTube by the LAPD." Yes, that actually happened, and can be found at this link: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/09/11/burglar-selfie_n_5802026.html On that note, here are the top ten times when you shouldn't take a selfie: 10. While reading the book,  I'm Too Confident For Selfies 9. While jumping over a hurdle at the Olympics 8. After taking the snap from center on an all-ou...

Following the George Zimmerman ruling and President Obama's emotional speech regarding race in America, it seems that many far-right wing media outlets and talking heads tried to make it a point that racism doesn't exist in this country and George Zimmerman had every right to shoot and kill Trayvon Martin. One such person was neoconservative columnist of the right-wing site National Review Victor Davis Hanson, who wrote an article entitled, "Facing Facts about Race - Young black males are at greater risk from their peers than from the police or white civilians." Yes, it only gets better from there. Here's one bit from Hanson's article: "Is it ethical for the president to weigh in on a civil-rights case apparently being examined by his own Justice Department? The president knows that if it is true that African-American males are viewed suspiciously, it is probably because statistically they commit a disproportionate amount of violent crime. If that ...

On March 7th, homeless Navy veteran James Kelly, in trying to find a doughnut which had been thrown in the trash, was given a ticket by Houston police for "disturbing the contents of a garbage can." Seriously? So what's the guy supposed to do? Go door-to-door, knock, and beg to be let in for a meal? To give Santa Claus a call and ask for Mr. Claus to pick him up and take him for a cross-country ride while he eats a lot of food? To pull off his best Jesus impersonation and make a great quantity of fish and bread out of virtually nothing? While I can understand Houston Police wanting to keep litter off the streets, litter can be picked up and thrown away. After dying of starvation, a person like Navy veteran James Kelly, can't be brought back to life. Especially having served our country, Mr. Kelly deserves more than to just be left on the street to starve. Perhaps the cop just wanted the doughnut to himself... http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/03/13/james-kelly-...

Have you ever known of a husband and a wife whom never cheated on one another, never abused one another, yet after a while, couldn't stand each other, to the point of divorcing? Republican Iowa State Representative Ted Grassman wants to make that illegal. Unless a person could prove his or her spouse had committed some kind of a crime, had committed adultery, or had abandoned the family, it'd be illegal for that person to successfully file for divorce. With regard to wanting to make "no-fault divorce" illegal, Grassman said the following: "This basically is an attempt on my part to keep fathers in the home. I sincerely believe that the family is the foundation of this nation and this nation will go the direction of our families. If our families break up, so will this nation." He then got personal when he talked about his daughter and son-in-law recently divorcing and the effect it will have on his granddaughter, saying: "There's a 16-year ol...

A church facing a lawsuit from former members whom have accused church officials of covering up sex abuse allegations is thinking about using the First Amendment as its defense. Sovereign Grace Ministries saw a former member indicted this past December on charges that he molested multiple boys in the 1980s, and is now dealing with the very real possibility that multiple members covered up these alleged acts. Seeming to hint that the church was going to lean on the First Amendment as the members' defense, University of Virginia law professor Douglas Laycock commented on the matter with the following: "To the extent that there's a First Amendment issue they're talking about, it is not about sexual abuse as a First Amendment right. It is about the church deciding for itself how to respond to claims of misconduct among its members." So, let me get this straight. Many members of the church don't believe in the separation of church and state, yet when it com...

I've been hearing and reading some sportswriters, analysts, and even comedians lay claim that the Manti Te'o case fits the bill of a victimless crime. Assuming for a moment that Te'o only briefly lied about his girlfriend at the Heisman Trophy ceremony because he was embarrassed by his findings two days earlier when receiving a strange phone call from the woman who had pretended to be his girlfriend and who he was told had died of leukemia two months earlier, how would this be a victimless crime? This college kid thought he had found a special connection with a woman online. They supposedly spent a lot of time communicating, opened up about having feelings for one another, etc. Not long after he was informed of his grandmother dying, he was told that this girlfriend of his had perished from leukemia. Two people he felt extremely close to, to his knowledge, died within a week of each other. Two months later, he received a phone call from the woman who had allegedly died ...

The entertainingly absurd right-wing comments pertaining to guns never seems to end. The most recent? Incoming Texas State Representative Kyle Kacal said the following: "I've heard of people being killed playing ping-pong - ping-pongs are more dangerous than guns. Flat-screen TVs are injuring more kids today than anything." That's right, ladies and gentlemen. It's not people with guns we need to worry about. It's people with "ping-pongs" we need to worry about. It's falling television sets we need to worry about. In 2011, over 19,000 were killed via gun and 29 people were killed by way of falling televisions in this country. 19,000? 29? A 655 : 1 ratio? Yeah, that's the same thing. As a matter of fact, the 1 in the ratio outweighs the 655. It's math - Texas style! I have not seen any reports about ping-pong-related deaths, but in light of Mr. Kacal's comments, the FBI has now placed Forrest Gump atop its Most Wanted List http://...

In terms of national news, it has been a very sad couple of weeks when it comes to gun violence in this country. From former Kansas City Chiefs linebacker Javon Belcher shooting and killing his girlfriend before ending his own life to the mall shooting in Oregon to the elementary school shooting in Connecticut a couple days ago, it has been a very sad couple of weeks. Following each and every one of these tragedies, gun control advocates have been told, "Now's not the time to talk about gun control," while gun enthusiasts have simultaneously been attempting to defend gun rights and usage in this country - some going so far as to insinuate that guns are being unfairly scapegoated. Of all the gun defenses I've heard or read about in recent days, two have to be my favorite. They are: 1) "Think criminals care about gun control? Regardless of the laws, they'll find a way to get a gun and kill as intended." and 2) "Gun control laws won't elimi...

Missouri Republican Senate candidate, Todd Akin, recently made headlines with his recent claim that women have magical vaginas, which push aside any sperm from a raper to prevent pregnancy. Here I thought I didn't understand women. Now it's North Dakota Republican congressman (and Senate candidate) Rick Berg making the headlines. It's now been documented that Mr. Berg cast a vote which would have criminalized mothers whom decide to have an abortion with a Class AA felony. In this bill, incest and/or rape were of no matter. The only time when an abortion would be allowed is if the mother's health was in jeopardy. If we were to create a hybrid of Mr. Akin and Berg's views, this is how it would look: Women's vaginas have magical powers, for when raped, they have a way of closing a hole somewhere to prevent the sperm from entering and becoming pregnant. In the off-chance a pregnancy occurs via rape, however, and the woman chooses to have an abortion, she shall b...