The Kind-Hearted Smart Aleck

I got into an interesting yet frustrating discussion the other night regarding the election. I was joined by two fellow "younger" progressives, as well as two more middle-aged conservatives. The two conservatives were "excited" about Donald Trump's election, while the three progressives often provided a WTF look in response to their seeming giddiness. Opinions were flung around faster than you can say "o-face," voices were raised, interruptions were frequent, and it came to the point where I felt the need to raise my hand so I could be called upon to speak. When I finally got my chance to talk, interruptions and denials were fast and frequent, before I finally spoke up about these rude breaks in my responses, and heard, "I'm/We're listening." This, of course, wasn't the case, and I feel is a key factor in our country's seemingly increasing problem of being (un)able to engage in civilized discourse with those on the other side ...

While many say it's a no-no to ever discuss politics with another person, I think it would be healthy for more people to do so. The problem is that it's getting ever more difficult to civilly discuss such matters with people of differing viewpoints because many people get their "facts" from different sources, these sources usually aren't consistently reliable, and "facts" often times get blurred with opinions. Sadly, it's gotten to the point where, when I debunked a conspiracy theory of another individual's, he countered that with, "Well, when you think about it, there really isn't such a thing as facts." In other words, "facts" are what we make of them. So long as we believe something to be true, it is, because it can't be proven with 100% certain that it's inaccurate. A big problem is that many liberals and Democrats tend to get their news from sources like: MSNBC, The Daily Show, internet memes, and many con...

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...

I just saw the new film "Ted" last Sunday and while I found the movie to be utterly hilarious and wouldn't mind seeing it again sometime, I found it to be interesting on a personal level, for as I soon came to discover, I am like someone's "Ted". She and I have been friends for 10 or so years now and while we've gone through some rocky times and have had some rather large gaps between communications, we've found a way to pick up right where we left off whenever we do communicate and maintain a decent friendship. The problem for us has always been that she's always wanted something more than the friendship and it's never happened. Either I was involved in a relationship at the outset (with my girlfriend of 2 years) or she was married (for a few years) or engaged (for a year or two) or I moved a ways away, which would complicate matters quite a bit, especially with her having a kid. So things just have never developed into anything greater ...