The Kind-Hearted Smart Aleck

Actor and notable "good guy" Matt Damon has come under fire in recent days for some comments he made regarding sexual assault and harassment in an interview on ABC News's Popcorn With Peter Travers . Given the incredibly hot-button status of the matter at this current juncture, perhaps it would have been wise for Damon to have gone a more cautious route, but I digress. Before providing my take on things, here's what Damon said to Travers: - "I think we're in this watershed moment. I think it's great. I think it's wonderful that women are feeling empowered to tell their stories, and it's totally necessary ... I do believe that there's a spectrum of behavior, right? And we're going to have to figure - you know, there's a difference between, you know, patting someone on the butt and rape or child molestation, right? Both of those behaviors need to be confronted and eradicated without question, but they shouldn't be conflated, right?...

Sadly, it seems I continue to break Twitter records for likes and retweets after horrendous events. That too was the case this last week, following the terror attack in Manhattan, where I posted this: "Manhattan attack: 8 killed, 11 injured Trumpsters: 'Muslims are evil! Let's kick them out now!' Las Vegas shooting: 58 killed, 546 injured Trumpsters: 'It's too soon to talk about this.'" 13,933 Likes, 8,151 Retweets https://twitter.com/CraigRozniecki/status/925496323578695680 If curious, you can view all of my posts at this link:  https://twitter.com/CraigRozniecki

Speaking on MSNBC's Morning Joe  on Wednesday, journalist Bob Woodward had some interesting comments regarding Democratic presidential frontrunner Hillary Clinton, as he said the following: "There is something unrelaxed about the way she is communicating. Has nobody told her that the microphone works? Because she always keeps it up here. The genius of Reagan was...Reagan kept it down low." NPR's Cokie Roberts responded to Woodward's critique by saying, "These are rallies, though, and it's hard to do that at a rally." Kristin Soltis Anderson then added, "When she's loud and feisty, she's trying to support this narrative that she's fighting for us." Later in the show, Woodward brought up the topic again, saying, "I'm sorry to dwell on the tone issue, but there is something here, where Hillary Clinton suggests that she's almost not comfortable with herself. And self-acceptance is something that you communicate ...

Remember when then President George W. Bush visited a mosque not long after the 9/11 attacks? If you answered no, you're not alone, for it seems many Republican politicians don't recall this event either. Even before Barack Obama visited a mosque yesterday, which was the first time he had done so during his presidency, Fox News, Donald Trump, Marco Rubio, and others felt the need to criticize him for it. Speaking to Fox News' Greta Van Susteren, Trump said, "I think that we can go to lots of places. I don't know, maybe he feels comfortable there. We have a lot of problems in this country, Greta. There are a lot of places he can go and he chose a mosque. I saw that just a little while ago. So that's his decision, it's fine." Rubio went one step further, as he made the following comments: "I'm tired of being divided against each other for political reasons like this president's done. Always pitting people against each other. Always! ...

I'm honestly starting to wonder who's in charge of going over letters-to-the-editor for the Columbus Dispatch , if he or she even reads the letters sent to the paper, and why this person still has a job. On a number of occasions, I've been lured into reading a letter due to a headline which made me think, "This will likely be so bad it's funny," only to discover the headline completely misrepresented the content of the piece. Take, for example, a letter I read this morning, written by one Ric Cacchione of Columbus, OH, and entitled, "Ban sought by Trump might not be enough." Upon first seeing that headline, I thought to myself, as most common-sense individuals would, "This letter deals with Trump's call to ban Muslims from traveling to this country and the author of it is so extreme, he or she feels Trump's ban doesn't go far enough." Here's how the letter actually reads: "I respond to the Associated Press article...

After receiving some criticism from both the left and the right regarding his anti-Muslim comments, Republican presidential candidate Ben Carson went on the Fox News show, Hannity , to try and elaborate on his previous statements. On the program, Carson and host Sean Hannity engaged in the following back-and-forth: Sean Hannity: "Was that what you were thinking in your mind when you were answering the question, in other words, the way Muslim theocracies currently operate?" Ben Carson: "That's correct. I mean, they currently do not tend to operate the same way that our system does. Now, if someone has a Muslim background and they're willing to reject those tenets and to accept the way of life that we have, and clearly will swear to place our Constitution above their religion, then, of course, they will be considered infidels and heretics, but at least I would then be quite willing to support them." Hannity: "All right, so what I hear in your statem...

I recently wrote a bit about the new "dad bod" wave and briefly talked about how it seems to set a double-standard as far as men and women are concerned. While, in the eyes of the media, men can often times get away with having a few extra pounds, women are unfairly criticized if they possess this additional weight, even after giving birth to children. After posting that blog yesterday, I decided to do some more research on the matter, and discovered, as often seems to be the case, most people have misconstrued what the initial message was with this so-called "movement." Oddly enough, this new "dad bod" wave was started by Clemson Sophomore Mackenzie Phillips writing a piece for The Odyssey , entitled, "Why Girls Love The Dad Bod." She started her article by writing this: "In case you haven't noticed lately, girls are all about that dad bod. I hadn't heard about this body type until my roommate mentioned it... ...The dad bod is...

I personally don't care whether a majority of women find "dad bods" sexy or not, but I do care about the apparent societal double-standard regarding the matter. The term "dad bods" has been trending the past couple of weeks or so. According to my translation, it can be defined as "a man who isn't obese, but doesn't take care of himself a great deal either. He may do five sit-ups daily, lift 1-lb. dumbbells (remote controls) off and on for weeks at a time, and knows when to cut back from drinking ten beers to five beers in a sitting, but besides that, he's pretty much a lazy bum, and his beer-belly shows it." Ever since this started trending, guys have been celebrating, saying, "This is great news for us! We can be slobs and women will find us attractive for it!" Honestly, though, I'm not going to place much faith in the trend until I read such numbers from a reputable polling firm. Whether the trend has any validity or not...

Of course, like everyone else with a semi-functioning heart and conscience, I'm always saddened by tragedies of any kind. This, of course, includes acts of terror. However, whenever a terrorist act is committed by Muslims, I'm also troubled by many people's insistence that all Muslims worldwide denounce these awful acts. There's a growing chorus among these people, which includes a solid majority of conservatives, but also a growing number of moderates and liberals as well. My questions are, why is this necessary, and why does this seem to only surround people of the Islam faith?  If some Muslims with a public voice want to go on the record and say, "For the record, these people's acts were cowardly, not at all representative of the teachings of Islam, and I (or we) fully denounce these individuals and their actions," then that's fine. But why do a growing number of people deem it as necessary? Just because an extremely small percentage of a certain...

Over the past several weeks and months, I can't tell you how many times I've read or heard stories which focused on female victims of sexual assault needing to take more responsibility to prevent these crimes from taking place, and frankly, I'm sick of it. Why, so often, do people place the full weight of responsibility on the shoulders of sexual assault victims, as opposed to the actual perpetrators of the sexual assaults? Almost every time I hear people talking about such situations, they mention one or more of the following: - "She shouldn't have been wearing something so revealing. She was kind of asking for it." - "She should have known better than to have drank so much at that party. That was pretty stupid." - "She should have come prepared, brought some Mace, a gun, or something." - "She should have brought some friends along that she fully trusted." - "She shouldn't have flirted with/been so nice to ...

Former Tampa Bay Buccaneers and Indianapolis Colts head coach Tony Dungy has come under fire recently for a comment he made with regard to St. Louis Rams draft pick Michael Sam, whom came out as being gay prior to the draft. Dungy told the Tampa Tribune  that he wouldn't have drafted Sam, "not because I don't believe Michael Sam should have a chance to play, but I wouldn't want to deal with all of it. It's not going to be totally smooth...things will happen." In response, most of the media has been rather critical of Dungy's comment(s). Michael Sam, himself, responded very well, and lightened the mood a bit with a joke when asked about Dungy's quote. I, for one, have mixed feelings on the matter. Tony Dungy has a right to his own opinion, just like we all do. The problem here isn't that, however. The problem is that Dungy makes it sound like players whom attract a lot of media attention, for whatever reason, aren't worth the trouble. They c...

I'm not sure why I just thought of this, but there seems to be a growing number of people whom will say the following when asked what their feelings are toward homosexuality: "Yeah, I think people are born that way, but I still think they shouldn't do it, you know?" These are typically members of the conservative evangelical movement whom now know someone that is openly gay. Now when hearing or reading a person utter such words, I'd have to respond in the following manner: Me: "So, you're saying people are born gay?" Them: "Yup" Me: "Yet they still shouldn't engage in any form of physical/sexual intimacy with people they're innately attracted to sexually?" Them: "Nope" Me: "Were you born the way you are? Meaning, have you always been sexually attracted to the opposite sex?" Them: "Yup" Me: "Would it be right of me and logically consistent from your vantage point to then...

Yahoo movie blogger Mark Deming recently wrote an article which made me chuckle a bit. The title of this article was, "Michelle Obama's Oscar appearance getting thumbs down from conservative critics." What, like that's a surprise? I'd be more shocked to read that the capital city of New Hampshire is Concord (it is) than one that says conservative critics give Michelle Obama's guest appearance at the Oscars a thumbs down. When's the last time conservative critics praised Michelle Obama or any Obama for anything? I'll give you a week's worth of time to research the matter. ::a week passes us by:: Find anything yet? I didn't think so. The last time conservative critics praised Michelle Obama for anything will also be the first time they did such a thing. So, what are conservative critics saying about the First Lady's appearance at the Oscars, as she read off the winner for Best Picture? Conservative columnist of the Washington Post - ...

Word came forth today, which confirmed earlier rumors that Republican presidential candidate, Mitt Romney, required his running-mate shortlisters to provide him with a full 10 years of their tax returns. As many know, he's come forward by saying he'll only release a maximum of two years worth of his tax returns. This included the person who eventually won the job - Paul Ryan. After Romney selected Ryan as his vice presidential candidate, the two men were interviewed together and Ryan declared that like Romney, he too would release two years of his tax returns. While this appeared to be a smart and sensible decision to most unaware of the rumors regarding how Romney vetted his potential running mates, it may wind up backfiring on the Republican ticket before the election rolls around. Once this bit of news becomes more widespread, what are voters supposed to think? "Mr. Romney - you required that all of your possible running mates release 10 years of their tax returns t...

I watched the Virginia Tech/Georgia Tech game last night on ESPN, where the Hokies prevailed 20-17 in overtime. Upon watching this game and many other Virginia Tech games over the past few years, I've noticed something - their special teams (nicknamed Beamer Ball) are held to a completely different standard than any other college football team. What Beamer Ball was most well known for were blocked kicks (punts, field goals and/or extra points). Through these blocks, the special teams unit would often times score themselves and if not, set up the offense in great field position to either completely alter the momentum of the game and/or place the final stamp on the team's victory. Virginia Tech led the nation in blocked kicks in the '90s, but their quantity of blocks has decreased quite substantially in the past several years and it has not gone unnoticed by announcers. Especially over the past 2-3 years, I can't tell you how many times I've heard an announcer sugge...

I'm getting a little tired of hearing the GOP's talking point about Democrats being about big government. They're the "tax and spend" liberals! I'm not saying this claim is necessarily inaccurate. Democrats do tend to like to spend, but guess what? So do Republicans. The Republicans of the past 30+ years are no longer those truly conservative, small-government Republicans. Spending increased by leaps and bounds under Ronald Reagan, George H.W. Bush and George W. Bush. Spending increased under Bill Clinton as well, but not nearly as much as the three before-mentioned Republican presidents. The two parties just differ on how to prioritize the spending. Democrats tend to spend more time worrying about how to distribute money to social causes, like to health care, education, etc. Republicans tend to be more focused on defense-spending and cutting taxes for the wealthy. Both parties spend an extraordinary amount of money, but if anything in recent decades, the ...

Never did I think I'd receive such a lovely e-mail and be defriended due to poll results I posted on my Facebook page. I read about this very poll at the following site - http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/11/21/fox-news-viewers-less-informed-people-fairleigh-dickinson_n_1106305.html?ref=fb&src=sp&comm_ref=false The full poll results can be read at this site - http://publicmind.fdu.edu/2011/knowless/ What was the headline regarding this very poll? That regular Fox News viewers are less informed due to the network's stories and commentary than if they didn't watch the news at all. The poll focused on three questions. The first pertained to the protests in Egypt which helped bring down the regime there. The question asked if the protests were successful in attaining this very goal. Of twelve prominent sources (NPR, The Daily Show, Sunday Morning Political News Show, National Newspaper, Political Blog/News Website, National News Broadcast, CNN, MSNBC, Talk Ra...

Yeah, sometimes I get the two mixed up with one another. There seems to be a thin line at times between the two, arrogant and ignorant. In fact, some whom are arrogant are ignorant. I bring this up due to a discussion I overheard a while back at a friend's house. I decided to stay out of the conversation, because I really didn't feel like getting into any debate. But the more I thought about what they said, the more I have to shake my head and roll my eyes. The discussion dealt with immigrants and speaking fluent English. I did open my mouth and pointed out, "You know, we don't even really speak English here. Our English is somewhat different than that which is spoken in England, as well as Australia." They agreed, but that was the last time I opened my mouth about the subject. One complaint was that at places such as Wal-Mart, at the quick check-in service, there are two language options from which to choose: "English" and Spanish. Both parties co...