The Kind-Hearted Smart Aleck

In recent years, there's been a growing number of people claiming the two major parties in the United States are one and the same. While I have long asserted the issues I have with a two-party system, I'm not going to beat around the bush; the Democratic and Republican Parties are about as identical as Danny DeVito and Arnold Schwarzenegger. The biggest difference between the two parties is mindset. Democrats need consistent proof to persuade them on an issue, whereas Republicans need a sliver of evidence to prove or disprove a point. There are exceptions, of course, which often poses a paradox for the Republican Party - as they don't believe there are exceptions to every rule; they believe exceptions are the rule.  Just recently, New Jersey Governor Mikie Sherrill announced, since 2023, 400 Garden-State noncitizens have voted in elections. This has set off a firestorm amongst Republicans, as they've long-claimed rampant election fraud; that the 2020 presidential electi...

Being as progressive as I am, it's getting a tad tiring having to wade through all the far-right talking points I read in the editorial and letter-to-the-editor pages of the Columbus Dispatch . The latest one comes courtesy of Dick Alexander from Pickerington, Ohio. In today's paper, his letter-to-the-editor, entitled, "Anti-Gun Zealots Disrespect Constitution," was printed and said this: "The Associated Press article 'One nation, divided over guns' in the Sunday Dispatch was a waste of the paper it was printed on. Everyone knows about the divide. The end result desired by gun opponents is pretty simple to accomplish: change the U.S. Constitution. The anti-gun groups want to achieve their end results by using a tactic of President Barack Obama, by circumventing the Constitution. If 60 percent of the public wanted to restrict guns, it would still require changing our Constitution to achieve that goal. The left’s mantra is always the same: Can...

Texas Senator and craziest person this side of anywhere - Ted Cruz - may be cuckoo for cocoa puffs for a very good reason - his father, Rafael. When talking to a group of Oklahoma gun rights advocates earlier this month, Rafael Cruz said the following: "And of course, this leads us -- when there are no moral absolutes -- leads us to sexual immorality, leads us to sexual abuse, leads us to perversion. And, of course, no hope. No hope." Ironically enough, according to USA Today , "Nearly 17,000 people have suffered sexual abuse at the hands of the clergy since 1950." Those dam* atheist clergymen! I tend to find absolutes absolutely ridiculous. "Thou shalt not kill." That sounds simple and moral enough. However, what about in times of war? Defending oneself against an intruder? If Mr. Cruz is anti-war and anti-gun, perhaps he does believe in moral absolutes after all, but I'm thinking that's highly unlikely. If Cruz does believe in war...

The concept of sin fascinates me. It's perhaps partially due to the fact religion fascinates me. While I am in no way religious, I still find it to be a fascinating concept, and enjoy reading and pondering about it. Is sin subjective? Is there one set of sins according to religion and the after-life and another set according to living humans and the present life, or are they one and the same? Whenever I hear the word "sin," I immediately think of the Ten Commandments, which go as follows: 1. "Thou shalt have no other gods before me" 2. "Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image" 3. "Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain" 4. "Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy" 5. "Honour thy father and thy mother" 6. "Thou shalt not kill" 7. "Thou shalt not commit adultery" 8. "Thou shalt not steal" 9. "Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neig...