The Kind-Hearted Smart Aleck

On December 10th, 2018 at 9 am EST, we were presented with the worst article of the year. Via The Hill , right-wing shill Sharyl Attkisson released an op-ed entitled, "Mueller's findings don't matter." It only got worse from there. Let's dissect it now, shall we? Attkisson started her piece (of garbage) with this: "In part, it's the length of time that it's taken that has rendered special counsel Robert Mueller's probe functionally irrelevant." Tell that to the 33 individuals who have been charged thus far... "I submit that the die was largely cast prior to Mueller's appointment on May 17, 2017. Perhaps if there had been a quick investigation with prompt findings inside of a couple of months, things might be different. But nearly 19 months of speculation, breathless leaks and innuendo - true and false - have taken on lives of their own, providing time for each side to dig in." Apparently Ms. Attkisson believes federal ...

I've heard plenty of ridiculous arguments supporting legislation which bars transgenders from using public bathrooms of the gender with which they identify, but none were nearly as asinine as the one I read today. If you don't believe me, read what right-wing talk show host Rick Wiles recently said about the matter: "How about if I just urinate on your floor (Target spokeswoman Molly Snyder)? How about that, Molly? Because you're defecating on this nation. ... Our minds are being capture, Doc, by perverts (directed toward co-host Doc Burkhart). This is what happened in Germany. The Nazis were perverts. They took over Germany. It was a radical, socialist, homosexual movement called the Nazi Socialist Party. They're now in control of America, and sane people better rise up and oppose it quickly. This is just the beginning. ... It's either shut down Target or their type is going to shut down this nation, because there's no end to their insanity and their imm...

I'm both fascinated and frustrated with the election process in this country. One such double-edged sword aspect of the election cycle is the seemingly nonstop spin machine. Regardless of who wins or loses in a primary, expect all sides to present the results in the most positive light possible. Even though the concept of spin is inevitable in election years, having followed this primary season so closely, I'm getting a little unnerved by the following examples of spin:  1) "Hillary Clinton has more votes than Donald Trump!" No, I'm by no means a Donald Trump supporter. In fact, I think I'd vote for a dead squirrel named Lucky over him. However, while this bit of spin may technically be true, it's not a fully accurate comparison. Hillary Clinton has, at the primary's peak, had to square off with four other candidates. On the other side of the political spectrum, Donald Trump has had to deal with as many as sixteen other candidates. So the mathem...

Stephen Moore, "distinguished visiting fellow" for the conservative Heritage Foundation (yes, that's his actual title name), just published an article on the conservative Washington Times  entitled, "The lunacy of the left," to which I felt the need to respond. First off, to illustrate just how incredibly biased to the right Stephen Moore is, here are the titles of a few of his articles: - "The Fantasy That ObamaCare 'Is Working'" (Hmm, I went from uninsured due to preexisting conditions to insured, so... Where'd I put that invisible health insurance card again?) - "The Lie Obama Keeps Repeating About the Poor in America" (When it comes to honesty, let's compare President Obama with the two GOP frontrunners to replace him. According to Politifact , of the 577 graded Obama statements, 278 of them have been ruled as true or mostly true (48%), while 146 have been ruled as mostly false, false, or pants on fire (26%), for a n...

As regular readers will know, I've had a great deal of fun on my Twitter page on #GOPDebate nights. During the eight debates, I've posted between 20 and 50 sarcastic tweets at the expense of the seemingly endless candidates. This has resulted in a significant number of "likes," "retweets," compliments, multiple mentions on other websites, and yes, trolls. I guess it kind of comes with the territory, yet 99.9% of the time I read these trolls' comments, I can't help but shake my head and do my best Linda Blair impersonation, as my eyes roll back so far even she would be impressed. Just last night, I received a few such comments, three of which stood out from the rest. The tweet which generated most of the trolls' comments was this one: "Trump: 'Conservatives are all about conserving, except oil, the environment, money, & human life, you know, b/c of guns & stuff.' #GOPDebate" Responses: 1) "Your just projecti...

Actor Kurt Russell decided to show he's still a macho man when he went on an anti-gun control rant in a recent interview with the blog Hollywood Elsewhere . The has-been, I mean, "star," said this: "If you think gun control is going to change the terrorists' point of view, I think you're, like, out of your mind. I think it's absolutely insane. The problem - the problem that we're having right now to turn it around ... you may think you've got me worried about what you're gonna do? Dude, you're about to find out what I'm gonna do, and that's gonna worry you a lot more. And that's what we need. If I'm a hockey team and I've got some guy bearing down on me as a goaltender, I'm not concerned about what he's gonna do. I'm gonna make him concerned about what I'm gonna do... They can make a bomb pretty easily. So what? They can also get knives and stab you. What are you gonna do about that? They can also get ...

It appears pro-confederate anti-Muslims didn't take long to come up with a lovely post-San Bernardino meme. Earlier today, I stumbled upon this post courtesy of a friend on Facebook: "if the shooting by a window licking retard with a bowl haircut in south carolina is cause for banning the confederate battle flag, removing statues of confederate soldiers and erasing southern history then the shooting by the muslim in san bernardino is cause for banning the hijab, the quran, muslim symbols and all mosques on american soil" This is of course a prime example of the fallacy known as false equivalence. Islam is a religion. The First Amendment of the Constitution provides us the right to believe in and worship as we so choose. The last time I checked, the Confederacy is not a religion, so therefore the meme is comparing apples to oranges. If the author(s) of this meme wanted to be more consistent, they could say this: "The shooting by the Muslim in San Bernardino sh...

Just yesterday, I read the following article, which provides great detail of anti-LGBT Kentucky county clerk Kim Davis' love life via a flowchart: http://www.queerty.com/kim-davis-marriage-history-explained-in-one-handy-flowchart-20150904. This flowchart shows that Ms. Davis has been married four times to three different men and divorced three times. After posting this flowchart on my Twitter page (https://twitter.com/CraigRozniecki) and receiving a record (for me) 170 favorites and 206 retweets (thus far), I received multiple comments from the pro-Kim Davis camp. Allow me to share those tweets and why their comments are either wrong or irrelevant (or both). - "You libs can't just be happy with love wins, you have to go against Kim Davis rights!" - "All this stuff happened before she converted to Christianity in 2011. What happened before doesn't matter." - "She wasn't a Christian until 2011! You libs seem to forget that!" - ...

It's official: Stupid Facebook memes have become just as ubiquitous as Starbucks coffee shops. In fact, if anything, that may be understating matters. This especially seems to be the case after gun-related tragedies, like the one that took place in Charleston, South Carolina last week, come to the news-front. Just yesterday, I saw a Facebook meme which showcased the character Stewie from  Family Guy  sporting a gun and supposedly uttering these words: "So if guns kill people, I guess pencils mis spell words, cars drive drunk, and spoons make people fat." Yes, we've heard similar arguments before; yes, they've been debunked by Critical Thinking professors nationwide; and no, it doesn't seem these individuals will ever get the point, but still, I feel the need to rebut it. First off, I find it quite humorous that this meme's author, in trying to appear clever, actually misspelled the word misspell (no, it's not "mis spell"). However, give...

It's sad to think that a growing number of Americans can't seem to engage in civilized discourse with people of differing opinions. There are several reasons for this growing problem.  1) Talk radio - This medium is mostly dominated by the far-right end of the political spectrum and tends to be filled with more opinions, fallacies, and false information than facts. Die-hard listeners, however, tend to take this false or misleading information as factual, which makes it difficult to debate them on the matter, even when sourcing fact-checking sites or the like. 2) Cable news - Of the three major cable news networks, CNN tends to be the most "fair and balanced" (sorry, Fox), yet it's often times the least viewed of the three networks. MSNBC leans to the left and Fox News leans to the right. So if liberals want to hear that their opinions are right, they can tune into MSNBC and conservatives can do likewise and tune into Fox News.  3) Partisan written and o...

Like anyone, there are comments I receive on posts which can make me laugh and/or smile, others which leave me puzzled, and yet others which result in me reaching for some Aleve. For the first set of comments, I will typically leave a positive response in return. With regard to the second set of comments, I'll typically attempt to respond to the question(s) the best I can, to hopefully alleviate any confusion. Lastly, when it comes to the third set of comments, it all depends on the tone of the comment whether or not I respond. The third and final set of comments I've received can be broken down into two subsets: 1) Angry/insulting and 2) Condescending/know-it-all (but without factual support). Now, I'll admit, when I receive a quick, "You're a (bleeping) idiot! You don't know what the hell you're talking about" kind of comment, I will typically, rightly or wrongly, respond with a short, wiseass remark of my own. It's always been my philosoph...

I read an article about friend-zoning the other day, which I found to be, I'll say interesting. The title of the article is, "Gender Block: Why the 'nice guy' stereotype is so dangerous," and was written by feminist Hillary Di Menna of This Magazine . When reading the article, I found myself to be in a peculiar position - for most people would regard me as a feminist, yet I've also been cast as the "nice guy" more times than I can count. Ms. Di Menna starts her article with this: "Nice guys always finish last. Whenever they treat a woman like a friend, it doesn't end up in sex! Sometimes, the guy will buy flowers and gifts for the woman, despite the fact she has expressed zero interest romantically, and again - no sex! This woman often becomes re-classified as an ice queen, a b**ch, a friend zoner - even when, in reality, she may feel betrayed or confused, having thought her friend was actually, well, her friend. And the guy - who, to re...

Oddly enough, for all of the pro-gun control blogs I've written over the past few years, one has appeared to garner more attention (and comments) than any other. It was written on April 12th of last year, is entitled, "A man tries to make gun-control proponents look dumb through his 'smart' aleck experiment, but makes himself look dumb in the process," and can be read at the following URL: http://thekind-heartedsmartaleck.blogspot.com/2013/04/a-man-tries-to-make-gun-control.html Just today, I received this comment in response to the blog and some follow-up comments which were made by readers and myself: "Hey Numbnutz. Do you also want to ban alcohol bc of drunk drivers that kill people? I don't see you arguing that point." "Numbnutz," eh? In a span of just 23 words, Critical Thinking professors would likely debate one another on just how many informal fallacies this individual committed. The probable number is between one and six (i...

While I'm by no means a fan of confrontation, especially in relationships (dating, friendships, or otherwise), it is essential at times to either check the status of a relationship or to move it forward in one manner or another. However, I've noticed two common problems with these confrontations: 1) Some people refuse to engage in such discussions, and 2) When confronted on an issue, many refuse to completely own up to their mistakes. While I understand the mindset of those in group 1, as I've come to learn, the longer people ignore problems in a relationship, the more likely it is that said problems will come back to bite them somewhere down the line. As the saying goes, the first step to solving a problem is admitting one exists. If one doesn't admit this problem, how will he or she know one is present, and how will they then tackle and defeat said problem? It would be strange to hear someone say they enjoy confrontation, but whether or not we enjoy it, it's nec...

Over the past week, I've noticed a right-wing acquaintance of mine posting a multitude of "articles" from a site I didn't recognize, which goes by the name of, yournation.org. Noticing the trend of absurd article titles, I decided to research this site for myself, and have concluded that it appears to be a bigger joke than Anna Kournikova and Ryan Leaf's careers in the professional world of sports combined. Currently, on yournation.org's homepage, the "about us" section has this written: "Coming soon..." All of the articles are written by "admin." Yes, it only gets better from there. On the homepage, here is a list of the "fair and balanced" articles: - "Fox Hosts Explode On Liberal Co-Host As Things Get Heated" - "GOP Finally Starts to Push Back on Obama Executive Order Abuse" - "Fox News: How Does Al Sharpton Still Have a Job?" - "White House Chef Quits Job Due To Michelle...

It may only be March, but conservative talk show host Steve Deace is already trying to earn himself the award for Stupidest Column of the Year with a "piece" that was published in The Washington Times  yesterday, entitled, "The intolerant same-sex lobby - Leftist media shills should examine their own rigid views." Since I found this article to be so incredibly, for lack of a better word - stupid, I'll dissect it paragraph by paragraph. Let's begin... Deace starts his I-woke-up-on-the-wrong-side-of-the-bed-with-a-hangover-after-dreaming-about-having-intercourse-with-a-guy-on-MSNBC rant with this: "Remember when 'liberal' meant 'tolerant' or 'open-minded'?" Yes, those were the days... What are you driving at, Douchey? ...I mean, Deucey? "Nowadays, the perpetually offended have decided they don't have to debate, and they're so convinced that their own intellectual flatulence doesn't stink, they don...