The Kind-Hearted Smart Aleck

Freshman Representative Ilhan Omar has come under scrutiny for a pair of tweets she posted over the weekend. Members of both parties have called her messages "anti-Semitic," to which she's now apologized. Delving deeper into the matter, though, were her posts actually anti-Semitic? I don't think they were and think politicians need to do a better job of looking at sensitive matters like anti-Semitism with nuance and not a black-and-white mentality. Rep. Omar's first tweet came in response to the following Glenn Greenwald post: "GOP Leader Kevin McCarthy threatens punishment for @IlhanMN and @RashidaTlaib over their criticisms of Israel. It's stunning how much time US political leaders spend defending a foreign nation even if it means attacking free speech rights of Americans." Ms. Omar responded with, "It's all about the Benjamins baby" When asked about who she was referring to, Omar said, "AIPAC!" (American Israel Pub...

On a recent episode of the Fox News show The Next Revolution with Steve Hilton , conservative commentator and inspirer of the creatures in Alien  - Ann Coulter - said this: "They (Republicans) were exposed as a 'uniparty,' indistinguishable from the Democrats..." Let's break down just how similar the parties are: - Democrats believe in women's reproductive rights; Republicans don't. - Democrats believe in equal pay for equal work; Republicans don't. - Democrats believe in immigration reform and protecting DREAMers; Republicans don't. - Democrats believe in building from the bottom up; Republicans believe in trickle-down economics. - Democrats believe in tax reform benefitting the middle- and lower-classes at the expense of the upper-class; Republicans believe in tax reform benefitting the upper-class at the expense of the middle- and lower-classes. - Democrats believe in expanding education; Republicans believe in removing education...

While I agree that every person should be afforded the right to possess and share their opinions, why does it seem cable news networks and talk radio programs hire the loudest, craziest individuals to share their insane viewpoints? Case and point, Jeffrey Lord of CNN. The cable news network's political commentator and Donald Trump butt-wiper just recently compared Donald Trump to Martin Luther King. His full quote is as follows: "Think of President Trump as the Martin Luther King of healthcare. When I was a kid, President Kennedy did not want to introduce the civil rights bill because he said it wasn't popular, he didn't have the votes for it, et cetera. Dr. King kept putting people in the streets in harm's way to put the pressure on so that the bill would be introduced. That's what finally worked." Apparently, Jeffrey Lord knows comparisons and logic about as well as Beethoven knew disco. Martin Luther King fought to provide millions of people with eq...

Whenever I go out to play cards, there's roughly a 50/50 chance I'll hear a Trumpster go on a rant. That was indeed the case this past Saturday night. Instead of getting into a heated exchange as tends to be the result, I decided to listen, just in case I had been missing something when it comes to understanding the average Trumpster. After listening to the man rant for several minutes, I decided, at least to that point, I sadly had a "bigly" excellent understanding of the average Trumpster. The pain arguments this Trumpster made were arguments I had heard ad nauseum throughout election season. There were as follows: 1) Barack Obama didn't do one good thing as president 2) He is the king of liars 3) Donald Trump isn't a regular politician who has been corrupted by the system, which makes him more trustworthy than the average politician 4) Contrary to popular belief, Trump isn't a bigot; he's just smart 5) Last, but certainly not least, Trum...

Earlier today, some Trump supporters took to Twitter to try and mock anti-Trumpers' #NotMyPresident hashtag with their own, #NotMySuperBowl. They obviously thought this was clever, but as so often seems to be the case of Trumpsters, their attempt at being witty here failed, and failed quite epically at that. To try and compare #NotMyPresident with #NotMySuperBowl is a prime example of false equivalence. The #NotMyPresident hashtag was in response to the result of the presidential election, the final contest in the race to become our next president. The #NotMySuperBowl hashtag, however, was in response to two semifinal games, which of course means there's one remaining. If Trumpsters wanted to properly compare the two, they could have gone with a #NotMyElection hashtag, but then would run the risk of being mistaken as both "Never Hillary" and "Never Trump," when that likely wouldn't be the case, especially of the latter. If these Trump supporters had aw...

I can't count the number of times I've heard or read Republicans state during this election cycle, "How did this happen? How did Donald Trump become our nominee? He's not representative of the party!" Sadly, the monster known as Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump has been in the making for a number of years, and as far as the modern-day GOP is concerned, he is representative. Let's first take a look at how Donald Trump has been able to win support through the 2016 election process: 1) Stoking fear about Mexicans; 2) Casting Muslims as terrorists or, at the very least, terrorist sympathizers; 3) Resorting to online conspiracies over fact-checkers debunking said conspiracies; 4) Painting Democrats as criminals; 5) Depicting minorities as moochers; 6) Repeating falsehoods and fallacies; 7) Disrespecting women; 8) Specifics are for suckers; 9) The mainstream media is lame; 10) Failure is spelled c-o-m-p-r-o-m-i-s-e, 11) Symbols over substance; 12) Shou...

To start his radio program yesterday, the man trying to make tinfoil sexy again, Glenn Beck, said this: "Transgender bathrooms have come out of nowhere and are being jammed down our throat. I guarantee you, I guarantee you the next stop on this train is pedophilia. They will normalize pedophilia." The slippery slope is a commonly used fallacy right-wing media personalities and politicians have resorted to over the years, especially when it comes to the LGBT community. When the debate was over gay marriage, these individuals would say, "If we legalize gay marriage, what next? Are we going to legalize polygamy? Bestiality? Pedophilia?" Now, I could potentially see polygamy being legalized, because like with marriages between heterosexual and homosexual couples, the relationship is between consenting adults. That isn't the case with regard to bestiality and pedophilia, however, which makes the comparison ludicrous. Similarly, Glenn Beck's slippery slope, as...

My fellow liberals, progressives, Democrats, let's all take a deep breath and try to relax a little bit. Actually, let's make that several deep breaths. Play some nature music, smoke from a bong in Colorado, do whatever it takes to ease the tension which has been building over the past several weeks. I'll give you a few moments to do that... :: takes a nap :: Okay, now that I've given you all a couple hours to relax (yes, it was a lovely nap), I hope you won't be angered by what I'm about to say... Of the handful of Democratic candidates who ran for president this year, from the very start, I favored Bernie Sanders. My dream ticket has been Bernie Sanders/Elizabeth Warren (or vice versa) for quite some time. Even though the Vermont senator was an underdog in the state, I voted for Sanders in the Ohio Primary. He fell short, unfortunately, but even though I was disappointed with the result, I accepted it. The same goes for the likely outcome of the primarie...

Approximately five out of four times I hear someone attempt to make a comparison publicly known via the media, they fail miserably, yes, at both comparisons and fractions. Just the latest example comes courtesy of Spartanburg County, South Carolina Sheriff Chuck Wright, who said the following at a Greenville-Spartanburg Republican Women's meeting on April 7th: "I think the most racist people in America right now sometimes are minorities, small group minorities. I've got a chaplain who works for me. He's an African-American, he is my brother and I love him more than anything. He doesn't buy into that mess. A bunch of his friends don't either. They don't do the NAACP because I feel like that is a racist group as well as the KKK. I don't care about them either." Yes, the Spartanburg County sheriff compared the NAACP to the KKK. Let's get something straight here, the NAACP stands for the National Association for the Advancement of Colored Peopl...

Haven't we all, to some degree or another, missed former Minnesota Congresswoman Michele Bachmann's insanely hilarious quotes? I know I have. Well, fear not, for she's provided us with another gem, courtesy of her WorldNetDaily (AKA Conspiracy Nuts Forever) article, "Obama Enjoys Cuba While Civilization Burns": "Or maybe our president's humiliation comes in a manner so devastating it makes one wonder whether the Creator of humankind isn't reminding this world of the inferiority of foolishness in the face of wisdom..." First off, who would want to believe in a God that kills 31 people and injures hundreds others in order to humiliate a country's leader? Secondly, how can Ms. Bachmann and her ilk continue to cherry-pick like this? Bachmann: "Well, the Brussels terror attacks happened under Obama's watch, so maybe God's trying to humiliate the president!" Using her logic, we could respond with the following: - ...

Yes, the title of this blog is probably facepalm-worthy to most, but I simply couldn't resist. Pulp Fiction  and the upcoming The Hateful Eight  director, Quentin Tarantino, has come under fire recently for a comment he made at an anti-police brutality rally in Manhattan, where he said, "I'm a human being with a conscience. And if you believe there's murder going on then you need to rise up and stand up against it. I'm here to say I'm on the side of the murdered." In response, many police unions called for a boycott to all of Tarantino's films. John McNesby, president of the Philadelphia union, said this in a statement: "Mr. Tarantino has made a good living through his films, projecting into society a large violence and respect for criminals; he it turns out also hates cops." Then just yesterday, Tarantino was interviewed by the Los Angeles Times  and responded to the boycott threats with this: "I'm not being intimidated. Fra...

Just this morning, I read a Columbus Dispatch letter-to-the-editor, entitled, "Climate-change believers go to great lengths," and felt the need to respond. The letter was written by one Sam Jones of Westerville and goes like this: "In her Saturday letter 'Action to stop warming must happen now,' state Sen. Charleta Tavares wrote that a new report by Environment Ohio's Research & Policy Center claims that Ohio plants emit as much carbon as the entire country of Kuwait. Could this be because Ohio is nearly six times larger than Kuwait (roughly 41,000 square miles vs. 7,000 square miles)? Duh. Climate-change believers continue to deceive." While the finding State Senator Tavares pointed out in her letter was a rather weak example of proof that climate-change exists and something needs to be done about it, since the statement is true, how is it deceptive? Also, judging by Mr. Jones' letter, I could title my rebuttal, "Climate-change deni...

As usual, I skimmed through the Columbus Dispatch letters-to-the-editor today. I'm not even sure why I do this any more. Perhaps I want to believe people in central Ohio suddenly brightened up over night. Perhaps these "letters" are my daytime talk shows, and after reading them, I pull out my Stuart Smalley card and say, "I'm good enough. I'm smart enough. And doggone it, people like me." Perhaps I'm just a masochist. In any case, I stumbled upon another "winner" of a letter today. The  piece  was written by one Peggy McDonald of Powell, and entitled, "‘Redskins’ name for team is an honor, not a slur." Yes, it only gets better from there. Here's the letter: "Regarding the campaign to change the name of the Washington Redskins: First of all, I have the utmost respect for Native Americans. However, this name-change idea has just gone too far. I’ve lived a long, wonderful life and some of the most outrageous things are...

I just read a politically-themed meme on Facebook last night and felt the need to respond. It said this: "Just because we don't support your liberal, anti-God amoral agenda does not make us: 'Ignorant, racists, bigots, hillbillies, uneducated, haters (,) inbreds, morons... It simply means we think for ourselves, honor God and love our country." No, it actually doesn't... Actually, this meme does exactly what it attempts to refute. It makes the poster sound ignorant/uneducated/moronic (kind of redundant, don't you think)? According to this poster, to be liberal is to be anti-God, and to be liberal is to be amoral. The term "liberal" is not defined as such. "Liberal" is defined as being "favorable to progress or reform." So, how is it amoral to believe in progress or reform, and how does this make a person "anti-God"? Is a person anti-God if he or she doesn't believe in him/her/it? Is a person anti-God if the...

Former NBA All-Star, current NBA analyst, and future Hall-of-Famer Shaquille O'Neal has run into some hot water of late due to the fact he mocked a man with ectodermal dysplasia via a picture on Twitter. Of course, O'Neal wasn't aware of this at the time due to his ignorance on the condition, and has since apologized to the man he was mocking - Jahmel Binion. After he apologized, O'Neal said, "Made a new friend today when I called and apologized to Jahmel Binion. Great dude." Once this story broke, a line of Donald Sterling defenders rushed to the scene, and said, "He (Shaq) should be banned from the NBA for life and fined $2.5 million for his comments (mockery)! Let's see how hypocritical Adam Silver is! Both Sterling and Shaq made derogatory comments against people! They did the exact same thing!" Others even pulled out the race card and said that Shaq, like other African-Americans, was getting a free pass, which wasn't fair, because ...

Dallas Mavericks owner had some interesting words with regard to the Donald Sterling controversy, which many right-wing sites have picked up on as "rationale thoughts." Cuban called the potential matter "a very very very slippery slope," elaborating on the matter with this: "If it's about racism and we're ready to kick people out of the league, OK? Then what about homophobia?... What about somebody who's anti-semitic? What about a xenophobe?... In this country, people are allowed to be morons." While I can see where Mr. Cuban is coming from, I think his comparison is a matter of apples and oranges. In any one of those other scenarios (homophobia, anti-semitic, xenophobia), there would be some anger, most likely a fine, possibly a short suspension, but it would not bring about the same level of emotion as it would (and did) with regard to racism against blacks. The reason is quite simple. According to a 2013 report, blacks make up 76.3% of...

It's been quite a week in this country as far as racism towards African-Americans goes. First we had Cliven Bundy providing all of his wisdom on the "negroes," and then Los Angeles Clippers owner Donald Sterling let his views be known about blacks via a secret recording, where he basically told his mistress (of mixed races, ironically enough) that he doesn't want her promoting blacks via photos on Instagram or bringing them to games. Of course, one of the right-wing conspiracy kinds - Matt Drudge - decided to make this a partisan issue, and tweeted this message: "GOT GAME: NYT informed the unwashed how Bundy is a Republican. Leaves out NBA Sterling is a Democrat..." This information was then spread about right-wing websites like those lovely chain emails seem to do all too frequently. The problem with the claim? It's not true. It even earned a "Pants on Fire" grade from fact-checker Politifact , where the site concluded with this: "...

I'm not exactly sure why I torture myself with Ben Stein columns. Not only do his initials typically ring true (BS), but when reading the nonsense he spews, I hear his painstakingly boring monotone voice while reading these articles. Perhaps I'm part-masochist in a way. In any case, I now feel the need to share this excruciating experience with readers. You're welcome... The American Spectator  article Stein wrote that I'll be writing about is entitled, "Poverty and Income Inequality." He started his "piece" in a typical Stein-ian fashion, by jumping randomly from one topic to the next, and writing this: "I spent almost all day lying in bed listening to old Big Band music. I have not been well, and this is perfect therapy. I just let my mind run free to go down freeways and alleyways and this is where I came out... At the intersection of Income Inequality and Poverty. Here is what my mind dredged up." Yeah... It's just like ...

Exactly six months after the horrific mass shooting in Newtown, Connecticut, I released the book, LOL at the GOP - Volume 3: Guns Don't Kill, Cars Don't Drive, and Ovens Don't Bake . This was to poke fun of the common right-wing talking point, "Guns don't kill people; people kill people!" So, a couple of days ago, a self-described Tea Partier sent me the following tweet: "People Kill, People Drive, and People Bake. Your title is a fallaciously implied argument." Based on that statement, it seems pretty obvious to me that this man believes the before-mentioned talking point - "Guns don't kill people; people kill people!" - and that humans are fully in control of everything that takes place in our everyday lives. The problem with his argument is he's alleging an "implied argument" of a sarcastic title poking fun at a talking point, and assuming to be fully cognizant of the tone of said title, my beliefs on the matter...

It's just another day, and I see another pro-gun Facebook meme being posted which has failed-in-Critical-Thinking-class written all over it (figuratively speaking, of course). The meme says the following: "When there's a bombing,  we blame the BOMBER. When there's a drunk-driving accident, we blame the DRIVER. Why, when there's a shooting, do we blame the GUN?" Both of these comparisons fail miserably. First off, creating a bomb is illegal. Wonder why Congress doesn't push for more bomb-control legislation? Because there isn't a need for any, since making bombs is illegal. It is legal for most people of a certain age to purchase and own a gun. This is why some members of Congress have pushed for stricter gun-control laws. This lack of logic brings back memories of my Critical Thinking professor, where he would blurt out, "Fail!" at such a lousy comparison. With regard to driving, like with purchasing a gun, it i...