The Kind-Hearted Smart Aleck

Republican Alabama lawmaker Steve Hurst has recently proposed a bill which would require certain sex offenders to pay for their own (surgical) castration before being released from prison. Hurst elaborated on the matter, saying, "I've often wondered what that child went through, physically and mentally, and what kind of shape he's in now. They (sex offenders) have marked these children for life. They will never get over it. And if they've marked children for life, they need to be marked for life." Founder of a sexual disorders clinic at John Hopkins University, Dr. Frederick Berlin, came out against the measure, saying, "There are many sex offenders who aren't driven by intense sexual urges. Some of these folks have other mental health issues, so it could just lull us into a false sense of security." He added: "Just to do it as a one-glove-fits-all is very unlikely to be helpful. I do think there is a role for medicines that lower sexual d...

During the tenth Republican presidential debate on Thursday night, Florida Senator Marco Rubio made me laugh. Yes, this was unintentional on his part, but at the time, I sarcastically thought to myself, "If this whole presidential thing doesn't work out, I think Rubio's found a back-up plan - stand-up comedy." Here's the quote which garnered a chuckle out of me: "The media has a definition of Hispanics that you can only be Hispanic if you're a liberal. The Obama economy has done enormous damage to the Spanish community. On this stage tonight are two sons of Cuban immigrants and an African American. We are the party of diversity, not the Democrats." Yes, because the final two Democratic presidential hopefuls are both white and three of the five remaining Republican candidates aren't, this obviously means Republicans are the party of diversity, not Democrats. That is if we don't look at the bigger picture, of course. Let's look a bi...

Following the first Democratic debate on Tuesday night, I can't tell you how many times I've heard conservative commentators utter this line: "I thought Democrats were the party of diversity! Republicans are the ones with diversity! If anyone is lacking in diversity, it's the Democrats!" Of course, this is with regard to just the presidential candidates, which supposedly reflect the parties at large. Suffice it to say, this couldn't be further from the truth. Granted, the Democratic candidates are comprised of four white men and one white woman, while the Republican candidates include: two Latino-American men, one white woman, one African-American man, one Indian-American man, and seemingly countless white men. So, if we simply want to grade the two parties' diversity on the presidential candidates, surely the Republican Party would be the more diverse of the two. However, that's missing the forest for the trees. In the House of Representatives, De...