The Kind-Hearted Smart Aleck

My Monday Fun Fact-Check: Cancel-Culture Edition (I wrote it yesterday...) 1) "Liberals have canceled Mr. Potato Head!" False. The toy's manufacturer - Hasbro - has simply dropped the "Mr." from its brand name. The brand is now Potato Head, with Mr. and Mrs. Potato Head still available for purchase. If Mr. and Mrs. Wackywally were married, of what sense would it make to refer to them as just Mr. Wackywally? Wouldn't this imply the hunk Wackywally was single? Is it thereby cancel-culture to refer to the couple as the Wackywallys? No. Next...   2) "Joe Biden is trying to cancel Dr. Seuss!" False. Dr. Seuss Enterprises actually decided to stop the publication of six Dr. Seuss books last year, due to racist imagery, when Donald Trump was still "president." These books are: "And to Think That I Saw It on Mulberry Street," "If I Ran the Zoo," "McElligot's Pool," "On Beyond Zebra!," "Scrambled Eg...

The first time I witnessed shock rocker Marilyn Manson live was February 8th of 1997 at Mancuso Hall in Omaha, Nebraska. This was at the height of his controversy as an artist, as he had just released his second album, Antichrist Superstar . Throughout this tour, Manson faced cancellation threats, protesters, and grotesque rumors, among other things. There were maybe five to ten such protesters on hand while us concert attendees waited in line to enter the venue. Many of them were likely there due to the Republican Omaha mayor at the time, Hal Daub, voicing his concerns about the concert a week before the show. Yes, the show sold out by the next day, but not before two of my friends' parents forced them to refund their tickets, because they believed the ridiculous rumors being spread about him - that he: Killed puppies on stage; had his ribs removed so he could perform fellatio on himself; was a devil worshipper; passed drugs out at his concerts; encouraged sex at his shows; etc. O...

I honestly couldn't care less about who's dating who in Hollywood. I try to enjoy stars for their talents, and unless I meet one in person, I'm probably not going to pay too close attention to their personal lives. However, there was one such headline yesterday which rubbed me the wrong way. It was with regard to movie star Halle Berry, who just announced she'd be getting divorced for the third time, and her first husband, former baseball player, David Justice. The headline read, "Halle Berry's ex rips her on Twitter." When I read the article, though, I kept having to look back at the title, reread it, and ponder to myself, "How was that ripping exactly?" Apparently, in light of Ms. Berry's most recent divorce, her previous relationships have unfortunately returned to the spotlight, with rumors swirling, one of which insinuated Mr. Justice's physical abuse was the reason for Berry losing hearing in one ear. It's later been reported ...

I usually don't like to post about crazy rumors, but thought I could have a little fun with this one, so I thought I'd make this an exception to the rule. Yesterday, French paparazzo Pascal Rostain claimed that the Washington Post  would post a story today about President Barack Obama having an affair with pop star Beyonce. In a story published by the French newspaper Le Figaro , he said the following: "You know, at this time, in the United States, there is something big that is happening. It'll go out tomorrow in the Washington Post  - we can say that it is not the gutter press - an alleged affair between President Barack Obama and Beyonce." Rostain then attempted to elaborate upon his belief with this: "First, there are still or television images of the Obama couple becoming a little distant. It is legitimate to ask questions. We found the same thing, always through images, between [French President] Hollande and [his partner Valerie Trierweiler]. A...

I sometimes get flustered by the lies that get spread by people over the Internet and through other mediums. It seems that ever since the government shutdown's inception, these myths have been increasing in frequency on an almost daily basis and all I can say is, I feel sorry for Snopes.com . Most of these rumors and posts have been about President Obama - showing him in a negative light. All of them have been false to one degree or another. This isn't the first such week or two that this has occurred. Peruse Snopes.com under Barack Obama and you'll find well over 100 chain emails being spread about him - close to 90% of which are false on some level. What's even sadder is often times, even when I take the time to fact-check such nonsense and report my findings to the sender, he or she tends to believe it anyway and continue forwarding the debunked information onto others. Why do some do this? Why, even when their spread lies are proven to be such, will they continu...

It appears as if current Ohio State head coach and former Florida head coach Urban Meyer has come under some scrutiny in light of his former tight end Aaron Hernandez being arrested on a murder charge. Supposedly, Hernandez had gotten into at least one fight while at the University of Florida and there are rumors circulating that he failed multiple drug tests while playing there. Whether these claims and rumors are true or not, however, why should Meyer and those like him face such scrutiny? I don't know the Aaron Hernandez story. I haven't been around to experience his autobiography first-hand. Who has other than himself? So, to pass judgment on the guy out of pure ignorance wouldn't be the wisest thing to do, in my opinion. Even though the public may not see things in such a manner, Hernandez is innocent until proven guilty. If the former New England Patriots' tight end is found guilty, however, while I can fully understand people - the media in particular - seeking...

So, I heard a funny comment at a bar this past weekend. The individual said something along the lines of, "I'm not a racist, but I don't like Asian people that much..." I'm sure the look on my face was pretty priceless when hearing this. I wanted to sarcastically respond with, "I'm not a sexist, but I don't really care for women." Then again, with all the gay rumors floating around about me, perhaps that wouldn't have been such a wise decision...

Hollywood legend and rumored lead to the film Mister Rogers Blows Up His Neighborhood  - Clint Eastwood - provided the perfect performance at the Republican National Convention, as far as symbolism goes, to illustrate how the majority of the Republican Party views President Barack Obama. For anyone with a half-functioning eye or ear would know, Eastwood's performance showcased the Hollywood star talking to an invisible President Obama sitting on a chair. Like Eastwood that night, it's seemed as if 98.3% of hard-core Republicans (especially Republican leaders) have been telling the American people about an invisible Obama sitting on a chair. I seriously wonder sometimes how many far-right Republicans would be able to spot President Obama in a crowd. It's as if they have been playing the childhood game of telephone with one another throughout the president's first term, and with him being elected to a second term in office, it's not likely to stop anytime soon. In t...

Over the past couple weeks or so, I've several people - the president included - whom have claimed that the Republican Party have attempted to create an imaginary Barack Obama. This theory really came to fruition when actor Clint Eastwood spoke at the Republican National Convention and pretended to have a conversation with Obama courtesy of an empty chair. To that which the empty chair could attest - the GOP has definitely created an imaginary Barack Obama. Let's take the chain e-mail fact-checking site, Snopes.com , to further illustrate this. President Obama hasn't even been in office for four years and there have been, at one point or another, 125 e-mails spread about him. Of these 125, only 17 are true (13.6%). As four have been undecided as far as how much validity they contain, that means 104 of the 125 e-mails are, on some level or another, false (83.2%). If the four undecided e-mails are false as well, that would mean that 86.4% of those 125 e-mails are false in s...

How I love political chain e-mails. You know, the e-mails that are sent to you and 25-50 others from an uncle of yours named Bucky, which portrays a wild conspiracy of a politician being a martian from Neptune as being factual. I especially love such e-mails when they center around Barack Obama. All I can say is thank the Internet gods for Snopes.com. Snopes fact-checks these very e-mails and allows people such as myself to check on the e-mail's validity and report back to the sender of the e-mail and all its recipients. No, I haven't made too many friends doing this, but I just hope I've been able to positively influence at least one person to fact-check these darn things before sending it to half of the country and Neptune. Of course, I have run into a couple occasions where the sender of the chain e-mail has, upon receiving my fact-checking response, told me that Snopes is liberally-biased. Yeah, that again. I swear, if the source doesn't include Fox News, Rush Limba...