The Kind-Hearted Smart Aleck

In response to the numerous protests at the expense of Donald Trump winning the presidential election on Tuesday night, I've heard Trump supporters continually utter the following remarks: - "He won. Get over it." - "What are you protesting? Democracy?" - "You don't see Obama or Clinton protesting now, do you?" So why is it that many Americans are having such trouble coming to grips that Donald Trump won our country's presidential election and are protesting as a result? A great number of Trump supporters have hailed their candidate's victory as the ultimate slap in the face to the political system and establishment politics, but fail to realize it's the ultimate slap in the face to so many others. Donald Trump's victory is a slap in the face to our men and women in uniform, including POWs. Donald Trump's victory is a slap in the face to our mothers, daughters, women all over. Donald Trump's victory is a slap i...

Last night, I read an article by a pastor by the name of Rob Shepherd with regard to the Supreme Court's gay marriage ruling and how people on both sides of the marriage equality debate should be more empathetic of one another. To his credit, Shepherd wrote in a very respectful manner and seemed to genuinely believe what he was saying. In most instances, I'd say he makes a great point, but I don't think that's the case here. Both he and Fox News' Bill O'Reilly made sports analogies with regard to the public's reaction, saying that those celebrating were like sore winners, rubbing the victory in the face of their opponents, I'm sorry, but I just don't see things like that. I see it more like an athlete, embattled with health issues for most of his or her life, fighting through to qualify in and win a gold medal in the Olympics, and celebrating. This is what the LGBT community has had do deal with for all of their lives. Many tried to deny who they w...

Why is it that so many athletes feel that they're God's chosen ones? While I would probably label myself as an agnostic and don't necessarily believe in a higher power, this kind of thinking still puzzles me. Following the Baltimore Ravens' 28-13 win over the New England Patriots in yesterday's AFC Championship Game, vaulting them to the Super Bowl to face the San Francisco 49ers in a couple weeks, Pro-Bowl and future Hall-of-Fame linebacker Ray Lewis thanked God first and foremost, talked about God believing in him, God's plan for he and his team, and I don't remember what else. While I respect Mr. Lewis' religious beliefs generally speaking, I have trouble understanding or agreeing with him that the Ravens are going to the Super Bowl because it was part of God's plan. Lewis isn't the first such athlete to say such things before, of course. It seems like approximately 2 out of 5 times I hear an athlete speak after attaining success in a g...

For the second time in two weeks, the Philadelphia Eagles turned the ball over at least four times (five last week) and for the second time in two weeks, they won by a single point. The Philadelphia Eagles have turned the ball over nine times in their first two games (six interceptions and three fumbles) and yet have found a way to hang around in both games before quarterback Michael Vick has led them to a go-ahead touchdown in the final minutes. Looking at the turnover situation, I honestly have no idea how the Eagles are 2-0, yet looking at all the other statistics, I have no idea how they wouldn't be either. On Sunday against the always solid Ravens defense the Eagles converted 26 first downs, were 7 for 15 on 3rd down (46.7%), gained 486 total yards (129 on the ground and 357 through the air) and held onto the ball for 34:21. While the team only averaged 3.1 yards per carry, the Eagles averaged 11.2 yards per pass attempt and 6.5 yards per play. On the season, the Eagles ...

There are still about three months to go until the presidential election, but if it were held tomorrow, I think President Obama would likely win. However, with three months to go, there's still a lot that could happen to alter the tides in one direction or another. I do think there's one move Obama could make which would all but assure him of being re-elected - that's make Hillary Clinton his vice presidential candidate. Obama should likely do fairly well with women voters as Democratic candidates tend to do. However, this would likely be the icing on the cake (so to speak) to swing women independent and undecided voters to his/their side. Mitt Romney made his move in announcing Paul Ryan as his running mate and has seen a very slight (below-average) bounce in the polls due to it. While I personally find Joe Biden to be a likable guy, I honestly don't believe from an election standpoint, he either adds or subtracts anything from the president's standing. I believe...

Here we go again. The Tim Tebow-led Denver Broncos came back to defeat the New York Jets 17-13 on Thursday night and the majority of the jabber is concerning Tebow's magical final drive which vaulted his Broncos to a victory. While that final drive was great, let's not look past the rest of the team and the game. First off, before that final drive. all Tebow did was lead the Broncos to one field goal. The only other touchdown they scored was via an Andre Goodman 26-yard interception return. Points wise, the Broncos have as much to thank New York Jets' quarterback Mark Sanchez for as they do their own quarterback, one Tim Tebow. In all seriousness, the Broncos had no business being in this game. The Jets turned the ball over twice, one which led to a touchdown as mentioned above. Denver accumulated just 11 first downs in the game, compared to 22 for the Jets. They accounted for a mere 229 yards of total offense, almost 100 less than New York (318). Tebow was only 9 for 2...