The Kind-Hearted Smart Aleck

It's a sad day for this planet and a great day for narcissists worldwide, as Oxford Dictionaries announced that their Word of the Year is "selfie." For those unfamiliar with the term, it means "a photograph that one has taken of oneself, typically one taken with a smartphone or webcam and uploaded to a social media website." Runners-up for the award included: bedroom tax, binge-watch, bitcoin, olinguito, shmeat, showrooming, and twerk. Yeah, once "twelfie" starts being used with regularity (a selfie of one twerking), I may provide the world with a midfelfie of my own (a selfie of me holding up a middle finger). http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/11/18/word-of-the-year-2013_n_4296009.html

I think the most confusing word in the English language is "love." Look no further than the dictionary for proof of that. At dictionary.com, the word love is given not 1, not 2, not 22, but 28 definitions. When a word can confuse even the dictionary, chances are it's quite the puzzling term. There's even a song by the title of, "What Is Love?" I think one reason the term is so perplexing is like with a lot of things, there are many shades of grey to it, but unlike a lot of things, it involves a great deal of emotion, and as I and many others have learned, emotion can blindside us at times and override rational thought. It's common for a person to love a friend, a family member, and a spouse, yet these forms of love are felt and expressed differently to each person. Love appears to take on a life of its own to each and every important person in our lives. So can love truly be defined at all? Is this why there are 28 definitions in the dictionary an...

Last night, I ran across a picture on Facebook posted from an old acquaintance of mine in high school, which almost prompted me to unfriend him. The picture showcases a very young looking Ronald Reagan, who appears to be providing a monkey with milk from a bottle. Underneath the photo are the words, "Rare photo of Ronald Reagan babysitting Barack Obama in early 1962". I've included the link to the picture if anyone is curious to see it for themselves. Once I clicked on the photo and skimmed through the commentary, I'd say that roughly 3 out of 4 commentators bashed the photo, while the other 1 out of 4 said to lighten up and that it was just a joke. I love how racists attempt to mask their prejudices through jokes and telling people to not take matters so seriously - to lighten up. No matter how the original poster of this photo wants to think of it, the picture is racist. It's not even borderline racist. It's flat-out racist. The term "monkey"...