10 things Kim Davis likely said to pope Francis

The Kentucky county clerk who thinks that Jesus wants her to deprive other people of their legal rights had a secret meeting with Francis while he was in the US. Why it should have been kept secret is not clear since Davis is just a pain in the neck and not a political prisoner or anything that could have created a diplomatic row. Could it be that Francis was worried that such a meeting would be unseemly considering that this law-breaking woman’s life does not comport with Catholic doctrine and the main thing bringing them together is hateful anti-gay bigotry?
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The end of the road for the Ten Commandments monument in Oklahoma?

The long-running saga of the Ten Commandments monument that stood on the grounds of the Oklahoma state capital may finally be coming to an end. After years of lawsuits that the state lost, threats by Satanists and Flying Spaghetti Monster devotees to put up their own monuments if it did not come down, digging in the heels by the governor, and threats of impeaching the state supreme court for ruling that the presence of the monument violated the state constitution, it looks like the end is near>.
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Cheating scandal rocks the world of bridge

I come from a bridge-playing family. My father, mother, older sister, and I would spend many evenings at home in Sri Lanka playing the game. My mother and sister were excellent players of championship quality, and would later go on to regularly win national and international titles. My father and I were nowhere near their class and when we partnered each other would regularly receive thorough drubbings at the hands of my mother and sister.
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Anti-vaxxers get religion

As the dangers of not having children vaccinated become more well known, states are starting to cut back on the categories of exemptions given to parents who want to avoid vaccinating their children but yet want them to attend the same schools as other children and thus put them at risk. Vermont is the first state to remove the exemption based on parents’ philosophical beliefs. But since it keeps the religion exemption intact, some parents are suddenly ‘finding religion’.
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The difference between Trump and Sanders

It is true that the strength of Bernie Sanders in the Democratic primary race has caused as much surprise as Donald Trump seizing the leadership of the Republican race. The lazy pundit class has tried to draw more parallels, suggesting that Sanders and Trump are mirror images of each other, each appealing to the extreme elements of their respective parties.
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The crazies have found a new dark plot

Yesterday brought news from NASA scientists that they had evidence of flowing water on Mars

Liquid water runs down canyons and crater walls over the summer months on Mars, according to researchers who say the discovery raises the chances of being home to some form of life.
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Scientists are unsure where the water comes from, but it may rise up from underground ice or salty aquifers, or condense out of the thin Martian atmosphere.

“There is liquid water today on the surface of Mars,” Michael Meyer, the lead scientist on Nasa’s Mars exploration programme, told the Guardian. “Because of this, we suspect that it is at least possible to have a habitable environment today.”

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Austerity as cover for class war

Yanis Varoufakis is a Greek economist and academic who was appointed minister of finance in the government of the Syriza party led by Alexis Tsipra that came to power in January on an anti-austerity platform. Varoufakis was an outspoken critic of the harsh measures that were imposed by the IMF and the European Union and resigned in July when he felt that he had burned his bridges with his negotiating partners in those organizations and could not support the bailout package.
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